I can almost hear the question in chorus as I write this paper. Somewhere in your mind you are probably asking the questions: “Why do I care about emotional self-mastery? What will I gain by applying the practice of when-which-how?” I can understand the basis of these two questions because our social order is understandably geared to ambition and achievement, and usually for the sake of some gain, reward, and/or recognition.
Emotional self-mastery is a reflection of your maturity as a spiritual being within the worlds of time-space. In other words, the emotional energy within your heart center is the vehicle in which you express your into the dimensions of time-space, and provides a grounding of these energies upon earth and the sharing of these energies with those beings that live upon her—both human and animal. Thus, the reason emotional self-mastery is so vital to attain is that it enables your highest purpose and soul presence to reveal itself in your present lifetime.
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. The body and mind become more of an enabling force for your spirit to operate in the worlds of time-space, and provide less dampening or hindrance to your soul or inner spirit. In simple terms, you live as soul, which is your purpose distilled to its purest definition.
The original essence that is you, was forged a tempered spirit when first born. Only in its journey through the worlds of time-space does it find immaturity, weakness, vulnerability, and the judgment and separation of the mind. The emotional prism is the healing instrument of both the body and mind because it enables the original essence to come forward, to be explicit in this reality and orchestrate the encounters of your body and mind for the greatest good.
The when-which-how practice is transformative, reinforcing a new way of being that empowers you to detach from the habitual ways of thinking and doing that modern society has so effectively established. It moves you from the feeling of separation to the sensibility of interconnection—the belief that we consciousness is more vibrant and meaningful than me consciousness, and it is in the former state of being that truly great things can be magnetized and attracted into the consciousness of humanity as a whole.
Now, to the second question: “What will I gain by applying the practice of when-which-how?” As you begin to apply the practice you will feel that what is happening in the outside world—both personal and non-personal—is not defining or shaping your inner state, unless you allow it to. In other words, you will gain a sense of stability and control. This is one noticeable aspect of progress early in the application of the practice.
An emerging sense of empowerment evolves as you find your artistry and your competence of the practice improves, and for most this will require three to six months of dedicated practice. This is the realization that the well-grooved patterns of the mind and ego-personality are not dictating the way you interact with an encounter or event, and that your intuitive faculties are awakening to the subtle expression of the six heart virtues.
The six heart virtues have precisely sixty-three combinations of expression. These combinations are further varied by the sequence in which they are expressed, their duration, and the energetic expression (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) used to convey the virtue(s) to an event, individual, group, or encounter. It is this intricacy of expression that pulls in the intuitive faculty once activated by the initial practice. It is this intuitive faculty that you must learn to trust despite what your inner mental dialogue might be telling you.
Remember that the intuitive sight stems from your heart’s intelligence, ascending from your , and it is this deepening connection that enables you to wield the sixty-three combinations of expression with the artistry and competency that the practice requires in order to progress to emotional self-mastery. In other words, you must trust your intuitive nature, and in doing so, you will instinctively understand how to apply the six heart virtues in your life’s various encounters.
Take notice that the timeframe to achieve an initial level of emotional self-mastery is three to six months. Not a long time to be sure, but in today’s instant gratification world and mind-driven ambition it may seem a prolonged period of time. The duty of the practitioner is to persevere, and not to focus on the outcomes or their subjective analysis of their performance of the practice. The mind and ego-personality are more than willing to project their analysis and judgment during this phase of development, but this judgment is meted out without genuine understanding of the deeper processes that guide the practitioner in their practice.
