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SECTION 2. Approaching the Practice
A When-Which-How Story
When Do We Practice?
Remembering to Practice
Moment-to-Moment Awareness
Observation
Sensitivity
Six Heart Virtues Grid Meditation
Alertness to the Call
Know Thyself—Track-Treat-Transform
The Six Heart Virtues, a Closer Look
Virtues Definitions. Table
A Universal Blueprint
Definiciones de las Virtudes. Diagrama
Escala de las Virtudes. Diagrama
APPROACHING THE PRACTICE
Let us stand firmly upon the foundation of the heart, and let us understand that without heart we are but withered husks. (Agni Yoga, Heart)
A When-Which-How Story
A few days before beginning this guide, my wife and I were driving to the grocery store. As I drove through the parking lot, I saw two women walking across our direction of travel. Naturally, I slowed down to allow them time to get to the sidewalk. As I slowly passed them, one of the women turned and gave me a dirty look, as if to say, “What’s your big hurry?”
I said to my wife, “What was that look for?” My wife had no idea, but we suddenly realized that this was the time to practice the when-which-how exercise. So, I felt that I needed understanding in this situation. After all, I could have given her an angry look in return, as if to say, “What are you staring at?”
As most readers of this guide may know, understanding is one of the six heart virtues of the when-which-how practice. The others are appreciation, compassion, forgiveness, humility, and valor. More on all these shortly.
So, why did I choose the virtue of understanding? Because I believed I needed to understand this woman’s position. I needed to put myself in her shoes (maybe literally). Maybe from her perspective I should have stopped my car until she and her friend got safely past us, instead of merely slowing down. Perhaps this person has issues relating to being a victim, low self-esteem, or prejudice. In this particular instance, I did not have that information. The point is not for me to psychoanalyze her, but merely to understand that these could be possibilities and that I should not condemn this person because of “that look.”
My wife agreed. We basically let it go through forgiveness, another heart virtue. Consequently, in this incident we agreed to use understanding and forgiveness. You may have noticed however, that we did not transmit any virtues to the woman in question. This is true. It seems as if we were so self-centered in our own reaction to her that we never even thought about sending her energy.
I did not realize this until several hours later and I was rather stunned that I had overlooked what, at that point in time, appeared so obvious. Now here is where I believe the true power of the when-which-how practice comes into play. This is the quantum physics part. Because we are dealing with entanglement (this woman and ourselves), a field (the emotional grid), and non-locality (non-spacetime), I connected with her at that moment of realization and sent her understanding and forgiveness.
Granted, this may appear to be a very trivial event, but many of these ordinary, mundane, and apparently innocuous encounters in our daily lives are all grist for the mill of the when-which-how practice. It may not be exciting, or dramatic, or glamorous, but this is the level of practice. Naturally, some of our encounters will be more demanding than others. Some will be real points of crisis, but they all require attention and as described in “Living from the Heart,” they are all approached with the following considerations as to:
• when you apply the heart virtues (or any subset therein) to a particular life situation;
• which one(s) you apply; and
• how you express the virtues into that situation.
Thus, our everyday lives are the content and the context of our practice. We are not going to a meditation retreat. We will not withdraw from the world. The monastery is not the place of our practice (although it could be). We work within the field of human living. We work within the temple of human events and the relationships that give them birth.
Summing up our when-which-how story, this particular event prompted us to make a decision that this was an instance when we could engage the when-which-how practice. This is the when stage. We next agreed on which of the six virtues to apply to this encounter. This is the which stage. Finally, we decided on how to apply the two virtues we chose. This is the how stage.
Explaining it like this may appear simplistic, but I want to show how straightforward this process can be. But as we shall learn, simplicity does not mean there is a lack of depth to emotional self-mastery. As we gain experience in the practice, we will increase our skill and artistry in the when, the which, and the how of our encounters with life’s events and situations. At deeper levels, we may even wish to explore the “why” of our emotional patterns. Each of us can choose the level of work we feel comfortable with. The most important thing is to stay alert to any situation in which we can apply the when-which-how practice. In fact, the ability to remain present amid the routine of daily living is vital key to all practice. More on this later.
When Do We Practice?
The first stage of our practice concerns WHEN we activate one or more heart virtues. As I began to think about this stage, however, it suddenly seemed that I should be transmitting the heart virtues all the time. I asked myself, “Shouldn’t the divine love in our hearts be flowing from us all the time?” The answer came almost immediately, “Yes, but it needs to be detected, accepted, and passed on for the energy circuit to be completed, otherwise the energy is never put to use.” We may have all the electrical power we need, but if we never turn on the switch, no one receives the benefit of light.
Naturally, this brought up the next question of why I was not always in touch with these heart energetics. I won’t go into the details here, but I will say that generally speaking, my reasons are probably quite similar to your reasons. They have to do with our egos and the defense mechanisms that often set us at odds with those around us. Examining the deeper issues of our ego shortcomings is beyond the scope of this guide, but some of these difficulties will most likely come to the forefront of our awareness as we engage the when-which-how practice.
