When an open heart implies chaos

[Heart4]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

[AnthroHeart]

Well, I wouldn't consider myself adept.

But my upper chakras are pretty open, and my lower 2 are pretty closed. I didn't intend that way. It just happened.

But I do a lot of work in the heart. But I do more work on my field as a whole.

[Heart4]

Well, I wouldn't consider myself adept.

But my upper chakras are pretty open, and my lower 2 are pretty closed. I didn't intend that way. It just happened.

But I do a lot of work in the heart. But I do more work on my field as a whole.

I have the mastered the higher chakras to a lesser degree. We have that in common. Like you my lower are blocked! Is it chaotic to go at the heart?

[AnthroHeart]

Well, everyone is different. If you have upper chakras mastered you should have guidance and guides you can ask.

Ask to be shown what is "yes" and what is "no". You may get feelings for each, or see images that represent each.

Then once you have your reference, you can ask your guidance.

But make sure you are grounded. I like to envision a rope with 5 knots hanging from my root chakra into the Earth.
The knots represent lower chakras, below our root.

[Louisabell]

I have the mastered the higher chakras to a lesser degree. We have that in common. Like you my lower are blocked! Is it chaotic to go at the heart?

May I ask in what way, or why do you think your lower chakras are blocked? Also may I ask why you intend on activating the heart before addressing the lower blockages?

I ask this because I think it could go either way. Activating the heart further may help with your healing, or it may further imbalance you to the point that you lose your grasp on reality.

[Heart4]

Well, everyone is different. If you have upper chakras mastered you should have guidance and guides you can ask.

Ask to be shown what is "yes" and what is "no". You may get feelings for each, or see images that represent each.

Then once you have your reference, you can ask your guidance.

But make sure you are grounded. I like to envision a rope with 5 knots hanging from my root chakra into the Earth.
The knots represent lower chakras, below our root.

Without stepping into the higher centres, and with an imbalanced root, just generally speaking, do you think it's liberating to work on the heart?

[AnthroHeart]

Well, everyone is different. If you have upper chakras mastered you should have guidance and guides you can ask.

Ask to be shown what is "yes" and what is "no". You may get feelings for each, or see images that represent each.

Then once you have your reference, you can ask your guidance.

But make sure you are grounded. I like to envision a rope with 5 knots hanging from my root chakra into the Earth.
The knots represent lower chakras, below our root.

Without stepping into the higher centres, and with an imbalanced root, jist generally speaking, do you think it's liberating to work on the heart?

I've learned not to chase a feeling. Lower centers are important I believe. Work on them all together. Not just the heart.
But ask your own guidance too. It will know better than I do.

[Heart4]

I have the mastered the higher chakras to a lesser degree. We have that in common. Like you my lower are blocked! Is it chaotic to go at the heart?

May I ask in what way, or why do you think your lower chakras are blocked? Also may I ask why you intend on activating the heart before addressing the lower blockages?

I ask this because I think it could go either way. Activating the heart further may help with your healing, or it may further imbalance you to the point that you lose your grasp on reality.

I hope that activating the heart will smooth the lower blockages.

[Heart4]

Well, everyone is different. If you have upper chakras mastered you should have guidance and guides you can ask.

Ask to be shown what is "yes" and what is "no". You may get feelings for each, or see images that represent each.

Then once you have your reference, you can ask your guidance.

But make sure you are grounded. I like to envision a rope with 5 knots hanging from my root chakra into the Earth.
The knots represent lower chakras, below our root.

Without stepping into the higher centres, and with an imbalanced root, jist generally speaking, do you think it's liberating to work on the heart?

I've learned not to chase a feeling. Lower centers are important I believe. Work on them all together. Not just the heart.
But ask your own guidance too. It will know better than I do.

Is there some kind of chaotic potential I haven't thought of, that occurs in the higher centers such as a premature heart?

