Emotions- May 8th 2010

EMOTIONS are stronger now than ever before; or more correctly put, they are consciously experienced more intensely than they were in the past.

Can you imagine sitting in a cave with your back to the entrance and facing a convex wall, and at a certain point the light floods into the entrance and you experience the entire wall light up in front of you in broad space. This vision is large and almost overwhelming, and the wall itself appears to be made of light, emanating the very light that is broadcast upon it.

When we experience emotion, either from the realm of our soul or life of desire, it is with this interpretive glamor - an exaggeration of experience - literally a projection of our own self before us, so that we may perceive ourselves through this process. A man may divine himself, his knowings, his obligations, his commitments, his opinions, via referencing his ego or by witnessing the display of the emotions that he carries.

Not all individuals have a ready access to their egoic consciousness. Having said that, we are through Christ's design upon us, always with the ability to truly know both Him and that of ourselves and of the higher portents… yet certain conducts can make it difficult for many, who are still splaying amongst the numerous realities that are upon them daily.

Interceptions to this egoic knowing occur, and as we have discussed in the past, there are poisons to this knowing (such as intoxicants) which persuade a man all too easily away from his true self and egoic consciousness.

In time, as the being of Man gathers experiences and confidence navigating this experience, there will be a natural perception of self that is so clear and immediate that happiness streams from this knowing. To just exist is an immediate experience of profound happiness. Birds know this experience.

We all have this happiness, but until our egoic consciousness is clearly linked to our awareness in the present, we do not 'feel' it so. Angels have it ordinarily.

It truly is most sought after and the topic of many fair societies - how can a man find true happiness? And yet this answer is not a fast catch - it is simple, yet to be thoroughly obtained and won.

By refining one's ego through honesty and good conduct, by strength of character, will come the strength of self and an open heart that knows also the true self within. You see if we go against what we know to be correct, or if we assault or insult ourselves with behaviors or practices that demean or demoralize our own selves, then we are so distracted from this happiness of simply being - it is as though our life's light has gone from us.

Masters know this because they themselves have felt the oppressive darkness too - both in former conditions of their own life's mistakes and also with the sadness of so many today. This sadness is of course one of the emotions which is broadcast out from the soul and desire body.

If you are in a movie theater and you see the light projector through a comparatively small window of film - frame by frame - and see how largely it appears on the blank wall before the viewer - this truly is the picture of emotion. The frames are so much smaller than the image broadcast, aren't they?

Our minds are so complex it often requires a full sized projection to get through to our perceptions - and especially within these times of confluency and mental noise.

Dogs are walking emotion. These creatures suffer, and experience happiness too, to Imax levels of emotional proportion. They are sensitive also to their human friend's emotional life as well - often displaying an animated production directly from their carers. Of course also, the emotions can quickly traverse one to another in perpetual relay when a man loves dog and dog loves man - it becomes a theater of romance and ever-strong affection.

On the whole all animals in general are developing their senses of emotion and perception of it. This development of the Animal Kingdom is very similar to that of our own discerning and display. It is interesting to note that the actions of egoic knowing are internal, whilst the knowing and perceiving through the emotions is gained through the means of projecting them out from ourselves so that we can view our own experience of them. One difficulty with this means to experience, is that they are palpable to others as well - not only to ourselves - and can have a range of effects on others by their action.

Emotions can also be so strong in some, that folk who are not competent with ego referencing may interpret the emotions of others within their own vicinity, as being their own experience.

Children, especially those under the age of seven, will directly feel the impression of the emotions around them and once again believe them to be that of their own. These impressions conveyed and received will go on to last into adulthood.

They are difficult to address because they are not defined as clear happenings, and may come from almost anywhere. Many adults often try to invoke suitable memories to go with these hovering emotions - but inaccurately so. It really need not have come from a trauma of one's own, to have lent the experience of such.

Because you see, the important thing to know about the emotions is that they are nine parts subjective. Their fabric is of our own conjecture and they enlarge so quickly as to gather a pulse, that you can see all kinds of emotional creation begin from almost nothing.

There are naturally strong emotions that directly offspring from major events that warrant their exclaim - both cheerful and horrendous - and are proportionate to the firsthand experience of that time. However most emotion experienced day-to-day is fantastical and projected from afar - born from daydreams, desire, past emotion, ill health, wants and needs; and others in influence upon us as well.

