TRANSPERSONAL :A STRUCTURAL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Louise Sundararajan Rochester,New York

ABSTRACT.'This paper gives a structural and phenomenological account of transpersonal emotions. Structural investigation results in a topology of emotions consistent with the general framework of de Rivera's matrix of emotions (1977), More specifically, this topology shows that "being emotions" that reside in the psychological space of the transperaonal self are in mutually constraining relationships with sets of emotions in the domains of the "material" and the "social" selves, On the phenomenological front, it is demonstrated through taxtual analysis of selected texts that a wide spectrum of "being ­ tions" delineated by de Rivera may be considered various nuances of the Heideggerian angst, although certain Heideggerian nuances of angst, such as "" and "uncanny," are not fully developed in de Rivera's model. Primary texts used for this analysis will be two Chinese landscape poems by Hsieh Ling­ yiin (385-433). Implications of the structural analysis for future research on transpersonal emotions are discussed in the conclusion.

In this article,I attempt to apply andextenda structural theory of emotions(deRivera, 1977)to an analysis of feelingstates usually associated with the spiritual or "transper­ sonal' dimensionof our lives,More specifically, I explorea set of transpersonal emo­ tionsin termsof both its contentand its structural relationship withothersets"of emo­ tions.This structural perspective is complemented by Heidegger's phenomenology of mood.I examineChinese philosophical and literary texts in light of Heidegger'sphe­ nomenology of and its characteristic mood,angst,as well as de Rivera's spec­ trum of "being emotions."Primarytexts used for this analysisare two Chineseland­ scapepoems by HsiehLing-yun(385-433). Implications of the structural analysisfor future research on transpersonal emotions are discussed in the conclusion.

BELONGING,RECOGNITION,ANDBEING

De Rivera divides human emotions into three sets-belonging, recognmon, and being-each inhabitinga particulardimensionof "psychological space,"which in turn corresponds to three aspectsof the self:material,social,and spiritual.The "belonging emotions"are saidto inhabit the psychological spaceof whatWilliam James referred to as the "material self;' namely,the selfthatis concerned with"everything thatcanbe called mine" (de Rivera, 1977,p, 52), such as "one's body, lover, children,home, etc.t'(p, 65). "Recognition emotions;' accordingto de Rivera (1977),"deal with what

Theauthorwouldliketo thankProfessorJosephde Riveraforhis generouscritiqueof an earlierdraftof thispaper.I alsothankmyanonymousreviewersfortheirhelpfulsuggestions. Sendcorrespondence10:Dr.LouiseSundararajen,RochesterPsychiatricCenter,IIIIEImwoodAvenue,Rochester,NY 14620-3972 Copyright© 2000Transpersonallnsnture

The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology; 2000, Vol. 32, No.1 53 James called the 'social' self-the self as recognized by the other-and involve one's honor, reputation, and morality" (p. 53).

"Being emotions" are concerned with granting or denying being/ to self or other (de Rivera, 1977). As such, these emotions are postulated to inhabit the psychological space of the "spiritual" or, more appropriately,the "transpersonal"self. By "transpersonal"I refer to experiences"in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos" (Walsh & Vaughan, 1993,p. 203). This definition of the "transpersonal"is in keepingwith Heidegger's notionof Dasein, which literallymeans "Being-there." It refers to the uniquely transpersonal nature of being human, as Heidegger put" it, "Man is the there whose nature is to be open [to Being]" (cited in Richardson, 1967, p. 280). By Dasein, Heidegger makes it clear that the essence of being human consists in a "transpersonal" relationship to Being. As Macomber (1967) explains, "Dasein is rather a way of being than a being, and all its characteristicsas a being are grounded in the direct relation in which it stands to being,primarily its own" (p, 31).This transpersonalnature of Daseinis driven home by the following observa­ tion of Levin (1988), "To be sure, Heidegger's Dasein is historical;but it is, curiously, a being without biography,without any narrative of personal history.... Heidegger's Dasein is, as Derrida has noted, without gender ... " (p, 271). Implicit in the "transper­ sonal"connotationsofDasein,then, is a dialecticrelationshipbetweenthe transperson­ al self and the "personal" selves-the material and the social.At the level of the materi­ al and the social selves, however,this dialecticrelationship with the transpersonalself may be expressed as mutual exclusiveness.This point is illustrated in a Taoist story from Chuang-tzu:The Marquis of Lu was so impressedwith the remarkablebell-stand made by the woodcarver Khing that he inquired of the latter about his art. Thereupon Khing proceeded to describethe elaboratepreparationshe went throughfor his work:

After fasting for three days, I did not presumeto think of any congratulation,reward,rank, or emolument.... Afterfastingfive days, I did not presumeto think of thecondemnationor commendation(whichit wouldproduce),or ofthe skillor want of skill (whichit mightdis­ play).At the endof the sevendays,I had forgottenall aboutmyself-myfourlimbsandmy whole person .... ThenI went into the forest,andlookedat the natural formsof the trees. When I saw one of a perfectform,then the figureof the bell-standroseup to myview,and I appliedmy handto the work. (Legge, 1959,p. 462)

In the present context, this Taoist parable suggests that the transpersonal self is made accessibleby shedding, through rituals of purification,both the social self that is con­ cemed about performance and its consequencesof reward and punishment,as well as the material self that is concernedwith "my four limbs and my whole person," In light of such a dialecticalrelationshipbetween the transpersonalself and the personalselves, the being emotions would be in a mutually exclusive relationship with the other two sets of emotions, belonging and recognition.

DIALECTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BEING EMOTIONS ANDTHE REST OF THETRIAD

The mutually exclusive or dialectical relationship between the three sets of emo­ tions can be considered in light of an experimental study by de Rivera, Possell, Verette, and Weiner (1989). The investigators devised a "wishing versus hoping"

54 TheJournal of TranspersonalPsychology,2000, Vol.32, No. J construct to tease apart elation and gladness. They proposed that elation "entails the fulfillment of a wish. This fantasylike wish involves the self, and the outcome is unexpected" (de Rivera et al., 1989, p. 1016). Gladness, in contrast, entails the ful­ fillment of a realistic "." Hoping "does not involve the fantasy inherent in wish­ ing. Rather, it includes waiting for something that has a real possibility but present­ ly is uncertain" (de Rivera et al., 1989, p. 1016). The contrast between elation and gladness is summed up succinctly by the researchers in the following definitions of wishing and hoping:

Wishing occurs on a fantasy level, as it involves dreaming beyond what is realistically possible. Wishes are not expected to come true, and, therefore, wishing does not entail patient waiting and Iacks or . Hopingdoesnot occuron a fantasy level, and, therefore, is more "grounded" in reality. are expected to be fulfilled, although it is never absolutely certain that they will come true. Consequently, hoping involves doubt or worry, and also entails patient waiting for the hopes to be fulfilled. (De Rivera et al., 1989, p, 1021)

Extending the antithetical relationship between wishing-elation and hoping-gladness, a mutual exclusiveness can be shown to be likewise true of the relationshipbetween the transpersonalemotion of (de Rivera, 1977) and the egoist emotions of elation and gladness. For illustration, I offer a detailed analysis of a poem by the ninth-century Chinese poet/critic Ssu-KungT'u (837-908).

Solid World

The words employed are extremely direct, The formulation of thought does not go deep; Suddenly one meets a - It is as if seeing the mind of the way [Tao].

The bends of clear torrents, The shade of emerald pines: One fellow carries firewood. Another fellow listens to a zither.

The perfection of [human] nature and the Is so subtle it cannot be sought. One chances on it as Heaven wills- Delicate, the faint and rare tones. (Owen, 1992, pp. 341-342)

This is one of Sse-Kung T'u's 24 poems, each dedicated to one particular poetic mood. The (poetic) mood described in this poem seems to be joy, as we shall see. In joy, accordingto de Rivera (1977), "the person experienceshis existenceas meaningful, as coming closer to the self that he 'really is" (p, 64). This sense of being in reality or truth (the Tao) is suggestedby the title "Shih (solid/real)Ching (world)," rendered by Owen (1992) as "solid world"(p. 341), and by Yu(1978)as "reality" (p, 88). Given the Taoist binary opposition between the natural and the artificial/falsehood,Yang and Yang's (1963) translation of the title as "the natural mode"(p. 74) is also appropriate. Joy has two basic components:first, meeting an other,and second,a sense of the mean­ ingfulnessof life. "Suddenly one meets a recluse" (line 3) capturesthe first component

Transpetsonal Emotions: A Structural and Phenomenological Perspective 55 of joy: "I became aware of the uniqueness of the other" (de Rivera et at, 1989, p. 1017). "It is as if seeing the mind of the way [Tao]" (line 4) captures the second com­ ponent: "It was as if a veil came off my eyes so that 1 could see the significance of life, how things really are" (de Rivera et at, 1989, p. 1017). This meaningfulness results in an openness to life, so characteristic of the transpersonalself. In the study by de Rivera et al, (1989),this transpersonalopenness associated with joy is described as follows:

a. I realized that there really is a meaning to life.I was encouraged to beopen to life. b. Instead of being out of place, I found myself in place, in harmony. c. I would say that this experience made me feel more united with all life. (p. 1017)

Ssu-Kung T'u says the same thing, albeit in poetic imagery, which may be approxi­ mated by the following scenario: two individuals---one woodcutter, one scholar; one standing one, sitting-chance upon each other (each referring to the other as "recluse"). As both are drawn to the music of the zither, the latter is playing. The subtle tunes of the zither are echoed by the singing brook and the whispering pines, resulting in a sym­ phony so faint and rare, and yet deeply in harmony with the essence of human nature and emotions (line 9).

This openness to life or Being constitutes the distinguishing factor of joy, just as wishing and hoping define elation and gladness, respectively. We can turn to the poet's intuition for contrast and comparison between openness to Being and the wishing-hoping pair. From the very outset, the poet states that when communica­ tions are direct in an encounter such as the one he presents here, calculative think­ ing becomes unnecessary: "The words employed are extremely direct,lThe for­ mulation of thought does [needs] not go deep" (lines 1-2). Careful deliberation is frowned upon, for the "natural mode" of communication is supposed to be a mat­ ter of "plain words" and "simple thoughts," as the translation of Yang and Yang (1963, p. 74) makes clear, The poet repeats this caveat in line 10: "Is so subtle it cannot be sought" Owen (1992) interprets this line as "cannot be sought willful­ ly" (p. 342). The poet seems to besaying that chance encounter with the recluse is an experience that cannot be obtained by means of willful, goal-directed pur­ suit, nor by calculative, instrumental thinking. This rulesoutcareful estimates of the odds, and deliberate planning coupled with patient waiting-in other words, the hoping condition .. Throughout, the poet insists that chance .encounter with the recluse happens effortlessly, like magic. This is comparable to de Rivera's (1977) formulation of joy: "That is, an other person orobject becomes present for the person, acquiring a significance that is filled with meaning in an almost magical way" (pp. 64-65).