This, in fact, is the core issue of emotional self-mastery—we should be receiving the energetics of the heart and transmitting them to everyone (including ourselves) all the time, but we don’t for many reasons. We may feel that we are unworthy, that we are sinners, or that we are not meant to. As an agent of the soul, the heart continuously transmits divine love in the form of the six heart virtues, but we are not receiving and transmitting the signals. And if we are, the energetics are too often distorted and/or diluted by our ego-personality filters. This is not something to blame ourselves or others for, but is simply our current situation. We should acknowledge this without blame and work to correct the deficiencies.
The point for now is to realize that the goal of emotional self-mastery is to reach a state of continuous loving outflow. This state of consciousness represents a stage of development and this stage and state are that of the soul. Here are two quotes from “Living from the Heart.”
This is the goal of the when-which-how practice: to draw your soul into the experience of the body-mind, and enable it to lead the expression of your life in the domains of timespace.
It is not an exaggeration to say that if you possess emotional self-mastery, you live as soul upon the earth with minimal distortion from your physical body and mind.
Here, at the beginning of practicing when-which-how, this may seem like an ideal beyond our reach, but I believe we can not only reach it, but that we are meant to reach it—we are in fact, designed to reach it. This is our destiny.
Remembering to Practice
Alright, so we know that the ideal state of consciousness is to radiate the divine love of the soul through the energetic heart in a continuous flow. Well, you know what? I went to the supermarket last week and I don’t recall doing this one time. But this morning, during our shopping trip, I actually remembered to do this twice. This is far from perfect, but it is progress. I think you get my point. It’s all about remembering to initiate the practice.
Why do we have so much difficulty remembering to apply the virtues through the practice of when-which-why? The reason is not complicated. We are so mesmerized by the world of the ego-personality that we don’t even know we are in a trance. This is not a new concept. It has been known and taught in many spiritual schools for hundreds of years in both the East and the West. It has been metaphorically described in the world’s religions and mythologies and it is explored today in such movies as The Matrix. The sad truth is that we are partly unconscious for most of our lives.
Moment-to-Moment Awareness
This may sound strange to some people, but we are not practicing emotional mastery, we are practicing emotional self-mastery and as long as we are unconscious of our daily routines, there is no self present. There is a collection of memories and habits—learned behaviors operating on auto-pilot—but are YOU present in the moment, from moment-to-moment? This is a question to ask yourself, study and resolve, but most importantly, do not let it interfere with or delay your efforts to practice the six heart virtues. You can practice while investigating your degree of presence in daily activities.
This issue of being present in the “here and now” is not new. In fact, many books have been written about it and perhaps the most influential thinker on this topic was the philosopher and teacher, J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986). Whether or not the concept is new does not reduce the subtle importance of staying in the present moment. The point is that the heart’s sensitivity is of little or no value if there is no individual present to detect the signals and initiate an action, such as the when-which-how practice.
I am sure many of you have had the experience of sitting across from someone who is telling you about an incident of some kind and you suddenly realize that for the last minute or more you have no idea what he or she has been saying. This can become even more embarrassing when your friend asks you what you think about the incident. Or have you ever gone on an errand, reached your destination and had no memory of traveling there?
Where were we on these occasions? We were running on automatic pilot, but we have little information about what happened during our absence. Have you ever had your spouse or significant other suddenly say, “Are you listening to me?” And you reply, “Oh yes.” And then the challenging question, “Then what did I say?” Your answer: “Hmmm…I’m not sure.”
These examples bring up a startling realization. Namely, that we are often asleep—even when we are supposedly awake. We simply are not really “here” even when we think we are. We are mainly operating in a self-maintained, mentally-constructed hologram of our own reality. This is the ego filter through which the outside world flows into our brains. As we have just seen, apparently we don’t even have to be present in order to perform our daily routines. However, we can be operating with much more efficiency and alertness if we can learn to be present in the now.
In the popular science fiction television series, Star Trek, the starships have at least two types of propulsion systems. The impulse engines operate in “normal” spacetime, but the warp engines allow faster-than-light speeds, transcending the limits of space and time. In addition, instantaneous communication in Star Trek takes place through sub-space (quantum, non-local), thus overcoming the tremendous distances between worlds and the time it takes to send messages back and forth.
We are like an impaired starship from the sci-fi universe of Star Trek, only operating on our spacetime restricted impulse engines and never taking advantage of our faster-than-light warp engines. In this analogy, our ego-personalities are impulse engines and we communicate via the time lags of spacetime. (Recall news reporters whose conversations are confusing due to the time delay of communication satellites.) Living from the heart through emotional self-mastery is incorporating warp drives and sub-space communications into our everyday lives. These take us beyond the limiting spectrum of third-dimensional ego-personality living and extend our range of living into the higher dimensions of the energetic heart and soul.
Returning to our main discussion, our psychological space is filled with so much content that the field of our awareness is blocked by all the “stuff” of our constructed reality. We are so preoccupied and distracted by our own psychological content that we cannot see, hear, and feel the individuals we encounter every day. So, as Krishnamurti often pointed out, we never actually come into contact with others. We only contact our constructed thoughts and feelings about others. In order to avoid absolutes, I will say that most of the time we come into contact with the past image of people, not the present reality of people. We often tap into and communicate with the image we want people to be, not the image projected by those people in the present moment. This is the double irony of the situation. We are all, for the most part, communicating with each other through false images, images too often frozen in the prejudices of past judgments.
