Generating Karma: The Anger Virus

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Anger and Riot Police

Clearing Toxicity

While clearing the unconscious emotional toxicity from your past may be too complex a task to take on by yourself, clearing your current anger and negativity is a task that you can work through on your own. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve had a stressful day filled with conflict and hostility. You leave work feeling tense, angry, and worried. Your first thought when you walk through your front door and greet your family is to get a drink or two to soothe your nerves. You want to forget what happened as quickly as you can, and ignore those  troublesome feelings of anger that have tied your stomach up in knots. Your anger, however, is not eager to cooperate with your intentions and will not readily accede to your wishes. Anger is an agitated, aggressive, restless, and unhappy energy in need of an outlet and in search of a target. It cannot be stilled or pacified for long. Unless you transform your anger it will manifest in unexpected ways that are destructive to both yourself and other people.

Lashing Out: The Danger of Impulse

You’ve finished one drink now and are finally beginning to unwind. Your stomach is loosening up. You are finally able to breathe again. Then your spouse or one of your children barges into your study and asks you an innocent question. Before you can catch yourself you are taking the weight of your anger out on them. “Leave me alone, goddamitt! ” you scream. “Can’t you see that I need to be by myself for a few minutes? Is that too damn much to ask? Go away!” It’s not the way you intended to react, but you couldn’t help yourself. The words just slipped out of your mouth before you could stop yourself from saying them. Once they are out there you can’t take them back. The anger that hurt you in the workplace is now hurting those you love at home. A single, momentary slip of the tongue is all it took to cause emotional damage. Dinner is not pleasant, the air is toxic, charged with unexpressed emotion. No one says much. Instead, everyone retreats into his or her own world, upset, knotted up with anger, and silent.

An Emotional Infection

While that is painful enough, the events of the evening do not end at the dinner table. Every family member carries that toxicity with them into the next day. The toxicity in their systems will, in turn, infect many of the people they interact with perpetuating the anger and expanding its reach.

As the above example illustrates, the failure to process anger and other negative emotions can have serious consequences beyond your own experience. Instead of trying to assuage your anger and hope it goes away on its own, a far better approach to dealing with toxic emotion involves confronting and clearing your negativity as it arises. When you confront your anger and negativity as it occurs, you regain your balance and increase your power, clarity, and confidence. When you clear your anger and negativity you will be less prone to creating more negative karma.

In Harm’s Way

The opposite, however, is also true. When you ignore your anger, hoping that it will go away of its own accord, you lose your power and balance. By ignoring your anger, you put yourself in harm’s way, for you never know when or how that anger might surface and cause you to explode. When your anger does surface, the one thing you can count on is that the way you express it will not be in your best interests. Angry people are never at peace. They are karma generating machines.

The False Path

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soul

Meditating Monk

The Trap

The path that starts in the light, stays in the light, and ends in the light, never finds the bright light of the soul. We don’t evolve by avoiding our darkness. We evolve by facing our darkness, and face it we must. We can’t go up and elevate our life if we are unwilling to go down and eliminate our toxicity. When we clear our darkness we create more room for the light of our soul to shine brightly in our lives. Unconscious toxicity is the fuel of conscious growth.

If we try to “stay” in the light and avoid facing the darkness of our unconscious toxicity, we will not grow further. Our light will not burn brighter, and we will be unable to build the bridge to our soul. We might gain a method to reduce daily stress but not a means to elevate our life. Without clearing our toxic content, we cannot open ourselves to our soul or integrate the higher facets of our nature into our life in any cohesive way. Conquering our inner darkness is the secret to finding our path, our identity, our soul and our purpose.

The Playground Bully

Since the negative ego is rooted in unconscious toxicity and draws its strength from our repressed shame, clearing the toxic shame from our system will deprive the ego of its heavyweight status in the psyche. It will no longer be the playground bully, using fear to bind us in the darkness and suppress the superior voice of the soul. Of course, the negative ego does not fall easily, nor does it fall all at once. That would be far too easy. Usually, we must process several layers of unconscious toxicity before the negative ego begins to lose its strength. Nevertheless, every layer and toxic experience we clear diminishes the power the negative ego has over us until that power is fully deflated.