[unity100]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

Danger of trying to activate and work in a higher chakra without activating earlier chakras is valid for every single chakra.

A person who tries to work in yellow chakra without activating orange will have issues and get blockages. A good example is a person who tries to do social activities, social speaking without having established his own emotional stability, personal characteristics in the orange chakra before.

Similarly, someone trying to activate green ray without activating and stabilizing yellow ray will run into issues. A person who is having trouble accepting other people, their ideas, emotions, choices, stances against himself/herself is a good example - it is someone who is attempting to go into green without activating the social yellow chakra and all that it brings.

........

Blockage of any chakra that receives energy (activated or activating) will cause heat. Intentional holding of energy in any already activated chakra will cause heat. This is valid for all chakras.

[Heart4]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

Danger of trying to activate and work in a higher chakra without activating earlier chakras is valid for every single chakra.

A person who tries to work in yellow chakra without activating orange will have issues and get blockages. A good example is a person who tries to do social activities, social speaking without having established his own emotional stability, personal characteristics in the orange chakra before.

Similarly, someone trying to activate green ray without activating and stabilizing yellow ray will run into issues. A person who is having trouble accepting other people, their ideas, emotions, choices, stances against himself/herself is a good example - it is someone who is attempting to go into green without activating the social yellow chakra and all that it brings.

........

Blockage of any chakra that receives energy (activated or activating) will cause heat. Intentional holding of energy in any already activated chakra will cause heat. This is valid for all chakras.

I accept the validity of that point. Given that we are attempting to address adepts who have activated up to indigo (and for me violet), is it valid to prefer to open my heart chakra (through will)?

[Louisabell]

I have the mastered the higher chakras to a lesser degree. We have that in common. Like you my lower are blocked! Is it chaotic to go at the heart?

May I ask in what way, or why do you think your lower chakras are blocked? Also may I ask why you intend on activating the heart before addressing the lower blockages?

I ask this because I think it could go either way. Activating the heart further may help with your healing, or it may further imbalance you to the point that you lose your grasp on reality.

I hope that activating the heart will smooth the lower blockages.

I don't think that is going to be a fruitful endeavour.

74.6 Questioner: Would you please correct me?

Ra: I am Ra. The indigo center is indeed most important for the work of the adept. However, it cannot, no matter how crystallized, correct to any extent whatsoever imbalances or blockages in other energy centers. They must needs be cleared seriatim from red upwards.

82.3 Questioner: Jim has a personal question which is not to be published. He asks, “It seems that my balancing work has shifted from more peripheral concerns such as patience/impatience, to learning to open myself in unconditional love, to accepting my self as whole and perfect, and then to accepting my self as the Creator. If this is a normal progression of focus for balancing, wouldn’t it be more efficient once this is discovered for a person to work on the acceptance of self as Creator rather than work peripherally on the secondary and tertiary results of not accepting the self?”

Ra: I am Ra. The term efficiency has misleading connotations. In the context of doing work in the disciplines of the personality, in order to be of more full efficiency in the central acceptance of the self, it is first quite necessary to know the distortions of the self which the entity is accepting. Each thought and action needs must then be scrutinized for the precise foundation of the distortions of any reactions. This process shall lead to the more central task of acceptance. However, the architrave must be in place before the structure is builded.

Is there any reason for not working in the lower chakras first?

[Stranger]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

Heart, this is a great question.  Speaking from direct experience, my answer is absolutely not.  That has been my path: starting with blockages all over, it dawned on me that there is a real valid reason why Christianity, Buddhism, etc. urge loving, and I ran with it.  I would try my hardest to love all things at all times, and because of the blockages (which produce negative emotion) I would fail much of the time; but the continued effort kept paying off more and more and more.  My heart was the first chakra I fully cleared, eventually, after years of fasting, meditation, chanting, praying, etc.; that made it much easier to work on all the other issues, because Love clears blockages and I could use it to heal all the rest.

