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Power  and  the  Emotions

Martin Exeter   November 18, 1984

The translation of spiritual power into essential action in the realm of form requires the equipment which we are in position to provide. Many people imagine that the power of God comes thundering down out of the sky somehow, without any necessity for an intervening facility for it to happen. We are necessarily the facility for the power of God, which is said to be Almighty, to come to focus and go to work in a creative way within the range of our field of responsibility. We must be on hand for that to happen. There must be the fact of a flesh body which allows for the fact of the consciousness of that body to be present.

Obviously these are two aspects of one facility. We can look at consciousness and see it in various ways. We may recognize the element of emotion, for instance, and the ability to reason consciously. We recognize that there is the factor of memory, and there are various things that relate to this human consciousness which is on hand because of the physical body. But it is there not alone because there is a physical body—there is something that is allowing that physical body to be present. We have inert bodies from time to time that have to be disposed of because evidently there is nothing present to make the body useful or to sustain consciousness. So obviously the missing element did not derive from the physical form, but it was there clearly enough; and we have the experience right now in this minute. There is something present which activates our bodies and which generates what we call consciousness. So there is a facility here for some reason. We recognize that the consciousness aspect has tended to take over, as though it was the fount of all wisdom and capable of directing affairs and causing the physical body to do this and that. We know better, finally. There is the activating factor, and we call it spirit.

Spirit has a connection with the physical flesh through an intervening substance which includes the element of consciousness. That substance is present, so we have this varied experience of consciousness. One aspect of this, as I mentioned, we speak of as emotion. We talk about the heart—it’s been kind of a vague thing, I think, in the awareness of most. Some have thought that the heart was the same as spiritual expression. It is no more the same as spiritual expression than the body is, or the mental aspect of consciousness which deals with thinking and memory and so on. There is something above and beyond that. We are aware that this is so. We have some little experience of the truth of it.

When minds and hearts are utilized by spirit for a purpose, the body goes along. The body doesn’t have much choice. It may seem to act up on occasion, and people get impatient with their bodies. But the reason the body acts up is not far to find, and it all is consequent upon whatever the content of consciousness may be which interferes with the activating factor; then the body suffers the consequences, and what caused those consequences to put in an appearance begins to judge and be impatient with the body. It is the usual human habit of looking for someone else to blame rather than examining its own state. We have done a little examination of our own state because we have awakened somewhat to the fact that there is someone present who can do that examining. The attempt on the part of the mental apparatus to examine itself is a most futile undertaking—it leads nowhere. But there is someone present who is quite capable of utilizing these facilities for the real purpose of their presence, and part of that is the generation of spiritual power.

We speak of spiritual expression—that includes power. It includes, as we well know, common sense; but it includes the factor of power, power which initially is invisible, we would say. It is somehow formless, but it does come out in various ways. We can observe its coming out. We are aware that there is a certain amount going on in the sun, for instance; there is a radiation of something or other. We wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t that radiation from the sun; at least we wouldn’t exist on the surface of the earth. So there is power, and initially it is invisible power. The radiation includes the spectrum of visible light, but that is only a very small part of the radiation. Most of it is quite invisible, but nevertheless it is power—it has effect. One aspect of it is heat. We are thankful for that; here again is a requisite for the continued existence of the human body on earth. Today we enjoyed a mild fall day in the Cariboo. The atmosphere was acceptable to most.

But we have another sort of atmosphere that we live in—a self-generated atmosphere. No one ever imposes that atmosphere upon us. We generate it ourselves. Sometimes the atmosphere we generate ourselves doesn’t fit with the atmosphere that is generated by others in the vicinity, in which case there may be thunderstorms. But there is the matter of atmosphere which relates to the generation of power. We have noted the flashing lightning and the rolling thunder; that seems very impressive. There is considerable power in a thunderstorm, more than many nuclear bombs very often; but it’s a more benign power as a rule, if we stay away from it. It doesn’t produce lethal radiation, at least. So there is this matter of power which in these instances seems to be rather haphazard.

There is haphazard power but there is also a power that is very rhythmic. We have the rotation of the earth for some reason. I don’t know whether one should suppose that there was the finger of God which gave the earth a poke somewhere along the way and started it to spin—but, whatever the reason, it started to spin. And there are other planets which spin likewise. One planet, at least, goes the wrong way. So there is evidence of the fact of power. And here comes the earth around in its orbit, and all the other planets around in their orbits, and the sun is moving along itself. The whole solar system is in some sort of an orbit within the galaxy. And the galaxy holds together for some reason, and there is an interrelatedness of the substance of which it is composed. There is power present—invisible power.

There has recently been some dawning awareness that there may be a considerable source of electromagnetic force at the center of the galaxy. No one quite knows what that source might be, but it evidently has an influence upon the whole galaxy; it’s something pretty powerful. There is something pretty powerful even in the solar system. There it is usually called gravity, but what it is nobody knows. We don’t need to explain it. It holds things together. We have called that power Love. I think that’s a better word than gravity, actually. Love includes far more than that particular aspect of a seeming force of some kind which keeps us sitting in our chairs this evening rather than floating to the ceiling.