Defeating the negative ego is a goal that often evades the grasp of dedicated people, who have pursued their growth and spiritual development for years. Much of that failure is not due to lack of effort, level of commitment, or degree of consistent application, but rather to the use of inadequate methods that do not go deep enough, reach far enough, or have enough power to provide the desired results.

The Path Begins in Darkness

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negative emotions

Fighting Our Way Into the Light

There is no obvious, straight, or clear road through the dim maze and negative emotions of the subconscious. We fight our way into the light by challenging the dark and hidden forces inside us. When we finally challenge our inner darkness, we begin to forge our real path. That path does not begin until we face our darkness.

Where We Begin

We start where we feel anxiety, fear, discomfort, grief, sadness, rage, or pain. We start with our most prominent, obvious, and available negative emotions. Those negative emotions are the triggers that will help us unlock the door sealing our toxicity from our conscious mind. If we continue to feel and express those negative emotions until they become mobile and rise to meet our conscious mind, we will defeat the hidden toxic events they conceal.

Mobilizing Negative Emotions

We mobilize our toxicity by feeling our negative emotions as intensely as we can, then giving them a sound that expresses those feelings. That sound may be a guttural Urhhh!, or an Oohh!, or a string of curses. It really doesn’t matter what the sound is as long as it conveys our repressed feelings. By consciously expressing those negative emotions, we will eventually reach the stream of unconscious toxicity that lies behind them. When that toxic stream surfaces, we will no longer have to consciously force the process because those negative emotions will surge through us, and we will feel and express them with unexpected intensity. When that happens, the toxic events associated with the expression of those negative emotions will be released from our system.

The Moment of Transformation

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subconscious

Opening the Door

Opening the door to our subconscious toxicity may in the beginning prove to be a bit more difficult than we might imagine. After all, we are dealing with the realm of the irrational, the obscure, and the hidden. It is not a realm that most of us are used to dealing with. Its currents are unpredictable and uncertain. The subconscious as a rule does not yield its secrets easily or surrender them on demand. Rather, it laughs at and mocks the conscious affirmations we make asserting we have overcome our subconscious resistance and disarmed our fear, shame, and guilt. The subconscious knows that the toxicity buried in its vaults cannot be disarmed or controlled by the assertions of our conscious mind. We can’t wish ourselves out of the clutches of our toxicity, but with diligent effort we can bring our toxicity to the gates of the conscious mind. The arrival of unconscious toxicity at the doors of the conscious mind is the moment of transformation. While that moment may elicit our deepest fears, facing those fears leads to the integration of the physical and supra-physical aspects of our system.

 Entering the Shadow World

Our initial attempts to enter the shadow world of the subconscious often reveal a formidable opponent who is skilled at hiding and excels in resisting detection. A few screams, kicks, and knocks in the hopes of unleashing a torrent of buried emotion are not always going to be enough to open the barriers separating the conscious mind from the subconscious. Persistence and determination are important qualities to bring to the fight for clarity.

Do not forget that the negative ego’s intention is to hide our pain from us. It invariably exceeds its mandate by hiding itself in our repressed toxicity as well. The secret to the negative ego’s longevity is our fear of facing what we fear most. Our resistance to facing those fears keeps fear alive, increases the negative ego’s authority in our lives, and prevents us from integrating our system. Whenever fear is present and remains unchallenged, the negative ego avoids exposure and maintains its dominion.

The Inner Revolution

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power

The Coming Storm

The Balance of Power


The main purpose of the Elimination Zone is to shift the balance of power in the psyche from the negative ego to the soul. Since the source of the negative ego’s power is seated in the repressed emotional toxicity hidden in the psyche, the transfer of power from the negative ego to the soul is always preceded by emotional upheaval. The purpose of that upheaval is to clear unconscious toxicity from the psyche. This catharsis is a revolution, a change that initiates a new order of authority and power in the psyche and marks the beginning of the path of personal evolution. When that purge takes place, the negative ego loses its power base. The negative ego is no longer in control, and the psyche is no longer split and divided.

As a consequence of that revolution, things in our life that no longer work will depart of their own volition or be shown the door. Outmoded working and living conditions, relationships, beliefs, and lifestyles will fall away. Conditions and opportunities that are more in harmony with our true nature and real power will begin to take their place.