Carefree and effortless as it may be, the chance encounter is not to be confused with wishing. As we have seen, wishing's hallmark is a self-centered orientation, which is the veryantipode of joy. Indeed, the chance encounter with the recluse presents a pic­ ture antithetical to wishing, almost stroke by stroke. To begin with, wishing-elation is characterized by a tendency to tune out the external reality, as the following items from the study suggest:

56 The Journal oj TranspersonalPsychology,2000, Vol.32, No.1 a. I was suddenly lifted out of realityinto a fantasyworld. b. I becameoblivious to the rest of the world,not really noticing what others were sayingor doing.And again: c. I felt that it didn't matterwhat otherpeople thoughtabouthow I was act­ ing. (deRiveraet al., 1989,p, 1017)

Joy, in sharp contrast, entails a tuning into the world, or "being-in-the-world,"as Heidegger(1962)puts it. Thus, the charactersin the poem are de-centered:The zither player is not focusingon himself or his companion-both are tuned in to the music instead.What we have here is a rather down-to-earthscenario:two charactersand a zither-a simple,direct,or betterstill,wordlesscommunicationtakingplaceamidstthe windingbrook and the pine grove, a sylvan scene completelydevoid of any flight of fantasy or mythicalembellishment.Also absenthere is psychomotoragitation,which is characteristicof elation,as is indicated by itemsfrom the study,suchas: "I felt like jumping, running,or shouting"(de Rivera et al., 1989,p. 1017).The joy conveyed in the poem is a staid scene,no wild excitement,no dramaticdenouement,but a seem­ inglyinsipidscenario,whichneverthelessreverberateswithnuancedand subtlemean­ ing.This stateof consciousness,accordingto the poet, cannotbe attained by purpose­ ful pursuitor carefulplanning,but ratheris concomitant with being opento life, or as Owen(1992) puts it, "in letting the world be itself,genuine subtlety will arise" (p. 343).

Summing up ourobservations so far, theemotions of belonging, recognition, andbeing reside in three different dimensionsof psychologicalspace and reflect three corre­ sponding types of self:the material,the social,and the transpersonal, The relationship between the transpersonal and the personal (materialand social)selvesand their cor­ responding emotions seemsto be that of mutualexclusiveness .Another way of putting it is that transpersonal emotions are not likelyto thrive wherebelonging and/orrecog­ nitionemotions loom large.

BEING EMOTIONS ; A STRUCTURAL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

In this section,I investigate a structuralset of "being emotions"identifiedas accep­ tance,,, dread,serenity,joy,,and rejection(deRivera, 1977).The structural perspective will be complemented by Heidegger's phenomenological inves­ tigationof Dasein'smoods,especiallyangst.Primarytexts for the structuraland phe­ nomenologicalanalysis are two poems of vision quest-c-one successful,one unsuc­ cessful-by the founderof landscapepoetryin China,HsiehLing-yun (385-433). We beginwith a successful vision quest.

What I SawWhen I Had Crossed The LakeOn My Way FromNan-Shanto Pel-Shan I In the morningI set out from the Sun-litshore, Whenthe sun was settingI rested bythe shadowy peaks. Leaving myboat,I gazedatthe far-off banks, 4 Halting my staff,I leant against a flourishing pine. The narrowpath is dark and secluded, Yet thering-like island is bright asjade. BelowI see the tops of toweringt rees,

TranspersonalEmotions:A Structural and PhenomenologicalPerspective 57 8 Above I hear the meeting of wild torrents. Stones athwart, the water divides its ; The woodsare so thickthe pathcuts its traces. II What is the result of 'Delivering' and 'Forming'? 12 Everywhere is thick with things pushing upward and growing. Early bamboo, encased in green skin, New rushes, wrapped in purple fuzz, Seagulls sporting above the springtime shores 16 And golden pheasants sweeping the temperate wind. Of embracing transformation my heart never wearies; Viewing these scenes, I cherish them the more. III No matter that I've left other men far behind- 20 I only having no one with whom to share. I wander alone, sighing, but not from mere ; Unsavoured nature yields to none her meaning. (Adapted from Westbrook, 1980, p. 239, and Frodsham, 1967, I, p. 146)

This poem belongs to the vision quest genre, popular in Chinese landscape poetry of the fifth to sixthcentury(see Lin, 1976).The followinganalysisby Mather(1961)of a precursorof this genrewillgiveus a generalidea:

The "Poetic Essay on Roaming in the T'ien-t'ai Mountains" [by the fourth century poet Sun Ch' 0] is, at one level, a record of the poet's mystical experience of identity with the non-actu­ al reality [the Tao] embodied in mountains and streams. Much of it is, of course, vivid phys­ ical description of the ascent of one of China's most scenic mountains.... But the decisive moment, when the world of sense is left behind and the first spiritual illumination gained, comes with the breath-taking passage over the natural stone bridge ... which spans the Utter Darkness Stream . . . into the canyon below. This crisis, similar in some ways to the "dark night of the soul" in Western mysticism, once past, the road levels and opens into a veritable .fairyland, where, after.a bath mthe Magic Stream, all "perturbing thoughts" and worldly attachments fall away. The poet is now in perfect accord with the Tao .... (pp. 231-232)

Poems of this genre can be divided into three parts in accordancewith their internal structure:(I) the ascent,whichdescribestheexodusfrow the f~liar,everyday world; (2) the mysticalvision,whichis best summedup by Westbrook (1980), "Typically an Impenetrable-mountain scape becomes one of sublimebeauty-withwhich the poet's spirit enjoys effortless communion... " (p, 237,abstract);and (3)the descent,whichis characterized by a "returnto the mundane.This tripartitedivisionis evidentin Hsieh's poem citedabove.In thefollowing paragraphs,my exegesi of thispoemis guided by Heidegger'sformulationsof Daseinand its mood.

TheAscent

In the ascent(first stanza),the poetembarkson ajourney,whichturnsout to be a jour­ ney on three interrelatedlevels:it is a journey awayfrom the everydayworld,a jour­ ney into the abyss of "nothing," and a journey of angst, usually translated as "anxi­ ety."Thethreadthatties allthreelevelsof meaning togetheris theHeideggerian angst.

