On moods

Over time, as we do our emotional work, we find that our mood swings get less and less.  We become less prone to the peaks and troughs of our emotional responses to things.  This is not to say thatwe lose our emotions but more that we approach an equanimity of mind.As we do our work, there is less to be triggered and as we continue to take ourselves back, there is less to be attached to.  This is not so much a matter of controlling our emotions as not indulging in them, not holding on to them.Over time we don’t give ourselves over to the lows or the highs so much, but there is a gradual and steady increase to our base level of happiness, gratitude, and appreciation.  This is the spiritual path.  This is what the transformational journey is intended to achieve, a state where our inner happiness is not a function of what is happening around us.A metaphor for this can be seen at the beach.  We can imagine large mood swings like waves rolling in, and as each wave reaches the beach it gets taller, breaks, and rolls up the beach. The height of the water rushing up the beach is like the top of our mood; the water washing back out again is the bottom of our mood.  When we are attached to external sources of happiness, and have given ourselves over to mood, there is a big fluctuation.At the same time that the waves are coming and going, the height of the water is also influenced by the tide.  The higher the tide, the higher the water on the beach.  The tide is the average of the waves.We may think that as the waves calm down, the fun or excitement of life goes out, but imagine as we do our work that the tide continues to rise, so that the median of our experience is always getting higher.  Over time we begin to lose the highs and lows, but as the tide continues to come in, our baseline of happiness, gratitude, and appreciation grow ever higher.