Hopefully, you can see the implications of all this on the practice of when-which-how. Our task involves working from the consciousness level of the soul and energetic heart. Otherwise, we are acting from our ego-personality’s constructed idea of who and what others (and the world in general) should be. Recalling the Star Trek analogy, the ego-personality is using an impulse engine that is spacetime-based. In order for us to be truly effective in our practice we must operate from outside spacetime even while living within spacetime. This is not about excluding an “inferior” spacetime world, but about expanding and extending the range of our conscious living into unexplored dimensions beyond our dominant third-dimensional reality.
Simply put, we are awake, present, and focused in the moment and not lost in thoughts about where we have been, where we want to go, or where we would rather be. We are not dwelling in the past or escaping into the future. We are simply present and attuned to what is before us.
Observation
This means that we must clear an area of our psychologically cluttered ego-personality space so that we can detect the signals coming from the energetic heart. The key to doing this is observation. When we are lost in thought, when we are not present, we are immersed in and identified with our thoughts and feelings. Well, as many of you may already know, we are not our thoughts and feelings. These are the contents of consciousness, not consciousness itself. These are holographic memory imprints recorded in our minds through routine contact with the third-dimensional world. These imprints are the junk drawers and storage closets of our psychological space. We don’t necessarily need all this stuff! And we certainly do not need to be laying it all out on the floor of our consciousness each day, only to put it all back again.
If you make the decision to step in and observe your next habitual reaction to something you see on television or something a co-worker does or says which causes you to react, STOP and observe your reaction. Do you make your “usual” comment? Do you laugh or complain without a thought as to why? Does an unkind thought and negative emotion enter your mind? Whatever occurs—OBSERVE IT. Bring your attention to these “knee-jerk” reactions. Interrupt the automatic flow of habitual thought and emotion. This is the “stuff” we keep accumulating and storing in our closets. This is the material blocking the light of the soul from entering your field of awareness. This is the “noise” drowning out the inner voice of the energetic heart.
If you put enough effort into interrupting the chain reaction thoughts and emotions of the ego-personality, you will disrupt them to the point where you will have created sufficient silence for the voice of the energetic heart to be heard. This does not happen overnight. It takes perseverance, but it can be achieved. It should also be pointed out that the complete silencing of the mind and emotions is not possible or even necessarily desirable. It is natural for these subjective instruments to record and respond to the environment. Simply learn to see them in their proper perspective. These thoughts and feelings are your servants. They serve you—the soul, the higher self. You are the artist creating your life expression, your work of art. Your thoughts and feelings are your brushes and paints.
Our goal is to restore order to our inner lives so that we can bring the six heart virtues into our own lives and the lives of others. Think of the mind and emotions as an appliance, like a washing machine. When we want to wash clothes we operate our washing machines. When our wash is completed our washing machines stop operating and remain off until we need to wash more clothes. Our problem is that we leave the washing machine of the mind operating all the time, even if we have no clothes to wash. Emotional self-mastery means that we are in charge of the washing machine. We are not the machine; we are the machine’s operator. We learn how to use it efficiently and for the right reasons, thus avoiding unnecessary stress and wear on the parts, costly repairs, and downtime.
If we observe the continuous operation of the mind and emotions as they habitually react to the encounters around them, we will soon learn that most of this activity is needless and even harmful to our well-being. The ego-personality is habituated to the noise of the social order. This third-dimensional noise impairs and reduces the sensitivity of our emotional and mental energy fields. This insensitivity to the transmissions of the energetic heart severely limits our abilities to practice when-which-how, to say nothing of gaining emotional self-mastery. If we cannot get in touch with our own heart energetics, how can we expect to help others? Recall, the exhortation: “Physician, heal thyself.”
One cautionary note before moving on—observation is not self-absorption. We are observing our internal processes with an impersonal attitude. This means that we have compassion for ourselves, but we are not attached to the thoughts and feelings that we have. We are like the surgeon who has diagnosed a disease and can correct the problem without any feelings getting in the way of the procedure that must be performed. If you suddenly find yourself identified with the thoughts and feelings you are observing, stop and refocus as the observer, the one who will determine the quality and nature of these contents of your consciousness. As the observer, you are the wise and compassionate judge who determines how your thoughts and feelings are contributing to your practice. Are they positive or negative effects?
If we observe negativity in the mind, we can take action and stop it. We create a psychological space from which we can step in and restore positive thoughts and feelings based on the virtues. However, we need to be present in order to take charge. When we begin to do this, even for five seconds, we have begun a process that will lead to even more control, and ultimately, self-mastery. This is the beginning of effective practice of when-which-how. This is the beginning of increased awareness and sensitivity to the transmissions of the energetic heart.
Sensitivity
It is said that the heart is the primary organ of sensitivity that links the human instrument to the non-physical dimension of the higher self. If we accept this idea as a working hypothesis, then it becomes obvious that we must learn to tune into the signals detected by the heart if we want to be effective in our practice. The energetic heart is “wired” into what the Lyricus Teaching Order (LTO) calls Underivative Information Structures.
Across all dimensions of space there exists a primary field of vibration or quantum primacy. This field is non-physical but informs the physical. It exists independent of the physical structures of existence, and is known among Lyricus teachers as the Underivative Information Structures (UIS).
