The Emotional Plane

Wisdom Teachings
Inner Realities
The Element Water

The one existence manifests through seven planes. Existence emerges from pure existence as awareness, as love, as wisdom or buddhic existence, as mental, emotional and physical existence. I AM exists as a universal consciousness and appears in us as an individual consciousness, as an individual soul. As souls, we came down from the super-soul to experience at all planes. But we mostly live on the physical, the emotional and the mental planes; sometimes we also touch buddhi.

We should ask ourselves where we prefer to stay. Most people today are strongly focused on the material plane. If we are only physically oriented and express the lower desires of life, we are stuck at the base centre. When we are emotional, we move about in the sacral centre. When we are intellectually oriented and like to talk about our personal opinions, it is through the solar plexus. When we are caught within the triangular forces of the solar plexus, sacral and base centres, we are governed by emotions, impulses, and instincts, and our energies flow downwards. Majority of our problems is due to the imbalance of emotions - either when we suppress emotional desires or indulge in too much emotion. 90 percent of humanity is still very emotional. Also, most of the diseases that humanity suffers from have emotional causes.

People who turn to meditation usually do not realize the need for the preparatory steps. Many are concerned with occultism without having first satisfied the basic material and emotional needs. Because of their economic and emotional shortcomings, they will have problems as they progress. Meditation exercises require an orderly physical life, emotional stability, and a healthy, balanced thinking. Without purity on the mental, emotional and physical planes, you cannot experience the Light.

The emotional and mental planes are our biggest problems. Thoughts come to us, even if we do not want them at all. Emotionally, we have likes and dislikes; we establish relationships where we later find out, “Oh! I should not have established a relation with this person …” We lose control of ourselves when we are unable to properly handle our thoughts and emotions. The material, too, has the tendency to bind us as much as we relate to it. The soul does not feel comfortable with such bondage. At the higher planes, the attachment does not exist. There, the soul lives free and unbound. The key to liberation lies in our mind. When we focus it on the soul and the universal consciousness, it leads to liberation.

Wisdom tells us to minimize our physical, emotional, and mental activities to allow more time for noble things relating to the soul. We are the soul, but we are so immersed in a sea of sensory forces that we feel suffocation there. The lower activities do not stop unless we stop them; they might keep us busy beyond this life. Only when we try to get in touch with the higher self we can get out there and dominate the lower bodies. We should not put up resistance to the lower bodies but transcend them. The key to this is the science of yoga.

However much we may be in physical, emotional and mental chaos in our lives, we can still try every day to establish contact with the Higher Self. We can connect with a Master of Wisdom and ask Him for help to focus on the Higher Self. As soon as we think of him, he sends us the fitting force. For this reason, we daily invoke the Master or a group of Masters that we like. In this presence, we can carry out our efforts, and we will slowly be able to gain mastery over our personality life.

The reactions of the lower nature arise through the activity of the astral plane of emotions. 'Astral' is a word that has caused confusion for the last hundred years. The word comes from the Latin ‘astrum’ and the Greek ‘astron’, (star), meaning 'related to the stars, to the light'. Helena Blavatsky uses it in relation to the original light. Light is a reflection of the consciousness on the most subtle matter. We call it Akasha or the astral light. When we get to the buddhic plane, we will find more consciousness and less matter there - this is called the state of light. When Blavatsky speaks of the astral body, it is the body of light and of life. She includes the etheric plane, the vital plane and the emotional plane. When Alice Bailey uses the word astral, she refers to the emotional plane and the body of desire. But not everything astral is emotional. Therefore, those who study the Bailey books have a limited understanding of the astral body. To equate astral with emotional goes against common sense.

There is a body of life, a body of light and a body of desire; these three taken together is called the astral body. The etheric part of the astral body transmits light. The body of light is called the etheric body. The astral body also includes the part of life force, prana. And as a kind of sediment, there is the emotional part as well, the desire body or emotional body; in Sanskrit it is called Kama Sarira. The etheric body acts as a link between the emotional body and the physical body and as a link between the vital body and the physical body. Through the vital body the etheric body transmits vital force and through the emotional body it transmits emotions.

Between the physical and the vital, there is a thick layer of emotional matter. This layer comes from desires of objectivity and it forms an obstacle between the physical body and the vital body. When the emotional body is disturbed, the etheric body does not function properly and it does not transmit enough prana to the physical body. Thus, intense emotions such as strong desire and clinging, anger and fury, hatred, jealousy, envy, pride and prejudice indicate disorders of the emotional body. They also create obstacles between the vital body and the mental body. When the lower sub-planes of the mental plane become very dense, they pull us down into the emotional plane. Further, there are obstacles between the mental and buddhic planes through the concretized concepts of mind.

The purification of the emotional body involves constant observation of our motives and desires. Emotions can be overcome by aligning our desires with a noble ideal. By focusing all our energies on the noble ideal, the emotions also find a direction. Therefore, the sages say, “Have a purpose in life.” The fire of aspiration purifies the emotions and turns them into devotion. Emotions are like impure water. Devotion is like clear water, it is not emotion. By working with respiration, we also dry out the emotions and purify them. This work creates heat in the body and lets the water to evaporate. Thus, the influence of the emotional matter is overcome. When all emotions and also the mental stuff are cleansed, the astral light that remains is the buddhic light.

To neutralize emotions and heal emotional disorders, mantras and colours are very helpful. RAM is a sound for cleaning the solar plexus. The sound SAM helps to remove obstacles and achieve balance.

Rose is the colour of the pure emotional body; it neutralizes emotions, calms down the nervous system, promotes a positive attitude and helps with depression. Essence of roses as well as rose flowers have an antidepressant effect.

Light blue is appropriate to heal emotional wounds, but in order to transcend wounds we should contemplate orange; it heals emotional disorders, strengthens the vital force and closes tears in the etheric tissue.

Silver grey and silver objects help calm the emotional system. In homeopathy, Argentum Nitricum (potentized silver) is known as a remedy to cure various emotional disorders such as anxiety. To absorb the silver vibration, it is recommended to place water overnight in a silver cup at the head and drink it in the morning.

Non-emotional prayers are also an excellent way to stabilize emotions. Many subtle adjustments happen as well when we offer ourselves to the higher beings before sleep and visualize how golden light or soothing blue surrounds us.

The immediate task of the disciples is to build and magnetize the etheric body and simultaneously detach it from the emotional body. By invoking prana, Master CVV helps build a strong and healthy etheric body. When the etheric body is stable, so that it maintains its natural electrical and magnetic power, this form can be separated from the emotional body and it will survive the physical body. Thus, death is overcome. When the influence of the emotional body is neutralized and the emotions open the way for the pranic flow, esoteric healing is also possible. For this reason, all initiates are natural healers.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Healer’s Handbook. Notes from seminars. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India