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Emotions Talks

Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.
Research on emotion has increased over the past two decades, with many fields contributing, including psychology, medicine, history, sociology of emotions, computer science and philosophy. The numerous attempts to explain the origin, function, and other aspects of emotions have fostered intense research on this topic. Theorizing about the evolutionary origin and possible purpose of emotion dates back to Charles Darwin. Current areas of research include the neuroscience of emotion, using tools like PET and fMRI scans to study the affective picture processes in the brain.
From a mechanistic perspective, emotions can be defined as "a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity". Emotions are complex, involving multiple different components, such as subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behavior, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behavior. At one time, academics attempted to identify the emotion with one of the components: William James with a subjective experience, behaviorists with instrumental behavior, psychophysiologists with physiological changes, and so on. More recently, emotion has been said to consist of all the components. The different components of emotion are categorized somewhat differently depending on the academic discipline. In psychology and philosophy, emotion typically includes a subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states. A similar multi-componential description of emotion is found in sociology. For example, Peggy Thoits described emotions as involving physiological components, cultural or emotional labels (anger, surprise, etc.), expressive body actions, and the appraisal of situations and contexts. Cognitive processes, like reasoning and decision-making, are often regarded as separate from emotional processes, making a division between "thinking" and "feeling". However, not all theories of emotion regard this separation as valid.
Nowadays, most research into emotions in the clinical and well-being context focuses on emotion dynamics in daily life, predominantly the intensity of specific emotions and their variability, instability, inertia, and differentiation, as well as whether and how emotions augment or blunt each other over time and differences in these dynamics between people and along the lifespan.
Title | Speaker | |
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Tokubetsu Sesshin Faith, Ceremony, Big Mind, Transmission, Monastic Practice, Emotions, Gratitude, Lay... |
Mar 28 1995 |
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To Be OneselfSerial: SF-00157 Sunday talk; what does that mean - what's that? Finding out what this means is a vast undertaking. Conversation, Practice Period, Dragons, Lay, New Year, Separation, Skandas, Emotions... |
Jan 15 1995 Green Gulch Farm |
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Sunday Lecture Practice Period, Commitment, Letting Go, Suzuki Roshi, Greed, Emotions, confusion,... |
Nov 27 1994 Green Gulch Farm |
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Sunday Lecture Ceremony, Practice Period, Four Noble Truths, Funeral, Fox, Bell, Six Realms, Demons... |
Oct 30 1994 Green Gulch Farm |
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Buddhism and American Culture Emptiness, Forgiveness, Letting Go, Samadhi, Emotions, Freedom, Four Noble Truths,... |
May 03 1993 City Center |
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Embracing Zen Through Community Practice Period, Suzuki Roshi, Intimacy, Posture, Zazen, Ceremony, Composure,... |
Sep 18 1991 |
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Fear Emptiness, Mindfulness, Right Speech, Don't Know Mind, Commitment, Anger,... |
Aug 05 1991 City Center |
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Emotions That Sweep Us AwaySerial: SF-03967 Sunday Lecture Practice, Anger, Emotions |
Jan 16 1991 Green Gulch Farm |
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Obstacles as Pathways to Enlightenment Obstacles, Anger, Doubt, Enemies, Dana, Emotions, Observe, Bell, Vow, Instruction... |
Jul 23 1989 |
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Sunday Lecture Anger, Intention, Emotions |
Oct 09 1988 Green Gulch Farm |
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Breathing Compassion into Suffering Practice Period, confusion, Obstacles, Emotions, Letting Go, Passions, Instruction,... |
Aug 03 1988 |
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Pure Effort In Everyday Busy LifeSerial: BZ-00020 Saturday Lecture Posture, New Year Celebration, Pure Effort, Don't Know Mind, Practice Period,... |
Jan 02 1982 Berkeley Zen Center |
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The Human Encounter with Death Death-and-Dying, Letting Go, Demons, Conversation, Emotions, Faith, Enthusiasm,... |
Oct 11 1981 1 and 2 of 3 City Center |
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The Four Truths Happiness, Four Noble Truths, Religion, New Year, Don't Know Mind, Gratitude,... |
Oct 21 1979 |
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Shosan CeremonyShosan, First Principle, Emptiness, Compassion, Lotus Sutra, Patience, Emotions,... |
Nov 11 1968 Tassajara |
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Practice Zazen With Your Whole Mind And BodySerial: SF-05131B This is lecture D from these notes on the reel boxes (05132-B was added to this) Instruction, Zazen, Posture, Beginners, Funeral, Religion, Instruction, Emotions,... |
Sep 08 1967 Morning Tassajara |
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Do You Have Some Questions?Serial: SF-05107A Tape 7 Summer 1965 Sesshin: Side 1 Friday evening lecture (transcribed) [Case replaced 12/95. Original notes were transcribed verbatim - WKR] Sesshin, Question-and-Answer, Transmission, Emotions, Buddha Nature, Discrimination,... |
Jul 30 1965 D Sokoji |
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Some More QuestionsSerial: SF-05104A Tape 5 Summer sesshin 1965 Thursday July 29th Side 1 - 6pm lecture; Continues on Side 2 [Case replaced 12/95. Original notes were transcribed verbatim - WKR] Sesshin, Question-and-Answer, Precepts, Emotions, Buddha Nature, Passions, Faith... |
Jul 29 1965 C Sokoji |
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QuestionsSerial: SF-05126E Tape 3 Summer Sesshin July 1965 - Wednesday July 28 1965 Tape 3 side 2 Wed July 28th 6pm lecture - transcribed; copied June 30 1973; SR001 Sesshin, Question-and-Answer, Four Noble Truths, Emotions, Faith, Passions, Delusion... |
Jul 28 1965 D Sokoji |
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Forgotten the Value of ReligionSerial: SF-05101A ===== Awakening the Archive - Tape #5, by Shundo David Haye ===== The oldest recordings of Suzuki Roshi made at Sokoji, the home of the San Francisco Zen Center at the... Sesshin, Dogen, Shobogenzo, Inmost Nature, Religion, Don't Know Mind, Buddha... |
Jul 27 1965 1:00pm Sokoji |
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The Philosophy of NatureSerial: SF-03048A Importance of Space Sixth Patriarch, Silence, Interdependence, Heart Sutra, Emotions, Emptiness, Birth-... |
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