UISs are sub-quantum and represent the primary blueprint for living systems and inorganic matter. It is UIS that gives rise to the quantum fields that interpenetrate planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe at large. It is the communication field of life that connects the nonlocal and the local, the individual and the collective, the one and the infinite. The energetic heart is the non-physical component of UIS that is the entryway or portal from UIS to the intuitive and intelligence centers of the soul carrier or human instrument. In a sense, it is the subquantum blueprint of the physical heart.
As this extract explains, the energetic heart is the primary detector of incoming signals from outside the spacetime world of our third-dimensional reality. Most of our waking hours are spent with concerns coming from the outside, third-dimensional plane. The “noise level” of the objective world, however, overpowers the “sound” from the subjective world being detected by the energetic heart.
Simply stated, the sounds generated by the higher frequencies (often called spiritual) are steady and continuous, but our human third-dimensional equipment does not easily detect them. Our human instruments are designed to pick up signals coming from many of the higher frequencies as well as those of the spacetime dimension. However, because our dominant learning environment as a species is based in a third-dimensional spacetime world, we (except for a few), have not focused on developing the sensitivity to access the higher frequencies and dimensions that surround and interpenetrate our world.
Ironically, our existence in the spacetime dimension has, in part, created the very situation we are now working to correct because it has given birth to the separated ego-personality with all of its blocking filters. Emotional self-mastery is part of the process of infusing the separated ego-personality with the spiritual energy of the soul via the energetic heart. In effect, we are spiritualizing matter and materializing spirit.
Returning to our main point, there is a dimension, frequency, plane, or world of the emotions that we are immersed in every day. We detect these frequencies as feelings of happiness or sorrow, anger or contentment, fear or love. We take such feelings for granted. They are the normal moods of our daily existence. But what if we could develop a sensitivity by which we could detect the actual energy flows of these emotions? This valuable feedback would allow us to “see and hear” in a new way and open up a vast field of study and learning that would facilitate our mastery of these powerful forces within us.
“Living from the Heart” suggests that these higher senses may be close to emerging in us as the next stage of our species’ evolution. The when-which-how technique may be one of the methods by which we develop these higher senses. Through our practice of when-which-how, a new sensitivity develops in us that allows us to work intelligently with the six heart virtues. This sensitivity enables us to detect the absence or lack of any heart virtues that are needed for healing, rebalancing, and revitalizing any situation. The sensitivity of the heart to the habitat of soul is the key to our future spiritual evolution.
We simply have to learn how to make the connection between it and our waking consciousness. Therefore, we need to develop our natural emotional sensitivity to the heart, just as the heart is naturally sensitive to the soul. In this way we can develop an unimpeded line of transmission between our higher self in non-spacetime and our personality self in spacetime via the energetic heart. The first step for accomplishing this great work is through the practice of when-which-how.
The sensitivity we need to enhance has nothing to do with being sensitive to criticism. It has nothing to do with being “thin-skinned” or easily upset by people or events. It is not about being sentimental, teary-eyed, or effusive. No. This sensitivity means that we are insightful, aware, and in-touch with any encounter that crosses our path. This is a sensitivity that can instantly detect the need for love within ourselves or others when that love is being closed off, blocked out, or obscured by the dense clouds of habit, ignorance, ego, and fear. The sensitivity of the heart detects the inflowing of the soul’s love as it radiates outward from the multi-dimensional planes of the all-pervasive universal energy field of God.
Our practice will open this flow for all of us as our human instruments develop their sensitivity to the energetic heart and sense when, which, and how to apply the six heart virtues.
Six Heart Virtues Grid Meditation
One of the exercises given in “Living from the Heart” is the Six Heart Virtues Grid Meditation. According to the meditation, through persistent and steady practice, we can actually create an energy grid of the six virtues around ourselves wherever we go. This meditation is performed in real time. That is, we do this meditation at the scenes of our daily encounters, in contrast to the traditional morning meditation session. Our success in building this grid within our energy field is a major step in practicing when-which-how because it strengthens our sensitivity to ourselves, to those around us, and to the energetic heart and higher self. At this stage, this means that we have our tools present and mobilized to act in any encounter. We can be compared to battlefield physicians who carry their medical kits with them at all times. When the need arises, their healing medications and supplies are within their reach.
You might be asking why there is a need to practice when-which-how if we deliver these virtues wherever we go? This is a good question. The answer lies, I believe, in the physician/healing metaphor just described. Our six heart virtues matrix is similar to preventive medicine. Through the steady generation and maintenance of this grid, we practice emotional hygiene. Most of us know the importance of keeping our physical bodies and living spaces clean, of maintaining a balanced diet, of getting enough exercise. As adults, we know how to avoid potentially dangerous situations by following common sense safety rules.
By creating the heart virtues grid in our infield we are maintaining a healthy emotional environment that is an extension of the healthy physical environment many of us value so highly and maintain as a normal part of our everyday lives. Just as unhealthy physical living lowers the power of our immune systems, leaving us vulnerable to illness and disease, unhealthy emotional living (emotional chaos), also reduces the power of our immune systems. Thus, it is obvious that coupling the energy grid’s emotional hygiene to the physical hygiene of modern living can have a tremendous positive effect on every aspect of our lives.
