do not name a feeling ( 13 may 2006)

Do Not Name a FeelingWhat happens when you do not name? You look at an emotion, at a sensation, moredirectly and therefore have quite a different relationship to it, just as you haveto a flower when you do not name it. You are forced to look at it anew. When you donot name a group of people, you are compelled to look at each individual face andnot treat them all as a mass. Therefore you are much more alert, much moreobserving, more understanding; you have a deeper sense of pity, love; but if youtreat them all as the mass, it is over.

If you do not label, you have to regard every feeling as it arises. When you label,is the feeling different from the label? Or does the label awaken the feeling?...

If I do not name a feeling, that is to say if thought is not functioning merelybecause of words or if I do not think in terms of words, images, or symbols, whichmost of us do—then what happens? Surely the mind then is not merely the observer.When the mind is not thinking in terms of words, symbols, images, there is nothinker separate from the thought, which is the word. Then the mind is quiet, is itnot?—not made quiet, it is quiet.

When the mind is really quiet, then the feelingswhich arise can be dealt with immediately. It is only when we give names to feelingsand thereby strengthen them that the feelings have continuity; they are stored up inthe center, from which we give further labels, either to strengthen or tocommunicate them.

The Book of Life - May 13