A Shift in Consciousness

One of the governing principles of all true internal work is that a shift in consciousness leads to a change in circumstances. As we move forward in the work of personal evolution, there will be several such shifts. Each shift will upgrade and elevate our life experience and increase our inner power. Personal evolution has the potential to compress the work of several lifetimes into a few lifetimes, or even one. How long the work will take depends upon our level of evolution, our willingness to stand in our true power, and our readiness for the journey. Regardless of where we may think we are or how advanced we think we might be, the journey begins in the same way for all of us. Entering the Elimination Zone and purging our unconscious toxicity is the foundation for all further advances in consciousness.

The Path to Mastery

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giving

Maitreya

Service and Self Interest

The truth the negative ego cannot grasp is that we always feel more fulfilled when we serve the well-being of others through giving than when we adhere strictly to our own self-interest. Giving of ourselves enriches us more than taking from others ever could. The richest among us are those who have succeeded in their inner journey. Their consciousness is filled with inner light. They have integrated their system and are whole. Their spirit, soul, mind, personality, emotions, and physical body are in alignment. Because of that alignment, their outer activities are in harmony with their essential nature. What they choose to do and how they go about giving reflects who they really are. They have no internal resistance and no toxic shadow to deprive them of fulfillment. Instead, they have the support of a higher power in their endeavor. The “force” is with them. The world benefits from their vision, their work, their love, their giving and their words. They are not here to take. They are here to serve and to give.

True masters walk among us. However, most people have not developed enough inner light to recognize that state of giving in others and so disregard what is offered them.

The Critical Importance of Personal Evolution

The purpose of the path of personal evolution is to help us find ourselves and succeed in life’s journey. Life works when we are whole and involved in giving to others. Kindness counts. Life is difficult enough. It is a far more difficult proposition when we have not integrated the physical and spiritual aspects of our nature. The world needs us all to be successful in that endeavor.

This is the path to mastery.  Are you ready to answer the call of your soul? Are you prepared for the journey to mastery? Are you ready to give more and take less? The journey will cost you everything you are and everything you have, but nothing more. In the process you will convert the heavy lead in your nature into pure gold.

The Negative Ego and Its Core Dilemma

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negative ego

Candle in the Darkness

The Problem

Meanwhile, the negative ego has a dilemma on its hands. While the negative ego feels safe in moving outward in the world, as opposed to moving inward to face the toxicity buried in its host’s system, it will never find lasting safety in doing so. The primary role of the negative ego is to protect its host from having to feel his original pain and fear again. The negative ego does this by burying those toxic experiences in his body, determined to keep them out of sight at all costs. If the host never has to feel them again, he can pretend they no longer exist. Unfortunately, denial is not a solution. It simply creates more internal distance between the host’s conscious mind and his subconscious afflictions. That distance doesn’t strengthen him. Instead, it undermines him by empowering his unconscious toxicity.

Dredging the Darkness

As we know, we cannot heal the splits in our nature until we raise the pain hidden in our body to the surface of our conscious mind. Given that operational truth, the negative ego cannot succeed in its primary mission of protecting us from pain. However, the negative ego does a very good job in distracting us from our primary mission in life, which is to realize who we really are. The truth is that the negative ego cannot protect us from fear and pain. The fact that pain is buried in our body means that we will attract more of it into our life, no matter how strong our resistance to it is or how powerful our sense of denial about it may be. As long as unresolved issues plague the subconscious, the will of the subconscious is negatively polarized. When an aspect of the will is negatively polarized, it holds the entire will hostage.

How Long Will We Stay in the Dark?

The negative ego then has little real security beyond how well it can keep us in the dark about our own darkness. A key goal of the relationship between the negative ego and the three forces of alienation is to keep us trapped in a limited experience of reality, where the most important parts of our nature are never seen or experienced.

Igniting Growth

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consciousness

The Buddha

Clearing Toxicity

If we do not clear our toxicity we cannot expand our consciousness. Our toxicity and lack of consciousness will prevent our soul from taking its rightful position of influence within our psyche, and our evolution will be unconscious and minimal at best. It is difficult to grow when we are not consciously involved with our consciousness. Growth that is forced to proceed along strictly unconscious lines is growth that advances at a glacial pace.