I think it is fair to state that the vast majority of human beings live in emotional chaos and lack control over their emotional lives. Because of this condition, we live in a stormy sea of emotions in which the vessels of our journey are vulnerable to the hazards of over-stress, irritability, low energy and consequent susceptibility to illness and disease. Therefore, even though we have created the heart virtues grid, our systems can still be overwhelmed by the emotional turmoil around us. As a result, we still need the when-which-how practice.
In other words, the energy grid will go a long way toward helping us maintain our emotional hygiene, but there will still be many occasions when we need to send specific energies to ourselves or others in order to aid in crisis situations. By analogy, although we may be fortunate enough to live in a relatively healthy physical environment, there are many occasions in life when we require specific medical help due to sickness or emergencies. Overburdened health systems around the world attest to this.
The act of building the heart virtues grid creates a state of consciousness that facilitates our ability to initiate the practice because we have gained the skill to shift into the dimensions of the heart and soul. This ability makes it possible for us be alert to the calls of those in need.
Alertness to the Call
Alertness to the call means that we are aware in the moment and we have developed a capacity for sensitivity to the call for help. Granted this is a skill to be learned and mastered, but all efforts we make are never lost. Our efforts are cumulative and every time we remember to practice when-which-how we increase our ability and capacity for service, moving steadily forward toward emotional self-mastery.
Recognition of a call for help is the when stage. The call is simply a way of describing any living energy field in need of the six heart virtues.
1. A lack of appreciation is a call.
2. A lack of compassion is a call.
3. A lack of forgiveness is a call.
4. A lack of humility is a call.
5. A lack of understanding is a call.
6. A lack of valor is a call.
Who is calling? It could be your ego-personality, it could be another human being or group of human beings, it could be a call from the natural world. It could be a call from all three. No matter from where the call is coming, the vital elements that require development are the ability to stay present in the moment, observation, and an increasing sensitivity to the heart and its six virtues.
Before continuing to our next subject, I want to reiterate that the practice of when-which-how is not dependent on first achieving perfection in being present in the moment, observation, and perfect sensitivity to the heart’s transmissions. We can work on all these elements simultaneously. These various pieces will fit into their natural places in the bigger picture of the when-which-how technique as we become more adept in our practice.
We need to remember what was stated earlier, that although the techniques of emotional self-mastery can be quite sophisticated, the core practice of when-which-how is simple. The practice “is not judged by its perfect expression, or its analytic virtuosity, but is performed and guided by intent.”
Know Thyself—Track-Treat-Transform
In the previous section we saw that knowing when to engage our practice involves developing sensitivity and a simple awareness of ourselves and those around us. The which stage requires knowledge about ourselves, about others, and about our relation to the six heart virtues. And obviously, it also entails learning about the six heart virtues themselves. After all, once we have determined that a situation warrants our attention, we must choose which virtue or virtues to apply. At the least, it is essential to have a basic knowledge of the six heart virtues.
Even when a situation relates to others, we are intimately involved the instant we choose to transmit heart energetics into the encounter. We can say that quantum entanglement is occurring. Consequently, it is crucial that we learn as much about ourselves as possible. In doing so, we gain invaluable knowledge about our attitudes and behaviors, and our strengths and weaknesses. This is a learning process on the path of emotional self-mastery. The “Living from the Heart” paper explains this with three words: track, treat, and transform.
• Track means that the individual can self-report their progress on the six heart virtues over time and track their ups and downs, and see their self-mastery growing against the backdrop of time.
• Treat means that the individual – while tracking their progress – can see when they hit a snag or vexing problem that takes them off course and then treat this issue like a physician treats a wound or illness. The treatment, in this case, is not a reward, but rather a solution or remedy to a problem or emotional misstep.
• Transform is the result of tracking and treating along this journey and seeing how you are transformed into a self-empowered, spiritually vibrant person.
From this description it is interesting to note that the when-which-how practice is nested within the Treat portion of these three steps. When we identify a need for applying the heart virtues, and choose which virtues to apply, and we finally decide how to apply them, we are actually treating a situation or encounter. Over time, we can track our progress and observe our transformation. (A dynamic tracking system is available to you when you register at eventtemples.org.)
Note that although this system is concentrated on our own progress, it is also a gauge of our effectiveness in treating others. Ultimately, you and “the others” are linked because we are all swimming in the same pool of emotions. This is the basis of our individual human energetic field’s (IHEF) contribution to the collective human energetic field (CHEF). The sliding scale of our individual practice, inevitably affects the sliding scale of our contribution to the collective.
Before taking a closer look at the six heart virtues, I want to give a simple example of how we can work with the virtues in relation to our own life situations. We can perform a simple exercise by asking ourselves two questions:
1. Which virtue do I feel most attuned to?
2. Which virtue do I feel least attuned to?
The answers to these two questions can be thought of as the establishment of a baseline in the initial stage of tracking. For example, if you feel most attuned to appreciation, how do you interpret this in relation to your life experience? Appendix A provides brief descriptions of the six virtues. Appreciation is described in two ways. The first description is at a global, collective level and the second is at a personal level.
