Our star, the sun, is powered by a massive nuclear furnace at its core. The energy generated in the sun’s core travels from the core through the radiative zone, to the outer surface of the sun. From the outer surface of the sun, the sun radiates this energy as light and as other forms of electromagnetic radiation. When light from the sun reaches the part of the earth on which we are standing, then we say “The sun is shining.”
The distance from the sun’s core to the outer surface of the sun is approximately 550,000 kilometres, so it should take the energy generated in the sun’s core 1.8 seconds to get from the sun’s core to the sun’s surface. However in reality it can hundreds of years for a photon (the smallest unit of electromagnetic radiation) to get from the sun’s core to the surface of the sun.
This is because as the photon travels from the sun’s core through the convection layer of the sun, it keeps on bumping into atoms which absorb the photon, and which subsequently re-emit the photon in a random direction. Because the photon keeps on changing direction, it takes a long time to travel a relatively short distance.
Like the sun
In a sense, the way in which we experience emotion and thought is analogous to the way the sun creates and radiates energy and light.
- We have an emotional furnace at our core where we form emotions and feelings. In this inner emotional world we do not think or use words. That means to say that our inner feelings are not experienced verbally, instead we sense them as a part of the very fabric of our being and of our becoming.
- We have faculties of thought where we process knowledge and information. When we think, we use words and imagery in order to make calculations, to gain intuition and to learn by making comparisons. Eventually when we come to a conclusion, we decide what to say and what actions to take. Just like the sun radiates energy from its surface, so too we use words and actions to convey our emotions and feelings to the people with whom we interact.
- Between our inner emotional core and our faculties of verbal thought, we have a emotion-to-thought transference zone. Within our emotion-to-thought transference zone, we connect our inner wordless emotions with the real life things and people with which we associate our emotions. Making this connection allows us to formulate the thoughts that will allow us to actualise and demonstrate our feelings.
Conversely also, our transference zone is capable of transforming words and information into inner emotions. This happens when we convert the stimuli that we experience and the words that are spoken to us, into inner emotions and feelings. In other words, our transference zone is where we decide what the world means to us and how we will convey our meaning to the world.
Just as it takes a long time for energy to travel from the sun’s core to the sun’s surface, so too it can take us a long time to decide how to embody our emotions in thoughts, in words and in actions.
What exactly happens in our emotion-to-thought transference zone, and how do we convert wordless emotional energy into verbal thoughts and ideas?
Icons
There are some things about which we feel so deeply, that when we are asked to explain exactly why we feel so deeply about these things, we are unable to expand any further and we simply reiterate our feelings.
- “Why is your family so important to you?” – “It just is.”
- “Why is your football team so important to you?” – “It just is.”
- “Why is nature so important to you?” – “It just is.”
These are the things which we live for, and in some cases, are prepared to die for. These are the things which may we spend our entire lives bringing to fruition and making a reality. Because these icons are so important to us, the concern that we feel for them lives in the depths of our hearts and is ingrained into the very fabric of our being.
At a psychological level, because our icons are so deeply rooted within our consciousnesses, they are the first material thing that we perceive when we look out at the world from within our inner selves. Our icons are the first reality that we encounter on the journey from our inner world to the world at large. Hence we come to associate our inner emotions with these iconic realities.
On the other hand, since our icons are actual tangible things, we formulate verbal thoughts that address the complexities which we face in making our icons become a reality. In this way, our icons form the bridge between our inner emotional world and our verbally based thought processes.
Harmony and success
Successful people are often those who have aligned their inner emotional core, their life-ideals and their thoughts and actions. Because they have achieved this level of harmony and personal unity, they are able to apply their entire energy and drive to achieving the goals that are important for them.
In order to achieve this level personal unity, there must be harmony between our inner emotional core, our verbal thoughts and ideas, and our iconic life endeavours.
To accomplish this state we can
- Think about what our iconic life endeavours are, what they mean to us and how we can bring them to fruition.
- Make sure that we are working towards this goal, however long that will take us.
- Make sure we are not doing anything contradictory to our long term goals, however attractive the short term gains may appear to be.
By treasuring our primary beliefs and our core values, we can achieve inner harmony, a sense of purpose, focussed personal energy and ultimately success.
Homework
Think about one ideal which you treasure above all else. Determine if you are working towards making your icon into a reality or if you have become sidetracked. Set yourself measurable goals and celebrate together with friends when you accomplish them.
