Quora – Can humans completely or at least partially suppress their emotions?
Unlikely.
Emotions are driven by the amygdala, which governs the cortex. Most people operate out of the cortex. These individuals are not yet emotionally mature — in the words of Buddha, enlightened, or from the perspective of Christianity, in Grace.
So long as the person is operating out of the cortex, the amygdala (emotion) is unavoidable. It’s integral to our old brain.
However, homo sapiens have added a new component to the cortex: the frontal lobe. It is explicitly NOT governed by the amygdala.
After free will (an act, SELF-control), the individual shifts the locus of electrical activity to the frontal lobe, where the process of reason is undertaken. Here, emotions and the wants of the SELF do not directly contribute to thinking.
If the person has found their way to thinking in the frontal lobe, they are emotionally mature (enlightened).
