E-Moting Emotion
A reader says: “Am I the only one that thinks as we evolve we feel our emotions MORE deeply?”
If you want proof of this all one has to do is examine the lives of highly evolved people and initiates. Let me name a few:
John F. Kennedy. Here was an initiate with a very powerful emotional body. When he was President I never missed an opportunity to hear him speak because he came across with such conviction, emotion and passion.
Martin Luther King This was another very passionate man. The masses responded to him because he touched their emotions. If he had not had a powerful solar plexus he wouldn’t have accomplished what he did.
Winston Churchill. Another man with strong passions. Now this was a man who did not suppress at all for he freely let out the feelings that were brooding within him. As it was he offended many people and had many enemies.
Abraham Lincoln: He was often enraged with the blunders of his generals. McClellan particularly frustrated him and after one such event he sat down and wrote a long letter venting his rage. But then he put it in a drawer and never sent it, but wrote and sent another more moderate letter instead. But at least he got the feeling out.
Helen P. Blavatsky: A very passionate female and was not afraid to show very intense emotion.
Jesus: His passion was illustrated in the chasing of the money changers out of the temple and his great sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Actually, the temple cleansing was a combination of mind and feeling in action. When he entered the temple and saw the money changers defiling his Father’s house he felt a great rage build within him. The emotion was so great he felt it had to be released. Now most of us in a situation of intense feeling such as this would instantly react and lash out, but Jesus remained calm and mentally assessed the best way to release the emotion. He spent a considerable period of time gathering ropes and cords and braiding them together into a very intimidating whip. When he was satisfied with his creation he entered back into the temple and released his emotion by whipping the hell out of those oblivious bad guys. As they jumped back from his presence in great alarm he overturned all their tables and released all the animals scheduled to be slain.
His supporters cheered him on as a hero and none of the temple workers dared defy either them or Jesus. This was a pretty gutsy thing to do any way you look at it. Often, when I pass by a religious building I wonder what would happen if someone were to barge in there with a home made whip and do the same thing today.
There are many “spiritual centers” on the earth that could use a new Jesus entering the scene and bringing them to their senses.
The thing to remember about emotion and the solar plexus center is this. As one progresses upon the path the petals of this lower center unfold more completely along with the higher centers. Thus an initiate like Jesus actually has stronger feelings to deal with than does the average guy on the street.
The scriptures tell us that when we are perfected we will have “fullness’ of joy. We cannot have fullness of joy unless all the parts of ourselves are full and functioning. The real fullness comes when all seven centers are full and functioning together in perfect alignment.
Does this mean that an initiate is more out of control than the average guy who may only feel half the passion?
No. An experienced weight lifter, for instance, may be able to lift 200 pounds easier than you or I could lift 50 pounds. Why is this? Because he lifts weights regularly and has built up his muscles much more than the average guy has. Therefore the 200 pounds is easy for him to lift and always under his mastery.
Even so, an adept can control 200 pounds of emotional energy with much more mastery and ease than can a Meryl Streep type character who has difficulty with her 50 pounds.
Because the emotional intensity of one upon the Path is often so strong that he or she must be even more careful than most to make sure the emotion is released and sent forth in as harmless of a direction as possible.
John eloquently writes: “Has anyone else noticed how cathartic the recent honesty has been, and how it makes you feel closer to everyone because now they are dropping all that armor, and we can really see what’s underneath. Could it be we are actually all human here. Probably the thing that most fear is being seen as they really are, has been the best thing to happen to this group in recent memory. Some might see this as a step away from the Spiritual, but I see it as dropping more armor.”
JJ: The tendency of many of the “enlightened” is to portray themselves as “above” the personality world, with the emotions as a particular target of disdain. The truth is that many such people are either suppressing, in denial or just have an undeveloped emotional body.
There’s something about emotional sharing that makes people “real” to each other no matter what your state of evolution.
One thing I can say in this regard is that John has been emotionally real from the beginning and many respect him for it.
I am happy to see the group removing some of the barriers that threaten to separate us. Two people with soul contact can only be separated in the work for so long and then they must join in purpose.
There are two levels of negative emotion that we must deal with.
The first is general anger and irritation at events, other people or ourselves when things do not go our way or some type of perceived attack occurs.
The second is genuine hurt of grievance apparently inflicted by someone you trust.
The key word for the solution to the first set of emotions is “control.” Unlike grievances these emotions need to be controlled and even a certain amount of suppression does more good than harm. When these emotions are controlled over a period of time they lessen in power and become easier to manage.