Now, let me be clear here that I was not "trying to unblock my heart chakra", I was trying to stay in a loving, kind, compassionate frame of mind toward whatever I encountered.  Maybe if I had attempted to work directly on the heart chakra, something could have gone awry - though I doubt it.  Loving, however, is 100% safe, and it will open your heart chakra naturally.

Our recommendation is to love. When each situation, whether large or small, whether global or familial, or simply pointed towards the self, arises, ask yourself, “How can I love? Who can I love? Where can I love?” To love is enough, for to love is the reason for which each took incarnation.

[xise]

I think working with indigo and blue with highly distorted red, orange, and yellow is more dangerous, in terms of disarrangement. Working with green ray with a highly distorted red, orange, and yellow, is probably has a lesser chance of disarrangement, but is probably inadvisable for other reasons as will be discussed below - though as Stranger recounts, certainly doable. I would also say that if you have orange ray issues, you may also overestimating the amount of lower ray blockage as it is common for orange ray blockages to manifest as over-criticism and over-exaggeration of any perceived personal flaws, including the perception as to the amount of lower ray blockage. Or your perception may be accurate.

However, assuming your lower three rays are highly distorted, it may be inadvisable to work directly with the green ray, especially at an adept level for the following reason: Recall that Ra specifically notes that negative entities often try to overactive the green ray into making the positive entity do something foolish. Given that you are essentially talking about working from a green ray that is already based on a distorted base, my guess is that you would be much more susceptible to overacting the green ray to your detriment in general, but also to negative entities attempting to cause harm to you by overacting your green ray.

72.17 Questioner: Why is there no protection at the floor or bottom of the banishing ritual, and should there be?

Ra: I am Ra. This will be the last full query of this working.

The development of the psychic greeting is possible only through the energy centers starting from a station which you might call within the violet ray moving through the adept’s energy center and therefrom towards the target of opportunity. Depending upon the vibratory nature and purpose of greeting, be it positive or negative, the entity will be energized or blocked in the desired way.

We of Ra approach this instrument in narrow-band contact through violet ray. Others might pierce down through this ray to any energy center. We, for instance, make great use of this instrument’s blue-ray energy center as we are attempting to communicate our distortion/understandings of the Law of One.

The entity of Orion pierces the same violet ray and moves to two places to attempt most of its non-physical opportunities. It activates the green-ray energy center while further blocking indigo-ray energy center. This combination causes confusion in the instrument and subsequent over-activity in unwise proportions in physical complex workings. It simply seeks out the distortions pre-incarnatively programmed and developed in incarnative state.

The energies of life itself, being the One Infinite Creator, flow from the south pole of the body seen in its magnetic form. Thus only the Creator may, through the feet, enter the energy shell of the body to any effect. The effects of the adept are those from the upper direction and thus the building of the wall of light is quite propitious.

May we ask if there are any shorter queries at this time?

Thus, especially since positive adepts tend to attract negative entities in general, working with green at an adept level without a solid foundation would seem to make you much more susceptible to negative greetings that would further energize these lower ray blockages with the negative entity hoping you would become confused and that your lower distortions become overactive. I am not writing this to scare you - as I truly believe as Ra says that all is well whatever path you choose, but I am trying to answer your question to be best of my ability. I would mirror what others have said. Build a solid foundation first. Dabble in green of course, to feel and understand some of that unconditional love. But to dive right in with adept level green work, I would consider what has been said.

You will, however, find that since you have already made a positive choice, as you begin to work with your lower centers directly and heal the distortions within them, massive amounts of energy will naturally flow into your heart and open your green ray without much effort initially. Of course, there is always further refinement upon each center that can be done, but I think you will not be disappointed how focusing on truly loving life, or loving yourself, or loving your ability to manifest and create and be a part of society, will increase your happiness and naturally cause you to love the world and others as a positive entity, as that is the path you have already chosen in previous lifetimes.

