Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

deeper into consciousness to find reality, whatever
that is.
Then you go deeper, you let your awareness sink
deeper into the consciousness of yourself, deeper than
the mind or emotions. Some neo-Advaitins believe that
emotions arise only after the mind creates stories to
sustain them. This is not true, although the mind can
create stories that do cause emotions, mostly the
emotions arise first, and then stories arise.
For example, a growling dog running towards us
creates fear, and fear is an emotion. Then we may
think about being bitten, and then run like hell.
Emotions are like that; sometimes they are immediate
responses to situations in the apparently external
world, and are very primitive ways of adaptively
reacting to the world.
Or else we see our girlfriend talking to some other
guy in what appears to be a very intimate way, and
instantaneously we freeze, we feel an explosion in our
chest, our whole body freezes, with shock and utter
disbelief, and then fear arises. This is jealousy, full-
blown. Then we may create stories which sustain the
jealous feelings, but initially it is felt as a crushing
explosion and being stunned into silent disbelief that
our lover may disappear.