Seven Steps to Awakening
3) Strength of the Cognitive over the Affective (Viriya)
The realization that the cognitive process (mano) precedes the affective process (citta) gives strength to the cognitive process to overcome the emotions. The cognitive process has only to change the interpretation of circumstances and the emotional excitement stops.
Self-centered emotions have been useful for the lower animals for the preservation of life, but they can also be very destructive, especially in the case of the human being who can use his intelligence to make it brutally destructive. When the thinking cognitive process (mano) begins to realize the need to control emotions, and the power it has to control the emotions, it experiences a degree of satisfaction.
This strength of the cognitive process arose because the cognitive process examined the experience within, and the examination was done because introspection was practiced. Thus systematic introspection flowed into examination of experience, which flowed into awakening the strength of the cognitive process, which flowed into satisfaction of the cognitive process, which we call ecstasy (pīti).
The experience within was the emotional reaction to stimulation of the senses by the environment. By examining this experience the cognitive process realized that the emotional excitement arose only due to the way it interpreted the incident in the environment. When that was recognized the cognitive process was satisfied. This way the examination of experience (dhamma vicaya) gradually flows into cognitive ecstasy, or standing out of emotional excitements, in the seven steps to Awakening.