58 The Journal of TranspersonalPsychology, 2000, Vol.32, No.1 Angst, according to Heidegger (1962), is the privileged mood that reveals the world as "nothing." This reference to the "nothingness" of the world suggests the connec­ tion between angst and de Rivera's "dread," which he defines as "other loses exis­ tence" (de Rivera, 1977, p. 66). One feeling state associated with angst, but not men­ tioned by de Rivera is uncanniness. According to Orr (1981), "Angst ... [is] the slip­ ping away of beings, in whose slipping away is revealed that what prevails offers no hold, no solid anchorage. Instead, there is only pure suspense, the uncanniness of the indeterminate" (p. 97). This "slipping away" of the familiar world finds an eloquent expression in the ascent.

The poem starts out with ordinary clock time: "In the morning I set out ... When the sun was setting I rested .... " But as the journey progresses, an "uncanny" land­ scape emerges: The poet sees the tips of tall trees "below," and hears wild torrents "above." Not only is the normal sense of space disrupted; time has become indeter­ minate as well. As Westbrook (1980) points out, "This poem hangs somewhere between morning and evening, the shore and the summit, and to speculate on the poet's exact position would be to misread his intent to escape normal time and space relationships" (p, 239).

What goes hand in hand with the uncanny feeling is a sense of "threat," as Heidegger (1962) points out that "Dasein's uncanniness ... [is] a threat which reaches Dasein itself and which comes from Dasein itself" (p. 234). Thus Bernasconi (1985) writes, "It is not only things that slip away in , but along with them we slip away from ourselves" (p. 56). As the world is "slipping away" into "nothing," taking us with it, we are confronted with the impossibility of our ability to be. A sense of the possibility of this impossibility to be seems to be at the root of what de Rivera refers to as "panic." "In panic," writes de Rivera (1977), "the self is on the verge of becoming the empty nothingness that we dread" (p. 64). This feeling state finds expression in the menacing terrain: "Stones athwart, the water divides its flowl The woods are so thick the path cuts its traces" (lines 9-10). Analogous to a stream, or a natural trail, the self as Dasein is in danger of being blocked, fragmented, or obliterated.

Consistent with accounts of "dark night of the soul," Heidegger (1949) claims that the turning point lies at the very depth of angst-the countermovement set in motion by "awe:" "For hard by essential dread, in the terror of the abyss, there dwells awe" (p. 386). He speaks elsewhere of "an awe in the face of the mystery that the dimension of openness, 'world: has been freed from the reticence of the nothing. In this way, a coun­ termovement manifests itself in awe" (quoted by Held, 1993, p. 295). The "dimension of openness" that emerges from the "reticence of the nothing" constitutes the mystical vision that usually accompanies the "dark night of the soul." This "mystical vision" is described in the second stanza of the poem.

TheMysticalVision

The "dimension of openness" is referred to by Heidegger (1962) as the "world," or sim­ ply the "spaciousness." The connection between experience of the "spaciousness" and that of "nothingness" in angst is best expressed by Brock, "In 'nothingness,' as bound up with the things in the whole, we experience a 'vast spaciousness' which gives every

Transpersonal Emotions: A Structural and Phenomenological Perspective 59 single thing the warrant to be" (in Heidegger, 1949, p. 243). What lies at the core of this experience of "vast spaciousness" seems to be "," which is defined by de Rivera (1977) as an emotional stance in which "other gains existence," and is granted "its separate reality" (p. 66). The open expanse with its corresponding emo­ tion of acceptance seems to permeate the second stanza. Consider line 12, "every­ where is thick with things pushing upward and growing:' What this image brings to light is the fact that all that exuberant growth does not result in crowding-there is so much room that "all things" are able to "grow tan and flourish" (Westbrook, 1980, p. 239). Compare this image with another picture of lavish growth in the ascent: "The woods are so thick the path cuts its traces" (line 10). Obviously, the spaciousness is not there in the ascent to "give every single thing the warrant to be." The "vast expanse" is palpably felt in the remaining lines of the second stanza: it is manifest in the parallelism between the bamboo and the rushes, a parallelism that underscores the distance between the mountain and the stream, where these plants grow, respectively; it is also manifest in the contrast between the seagulls and the golden pheasants, a con­ trast that brings to light the distance between the beach and the mountain (cf. Lin, 1976, p. 42). Furthermore, the seagulls, diving in and out of the billowing waves, make manifest the vast distance between sky and water; the golden pheasants, on the other hand, fly horizontally, thus making manifest the vast expanse of space that fills mountains and valleys.

The emotional comportment of acceptance seems to correspond to the Heideggerian "awe," which is referred to by Held (1993) as "reservedness with respect to the world, a ..." (p. 295). This sense of reservedness is manifest in the fact that in part II everything seems to be enveloped in its own space: the bamboos, the rushes, the seagulls and the golden pheasants. There is no physical contact between them and the poet, whose contemplative gaze respects the distance between himself and things. This sense of reservedness on the part of the poet contrasts sharply with the more aggressive approach to things in the ascent. In lines 1 through 4, the shore, the peaks, the boat, and the walking staff are devoid of their own space-they are simply objects for manipulation. Thus we have the following verbs, all suggesting physical contact: "setting out" from the shore, "resting" by the peaks, "leaving" the boat, and "halting" the staff. Even the "flourishing pine" has become an object for "leaning" (line 4)-it is not shrouded in the protective space that allows the bamboos and rushes (lines 13­ 14) to shine in their own being.

