The gift of emotions lies not only in the richness that they bring to an individual life, but also in their ability to create a bridge between one level of being and another.  Within the outer self or personality, emotions often reflect karmic influences which are shaped by previous history and form a path of learning for the embodied soul.  However, as the karmic aspect of emotions are no longer needed to further the purposes of personal healing, the quality of one's emotional life changes and emotions begin to take on the qualities of the soul.   In all ways, they then become freer, purer, and more able to express the feelings and attitudes of the soul.

The personality-self is composed of feelings (emotions) and thoughts.  Out of these, character is formed and tendencies develop to view the world and others in particular ways.  The longstanding debate concerning the role of biology and genetic shaping versus the role of environment in the creation of emotional traits is, in reality a false dichotomy, for both genetic influences and environmental conditioning are shaped by the soul who chooses to incarnate within a particular body and a particular set of circumstances.  This body is designed by the soul to contain particular genetic sequences that will give rise to certain characteristics or predispositions.

In the course of spiritual evolution, the quality of one's emotional life naturally changes, and the process of purification, initiated by the infusion of greater light, accelerates this change.  Purification begins to transform the function of emotionality from a karmically-based foundation to one that is soul-based. Instead of the personality-self operating according to its own tastes and preferences, this outer expression of selfhood begins to reflect the wishes, intentions and attitudes of the higher self or soul.  As this shift in identity takes place, emotions that are 'lower' in vibration – namely, those that partake of negative energies more than positive - are replaced by ones that have at their root, the experience of love.  This transition occurs because it is the soul's essential nature to exist in a continual state of love, and as the personality adapts more and more to the soul's essence, it, too, becomes infused with the deeper attributes of the soul.

Built on a foundation of love, various derivative feelings can emerge – compassion, kindness, innocence, trust, gratitude, tenderness, generosity, and also the capacity to feel sadness for that which denies love or turns away from love, and for love that is 'lost', even if only temporarily.  The response of compassion toward those who do not know how to receive or express love is part of the soul's fundamental nature as it exists within God's being.  All souls partake of this nature and are pure in essence.  It is only within the embodied state that feelings become vulnerable to distortion and limitation, and love may be rejected by the outer self.

Purification allows the embodied self to retrace the steps back to the emotional attitudes of the soul.  It replaces all that has strayed from love and light with the capacity to share love with all and the recognition of the soul-nature of all living things.  Therefore, as soul-expression becomes more dominant within the embodied self, each individual become more able to express love and those feelings which derive from it.

Thus, qualities of selfishness or self-protection are transmuted into generosity and open-heartedness.  Inhibition and fearfulness become the capacity for trust and innocence. An absence of self-love or a diminished view of what the self is truly capable of is transformed into respect for the self, often accompanied by wonder and gratitude for the gifts that have been given to the self by God.

As spiritual growth continues and soul expression becomes more habitual on the physical plane, emotions become progressively absorbed into aspects of universal love – a love that embraces all, that seeks to support all, and that finds within itself a limitless supply of love from which to draw.  This supply is limitless because it comes from the fundamental ground of one's being and is of a Divine nature.  This essential being has remained as the core reality of every self, eternally held within the warmth and shelter of God's all-encompassing love.

Article Section -  A New Consciousness