[Cainite]

So if we have lower chakra problems we should lie to avoid working in blue ray? a bit confusing.

[Sprout]

Well, everyone is different. If you have upper chakras mastered you should have guidance and guides you can ask.

Ask to be shown what is "yes" and what is "no". You may get feelings for each, or see images that represent each.

Then once you have your reference, you can ask your guidance.

But make sure you are grounded. I like to envision a rope with 5 knots hanging from my root chakra into the Earth.
The knots represent lower chakras, below our root.

Without stepping into the higher centres, and with an imbalanced root, just generally speaking, do you think it's liberating to work on the heart?

If you seek to balance your energy centers, then going from lower to higher is the efficient way to do so. Also, the root is the source of power to the higher centers, so "root" yourself like a tree would to the ground it lives on, and channel a stream of pure white light from bottom to top and from top to bottom back again, like a fountain in green garden, recycling it's own waters.

[Plenum]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

well, some people might be super empathetic, and not have appropriate boundaries.

It leaves them open to being a dumping ground for other people's negativity.

[Infinite Unity]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

Being anywhere, doing almost anything without the appropriate experience/intelligence to do so, can be dangerous. However that often constitutes appeal....

[xise]

So if we have lower chakra problems we should lie to avoid working in blue ray? a bit confusing.

I would say no. I think that if you follow the bottom up to the structure as recommended by Ra, then you make refining blue ray concepts/thinking in terms of universal truth & wisdom secondary to lower ray healing such as healing one's worry about life (red) or lack of love for the self (orange), etc. 

Focusing on purposely lying would again be shifting focus away from the lower center concepts to prioritize purposefully close the blue ray, which is neither here nor there, and probably more akin to amassing a nonpolarizing (or perhaps negatively polarizing) distortion.

Ra doesn't say close the upper rays at any point. Just that work and refinement is best started from the bottom up, rather than the top down. It's all about priorities and focus. It can get complicated though if you don't look at it in terms of priorities though, as some issues correspond with multiple rays or sub-rays within a ray, and a primary orange ray issue might have significant nontrivial work related to blue/orange-sub-blue self-honesty.

[Stranger]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

well, some people might be super empathetic, and not have appropriate boundaries.

It leaves them open to being a dumping ground for other people's negativity.

A distinction needs to be made here between:

A: radiating love - i.e., being loving, compassionate, caring, etc., and

B: choosing to take on another's problem as one's own

If you're doing A but not B, you will NOT absorb anyone's negativity.  Staying loving - toward yourself and the person you're interacting with - is probably the strongest shield against negativity, because your love will block and/or transform into love anything negative that comes your way.

If you take on another's problem as your own - as happens when you decide that you have to fix it, that it is yours to fix instead of a lesson they are working on, with as much help from you as you're willing to give, but without making fixing it your responsibility - that's when you start soaking it into yourself.  This, perhaps paradoxically, makes you burdened and less capable of helping. 

Also, if you are not remaining in the loving state when encountering a negative person, you are not only taking on their negativity, but also generating your own in response (e.g, someone's rude to you - you take it onboard and "manufacture" some resentment, disdain, anger, etc; now you've got all of that inside.

So I really disagree with this idea that being loving within the appropriate boundaries of letting other people "own" the catalyst and lessons which are theirs, while helping them to whatever degree seems appropriate - without taking ownership of their problem - can be in any way unbalanced or unhealthy. 

(To be fair, I don't think that was what you were saying, Plenum, but it seemed that an important distinction was not present).

Let me put it another way: as long as the boundary in B is not being violated, there is literally no amount of love toward another that would be excessive or unhealthy.

The lower chakra issues, whatever they may be, will simply 1) limit the amount of energy flowing to the heart, and 2) introduce negative emotion. The conscious choice to remain loving is still possible, though more difficult; but lower chakra issues will not, ever, somehow make loving "dangerous" or "unhealthy", in any degree.