This "spaciousness" is none other than the Heideggerian "world," which is also referred to as "the foursome"-the fourfold structure of earth, heaven, gods, and man. In the second stanza, the earth is manifest in the "wood" that grows "within the earth," "pushing upwards"; in the "seed-pods of all fruits, plants and trees burst[ing] open"; and in the young bamboo and tender rushes. Heaven refers to the atmospheric dimen­ sion: the "early" bamboo, the "new" rushes, and the gentle wind (line 16) all confirm the season of spring (line 15). Third, there are the gods. According to Orr (1981), "the divinities are those special encounters in which human ek-sistenee {AU: Is preceding word spelled this way in the original material?} experiences itself to be drafted into a claim [of meaning] that surpasses the kind of claim that one ordinarily confronts in one's everyday life" (p. 116). Thus the divinities may be understood as the l-Ching images of the thunderstorm and the vigorous growth of things, images that lay special

60 The Journalof Transpersonal Psychology,2000. Vol.32, No.1 claim on the poet. In the second stanza, there are two references to the l-Ching: line 11 refers to Hexagram XL, "Deliverance," and line 12 to Hexagram XLVI, "Pushing Upward." "Deliverance" refers to thunderstorm and the exuberant growth it engenders: "When Heaven and Earth deliver themselves thunder and rain are formed. When thun­ der and rain are formed the seed-pods of all fruits, plants and trees burst open"(Frodsham, 1967, p. 166, note 11). "Pushing upwards" has the image of vigorous growth: "Within the earth wood grows. The Image of Pushing Upwards" (Frodsham, 1967, p. 166, note 12). These images evoke a feeling of exaltation over the "ability-to­ begin:' or otherwise put, "the triumph of being-possible over impossibility" (quoted by Held, 1993, p. 297), which, according to Heidegger, constitutes the mood of wonder. Inauguration of the Heideggerian wonder by an encounter with the gods (the l-Ching references) supports de Rivera's (1977) definition of wonder, the essential ingredient of which is the meaningfulness of the other:

In the emotionof wonder,we are confronted by the existence of something that we do not understand. The movement of wonder is an attempt to graspthe essenceof thismiraculous existence-to realize what the other is and thus bringit fullyintobeing.(p, 63)

Wonder and awe are intimately related in the Heideggerian scheme. Thus Held (1993) writes, "On the one hand, the world entices the person struck with wonder by the fresh­ ness of its novelty. On the other hand, the unexpectedness of this novelty captivates him and instills in him a reservedness with respect to the world, a reverence ... an awe .. ."(p. 295). This is also consistent with the close relationship between acceptance and wonder in de Rivera's framework: both emotions entail a positive stance toward the other-in acceptance, "other gains existence," whereas in wonder, "other gains mean­ ing" (de Rivera, 1977, p. 66). So much for the sense of wonder evoked by an encounter with the "gods" (the I-Ching images).

The last component in the foursome of the "world" is the poet as co-partner in the fourfold. In the second stanza, the poet's "comportment" toward all beings is allud­ ed to as "embracing," and "cherishing" (lines 17 to 18). But the poet is not the cen­ ter of a web of relationships. What we have here is a "round dance" or "mutual mir­ roring" of all four partners, with no one at the center taking the leading role. Thus Mehta (1971) describes the Heideggerian "world," in the following terms: "Facing and being turned towards each other, mutuality, characteristic of neighborliness, is the way earth and heaven, God and man are united together into true nearness in the world-quadrate" (p. 238). The emotion that subtends the "de-centered" Heideggerian "round dance" seems to be serenity. According to de Rivera (1977), "in serenity the potential dissolution and loss of the self is welcomed. Rather than feeling nothing as a vacuum, it is experienced as the no-thing-ness that is the source of life-as a plenum, a fullness that is the mother of everything that exists" (p. 64). Furthermore, in de Rivera's framework, serenity, in which "self gains existence" is closely related to joy, in which "self gains meaning" (p. 66). This is consistent with Heidegger's scheme, except that Heidegger grounds both serenity and joy in angst (anxiety), as he points out, "Along with the sober anxiety [angst], which brings us face to face with our indi­ vidualized potentiality-for-Being, there goes an unshakable joy in this possibility" (Heidegger, 1962, p. 358). But de Rivera underscores an important component of joy: the meeting with the other. To this topic we now turn.

TranspersonalEmotions:A Structuraland PhenomenologicalPerspective 61 Joy as "meetingthe other"is clearly indicatedin the poet's expressionof delightin everythinghe sees: "Of embracingtransformationmy heart never wearies!Viewing these scenes,I cherishthem the more",(lines 17-18).Anotherindicationofjoy is the poet's attention to minutiae in his surroundings:"Early bamboo, encased in green skin/New rushes,wrapped in purplefuzz" (lines13-14).In contrast to the broadstrokes thatpaint the rest of the poem,theselines endorsethe following condition ofjoy in de Riveraet al, (1989): "My sensesbecamemore acute,and I becamemoreawareof my surroundings" (p, 1017). But there is more. A closer reading shows that the Heideggerian"round dance"is anextended metaphor of joy.Let's go backto the poem. The "rounddance"of the foursome is underscored by the verbsin lines 13through18: the bamboo"encased,"new rushes "wrapped,"seagulls"sporting,"goldenpheasants "sweeping"(a moreliteral translation would be "fondling"or "playingwith"),thepoet "embracing,""cherishing,"and "viewing"with a contemplative gaze.Theseverbs,as they are grouped,are so compatiblethat they borrownuancesand connotationsfrom one another;in otherwords,theyare engagedin whatHofstadterrefersto as "the sub­ limelysimpleplay of theirmutualmirroring"(in Heidegger,1971,p. xxi).And from the multiplicityof their mirror reflections,a larger picture emerges.It suggeststhe archetypal image of the mother:holding,fondling,cherishing.It also suggestsplay.

