FEELINGS AS AN OBJECT OF SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL UPBRINGING OF THE PERSONALITY

FEELINGS AS AN OBJECT OF SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL UPBRINGING OF THE PERSONALITY

The article considers spiritual feelings as the highest human values that fill one’s life with high states and wonderful emotional experiences. Important aspects of feelings in the context of spiritual and intellectual education of the individual are revealed.
Keywords: feelings, love, friendship, respect, gratitude, devotion.

Khvostychenko O. M.
Candidate of Military Sciences, Associate Professor,
World Scientific Noosphere-Ontological Society, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.182

For a spiritual person, the following are in the first place: attitude to the Supreme, ideals and feelings; honor, responsibility; spiritual strength; and peace of mind. The sources of the highest states of happiness are feelings, ideals, and faith [1]. They also determine the meaning of life. If you have something and someone to live for, it is much more interesting than living for nothing. Life with feelings is much richer and more fulfilling than if a person is alone, lonely and sad.

First of all, we need to define what feelings are in general. In our opinion, this term is often used incorrectly in society. Sometimes people say: “Feelings of fear”, “Feelings of guilt”, “Feelings of hunger”, etc. In fact, these are emotions and sensations and have nothing to do with the term “feelings“. Just as “sense organs” are organs of perception, not of feelings. In the framework of spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching, we talk about spiritual feelings as opposed to physiological sensations perceived by the known “senses” and as opposed to negative and other emotions as reactions of the psyche to stimuli.

There are many judgments that love and friendship do not exist and that feelings in general are only human weakness. Neither love nor friendship exist for people who are disappointed, offended, poor in soul, weak, unhappy, and battered – they don’t exist. They are even afraid of it. Because they have already been burned once and now they have closed themselves off from everyone, they are afraid to let another person get closer to them, they are not able to be sincere, etc. To justify themselves, people come up with reasons why this feeling is bad. But for any normal person, feelings are one of the highest rewards. Many people pray for them, many agree to experience them. Because when something exciting, pleasant, and sincere awakens in the soul, when a fire arises in the heart, this is one of the most important conditions for human happiness.

The task of spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching is to explain what feelings are and to teach how to develop them [2, 3].

If a person feels that there is not enough joy in life and wants real strong feelings – love, friendship, devotion, etc. – it is important to have at least minimal knowledge of what to do in this case, what the basic rules of the game are, what is required of a person personally for this. He/she sets a goal, plans, studies these issues, takes the first steps towards the development of feelings, and in a good case, this becomes a lifelong journey. If a person does not understand feelings and how to deal with them, then feelings fade away.

On the one hand, a person can do something for them consciously – create conditions for awakening, understand their essence and programs – find answers to many questions. On the other hand, the feelings themselves, like faith and ideals, are a gift from the gods, an energy that enters the heart and illuminates a person’s thoughts and actions. It is energy that enters and begins to live in the human heart. If a person values it and behaves properly, the fire in the heart grows (wings grow).

Depending on many conditions, a person can receive feelings in the form of a seed that needs to be awakened and germinated. It can be a sprout that can be easily destroyed or create conditions for its rapid growth. It can also be a ready-made flower – a person is struck by an insight like a lightning bolt, and he feels that he is in love both seriously and for a long time… There are many options, but it depends on the person’s learning what will happen next in his life – he will gain happiness and inspiration for life-creation or a wound in his heart.

Feelings are a gift, the highest reward for the right attitude and the development of relationships. It is believed that feelings need to be earned, and once received, it is logical to appreciate them. Feelings are a special kind of energy, the most complex, given to a person by the Higher Power and having a development program (each feeling has its own). This energy can neither be bought nor trained – you can only create the right conditions in your soul for its emergence and development [4].

Feelings give a huge influx of vital energy – it seems that you can move mountains, and wings grow behind your back – a person almost flies and glows with joy. With the right attitude, the energy reveals itself and makes a person stronger and stronger. With the wrong attitude, it can fade away partially or completely, and a person can faint.

The energy of feelings, ideals, and faith allow a person not only to experience high states, to feel the beautiful, to experience beauty, harmony, but also to understand by feeling when one is doing right and wrong, when one is doing something wrong. Because the sensitivity and distinction between good and evil increases dramatically. When a person does good, his heart burns and sings, but when he does not, his joy disappears.

The main feelings are attraction, respect, friendship, and love. Gratitude and devotion are reinforcing and no less important [4].

Attraction arises between people as an initial feeling (maybe as a test to see how much a person is able to appreciate feelings). It arises as an outwardly incomprehensible attraction of one person to another, the joy of communication. What this feeling grows into depends on the person.

Respect is a feeling for a person who is superior in some quality, ability, or general level of development – it allows you to be open and enjoy communication when you are either learning from someone or in relation to your manager when you are working [5]. If you do not have respect for your superiors, they have no motivation to support you, to raise you up, but rather to keep you away from them. If you have deep respect for your superiors, it makes sense for them to invest in you, it makes sense to promote you. This is not always the case, but at least this position has meaning and motive.

Respect allows learning, finding solutions, or doing things to be as effective as possible without conflict. And the deeper the respect, the more accurate and effective one person’s attitude toward another. The main roles to be learned, understood, accepted, and realized are the ideal employee and the ideal learner.

Friendship is based on kinship and equality of souls. The main manifestations of friendship are: joy from communication, from the opportunity to understand another person; helping another person – mutual assistance; spending time together – you are very pleased to discuss common topics, just to be together, to do some common things [5].

