It is very important. Very, very important. It is the basis of developing an emotional maturity that enables us to investigate into the Truth without becoming frightened by it and without turning away from it. And how does that occur? As we develop the Unselfish Emotions; Compassion, Lovingkindness, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity, we start to understand the true causes for inner well-being and happiness and that the capacity for this arises not always through changing the way things are, but through changing our view of others and the world; from the selfish to the unselfish. As we let go of selfishness, we see that it brings more inner peace and well-being. This helps us to understand that by letting go of our selfishness and our wishes for the world to be otherwise, we are not going to lose anything. By opening to the way things are, we can accept all the Dukkha that arises from selfish concerns, and we will be more able to accept the way things are on deeper levels.
The Unselfish Emotions show us the path to inner peace on the emotional level, so that we will be able to accept the way things are without being threatened by them, and, through fear, holding on to the known. For some people, the Dukkha they know is easier to bear than the Dukkha they imagine may occur if they let go of their selfishness. We have a lot of conditioning in our lives towards believing that happiness comes from getting, from developing this sense of self, from getting this for ourselves, from getting that for ourselves, from being the best, from being someone, when, actually, happiness can be totally the opposite.
By developing this practice of the Unselfish Emotions and seeing when we have the capacity of letting go of self-concerns and opening and getting ourselves out of the way, we can really understand another person. We can feel with that person, instead of just seeing them as they relate to me, thinking, "What will they do for me, what can I get from them and how can I profit from them?". As well, wanting to be the center of the universe where every other living being in the world exists just for my own pleasure and happiness.
This is the self-centered view of the world. When this starts to dissolve, we see a great burden is taken off of our shoulders, or our heart or wherever it is burdening us. We actually start to experience an inner well-being that is not dependent so much on whether that person praises us, satisfies us, or blames us, but on understanding them as a human being cycling in birth, aging, disease and death, just like me. Through Compassion for them, we let go of our selfish concerns and see more of what we can do for them. We also include ourselves in this; because sometimes it is difficult to have an unselfish view of ourselves because we are too close. With others, we need to step closer; with ourselves, we need to step away so that we see ourselves as another human being, cycling in birth, aging, disease and death. This is where we replace selfishness with Compassion for ourselves.
The Unselfish Emotions are very important for understanding deeper levels of Wisdom and not being frightened by the Three Characteristics of Existence (impermanence, Dukkha and not-mine or not-self) because, usually, happiness in the worldly sense is defined by trying to make things that we like permanent, trying to avoid Dukkha and trying to have control over everything that we like. So when we are confronted with the way things are - that things are impermanent, that we can't keep everything that we like permanently, that we can't avoid the eight worldly dhammas (praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, fame and obscurity), that we can't just have the nice ones and eliminate the other ones totally from this life - and we see our limited ability to control these things (because if things are impermanent they can't be ultimately mine), this is unsettling to the mind for some people. But if they have had an experience on the emotional level of being able to let go of their Dukkha through the Unselfish Emotions and being able to transfer their dependence on worldly happiness to inner spiritual happiness, it is easier to let go. They develop an inner security rather than seeking security in a world of flux and flow.