The playfulness of the foursome contrastssharplywith the connotationsof toil in the ascent. Note how the verbs in the first stanza, lines 1 through 10, cannot possibly "dance"with one another:"settingout" on thejourneyversus "resting;""leaving"the boat to go on an exploringexpedition versus "halting"the staff so as to rest under a tree; "seeing"versus "hearing;"the "athwarting"stonesobstructing horizontally ver­ sus the vertical barrier createdby the "thickjening]" woods.Here we have a stringof binary oppositions-verbs that clash with and contradictone another-they do not "dance." In contrast, the "round dance" of the verbs in the second stanza is best describedby Hofstadter,who givesan eloquent summaryof the "world's mirror-play" in the followingwords:"nestling,malleable, pliant,compliant... light,easy,nimble" (in Heidegger,1971,p. xxi).De Riveraet al, (989) specify the joy condition in simi­ lar, albeit less poetic,terms, "I felt totally close to everything, grounded,a part of a greater oneness"(p. 1017);and again "Instead of being out of place,I foundmyselfin place,in harmony"(p. 1017).

The Descent

The reigning emotion in the descent(thirdstanza)seemsto be sorrow, as is evidenced by expressions such as "regret"(line20), "alone,"and "sighing"(line21). "In sorrow there is a lossof meaning. Apart of the self nolonger is and the existence that surrounds us loses itsmeaning,"writes de Rivera(1977,p. 65).The lossof meaning findsexpres­ sionin thepoet's of the concealment of Nature:"Unsavoured nature yields to none her meaning"(line 22). This line maybe paraphrased as follows:if my con­ templative appreciation of Nature is discontinued ,dueto lack of understanding by my fellowmen,"who will fathom the Natural Order?"(Westbrook,1980,p, 239).In sharp contrast to the "meeting with the other" injoy, loss of communion is the theme rever­ berating in sorrow :"No matter thatI've leftothermen far behind!I onlyregret having no onewith whomto share [myinsight]"(lines 19-20).It is important to note here the distinction between sorrowand its corresponding emotion in the psychological space

62 The Journal of TranspersonalPsychology, 2000, Vol.32,No. 1 of the materialself,namelydepression.The senseof loss in depressioncenterson the fact that the otheris no longerpartof the self-what is at issue is a senseof belonging, asde Rivera(1977)pointsout. Sorrow,in contrast,concernsthe loss of meaning,asthe poet makes it clear in the concludinglines that his stems from not the feeling of ("I wanderalone,sighing,but not frommere feeling")so muchas the loss of meaning due to the anticipatedconcealmentof Nature ("Unsavourednature yields to none her meaning"). The function of sorrow, furthermore, may be adaptive. Accordingto de Rivera(1977),sorrow"demandsthat we give up our holdon the real­ ity that was, for it is no longer,and unless we surrenderour hold we will be living in unreality" (p. 65). In this light, the poem ends appropriatelyon a sad note, signifying the poet's readiness to make a descent from his "peak experience" and return to the world of the mundane-a returnjourney that may be sad, but sane. This is probably as successfula visionquest as is humanlypossible.Now,for contrastand comparison,we will examinea failed attempt.

A Failed Wsion Quest

For an exampleof a failedvisionquest, considerthe followingexcerptfromthe poem, "On Enteringthe Mouth of Lake P'eng-li," alsoby Hsieh Ling-yun,

9 But a thousand thoughts torment me day and night, Ten thousand passions harass me, dawn till dusk. I climb the cliffs to watch the Stone mirror shining. 12 Holding on to the leaves, I entered the gates of pine. Tales of the Three Rivers are mostly forgotten by now, Only the names of the Nine Streams still remain. The magic things rarely display their marvels, 16 The weird people hide their subtle souls. The Fat of gold has veiled its brilliant light, While Liquid Jade has lost its genial warmth. In vain I play the Tune of the Thousand Leagues, 20 The strings snap, and my thoughts have multiplied.' (Adapted from Frodsham, 1967, I, p. 154)

Herethe poet has embarkedon anothervision questin the mountains,partlyto escape the "thoughts"and "passions"that tormentedhim "day and night."But the concluding lines suggestthathe failed miserably:he tried to playa tune about a white goose that traveled a thousand miles (Cf Frodsham, 1967, II, p. 182, note 19), but the strings snapped,and his disorderlythoughtsreturnedwith a vengeance.In the followingpara­ graphs,we examinemore closelythis failed mission.

In comparisonwiththe first poem, the secondpoem by Hsiehlacks one ingredientthat is essentialto the Heideggerianangst, namely awe.As we have seen in the foregoing discussion, awe is manifest in a reverential space that protects things from human manipulation.The absenceof awe in thepresentpoem,therefore,maybe inferredfrom the poet's utilitarianapproachto things:the cliffsare for climbing;the stone-mirrorfor reflecting;the leaves for holding on to (as a rope), and so on. In the absence of awe, wonder degeneratesinto ,which is manifestin the poet's frantic rummaging through exotic objects: "the magic things," the "weird people" (Taoist hermits or

TranspersonalEmotions:A Structural and PhenomenologicalPerspective 63 immortals),the "Fat of Gold," and "liquidjade" (bothare used as drugs for procuring immortality,see Frodsham, 1967,II, p. 182,notes 17, 18).Accordingto Heidegger, curiosity is an inauthentic formof wonder:''The deficient,inauthentic form of wonder is anenchantednesswiththeworlddevoidof aweortimidity.Thatis,uninhibited,driv­ ing curiositychasesdown everythingthat appearsin someway as surprisingor 'won­ derful'in this superficial sense"(cited in Held, 1993,p, 295).Psychologically speaking, curiosityseems to be subtended by , an emotion that, accordingto de Rivera (1977),involves"possession in the sensethat the personis the set and wants the other (as an element of the set) to belong to the person" (p. 52, note 5). Consistentwith Heidegger'sdistinctionbetweencuriosityandwonder,desireandwonderdo not inhab­ it the same psychological space in de Rivera's structuralmatrixof emotions:the for­ mer belongsto the psychological spaceof the materialself,whereasthe latterbelongs to the psychological spaceof the transpersonal self.

