The Voice of Knowledge Part 3 of 4: Emotions are Real
January 21, 2009 by dr. lam
In The Voice of Knowledge, Ruiz conceives of emotions as an effect (rather than a cause) and genuine (rather than false). What? Let’s take the example of a dog. A dog does not know that he is a dog. He is just living his life (as we did as children before the voice of knowledge entered our lives). Let’s say that you come home every day and pet the dog, feed the dog, walk the dog, and hug the dog. The dog will mature as a dog that is affable, fun-loving, and positively responsive. Let’s say that instead when you come home in an angry state, you kick the dog, you beat the dog, and you ignore the dog. The dog will live in fear, might bite you, or run away. Are the emotions that the dog is feeling genuine or false? They are genuine, real emotions that are in response to an external cause.
This analogy will help you understand that when we respond in a certain way, our emotions are real and authentic. However, they are an effect that we may not want to have, e.g., anger, envy, hatred, etc. They are an effect that must have a cause. The cause (if we are talking about a negative cause) is the cause that is created by our telling each other lies and not being true to ourselves. If we live by the four agreements (be impeccable with your word; don’t take anything personally; don’t make assumptions; and always do your best), we will be free of the cause and thereby free of the effect. If someone tells you his or her lie that you are not good enough, you might respond naturally with self-pity, hatred toward the other person, etc. However, if you don’t believe that lie and remain free of the emotional poison that is leveled at you, then you will not suffer a negative emotional effect. Tomorrow, we will end our discussion with how do we begin to escape the unwanted causes so that we don’t have unwanted effects obviously with reference to the four agreements as the bedrock source material.
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