So whilst it is true to say that emotions are a way of perceiving ourselves and our own condition and needs of soul and body, they can also be very confusing; especially to the egoic knowing that requires a quiet place to work out from.

Emotion provokes emotion. Even if it is a merely perceived emotion - for example: watching an actor cry… knowing it to be an actor… can still cause the viewer to have tears via a perceived empathy. It is not a real empathetic resonance - at least not in a direct way - but here is the very nature of the emotion, for it is not the purpose of its experience to be of real substance but to convey something to us. This is why we can respond to a perceived emotion and also to emotion which is not of our own making.

Emotion is a primal language which preceded words.

The sharing of thoughts and ideas through the communication of words comes from the egoic knowing and egoic capability. However an older language, before we projected words, was that of emotion; and it was somewhat different to what it is today.

There was a time, before words, when things were plain and even the most enchanting of stories had substance. Men and women were incapable of lying or pretence or posture; they were simply and plainly living a natural existence. This form of living still carries through to our beings in the spiritual worlds after death today.

In a similar fashion, we are who we are and it is self-evident. Words as we use them are not needed to convey a communication at all. However the emotional realm today in the world is unreliable to us now. Once it was a true representative of how we felt, our interior and exterior life, but over time became exaggerated and infected and muddied, therefore confusing to everyone.

Words also can exaggerate and distort the truth - contaminating it and confusing all who are tenacious to their meaning.

St Francis communicated to the animals (and to his Community) with the emotion of the old language.

Is love an emotion? No. If we are to understand that the emotions themselves are a form of language, one for self and for others to be known by, then we can begin to see that just as words are not that which they represent, neither are bare and blatant emotions the very thing they represent.

Just as the word 'love' is not love itself, neither is the emotion of love the true source and essence of the love it may convey or depict in part.

This goes for all of the emotions as well –

• courage exists within the soul's attitude before becoming energized and realized in emotion;

• lust begins in longing, far before it exhibits the passions that prevail;

• piety bleeds from the soul state of natural reverence;

• hatred always comes from self loathing and evaluation, becoming a distortion of criticism which was begot by judgment;

• affection can come from self loving as well as the memories that the soul carries;

• gratitude is awash with rejoicing and is very close to the expression of the true condition of happiness which we mentioned earlier;

• mirth and joviality come from the spirit of beginnings and birth (all things new). It is an attitude of soul which has experienced wonder and renewal countless times during its existence.

We each have a catalog of emotional hieroglyphs, whilst also our own dictionary of interpretation to go with them.

Nature itself is full of emotion, and in terms of the 'old speak' there was also the bubbly ecstatic emotion of the lively nature spirits to be felt; and so one could likely say that the forest or the countryside was literally at times speaking to you. And of course this was the experience before words came to us.

Infants under the age of two will perceive the countryside and animals with a far greater clarity and impressioning than we can arrive at now.

Sometimes meditation will take an indirect course into a pre-word condition and the emotions experienced will be stronger and often interpreted as a 'spiritual' experience. This is not to say that mediation can't take you into a higher perception, if your character is prepared and receptive to the finer percepts. Yet it is also to point out that the persuasive emotions can also drift in and conjure all kinds of desires and experiences which might be mistaken for being real or wanted.

In a sense plain words can be far more reliable to deal with. Emotional exchanges can very quickly make creations all of their own that begin with little or no fundamental reality whatsoever. The very minute two people are engaged in such an interchange you will see how rapidly this emotional energy can take them both miles down roads unplanned for.

Today we have discussed the language of words and also that of the emotions, yet there is one more to examine, namely that of the inner dialogue which is profoundly resonant with all of Creation.

Our very spirits are imbibed with heavenly attributes and knowing. More natural to us than any language of world or starry plane is that essential cord we all have, which connects us to our very beginnings. And by that cord, back through to an eternity that keeps us safely placed within it, we hold the keys to all of the fellow souls around us and the beings that uphold us and the Creation that does nurture us. Amongst, beneath, and within… when we, for a time, can hush the words and calm the emotions, we can feel it.

This blessing of the Divine Presence will never leave you. Doubt is just another emotion, and if words sound empty at times, they are. Divinity is real and will always support you, now and forever - you are.