Drivenby the uninhibited hankering after novelty,the poet is soon led to the conclu­ sionthat, as Heideggerputs it, "the worldhas nothing more to offer... " (citedin Coe, 1985,p. 107).Whatwehavehere seemsto be a caseof rejection."In rejection,"writes de Rivera(1977),"theimperfectbeingof the other's existenceis deniedby makingthe othermeaningless-by denying thatthereis any essence to the other's existence or any meaning to the occurrence of an event" (p. 64). Thus, with rejection,the world has sunken into "complete insignificance,"as Poggeler (1987) points out, "Everything withinthe worldplungesinto a 'completeinsignificance;' it takes on the characterof 'non-involvement' and 'emptymercilessness" (p, 169).

The "complete insignificance"of the world is manifest primarily in temporalterms here. The past is irrevocablylost: "Talesof the Three Rivers are mostlyforgottenby now" (line 13).Accordingto Frodsham,"The ThreeRivers are mentionedin the Shu ching [thebook of historicaldocuments].Since antiquity,there had been endlessdis­ putesconcerningtheirlocation,butno one was sure"(Frodsham,1967,II,pp. 181-182, note 14).Notonly is the pastforgotten;it is no longerrelevant:"Onlythe namesof the NineStreamsstillremain"(line 14).Again Frodsham(1967)pointsoutthat"TheNine Streamsare also mentionedin the classicsof antiquity[Shuching],but no one knows for sure whatthese namesrefer to" (II, pp. 181-182,note 14).As for the present,it is shrouded in concealment:"Themagic things rarelydisplaytheirmarvel/the weirdpeo­ ple hide their subtle souls" (lines 15-16,emphasisadded).The future in turn is pre­ emptedby a pastwhichhas lost itspowerand efficacy:The "Fat of Gold"and the "liq­ uid jade" no longer promise immortality-their loss of potency is indicatedby the extinctionof "brilliantlight" of the former,and the loss of "genialwarmth"of the lat­ ter (lines 17-18).

With the past and the future both slippinginto "completeinsignificance,"the poet is paralyzedin a vacuouspresent.What Ballard(1991)says aboutfear seemsto be per­ tinenthere: "... cutsone offfromboth one's past and future.... One is paralyzed in the presentand is actingas if one 'were' only a present-tensebeing... " (pp.70-71). Indeed,contractionseemsto be characteristicof fear, as De Rivera (1977)points out thatin fearthepersonrecoilsanddoes not wantto "belongto theother"(p. 52,note5). The contrastbetween openness and contractionseems to be consistentwith the dis­ tinction drawn by Heidegger between authentic and inauthentic moods. Authentic

64 The Journal of TronspersonalPsychology,2000, Vol.32,No. 1 moodis characterized by whatMedard Boss (1983)refersto as "perceptive openness." Boss claimsthat "What we call moods,,affects,emotions,and states are the concretemodes in which the possibilitiesfor being open are fulfilled.They are at the sametime the modesin whichthis perceptiveopennesscan be narrowed,distorted,or closed off" (p. 110).In fear, the "perceptiveopenness"of Daseinis "narrowed"and "closedoff." Fear distortsthe "ecstatic"natureof Dasein,which is meant to be "out­ side"itself,as "being-in-the-world."Butthepoet's Dasienis no longeroutsideitself­ it has become prisoner of itself,asWestbrook(1980) notes,"Hsiehascends a mountain only to focuson his reflection in a mirror-stone on its summit;he thenenumerates the marvelshe no longercan discoverin sucha setting"(p. 253).Paralyzedin the hereand now,Dasein'sgazeturnsin on itself,onlyto finditselfat the mercyof racing thoughts "multiplying" beyondcontrol,

This loss of "perceptive openness" in fear contrasts sharplywith the "world'

SUMMARYANDCONCLUSION

I have given a structuraland phenomenological accountof some transpersonal emo­ tions. Structural investigation in the foregoing has resulted in a topology of emotions consistent with the general framework of de Rivera's (1977) matrix of emotions. Accordingto this topology,"beingemotions"thatreside in the psychologicalspaceof thetranspersonalselfarein a mutuallyconstrainingrelationshipwithothersetsof emo­ tionsin the domainsof the "material"and "social"selves.Textualanalysesof selected Chinese poems show that when "being emotions" are activated, "belonging" and "recognition"emotionsseemto be in abeyance,and that whenthe latter are activated, the "being"or transpersonal emotions tend to beinhibitedto a greatextent.On the phe­ nomenological front,investigationi n the foregoing has shownthat a wide spectrumof "beingemotions"delineatedby de Rivera(1977) may be consideredvariousnuances of the Heideggerianangst, althoughcertain Heideggeriannuances of angst, such as "awe" and "uncanniness"are not fully developedin de Rivera's model.These obser­ vationsmaybe summedup in Table I (derivedfromde Rivera, 1977, p. 70).