One of the best examples of mastery over this type of emotion is demonstrated in a story I heard years ago.
A man was buying a paper at a newsstand and another customer bumped into him and blamed the collision on the guy and started cussing at him. As the man cussed him, the guy smiled pleasantly and paid for his paper. After the obnoxious one left the clerk marveled at the guy’s demeanor in the face of rudeness and asked him why he did not attack the guy back.
To this the potential initiate gave this reply:
“Why should I give that man power to determine my course of action? I have already decided that this will be a pleasant day so I will control my destiny, not give it to the hands of a stranger.”
This first group of emotions is thus mastered by taking your power back and putting it in its right location – which is within yourself.
When I have this type of emotion I release what feels right, but when my soul says “enough” I tell my emotional self to calm down and behave.
With the second group of emotions control and especially suppression is a deadly enemy. The key word for this group is “direction.”
Why is “direction” the key word here and how is it to be used to neutralize grievance? How does forgiveness fit in?
It is of extreme importance for optimum health to discover any suppressed grievances and to know the difference between general irritation and hurt that comes from close relationship. I would guess that about a third of the health problems that all of us have are either caused by or aggravated by suppression or denial.
Let me repeat that there are two main categories of negative emotion:
The first is general anger and irritation at events, other people or ourselves when things do not go our way or some type of perceived attack occurs.
The second is genuine hurt or grievance apparently inflicted by someone you trust.
If a person pulls in front of you in traffic and you find that irritating this belongs in category one.
If someone on TV says something inflammatory this belongs in category one.
If someone is talking loud in the table next to you in a restaurant and you find this irritating this belongs in category one.
If you’re hammering a nail and hit your thumb and become angry this belongs in category one.
If a group member posts something insulting to you this also would normally belong in category one.
Unless you take things way too personally or give away your power to others none of these type of things should cause a grievance in you.
The word “grievance” is one used often in the book A Course in Miracles. The course puts a lot of emphasis on overcoming grievance and guilt because they are so detrimental to the progress of the soul. Basically a grievance is a negative package of emotion caused by some hurtful act that builds up inside of you and does not go away by decree, will power or even prayer or meditation.
Category one of negative emotion should not cause a grievance to any unless the subject is going out of his way to give away his power.
But then as you come into a close and trusting relationship one does yield up emotional energy in a way that does not happen in loose relationships. One of the reasons the power to cause grievance enters in is because in close relationship each of you makes a contribution to the goals of the two in such a way that trust becomes essential because to reach the goal more than your own efforts are needed.
Partners in a marriage are obviously very intertwined in dependency. Let us say, for instance, that they are each making $30,000 a year and their bills and cost of living are close to $60,000 a year. In this situation they are both very dependent on each other’s contribution in order to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. If they did not trust each other when they married they are pretty much forced into trusting each other now.
Let us suppose now that the husband gets interested in spiritual teachings of some kind and becomes so enamored by them that he wants all his time free and decides to quit work and spend his whole time on some vision quest. One evening he announces to his wife that he has quit work to become a servant to the world.
How would his wife feel?
She would feel betrayed because she has trusted him to do his share in their mutual goal she thought they had. In this situation if she is not open with her hurtful emotions she is likely to develop a dangerous suppression.
If you are business partners with someone and the other guy ruins the business through carelessness this could cause a grievance because trust is involved again.
Forgiveness enters in because it is essential to overcome a grievance. The trouble is that many claim to have forgiven when there has been no forgiveness. Forgiveness does not occur by merely proclaiming that you have forgiven someone or by the mere announcement that you will not go after retribution.
If you say you have forgiven, yet still harbor a grievance then you have forgiven nothing. As long as that negative feeling wells up in your breast forgiveness is still not complete. Sometimes announcing to yourself, your friends or even the person who caused the hurt that you forgive will have no effect on the inner negative emotion. Along with the announcement of forgiveness must come an honest communication to the person perceived to be the cause of hurt feelings and what seemed to cause those feelings. When this communication is complete then true forgiveness can take place and not before.
A dimension of the key word of “direction” is that the negative emotion must be given direction so that it will move away from the door to soul contact. If your trusted one hurts you then you must give that hurt direction in harmlessness by the power of open communication. Direct it by the power of your words and communication out and away from your innermost being.
The rising above guilt and grievance will be essential for future spiritual group work. If one person in a working group has a grievance or guilt then soul contact for the group as a whole will be greatly diminished.
April 28, 2000
Copyright by J J Dewey
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