Applying the first description suggests a deep sense of connection to all things and a decentralized sense of self. We can look at the world around us and experience a feeling of awe and wonder at the beautiful and intricate interaction of life at myriad levels, from microscopic atomic particle to galaxies spinning in the vastness of space. There is a feeling of joy in the very fact that all of this is happening at this very instant and that we are conscious, alive, and experiencing it.
At the personal level we feel a deep resonance with family and friends. There is a warm and loving feeling brought to mind and heart of the multi-faceted personality traits we enjoy so much about the souls who share this time and space with us. There is a mystery about why we have been brought together, where we came from, and, if one believes in reincarnation, how we have known one another in the past. In all this lies an appreciation of a larger design of soul connection beyond our ability to comprehend, but wondrous in its own way.
Continuing our example, let’s say that the virtue we feel least attuned to is forgiveness. What do we feel when this word comes into our minds and hearts? It is here, in the “areas of lesser connection” where we must be honest with ourselves. We must be able to bring our feelings and thoughts into awareness and examine the reasons particular virtues are “weaker” than others. We can learn much about ourselves in this way.
Forgiveness is related to time. It doesn’t require much brainpower to figure out that when we fail to forgive, we are freezing all the persons involved (including ourselves) in a timeframe at the point where we were wronged. We are creating a personal spacetime reality that we lock ourselves (and the images of others) into every time we reenact the incident in which someone wronged us.
As mentioned earlier, the soul and heart operate outside spacetime, so as long as we cannot forgive, we cannot access the heart, and by default, cannot contact the soul and tap into its wisdom. We are locking ourselves out. Often, if we examine this situation more deeply, we may discover that we actually enjoy jumping in our time machines and revisiting these holograms of the past. We may, in fact, be addicted to the negative emotions attached to these past occurrences.
The main point of this exercise is to identify our strengths and weaknesses in relation to the six virtues because they are metaphorical barometers of our accumulated life experiences. They signal the lines of least resistance in our ego-personalities. If a particular virtue creates a sense of blockage or discomfort in your mental/emotional field, it is a valuable clue that can lead you back to the initiating cause of the blockage. On the other hand, you may feel a deep resonance for a particular virtue and this line of least resistance can also be traced back to its roots and yield important information that can shed light on your entire practice.
Our internal reactions to these six virtues can be tracked over time giving us an overview of our ego-personality landscape. Tracking this subjective landscape reveals attitudinal and behavioral patterns that contribute to the unbalanced and chaotic world of the ego-personality. Tracking gives us the information we need to treat and transform these restricting patterns. When-which-how are the landscaping tools we use for cultivating, sculpting, and beautifying our subjective territory; transforming it into a harmonious and healing environment. The experience and knowledge we gain from working at our own transformation will, in turn, aid us greatly in helping others. Obviously, we must be able to help ourselves before we can help others.
The best way to learn about the six virtues is to work with them. We don’t have to be perfect masters in order to begin our practice. It is called a practice because we learn through practice itself. We don’t have to pass a test to begin our work because the “passing” is in the “doing.” Keeping this in mind, we still require some understanding of the six heart virtues to initiate the when-which-how practice. To this end, let’s look more closely at the definitions of the virtues given to us in “Living from the Heart.”
The Six Heart Virtues, a Closer Look
When we place our attention on these virtues we are beginning to practice their expression even as we think about them. When we imagine their fullness–their energetic structures–we are practicing them at a new, more potent level. The practice is not just expression; it is contemplation and study as well.
It should be obvious by now that we are really laying the emphasis on practicing the heart virtues, not sitting in meditation for hours contemplating their complexities. However, the material being offered to us is rooted in a balanced approach. Yes, we need to be pro-active in our expression of the heart virtues because the “house is on fire” and action is essential. Later, when the emergency is over, we can turn our attention to deeper issues if that is the direction we want to take. So, we are urged to take our practice into the routines of our living, but we are also asked to spend some time learning our craft. And this requires that some quiet time be set aside for meditation and study.
It is not my responsibility to tell you how often you should study or meditate. If you are sincere about this work and feel it is important to apply, you will attend to those areas of your practice that need improvement. Self-observation and your heart’s inner voice will guide you in the details of adjusting your practice to allow the light of the soul to shine with greater clarity and power in your life and in the lives of your fellow humans.
The paper, “Living from the Heart” contains a meditation exercise called, “The Virtuous Cycle Technique.” I highly recommend it as an effective method of deepening your understanding and connection to the six virtues. Keeping a notebook within reach as part of this practice is important for recording any insights you may receive. I can tell you from my own experience that many an insight rapidly fades from the “meditative” mind soon after the session ends. This is similar to how so many of our dreams rapidly dissipate after we awaken in the morning. Therefore, keeping a journal is invaluable in any type of subjective exercise. You can also take advantage of your personal journaling space at the Event Temples website if you want to keep your notes together. Either way, an emotional self-mastery journal is an important tool to consider.
In “Living from the Heart” James writes:
“I have resisted the temptation to define the six heart virtues in detail, but I will provide a starting point for their definition so you can embroider them according to your own experience and insight.”
