Emotion Mind, Rational Mind, Wise Mind

wingchun100

Senior Master
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
3,300
Reaction score
525
Location
Troy NY
I was not sure where else to put this thread.

I have been seeing a counselor lately, who told me there are three kinds of "minds."

EMOTION MIND: Self-explanatory. This is when you react emotionally. For example, lashing out when you feel insulted.
RATIONAL MIND: Thinking analytically. No emotion.
WISE MIND: The combination of the two.

A few weeks after hearing this, I thought of a quote from Bruce Lee, in the Pierre Burton interview. He was talking about how a person's instinctive fighting ability is too "un-scientific," but on the other end he viewed martial arts training as turning you into a "mechanical man...no longer a human being." Then he went on to say how you are to combine "naturalness" and "unnaturalness" in harmony.

Pierre Burton said, "Yin yang." And Bruce said, "You got it, baby."

So you are taking that natural tendency (emotion mind) and tempering it with something unnatural (rational mind). In other words, you are teaching yourself new behaviors to replace old ones that might not have worked well for you. To me, this is very similar to cognitive behavior therapy.

Now some people might think, "Well, I'm not very emotional. I am more analytical." Well, the same thing can be applied to that person too, except in their case the "natural" is being in rational mind all or most of the time.

What is my point in all of this? I don't know really. I just thought it was a cool revelation, and yet another way I made a connection that shows how a person can apply what they learn in martial arts to all aspects of life.
 
I got some training in this for interview and interrogation.

No one is strictly emotional or rational thinkers.

Think of it as a scale...different people fall on the scale on how they lean when it comes to decision making.

I fall far on the rational side of the scale.
 
Also add:

An emotional thinker isn't necessarily emotional.

It means you put more emphasis on feelings and emotions

Rational thinkers puts more emphasis on facts and rationale
 
Sometimes, folks respond emotionally, but present as analytical. In other words, they are using analytical language and presentation to further an emotional position. Happens around here a lot, and can be wielded like a rhetorical weapon. Think about interactions where temperatures are rising and two people are clearly becoming irritated with the other. One person says, "Stop being emotional." The other person says, "I'm not emotional. I'm perfectly rational. You're the one who is being emotional. And I will now dig my heels in and very rationally and calmly relate to you my emotional position, which is that you're a jerk and I don't agree with you." :)
 
A web page conversation is far form a face to face conversation and misinterpretation, especially when it comes to emotion, is not at all uncommon when the conversation is between faceless people and only based only on what was typed, it leaves a lot to the readers interpretation, which may or may not be correct.

With that said

taiji_200.gif


medium.gif
 
Last edited:
I was not sure where else to put this thread.

I have been seeing a counselor lately, who told me there are three kinds of "minds."

EMOTION MIND: Self-explanatory. This is when you react emotionally. For example, lashing out when you feel insulted.
RATIONAL MIND: Thinking analytically. No emotion.
WISE MIND: The combination of the two.

A few weeks after hearing this, I thought of a quote from Bruce Lee, in the Pierre Burton interview. He was talking about how a person's instinctive fighting ability is too "un-scientific," but on the other end he viewed martial arts training as turning you into a "mechanical man...no longer a human being." Then he went on to say how you are to combine "naturalness" and "unnaturalness" in harmony.

Pierre Burton said, "Yin yang." And Bruce said, "You got it, baby."

So you are taking that natural tendency (emotion mind) and tempering it with something unnatural (rational mind). In other words, you are teaching yourself new behaviors to replace old ones that might not have worked well for you. To me, this is very similar to cognitive behavior therapy.

Now some people might think, "Well, I'm not very emotional. I am more analytical." Well, the same thing can be applied to that person too, except in their case the "natural" is being in rational mind all or most of the time.

What is my point in all of this? I don't know really. I just thought it was a cool revelation, and yet another way I made a connection that shows how a person can apply what they learn in martial arts to all aspects of life.

Id, ego and super-ego; Ego is the medieator between the Id, and super-ego
 
EMOTION MIND:
RATIONAL MIND:
WISE MIND:
You forgot one....perhaps the most common here.
OUTTA' HIS FRICKING MIND:
 
EMOTION MIND:
RATIONAL MIND:
WISE MIND:
You forgot one....perhaps the most common here.
OUTTA' HIS FRICKING MIND:
I learned from The Last Samurai that there are too many minds. As Tom Cruise learned, you must have NO MIND.
 
the thing to keep in mind is sometimes it can be difficult when you have an emotional and a rational thinker discussing something for them to come into agreement because they see it from different perceptions.

Like me and my wife.

I am a very rational thinker. My wife is an emotional thinker.

So typically when it comes to decisions she will express concerns over feelings. I in turn....ignore those concerns and do what makes sense.
 
the thing to keep in mind is sometimes it can be difficult when you have an emotional and a rational thinker discussing something for them to come into agreement because they see it from different perceptions.

Like me and my wife.

I am a very rational thinker. My wife is an emotional thinker.

So typically when it comes to decisions she will express concerns over feelings. I in turn....ignore those concerns and do what makes sense.

Hehe...the opposite is true with my girlfriend and I.

Well, not really "the opposite" because she can be emotional too. However, she can be rational more often than I am, but hey...I am working on that balance.
 
Well, to be serious (if we must) two of the first things I learned in the Martial Arts were Mushin, and the term Mizu no kokoro. They serve me well to this day.
 
Also add:

An emotional thinker isn't necessarily emotional.

It means you put more emphasis on feelings and emotions

Rational thinkers puts more emphasis on facts and rationale

Dogma comes off as rational but hits emotional buttons.

I know this because Australians have been proven more handsome and intelligent.
 
Dogma comes off as rational but hits emotional buttons.

I know this because Australians have been proven more handsome and intelligent.
This is a better way to say what I was driving at earlier. Not the Aussie part. That's ridiculous. Americans are more handsome. Maybe not too bright sometimes.
 
This is a better way to say what I was driving at earlier. Not the Aussie part. That's ridiculous. Americans are more handsome. Maybe not too bright sometimes.

I argue with right wingers a lot. And they keep coming up with this dogma that left wingers argue with emotions not facts.

Which is an emotional and non factual argument.

So it is a repeat on a theme.
 
I'd like to read that entire interview between Bruce and Pierre, if anyone has a link handy.
 
Back
Top