In 1907, William James complains that psychologists have ignored the topic of "the energies of men"—that is, the practical stamina available for "running one's mental and moral operations".
Have good frameworks emerged for this in the past century?
jstor.org/stable/2177575
Conversation
this isn’t a framework really, but jhana 1 is useful for proving to people they have hilariously more energy than they ever imagined. Out of nowhere you basically create an eruption of piti (body positive feeling vibrational energy) and it’s like woah I always have that??
3
9
Yes, in fact, it's phenomena like that which make James's question all the more frustrating to me. Clearly we have these massive reservoirs of energy available! What governs their flow?
2
8
I don’t know I think it’s a good question though
My suspicion is there’s something deeper than energy (eg qaulia object) and energy is one kind of object. To make it explode you 1. Select for it 2. Let go, stop blocking it with clinging
1
3
Because say jhana 4 (super equanimity) also is about letting go and amplifying, you’re just selecting a different mental object than energy
But I don’t know for sure, just a guess
1
2
Also no idea how to merge this with like “coffee increases energy” or like adenosine. I have my Buddhist framework and my neuro framework and they don’t really touch atm
2
3
Replying to
Yet more incommensurability:
"coffee increases energy"
"modafinil increases energy"
"weight-lifting increases energy"