So there is power evident. How does this relate to our own personal experience as we move into alignment with the creative process? The very fact of a creative process indicates the fact of power—something happens. We are aware that many things are happening and we can't really see what it is that makes them happen. We begin to understand why they happen; we begin to become aware of this invisible power which is at work. We just participate in the working, and it’s none of the human mind’s business to try to figure it out. The human mind has another reason for its existence, a reason that seemingly it has long forgotten.

But this power requisite to the operation of the creative process comes to focus in man, where the control should be, through what we call emotion. We can see what havoc emotions seemingly out of control produce: disasters of all kinds. Yet human beings, subject to their emotions, have not apparently considered it necessary to discover what it is that should be controlling them. Of course there is the human effort: “I have an iron will; I am going to control my emotions.” It doesn’t work, for very long anyway. Emotions are a facility for the expression of the creative power of spirit. They are useful that way. We are aware that emotions, or feelings we call them sometimes, have an additional purpose—but at the moment we are thinking of power. And you know how destructive emotions can be very, very powerful. They cause human beings to do all sorts of things that, without the emotional content, they would never do. So here is a power available, but evidently not moving the way it should, seeing that it produces so much disaster.

So we are concerned with emotion as the facility for the expression of the creative power of spirit, not as a facility for the power which is produced by reaction to external circumstances and people and whatever else goes on in human consciousness. We are aware that there must be the control of spirit present if emotion is to come into line and be useful in the expression of creative power. The alignment does not only include emotions. There are all the other aspects of consciousness that are present which properly come into the picture—they are part of the facility for spiritual expression. Emotion is not spiritual expression but merely the facility by which spiritual expression may put in an appearance. It seldom does in most people because they are so busy reacting emotionally to all the things that are not the spirit of God. But coming into alignment with the spirit of God, then emotions begin to be reflective of what it is that is moving spiritually.

There are those who have been afraid of their emotions; most people are, because there certainly is an awareness in all of us how much havoc emotions out of control can produce. So there is a sort of damper kept on emotions as far as possible. There are those who are said to be extremely emotional; that means that their emotions don’t have much of a damper. But the more phlegmatic people are those who have somewhat of a damper on their emotions. The damper of course doesn’t eliminate what is being felt; it merely subdues it into a more subterranean realm. It is going on down there and wreaking havoc anyway, so there is no advantage to being phlegmatic rather than emotional. There is one benefit to an emotional person: he at least gets it out for the moment—of course there is more to come later.

But all this nonsense of human experience simply passes from the picture when the control of spirit becomes known because that quality of spirit is in focus in our own living. Then it will be in focus with respect to what happens in our emotions. When that is the case there is something of spirit flowing and being given some sort of an expression emotionally speaking. It is not only doing that; it does it through all—it’s a holy spirit, after all—it does it through everything: through the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, the emotional realm. All is part of the one whole of equipment capable of accommodating the whole spirit. And one aspect of that spirit relates very particularly to power, and the aspect that relates to power relates very particularly to emotion.

So there is something to be expressed emotionally. But the fear of letting emotions get away is very prevalent in human experience, and of course they will get away unless spirit is allowed to assume control in the emotional realm. For spirit to assume control in the emotional realm the emotions must surrender completely to spirit. They must let spirit get away, to speak, with what happens in the emotional realm. Most people have this damper on more or less and they are very cautious—I suppose is wise that they should be—about letting emotions be stirred too much because who knows what disaster might befall? But if emotions are controlled by spirit they can be released utterly—abandoned to spirit.

There is something in all human beings which longs to abandon itself somehow to some—well, to God presumably. Of course this is interpreted in various destructive ways too by the mental apparatus. The abandonment comes in this business of falling in love, for instance, and that’s assumed to be all right, you can abandon yourself to that—but it’s very destructive. The abandonment is only safe when it is to spirit. For anyone to begin to be assured in this regard, seeing that the custom has always been to have the emotions somehow moved by external factors, there should be someone present who is providing that focus of spiritual control which would allow emotional abandonment to it. This of course opens doors of danger, I suppose you may say, because there have virtually been no stable absolute, spiritual points to which anyone could abandon themselves.

There was One on earth quite a while ago in the person of Jesus, as we know, and there were a few who began to abandon themselves to this One; but it didn’t amount to very much. So one can see how essential it is that there should be a spiritual focus that is absolute. I am not speaking about just one person. I am speaking about what we presently call the Spiritual Body—to be absolute, at least a Core of Absoluteness, so that there may be abandonment emotionally speaking and it may be safe to let that happen.

Obviously there is a cycle of movement in this regard to reach a point where that would be possible: first of all establishing something absolute spiritually, and then allowing these layers of fear, which are present around the hearts of people, to be dissolved so that finally: “Ah, finally, at last I can trust.” It’s all clear—abandonment may be complete. And abandonment in that way is a representative thing, because ultimately the abandonment is simply related to the focus of spirit in oneself, so that emotionally speaking there is union with the truth of oneself. Then on that basis emotions can be generated in any way that they should be generated and provide the power for the accomplishment of what it is that is needful throughout the body of mankind.

Here is an element of what well may be called government—one aspect of the way of government. There cannot be government without a pure heart, without a heart that is stable because it is absolutely centered in what is absolute. Then there is all the power that is needed to achieve whatever it is that should be achieved, and that quickly. This is not something new, although it is introducing something in a different way perhaps. It is simply an introduction.

© Emissaries of Divine Light