James has provided valuable insights into the deeper meanings of the virtues. His descriptions give us a wider perspective on these words; words that I believe are familiar to most people. They are not technical terms, but are common in the sense that most people understand them in the context of their own lives. This is why they are so useful in emotional self-mastery—they are accessible and approachable to most anyone. In a way, their meanings are the backbone of morality and ethics across most cultures, religions, and philosophies. They are ingrained in us both consciously and subconsciously. And because of this, for the most part, we feel comfortable spending time with them.
While these titles or names are like shells of their true meaning (from the energetic perspective) they approximate the manner in which each of us is enfolded with the spirit of First Source.
In fact, my own words now lead me to point out a fascinating characteristic of these six “ordinary” words—they are intelligent fields of energy. Each one of us has been given a complete set of these intelligences as part of our soul’s equipment. These intelligent energy fields are our link to God, or what Lyricus refers to as First Source.
These fields are the energetic equivalents of First Source’s imprint upon the individual soul.
This linkage has existed as long as you have existed. It is not newly created. Perhaps, instead, it is newly forgotten.
Consequently, our desire to interact with these “words” can be seen as a re-acquaintance with good old friends we forgot we had. From the start, they are welcoming, warm, and approachable. In point of fact they are—
Appreciative, Compassionate, Forgiving, Humble, Understanding, and Valorous.
But as we get to know them, to spend more time with them, we discover that they also possess a deep, wise, and loving intelligence. We might even consider them to be guides, mentors, or counselors to our souls.
Part of this practice is to see your understanding and comprehension of these names or descriptions expand and shift as you practice and exercise your imagination.
Holding this attitude in heart and mind, I have extracted portions of James’ definitions of the six virtues. A careful reading of them reveals a different interpretation than the traditional definitions most of us would recognize. I believe his ideas provide a vital clue to the attitude and view we must take in order to achieve emotional self-mastery. This does not mean that we must adhere to the exact definitions given by James. In fact, I believe he would never want that. More to the point, this isn’t so much about the definitions, as much as it is about living our lives as soul-personalities instead of ego-personalities.
Ultimately, it all comes down to contacting, integrating, and transmitting the light of the soul—which is the light of love. The energetic heart is the gateway to the reception and integration of this light into our own human energy field, the human instrument. And the energetic heart, with the aid of the mind, is the combined instrument of distribution and transmission of the light of love into the world around us.
I believe this will become clearer as we examine the definitions of the six virtues more closely. After we have gained an overview of them, we can scale them down to the measure of our own lives as we develop our skills in practicing when-which-how.
When the essential definitions of the six virtues are brought together, a picture emerges of a backdrop or framework for our practice. I have assembled these definitions into a table for easier reference.
Virtues Definitions
Appreciation
• First Source (Higher Intelligence) surrounds our fellow beings as a field of consciousness…
• This consciousness unifies us…
• This awareness, or even belief, shifts our focus from the small details of our personal life to the vision of our purpose as a species.
• At a more practical level, appreciation expresses itself in the small gestures of gratitude that support relationship loyalty and bonding.
Compassion
In the context of the new intelligence that is seating itself on our planet, compassion is an active desire to assist others to align with the new fields of intelligence that are manifesting in the three dimensional world, aware that their desire and ability to align is distorted by their social enculturation; it does not accurately reflect their intelligence, spiritual inclinations, or purpose.
Forgiveness
• Forgiveness is really the outward expression of understanding and compassion without the heavy sentiments of duality (i.e., good and bad) that typically introduce the presence of judgment.
• It is a neutral expression without design or purpose other than to release yourself from the clutches of time.
• When a person operates from the heart virtues and the rich textures of its authentic frequencies, forgiveness is a natural state of acceptance.
Humility
• Humility is the realization that the heart, mind and soul co-mingle in the grace of a Higher Intelligence or Designing Force, and that their very existence is upheld through this connection of unconditional love.
• Humility is the expression of this love frequency knowing it derives from what already exists in a higher dimension.
Understanding
Understanding is the aspect of heart intelligence that recognizes [that] this dissociation from love is a necessary design component of the larger blueprint that is occurring on the planet. (See A Universal Blueprint.)
Valor
Valor is the aspect of your love that defends its presence in the face of injustice as measured in the social order.
A close inspection of the definitions in this table clearly shows an interconnection between the six virtues that underlies their outer meanings. The definitions reveal an inner common source, a source of which they are the outcome. In effect, the six heart virtues can be viewed as the unpacked components of a universal pattern or blueprint.
A Universal Blueprint
The ideas related to a universal blueprint can be found in “The Blueprint of Exploration.” This is the third philosophy paper of the WingMakers. This is not the place for an in-depth examination of that paper, but at the same time, it is not easy to explain in a sentence or two. In order to place the six heart virtues in the proper context, I believe we must go into this in some measure.
The essential idea in relation to our practice is that we are immortal cosmic entities participating in a blueprint of exploration conceived by God or First Source. Our roles are to explore the spacetime worlds, the dense dimensions of the multiverse. This descent into matter requires separation from our unity with First Source. The individuation, separation, and struggle for survival creates uniqueness in each individual—the embodied personality of the soul.
