QUESTION # 48

Are feelings created and stored in our stomach or heads?

Finley Eversole

Response to Question #48 -- Feelings, Emotions

If you can recall the Seven Principles of Man we studied in class a couple years ago, you will recall that we have (counting from below upward): 1. an etheric body (the true dense body), 2. an astral body, 3. a lower mental body, 4. a higher abstract mental body, 5. an intuitional vehicle, 6. an Atmic vehicle (the spiritual will), and 7. the eternal Monad or true Self.

The Astral Body is the vehicle through which all emotions and feelings are generated and stored. The Soul is working at the development of this body primarily between the ages of 7 and 14. Hence the emotional struggles of adolescence.

So it's not a question of emotions being stored in the stomach or head, but in the Astral Body. However, the Solar Plexus Chakra is the chakra most involved in emotional life. That is why one can feel like one has been "kicked in the stomach" when suddenly hit by some powerful emotion such as fear or emotional injury. The Astral Body uses the solar plexus chakra to handle intense emotions. Hence the feeling that emotions are in the stomach.

On the Spiritual Path one has the threefold task of gaining a high degree of control over the Etheric Body, the Astral Body and the Lower Mental Body before one can undergo any of the higher initiations, such as the 3rd or Transfiguration.

Another way of expressing this is to say that the Kundalini energy at the base of the spine, the energy in the generative organs, and the energy of the solar plexus must ALL transfered to the higher centers -- the Heart Chakra, the Throat Chakra, and the Centers in the head.

The energy in the Solar Plexus Chakra (emotional energy) needs to be gradually transferred to the Head Center -- the mental body.

In this solar system -- that of Love-Wisdom -- the emotions are the most powerful aspect of human makeup and therefore the most difficult to master. That is because there is a natural affinity or alignment between the 6th Ray (the Ray of desire and aspiration) and the 2nd Ray of Love-Wisdom, which is the Ray of this Solar System. The Piscean Age was under the influence of this 6th Ray and has been an age of intense emotions.

It takes humanity longer to master the emotional or Astral body than to master any other. Once on the Path, mastering the emotional body can take a good many incarnations. But it is something we should always be working at -- substituting positive emotions for negative emotions, cultivating spiritual aspiration, then eventually transferring all that energy into the Mental Vehicles by learning to respond to situations thoughtfully rather than emotionally.

The largest percentage of humanity is still Astral or Atlantean in its orientation, or developing Kama-Manas, a blend of emotion with some aspects of the Lower Mind. To put it otherwise, using such mental development as has been achieved mostly for the purpose of fulfilling their desires.

Study and meditation are two of the main ways we gradually master emotional life and transfer the Solar Plexus energies to the head centers and Mind.

I hope this helps. This is one of those responses it would be useful to read a few times until the concepts are clearly in mind.

Once the energies of the emotional life have been transferred to the head centers, the Astral Body is then nothing more than a reflecting center for Buddhi or Love-Wisdom. When the NT book of Revelations speaks of a time when "the sea shall be no more" -- that refers to the time when the Astral or Emotional Plane (the sea) shall have done its work and has ceased to have any influence on humanity. For a Master of Wisdom, the Astral Plane does not exist, for Love-Wisdom has completely replaced all hints of emotion.

Learn to transmute emotions into love, and your progress will be much more rapid. I've told the story of Ram Dass' teacher telling him to "meditate and love everyone," to which Richard Alpert replied, "I can't love everyone because there are people I don't like." To which his guru said, "Then meditate on love until you DO love everyone." I can't offer better advice than that Wed, Jul 22, 5:17 PM

(5 days ago) Finley Eversole

PS: I might add as a reminder that the threefold Personality consists of the etheric body, the astral body, and the lower mental body. The Soul or Ego incarnates in these three.

The threefold Spiritual Triad consists of the Abstract Mind, Buddhi or Intuition, and Atma or the Spiritual Will. The Monad manifests Itself through these three.

The work of the Spiritual Path is to transfer all energies out of the Personality into the Spiritual Triad. This is successfully achieved at the 3rd Initiation or Transfiguration. From that point on one functions as a Spiritual Being. The transfer from Personality to Spiritual Triad is completed at the 4th Initiation or Great Renunciation.

This is an overview of the work to be done by human beings on the Spiritual Path.

Fin