A friend is not only a pleasant person to spend time with, to talk about something with, but a person interested in you can tell you where you are right and where you are wrong, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and give you some advice. If your relationship is properly built, your friends can tell you faster and better about what is happening in this life, much more accurately and concisely (conclusions) – what others are silent about, what they are trying to hide, what is really there – both about you personally and about situations and life in general.

Friendship is very valuable and necessary for every person: for the soul, that someone understands you, joy in the heart, pleasure from communication; and from a practical point of view – information, help, business, opportunities, etc.

For friendship to find a place in your life, two conditions must be met. The first one is that you have the personal qualities to become a person with whom you would like to be friends. The second is to follow certain rules and laws of friendship.

Love is the strongest possible feeling in a relationship, it is the greatest possible spiritual closeness between people, it is a program of the greatest possible strengthening of another, when a person who loves wants to do everything in his or her power to make the loved one as happy, as strong, as perfect as possible [5].

Love is primarily about the relationship between a man and a woman, but Love can be manifested as the highest spiritual closeness between parents and children, in spiritual brotherhood, even as the highest expression of respect for a mentor. This is possible when you are sincerely interested in making the person (the object of your feelings) feel comfortable and happy, and develop in all respects.

Love is a feeling that most people dream of. In relationships, it is the highest ideal of what a relationship should be, what you should strive for.

Love is the basis of many religions and spiritual movements. Love is the basis of any creative activity: what a person loves, he or she does with pleasure and is much better than if a person does not love it and does it through force. If you go with love, then gaining recognition in any field, reaching the top in communication with another person is possible ten times easier, more pleasant, and more effective in all respects than when a person tries to achieve his or her goal either by cunning, pressure, or any other means.

The ideals of love: understanding – knowledge of the motives of behavior, the ability to feel the state and anticipate the desires of a loved one; sincerity – a state of openness (trust) and the complete absence of deception; joy – a special state of positive emotional experiences; harmony – spiritual, intellectual and energetic correspondence between a man and a woman; devotion – loyalty to other ideals of love under the influence of temptations and negativity; sacrifice – a state of complete selflessness (manifestations aimed at creating good for another person); non-violence – the complete absence of any violence; forgiveness – a state of complete absence of criticism and resentment [4].

The meaning of Love, its direct program, is to bring happiness to a particular person, to give joy, to make him happy by giving him the best that you have, getting pleasure from it, that you managed to do something for this person, and his eyes lit up, a smile appeared – it is the maximum possible strengthening of another person in all areas, in all directions [5].

Gratitude is a feeling that strengthens any relationship and other feelings. Its essence is to respond in kind to kindness [5]. In any relationship (even without feelings), grateful people are valued – it makes sense to invest in them. Gratitude creates motives to continue doing something for the other person.

There are two levels of gratitude: 1) only at the level of ethics, a person’s honor – it is an inner duty not to remain in debt – if something is done well to him, it is a matter of honor to notice it and thank him, and becoming a master of relationships, he learns to awaken gratitude in other people; 2) at the level of feelings, it is not just gratitude for specific actions, it is an expression of your attitude towards people who are very important to you, and you are looking for what you are ready to do for these people just for having them in your life, it is an inner need to bring good, to give it.

The basic rule is to choose an adequate form of gratitude according to the circumstances. Gratitude is always expressed in words. Gratitude in deeds implies some kind of action in response to a good deed – to repay someone who has done something to you, and to come to the rescue yourself when you see that someone else is having a hard time but does not ask – without violence, to ask if the person needs help. To multiply what is created around you, the rule is to give back a little more than you take, so that the energy grows and accumulates. It is much more pleasant to feel grateful than to feel stingy.

Loyalty is a feeling that inspires maximum trust in a person (you can rely on him/her in everything), strengthens basic feelings and brings them to the highest heights [5]. Devotion ensures that feelings last. Only a person devoted to his or her work, friends, and loved one can experience the highest happiness, achieve high goals, and have well-deserved respect. There are no relationships without problems, there can be many different ones, but loyalty gives a person the strength not to be afraid of obstacles, to overcome all difficulties, all temptations, not to break his or her word in order to achieve the goal set for himself or herself.

Loyalty is consistency and reliability in any relationship. This is not the behavior of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower – it is not interesting in relationships. We value responsible long-term relationships. Devotion helps to overcome all difficulties and trials with dignity, without breaking relationships and feelings, but rather building new levels, cementing the foundation.

If a person is loyal, then he or she undertakes to act in the interests of the person to whom (to what) he or she is loyal, whether it is a cause or a specific person. Loyalty implies that a person undertakes not to do anything that could harm that person or cause (organization). A committed person thinks about how to act in the interests of those who are dear to him or her. He or she thinks about how his or her words and actions will affect the process, whether it will cause harm or not.

Some people believe that loyalty is not freedom, that it limits a person and interferes with life. In fact, it is difficult to achieve anything great in life without devotion.

Feelings need to go a certain way, solve a lot of problems, so that the heart sings and the person shines. For this to happen, the relationship must be serious and long-lasting, because it is a seriously hard work, but it is also the highest reward – wings grow behind a person’s back.

Thus, the system of spiritual and intellectual upbringing and teaching should address two main tasks regarding feelings: 1) to teach them to be valued, to put feelings on a certain level of values, on a pedestal – together with ideals, faith and goals, they constitute the main meaning of life, what is worth living for and, thanks to which, life is colored with bright and tender colors; 2) to teach how to deal with feelings properly: how to create conditions in one’s heart for their entry and growth; how to awaken feelings in others (to awaken the desire for feelings, to help create the appropriate atmosphere in the heart), so that one’s heart is not full of sadness, resentment or fears, fatigue or suffering, but joy and inspiration.

List of references

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