The key factor to remember here is that we have never been abandoned by our souls or First Source. The energetic heart has been with us from the beginning of our explorations, but it lies below the threshold of consciousness until the incarnated ego-personality has gathered many experiences in its explorations of spacetime. At a certain point, the soul, through the energetic heart, begins to awaken the lower self to its (the soul’s) presence. This is the stage where the energetic heart, the soul’s agent, introduces itself to the ego-personality. The world’s religions and mythologies each have their own general descriptions and allegories related to this stage in the life of the soul. It most often entails the inner stirring of an individual, who suddenly wakes to the realization that he is far from home and needs to undertake a journey back to his source. These are actually journeys in consciousness leading to a reunion between the fully conscious soul in its “higher” non-spacetime dimension, and the embodied fragment of consciousness in its “lower” spacetime dimension.
So, how does this fit into the definition of understanding? This big picture blueprint reminds us that all the individuals we encounter in our day-to-day activities are fellow explorers. We are all part of this exploration plan. In other words, we can use this description of reality to view the world and its people from the standpoint of the soul. At this level we can understand the human situation, feel compassion, and forgive. (See definition of Forgiveness.)
Consequently, when we become irritated, frustrated, or angry at the behaviors and opinions of others, we are challenged to view the larger picture and to realize that we are all ultimately working toward contributing our unique discoveries to the grand plan of First Source. But due to the difficulties imposed by the very conditions of the spacetime environment, almost all explorers get lost, develop problems, misunderstand missions, make mistakes, and cause harm to themselves and others. All of this contributes to the overwhelming sense of chaos and confusion in the world. The ability to stand back and understand this as the soul understands it is to practice emotional self-mastery. When we can approach the six virtues from the higher perspective of the soul, they form a new reality. Using the definitions given, let’s explore them as a whole.
We have just seen that understanding is based on the blueprint of exploration set in motion by First Source. Seen in this context, the remaining five virtues fit into a wonderful pattern modeled after the vantage point of the soul—transcendent of space and time.
The soul understands that each of us is on a journey of exploration and that we are at different points along the way. As the soul, we must show compassion toward ourselves and others, as we grope in the darkness of our journeys. We know that sometimes the darkness is a necessary incentive, forcing us to develop the skills and resources for our survival and growth. But too often, our darkness is self-created through ignorance and selfishness. Consequently, we have compassion for these shortcomings and can extend forgiveness to ourselves and others. In the light of forgiveness we hold no grudges; we liberate ourselves and our brothers and sisters from the suffering imposed by time. Restricted by the burdensome weights and restricting shackles of guilt and shame, who can advance in the journey? Forgiveness lives in the light of the soul’s neutrality, which knows that justice is meted out as part of the harmonizing principle of the multiverse.
Knowing all this, we come within the moderating influence of humility. This virtue adjusts our sense of proportion in relation to all things. If forgiveness liberates us from time, humility liberates us from space. It gives us the freedom to adjust our attitudes and positions toward all things. We are free to experience right relationships in all matters. Humility in this sense can be compared to the Chinese art and philosophy of Feng Sui. Humility is the Feng Sui of the heart. To know one’s place in the divine scheme of things is to be free to move to the next level. It is the knowledge granting a sense of direction because we know where we stand in relation to life.
All of this gives us an appreciation for the vast unified reality in which we live, move, and have our being. We are filled with gratitude for the knowledge of all this. We appreciate the fact that we can understand, that we can be compassionate, that we can forgive, and know the important part we play in relationship to the souls we travel with on our journey through space and time.
Knowing all this, through the meaning of these five virtues, we have the valor to stand up to those forces which thwart our efforts to stand in the light of the soul. We realize that our own ego-personality is most often the force blocking the radiance of love flowing from our hearts. We are courageous because, like the heroes of the world’s great traditions, we too have been given gifts of power for our adventurous journey into the spacetime worlds of the multiverse.
This awareness, or even belief, shifts our focus from the small details of our personal life to the vision of our purpose as a species.
First Source is Divine Love. This love along with its six virtues can be pictured saturating and penetrating the Underivative Information Structure at every scale of the multiverse. I have made a feeble attempt to illustrate this scale below. Simply stated (if at all possible), our individual practice of the six heart virtues is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosmic expression of divine love by First Source Intelligence.
Consequently, whenever we practice when-which-how, we are activating heart energetics on our individual, microscopic scale in resonance with other vast cosmic processes of energetic transfers occurring continuously throughout the multiverse. Thus, we play our part and contribute to the greater good.
In summary, the definitions of the heart virtues provided in “Living from the Heart” are guidelines for living within the blueprint of exploration. If we base our actions and behaviors on these simple and direct precepts, our hearts will speak to us in the voice of the soul, and we will be guided by the intelligent light of love throughout our spacetime odyssey.
That inner voice sounds from a dimension of reality enfolding our spacetime dimension. This all-inclusive reality is an ocean of love that expresses itself through the six virtues. We might imagine these virtues as the waves created by the ocean’s encounter with the shores of the three-dimensional islands of spacetime. Imagine this occurring at all scales of the multiverse. The important thing to remember is this—the power expressed by these waves is the same; the only difference is the size of the island and its placement in the sea.
If God is the ocean, then we are the drop. As such, we carry the frequency of love in us at all times. When we consciously engage this practice, we deliver a minute drop of First Source to the world in the form of the heart’s virtues. When we practice when-which-how, we are like the waves of the ocean of love breaking on the shores of every “island” we encounter.