We ignite our growth toward more consciousness when we choose to participate in it. The difference between unconscious and conscious growth is the difference between riding on a donkey and flying in a jet. There is no real comparison.

Consciousness vs Desire

Consciousness and desire then, are different poles of experience. Consciousness is the positive pole. It quickens the pace of our struggle for more internal light and a deeper connection with our soul. It forces us to face the unhealed parts of our nature and then liberates us from our toxicity so we may find ourselves.

Desire is the negative pole of experience. It keeps us churning in the machinations of the negative ego. As long as we are stirred up and involved in one drama after another, we will not find peace, establish a connection to our soul, or go forward in our march toward greater consciousness. Drama keeps us involved and preoccupied with the objects of our desire so that we are unaware of our emptiness and our loss of our real self.

The Negative Ego

The covert purpose of the negative ego is to keep the soul from entering the psyche and short circuit our potential for more consciousness.  If it succeeds in that purpose, it will remain in control of the psyche and will not have to endure its own transformation into a healthy ego. Desire and the negative ego are the great antagonists to wholeness, completion and consciousness. That is their role in the great play of human evolution. They are not our friends. To defeat them, we must develop our inner light, integrate the two sides of our system, and reclaim our ability to love unconditionally. When we are able to do that we increase our consciousness exponentially. As we become more integrated,  we will be able to turn away from the path of most resistance with little further resistance.

Desire and Restlessness

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desire

Goddess of Mercy

Conquering Desire

Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual partner, The Mother, once wrote that, “To conquer a desire brings more joy than to satisfy it.”* When we conquer a desire, we take back the specific part of our power that we had invested in our desire nature. Every time we conquer a desire we strengthen our real self and weaken the lock that the negative ego and desire nature have over us. Every time we overcome a desire, we shorten the internal distance we must travel to reach our soul and claim our inner light. Every piece of power that we reclaim from our desire nature lessens the gap between who we think we are and who we really are.

Completion

Desire will never complete us because it leaves our inner darkness and negative ego intact. The more we chase our desires, the more we feed our restlessness. As our restlessness grows, our desires intensify. As one desire after another fails to elevate our lives in any lasting way, we replace those desires with others. The failure of desire leads to the birth of more desires. The more desire fails us, the more dominant our desire nature becomes.

The only solution to the problem of desire is to find our wholeness through integrating the physical and supra-physical aspects of our system. When we clear our toxicity we are well on the way to finding our wholeness.

The Negative Ego

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negative ego

We Are Not Our Shame

The strategy of the negative ego is to keep us occupied in vain pursuits that feed it but do not feed us. If it can keep us focused on our greed and desire, the negative ego is assured of maintaining its power. To defeat the negative ego at its game, we must realize that we are not our shame. The territory of toxic emotion that the negative ego tries to hide from the world is not who we are. It is what prevents us from being who we are. To identify ourselves with our shame is to keep ourselves from our freedom. It is the error of identification that the negative ego wants us to make. It is the mistake that drives us to utilize our desire nature to flee from facing whatever false self we have erected and have come to believe that we are.

The whole rationale behind the power of desire is that if we succeed in fleeing from the pain of our shame, we can hide ourselves in material pleasure. The problem with that rationale is that pleasure always ends. Sooner or later, our pain will return and overwhelm us. As long as shame exists, it can never be entirely silenced.The strategies of the negative ego have a short shelf life.

The Adversaries of the Soul

What we must eventually realize is that what we fail to confront is much more dangerous to us than that what we choose to face. What we shrink from facing shrinks us. While we can actualize our desires, our desires cannot actualize us. Our soul contains our identity, our path, and our purpose. The negative ego only contains our unhealed wounds. The negative ego and our desire nature are the adversaries of our higher connection.

When we finally realize that the three forces of alienation- fear, greed and desire – are a dead end and lead nowhere, we are finally ready to enter the Elimination Zone and begin the path of personal evolution. What we need to keep in mind as we enter the Elimination Zone is that when we stand up to our fear, our fear will stand down. We regain our power when we confront the inner darkness and the negative ego that would otherwise diminish us.