The parallelism,made clear by Table I, between the Heideggerianangst and "being emotions"is rich in implications.Amongotherthings,it suggests that Dasein'smoods arestructurally the mostrudimentary emotionsof thetranspersonalself.In otherwords, analogousto prime numbers,this set of "beingemotions,"or Dasein'smoods,are not derivativeof other more basic structuresof the transpersonalemotions,nor are they derivativesof emotionsof the "material"and the socialselves.The topologyof emo­ tionsin Table1is alsorich in implications for futureresearch.For instance,it suggests that "acceptance"is a transpersonal emotion, whereas "" is not Otherwiseput,

TranspersonalEmotions:A Structuraland PhenomenologicalPerspective 65 TABLE1 TOPOLOGY OF EMOTIONS SHOWING BEING EMOTIONS IN ACTIVATED STATE

PersonalDimension TranspersenalDimension

MaterialSelf: SocialSelf: TranspersonalSelf: Daseln BelongingEmotions RecognitionEmotions Being Emotions Angst

() () Joy Angst (Elation)(?) (Gladness)(7)

Fear (Horror) Dread Angst

(Anxiety) () Panic Angst

(Love) (Esteem) Acceptance Angst

(Security) (Humility) Serenity Angst

() () Sorrow Angst

Desire () Wonder Angst

() () Rejection Angst

Bold print indicatescluster of cross-domain concurrently activated emotions; ( ) indicatesemotionsseeminglyin abeyancewhen "being emotions" are in evidence:(?) indicatesnot originally includedin de Rivera's (1977) matrix of emotions.

"acceptance"or "letting be" is an emotionalcomportmentthat cannotbe attainedany­ where else except in the psychologicalspace of the transpersonalself. "Love," in con­ trast,has a much widerrange of possibilities:it can manifestin its rudimentarystruc­ ture as the possessivelove of the material self,or it can be "spiritual"or transpersonal love.The samecan be said of the transpersonalmanifestationof other"belongingemo­ tions," suchas anger.Afruitfulquestionfor futureresearchwouldbe whethertransper­ sonal manifestationsof love, anger,and so on are emotionsof complex structuresthat entail profoundtransformationsof these otherwise"egoistic"emotions.

NOTE

'Line 20 is renderedditferently by Frodsham(1967) as: "Thoughthe strings snap.my thoughtsgrow moresincere" (p. 154). Mytranslationis based on ihe commenraryof Huang' Chich (1967, p. 151).

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66 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology,2000. Vo/.32, No.1 DERIVERA,J., Possell, L, Verette,J. A., & Weiner,B. (1989). Distinguishing elation, glad­ ness, andjoy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,57(6), pp. 1015-1023. FRODSHAM,J. D. (1967). The murmuring stream: The life and works of the Chinese nature poet Hsieh Ling-yen (385-433),Duke of K'ang-lo (Vols, 1 & 2). Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya. HEIDEGGER,M. (1949). Existence and being. Chicago: Henry Regnery. HEIDEGGER,M.(1962). (1. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.).New York: Harper & Row. HEIDEGGER,M.(1971).Poetry, language,thought (A. Hofstadter , Trans.),New York:Harper & Row. HELD, K. (1993). Fundamentalmoods and Heidegger's critique of contemporaryculture. In J. Sallis (Ed.), Reading Heidegger/ Commemorations(pp. 286·303). Bloomington:Indiana UniversityPress. HUANG,CHlBH.(1967).Hsieh K'ang-lo Shih-chu [commentaryon the poems of Hsieh K' ang­ lo]. Taipei:Yi-wen, J. (1959).The writings of Chuang-Tzu, In 1.Legge (Trans.),The texts of Taoism (pp. 175-672).New York:The Julian Press. LEVIN,D.M. (1988). The opening of vision/ and the postmodern situation. New York:Routledge. LIN,WEN-YUEH.(1976). Shan-shu! yu ku-tien [Landscape and classical literature). Taipei: Chun wen-xue. MACOMBER,W.B. (1967).The anatomyof disillusion.Evanston,Il.; NorthwesternUniversity. MEHTA,J. L. (1971). The philosophyof , New York:Harper & Row. MATHER,R.(1961). The mystical ascent of the TieuT'ai Mountains: Sun Ch'o's Yu- T'ten'T'ai'Shan fu. Monumenta Serica, XX, 226-245. ORR,R. P. (1981). The meaning of transcendence:A Heideggerian reflection. Chico, CA: Scholars Press. OWEN,S. (1992). Readingsin Chineseliterary thought.Cambridge,MA: Harvard University. POGGELER,O.(1987). Martin Heidegger's path of thinking (D. Magurshak & S. Barber, Trans.), Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities. RICHARDSON,W. J., S. 1. (1967). Heidegger:Through phenomenologyto thought.The Hague, Netherlands: M. Nijhoff, {Is an author's name missing? Why are there 4 initials?} WALSH,R., & VAUGHAN,F.(1993).On transpersonaldefinitions.The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology,25(2), 199-207. WESTBROOK,F. A. (1980).Landscapetransformationin the poetry of HsiehLing-ytin,Journal of the AmericanOriental Society, 100(3),237·254, YANG,H. Y., & YANG,G. (Trans.). (1963). The. twenty-four modes of poetry. Chinese Literature,7, 65-77. Yu, P. R. (1978). Ssu-k'ung T'u's Shih-p'in: Poetic theory in poetic form. In R. C. Miao (Ed.), Chinesepoetry and poetics (pp, 81-103).San Francisco: Chinese MaterialsCenter.

The Author Louise Sundararajan received her Ph.D. in Comparative from Harvard Univer.~ity, and her Ed.D. in Counseling Psychologyfrom Boston University.Currently a forensic psychologist, and a member of the International Society for Research on Emotions, she is interested in integratingphenomenological and cultural-historic analyses with the experiementalapproach to emotion research. She publishes and presents regu­ larly on topics ranging from phellomenology to Chinese poetics,

Transpersonal Emotions:A Structural and PhenomenologicalPerspective 67