River of Emotions
We are all familiar how little children can experience vastly different emotions in a short span of time. The smaller the child the more acceptable that usually is, especially since there is no way to control the emotional river of a small child. Control, however, is what parents and adults start working on from the very beginning, and in time, usually within 5-6 years, they have been able to install a set of barriers that are blocking the free flow of emotions. This is not very conscious, but comes from the fact that most adults find free expression of emotions very uncomfortable, difficult and unacceptable.
We learn from early on what is acceptable and what is not, and what creates the experiences of acceptance. If you want father to love you, do not cry. If you want mother’s attention do not be angry. Whatever the parameters are they quickly become buried in the subconscious, and they start a life of silent internal programs that affect every part of our adult life without us being conscious of it.
My personal choice as a little child was to withdraw and disappear in the hopes of gaining my parents’ attention. “Where is my boy now? Where did he go?” Needless to say this approach was highly ineffective. My four siblings all had their ways, but I consistently pulled out and learned to accept that as part of my reality and who I was.
Years later as a young adult I came to a realization one day. I was using that same method to try to connect with a girl that I liked. And it still did not work. The old choices and beliefs are deeply anchored and can shadow our lives in ways that are all but impossible to heal from the surface level of the mind.
Releasing these buried feelings and old beliefs about our inner worth is an extremely important part of evolving into a higher level of experiencing life. Without the ability to allow the free flow of emotions there is hardly a chance of staying in the present moment. There is no easier or more graceful way to accomplish this than to practice Ascension, to be regular and simple with the use of the Ascension Attitudes and to allow them to take us to where the innocence and free flow of energy is naturally happening all the time.
Nataraja Ishaya
Allowing Emotions
“Feelings can never be destroyed. They can only be acknowledged, expressed, lovingly rechanneled, or repressed. The characteristic of Enlightenment known as living in the present moment means that no feelings are ever repressed or desires perverted; all are accepted, expressed and fulfilled.”
- MSI
In Ascension we learn to allow thoughts to move through our mind. We are reminded that our simple, consistent choice for the Ascension Attitude will ultimately transform any thought into an upward spiraling or expanding thought. There is nothing more that is needed than our dedication to our practice. We don’t need to fix or change any of our thoughts we just innocently introduce the Ascension Attitude and let whatever happens happen. Well, that is as long as we don’t experience some kind of
emotion that makes us uncomfortable, right?
Most of us were raised in an environment where this would seem logical. We can let thoughts flow through our mind but not emotions through our body. Who hasn’t heard something like, “I’ll give you something to cry about.” Or, “You shouldn’t feel that way, you should feel the way I feel.” As a result we stuffed our emotions deep inside labeling some good and some bad.
As MSI stated above, feelings can never be destroyed. If we shove them down they will need to resurface and be expressed or lovingly rechanneled on our path to enlightenment.
Imagine a garden hose that has water running through it, when you kink the hose the water stops. Un-kink the hose and the water backs up behind the bent hose and waits to flows once again.
Emotions are simply energy in motion, if we allow them to flow through us with out kinking our hose, if you will, then they quickly
If ever a thought becomes extremely strong, never try to force the thought out and continue with the Ascension Attitude. Instead, let the awareness go to the body. Almost always there is a physical release of stress that is causing the thought. As the awareness moves to the sensation, the stress will more easily and gracefully dissolve. When the thoughts becomes less intense, return easily back to the Ascension Attitudes.
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become less intense. The emotions move through us with greater ease and speed by simply choosing for the Ascension Attitude. As with our thoughts, there is no need to do or fix anything, we just allow the emotions as if they were just any other type of thought. This effortless choice to bring the Ascension Attitude into the emotional experience naturally brings us closer to the goal of enlightenment.
“It is necessary for us to learn to be our own Cosmic Parents: through wisdom and benevolence, we can lovingly recognize and subtly direct our feelings and desires without trying to dam them up and struggle with them.” MSI
Sivani Ishaya
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Mighty river
The emotional life is like a mighty river, flowing inside us all. When we attempt to dam up a river, the water no longer circulates freely: it stagnates or seeks other means of release. Just as a dam breaking can cause great damage, just so repression of feelings turns our emotions into a destructive, threatening force.
