We just crossed the two neighbours, Mister Franz who is now 82 years, and his charming wife, slightly younger. They entertain a positive and friendly outlook into the world, so it’ s always nice to meet Mister Franz. They will be going to Venice next week and slightly the conversations changes the temperature, as Mister Franz speaks about their Hotel, having changed owners after fifty years, about fines for parking, and some other irritating and obviously un-Italian things. Their family now is in Nicaragua und Chile. “Travelling far like the blackcurrent coming from Chile in our supermarket“, I comment. “You shouldn’t always be so negative“, my wife tells me. Fair enough, I think. “Ciao and nice trip to Venice!”
That conversation made me think:
- Why are negative things more interesting than “positive” things?
- When and how does a conversation slide into a different sort of energy, say from “positive” to “negative”?
The first question seems easy to answer. Negative things – in case you find the right people who agree on the “negativity” of the subject – are either some general themes, like the Corona Virus outbreak in China, whereas others might sensibly differ, for example about Migrants or Political Correctness. “Negative” things as well as the resulting negative emotions (anger, grief, …) are more “complex” and thus more challenging and are consuming more creative energy. Maybe one could say they “suck” mental energy. There is more “solidarity” within the speakers, while “positive” things are not firing and fuelling the conversation, making simple acquitting and confirming a boring contribution. Moreover, positive experiences can raise jealosy from a bystander’s point of view.
The second question is much more difficult and complex. On one hand, as the question “what is negative?” is not easy to be answered, we have to be sure to know what we are talking about. As I said above, the negative emotions coming from “negative information” consume energy to sustain or regain our balanced state of mental power. We could think about an atmosphere that hovers over a situation, like good or bad meteorological weather.
Master Lee says, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” energy. As an example he always crams out the human breathing of oxygene, changed into exhaled CO2. Trees inhale CO2 but exhale O2. So what is good for us is bad for trees and vice versa.
There is a notion in the Western hemisphere of “psychology” which changes the game. Asia hasn’t a big record on psychology. The whole system works in a different way. And, adding to that, we would have to consider neurology and biochemistry etc. What is DMT, serotonine, amandamine, dopamines etc. to the “positive” feeling of the human being? Add some drug to our cocktail and you will feel different. So, what are we talking about? Also the famous “Qi” isn’t Oxygene, I guess, neither CO2, is it? It is about movement, flow, as far as I am informed on it. Some energy flows up, other down. Some is “dispersed” in many directions, and some might be stagnant and useless or “blocking” the way.
Definitely what we need is a third element, a third notion. Master Lee calls it “Love”, citing Master Chia, and maybe Jesus, too. “Love”, and we speak about “infinite love”, includes good and bad energy. It’s to me the only way to understand why “love” should be greater than all emotions.
Robert Plutchik‘s theory defines that the eight basic emotions are:[1]
Plutchik‘s Wheel of Emotions
- Fear → feeling of being afraid, frightened, scared.
- Anger → feeling angry. A stronger word for anger is rage
- Sadness → feeling sad. Other words are sorrow, grief (a stronger feeling, for example when someone has died)
- Joy → feeling happy. Other words are happiness, gladness
- Disgust → feeling something is wrong or nasty. Strong disapproval.
- Surprise → being unprepared for something.
- Trust → a positive emotion; admiration is stronger; acceptance is weaker.
- Anticipation → in the sense of looking forward positively to something which is going to happen. Expectation is more neutral
(Source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions)
This nice coloured flower, Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, a daisy wheel, could be petals of a flower called “love”. How does this sound?
What else? How long can you be “positive” about the world until you are lying to yourself? A question for another day.