Wisdom and Compassion Society - Literature Circle discussion

In our online session we had a lot of discussion on this statement: "The teachings were directed toward people who could separate their emotional needs from their spiritual practice".

Can spiritual practice be non-emotional? When is it an advantage, what kind of emotions should one separate from and what emotions does one lean into in spiritual practice.

The Dalai Lama often speaks of positive human emotion, and many of the philosophical meditations, by logic, and by metaphor draw one into powerful experiences of these positive emotions, which one then meditates upon with sustained focus.

But if one is looking for immediate emotional ego gratification, (ethics often involves delayed gratification, passing up a mediocre pleasure for a greater good) or validation of ones deluded anger, then this is where these emotional needs don't fit with spiritual practice.