We owe it to ourselves to discover what our feelings and desires really are. It is necessary to stop manipulating ourselves or others to fulfill our needs; honest and open expression alone allows us to channel the power of our emotions positively. Instead of demanding, we must learn to share our true feelings; this enables us not to be a victim of our own uncontrolled defenses and reactions.
As we begin to open the stresses of our past relationships to the light, we naturally begin to recognize the source of our feelings, projections and behaviors. One of the first results is a true forgiveness of our parents’ limitations. Blaming them for being incomplete souls is almost as much of a waste of time as is continuing to remain stuck in reactive behavior patterns. Of course they were not Ideal. Who in their world was?
MSI, Ascension!
Two root emotions
There are only two roots to all our emotions: love and fear. Love is the natural state of human life; fear is the means the ego uses to control and possess the world. They cannot simultaneously coexist: When love increases, fear evaporates -- since it was never real, it vanishes in the Sun of perfect love. When fear increases, love hides and bides its time until the individual opens again to Truth. It can never be destroyed, but since the human is endowed with certain inalienable rights (including perfect free will) if the ego insists on illusions, love will as if disappear from the mind until the personality chooses again for Reality.
It is not by attempting to force feelings to change that they change. Emotions evolve only when they are accepted exactly as they are. The key to doing this is to stop judging them. Only the ego defines good and bad. This is its primary tool of control: if some desires are good and some are not, life is going to remain split. By separating our feelings from the ego’s belief systems, we can use their powerful energy for personal growth.
There is a story from the Ishayas that illustrates this point. The monks were attacked from time to time by hordes of demons when they were deep in meditation. No matter how hard they worked to be free from them, there was no escape. It was only when they stopped judging them as evil that they would vanish or transform into celestial nymphs or angels. It was only the monks’ interpretation of reality that was giving them trouble. This recognition is a necessary stage of evolution.
The shadow can never be fully repressed or forcibly removed. The only road to resolution is to cease judging. The evolving soul must eventually embrace all the hidden desires, needs and feelings within.
Fortunately, through the practice of Ascension, all the repressed areas of the personality are effortlessly, harmoniously and gracefully exposed to the Infinite Light of perfect understanding. This turns what otherwise can be a slow and difficult process into an exciting discovery of increasing joy.
The rewards of the development of consciousness are limitless -- every area of life is beneficially affected by the growth of full human awareness. There is no problem, physical, emotional, mental or spiritual that cannot be reduced and eventually resolved as an individual moves more and more toward complete consciousness.
MSI, Ascension!
Three aspects
Each of the Ascension Attitudes has three aspects. First, there is an emotional content to drive the experiencer inward -- Appreciation, Gratitude, Love and Direct Cognition. The second aspect is a direct alignment with the Ascendant. This unites the conscious mind with the Infinite Source within. The third characteristic of each of the Ascension Attitudes is a mental focus on one of the root areas of the individuality that is stressed and could be more fully lived.
The three-fold structure of the Ascension Attitudes causes each of the three primary aspects of our personality -- our hearts, our minds, our bodies -- to move in the direction of growth. This process unwinds or loosens the deeply held judgments and beliefs that keep us bound to fear and restriction. But this is not simply a process of introspection to remove accumulated mental, spiritual and emotional debris; this process is primarily one of effortlessly uncovering ever more expanded states of awareness.
MSI, Ascension!
Announcement
In Praise and Gratitude to the Ascendant, the Source of Unconditional Love and Creativity, we are delighted to share with you that the Ishayas are opening up a Retreat Center in central Missouri. Teachers will shortly be moving there to reside and facilitate the Retreats, which will be held monthly beginning June 17th.
The new Center will complement our established West Coast Center, where there will continue to be Retreats and First Spheres, plus two Intensives this summer. With the new Center being located in the Heartland of America, teachers will now be able to more conveniently serve our Ascenders, and also teach First Spheres to those whose Hearts are ready to awaken, in that area. Refer to the Retreats tag and Courses tag on theishayafoundation.org website for upcoming dates.
Teacher Training 2009-2010
Teacher Training begins October 1, 2009 to April 1.
The full fee for the course is $14,800.
A $2,200 non-refundable deposit holds
your space
for this course.
Space is limited and will be reserved
in the order deposits are received.
The Ishaya Foundation
Our Websites
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http://www.theishayafoundation.org
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This is the 46th edition of the Ishaya Foundation newsletter.
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