Sandra said:
I wanted to try to find out the difference between a feeling and a emotion. But it seems hard to try to find a real difference. Has someone a clue?
It is an interesting question and I am not sure whether I have a clue or not. The very fact that the english language is so hopelessly limited in properly differentiating between such terms is perhaps indicative of our collective poverty in this area.
The word "feeling" is often used interchangeably with "sensing" and is often intimately connected to the body. If we say " I am feeling hot" - it describes a sensation of heat but does not necessarily have anything to do with emotions. If we ask "can I feel my body" - then also we are not really talking of any emotion but a sensing of postures and muscular tensions etc. Then when we say "I am feeling sad", then we are most likely describing an emotion which however, as medical research tells us, has an intimate connection with bodily postures and tensions. In fact Gurdjieff also talked about the connection between postures and feelings which has proved to be true through mainstream research.
[quote author=Views From The Real World]
We do not recognize to what an extent the intellectual, emotional and moving functions are mutually dependent, although, at the same time, we can be aware of how much our moods and emotional states depend on our movements and postures. If a man assumes a posture that corresponds, in him, to a feeling of grief or dejection, then within a short time he will actually feel grief or dejection. Fear, indifference, aversion and so on may be created by artificial changes of posture.
[/quote]
The modern scientific view of the relationship between postures and emotions is described in Peter Levine's "In An Unspoken Voice" - a summarized view can be found
here .
In 4th way literature, Gurdjieff categorized emotions as having a "pleasant or unpleasant" quality to it - but it is not "indifferent". Feelings (in the colloquial sense) or sensations on the other hand can be neutral. But as stated above, a sensation generated from the body posture can easily evoke a pleasant or unpleasant emotion. Also emotions get expressed through body postures which generate a sensation or feeling. Overall, there seems to be a reciprocal relationship here.
The word root of emotion is also interesting - it indicates "outward motion". So emotion is likely related to internal movement and thus ties in with the body and feeling aspects.
There also exist other types of emotions - sometimes referred to as higher emotions - which may not necessarily be connected with body states with a one-to-one correspondence though a deep relaxation of the body may be a prerequisite for experiencing such emotions. Certain experiences in a deeply relaxed meditative state can possibly qualify for "higher emotions" but we do not have words to express them adequately. It probably just goes on to show how rare such experiences are in present culture.
A pertinent quote about language from Jungian analyst Robert Johnson says
[quote author=Robert Johnson]
Languages often have several terms to describe the elements of a culture that are highly regarded. Conversely, if a language has few terms or a single one to describe an element of its cultural life, then low regard or value is sometimes indicated. For example, Sanskrit, the basis for most East Indian languages, has 96 terms for love. Ancient Persian has 80, Greek has 4, English only one.
[/quote]
fwiw
