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, and computer science. 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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Way-seeking MindSerial: SF-04024 Tanto job, informal very ZC (?) Suzuki Roshi, Letting Go, Doubt, Daily Life, Practice Period, Tassajara, confusion,... |
Jun 12 2002 City Center |
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April 20th, 2002, Serial No. 03948 Four Noble Truths, Emotions, Letting Go, Right Effort, Right Speech, Separation, Ego... |
Apr 20 2002 City Center |
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Zen and Poetry Class Fox, Gratitude, Passions, Echo, Birth-and-Death, stubbornness, Bell, Emotions,... |
Mar 19 2002 Green Gulch |
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Arbor DaySerial: SF-01071 Sunday Lecture Commitment, Tassajara, Non-violence, Nirvana, Practice Period, Continuous,... |
Feb 10 2002 Green Gulch |
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September 24th, 2001, Serial No. 04040Serial: SF-04040 Monday Enemies, Emotions, training, Monastic Practice, Politics, Peace, Global Warming,... |
Sep 24 2001 Green Gulch |
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Wednesday Lecture Conversation, Enemies, Anger, Emotions, Right Speech, Cultivation, Politics,... |
Sep 19 2001 City Center |
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August 4th, 2001, Serial No. 03946 Separation, Zendo, Emotions, Silence, Offering, Describe, Anger, Hate, Peace... |
Aug 04 2001 City Center |
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December 9th, 2000, Serial No. 04011 Letting Go, Emptiness, Daily Life, Religion, Patience, Impermanence, Birth-and-Death... |
Dec 09 2000 City Center |
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Hindrances: Fear Hindrances, Don't Know Mind, Letting Go, Dana, Anger, Emotions, Suzuki Roshi,... |
Dec 03 2000 City Center |
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The Whole World Is MedicineSerial: SF-00078 "The Four Nourishments" Practice Period, Teacher-and-Student, Samadhi, Continuous, Commitment, Passions,... |
Sep 30 2000 |
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One-day Sitting Lecture Dragons, Dharma Transmission, Transmission, Duality, Ceremony, Bowing, Emotions,... |
Sep 16 2000 Green Gulch |
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Women Ancestors Class Ceremony, Religion, Teacher-and-Student, Emotions, Sangha, Commitment, Conversation,... |
Jul 25 2000 Unknown |
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Sunday Lecture Dependent Origination, Karma, causation, Happiness, Nirvana, Concentration,... |
Jun 18 2000 Green Gulch |
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June 17th, 2000, Serial No. 03920 Practice Period, Forgiveness, Right Speech, Precepts, Emotions, resistance, Evil,... |
Jun 17 2000 City Center |
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Surangama Sutra Class Emptiness, Light-and-Darkness, Skandas, true dharma, Emotions, Doubt, Buddha Nature,... |
Jun 06 2000 Green Gulch |