Thoughts versus feelings

From Symmetry of Soul
  • Thoughts have a place on all of the levels of meaning, even up to the highest.
  • But feelings are a horizontal plane on the second level of meaning.
    • If all you think feelings are the be-all, end-all of being humans, all you can do is go sideways in the horizontal plane of the second level of meaning.
  • In 21st century Western society, dramatic, strong, unbridled feelings are not only acted out on the stage (something the ancient Greeks already considered problematic), they are also modeled in our culture as something to actually enact in our daily lives.
    • "Wow, look at that person making millions of dollars acting that way on television. I should act that way, too!"
    • At least if you're going to have emotional conflict, make resolution of the conflict the ideal for the striving. All too often these days conflict itself is held up as the ideal.
  • Many people equate extremely strong "sideways" feelings with being spiritual.
    • "Spirit filled churches" is mostly if not wholly a misnomer of "feeling-filled churches," asserts this author.
    • This is seriously problematic, because it short circuits any desire to go vertically upward in search of spirit.
  • The Urantia Book is here to help us distinguish sideways motions in our mind from vertical motions in our mind.
    • We have little innate capacity to do this on our own.
  • Source: March 3, 2015 episode