From where are your emotions arising?

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: I have been following some of the pages on social media, and there is one topic that is quite “in” these days — which says, ‘no emotion is a mistake’. But I have heard you in the past, and you have said that emotions are intensified thoughts. So won’t that be a hindrance in understanding, when the author is saying, “No emotion is a mistake?”

Acharya Prashant:

Emotions are obviously not a mistake, but emotionality is.

Emotions are neither good, nor bad.

Emotions depend on the center that they are coming from.

If the emotions come from a center of fear, of grief, of insecurity, then because they are arising from insecurity, you will be attached to the emotions themselves.

Watching the emotions is not the same as being emotional.

The author who says that, “Emotions are not a mistake,” has a responsibility to quickly add that,

“Emotions are not a mistake but emotionality is.”

Emotionality means being identified with the emotion. And when you are identified with the emotion, then you cannot know the emotion. You cannot watch the emotion. Then you cannot really see…