[Stranger]

I think working with indigo and blue with highly distorted red, orange, and yellow is more dangerous, in terms of disarrangement. Working with green ray with a highly distorted red, orange, and yellow, is probably has a lesser chance of disarrangement, but is probably inadvisable for other reasons as will be discussed below - though as Stranger recounts, certainly doable. I would also say that if you have orange ray issues, you may also overestimating the amount of lower ray blockage as it is common for orange ray blockages to manifest as over-criticism and over-exaggeration of any perceived personal flaws, including the perception as to the amount of lower ray blockage. Or your perception may be accurate.

However, assuming your lower three rays are highly distorted, it may be inadvisable to work directly with the green ray, especially at an adept level for the following reason: Recall that Ra specifically notes that negative entities often try to overactive the green ray into making the positive entity do something foolish. Given that you are essentially talking about working from a green ray that is already based on a distorted base, my guess is that you would be much more susceptible to overacting the green ray to your detriment in general, but also to negative entities attempting to cause harm to you by overacting your green ray.

72.17 Questioner: Why is there no protection at the floor or bottom of the banishing ritual, and should there be?

Ra: I am Ra. This will be the last full query of this working.

The development of the psychic greeting is possible only through the energy centers starting from a station which you might call within the violet ray moving through the adept’s energy center and therefrom towards the target of opportunity. Depending upon the vibratory nature and purpose of greeting, be it positive or negative, the entity will be energized or blocked in the desired way.

We of Ra approach this instrument in narrow-band contact through violet ray. Others might pierce down through this ray to any energy center. We, for instance, make great use of this instrument’s blue-ray energy center as we are attempting to communicate our distortion/understandings of the Law of One.

The entity of Orion pierces the same violet ray and moves to two places to attempt most of its non-physical opportunities. It activates the green-ray energy center while further blocking indigo-ray energy center. This combination causes confusion in the instrument and subsequent over-activity in unwise proportions in physical complex workings. It simply seeks out the distortions pre-incarnatively programmed and developed in incarnative state.

The energies of life itself, being the One Infinite Creator, flow from the south pole of the body seen in its magnetic form. Thus only the Creator may, through the feet, enter the energy shell of the body to any effect. The effects of the adept are those from the upper direction and thus the building of the wall of light is quite propitious.

May we ask if there are any shorter queries at this time?

Thus, especially since positive adepts tend to attract negative entities in general, working with green at an adept level without a solid foundation would seem to make you much more susceptible to negative greetings that would further energize these lower ray blockages with the negative entity hoping you would become confused and that your lower distortions become overactive. I am not writing this to scare you - as I truly believe as Ra says that all is well whatever path you choose, but I am trying to answer your question to be best of my ability. I would mirror what others have said. Build a solid foundation first. Dabble in green of course, to feel and understand some of that unconditional love. But to dive right in with adept level green work, I would consider what has been said.

You will, however, find that since you have already made a positive choice, as you begin to work with your lower centers directly and heal the distortions within them, massive amounts of energy will naturally flow into your heart and open your green ray without much effort initially. Of course, there is always further refinement upon each center that can be done, but I think you will not be disappointed how focusing on truly loving life, or loving yourself, or loving your ability to manifest and create and be a part of society, will increase your happiness and naturally cause you to love the world and others as a positive entity, as that is the path you have already chosen in previous lifetimes.

xise, I respect you, but I disagree with you here.  I think this single Ra quote, which repeatedly gets used on these forums as an example of the dangers of having a too-open heart, is being taken completely out of context.

Let's notice that there isn't a single place in Ra or Q'uo that says we should limit how much we love.

On the other hand, there are plenty of quotes that explicitly state the opposite.  There's the famous "you are not here to fix it, you are here to love it."  There is also the famous "Friends, have you loved today?"  A quick search finds, "The purpose of your life on this particular planet, or shall we say, in this particular classroom, the greatest purpose is to learn to love one another without any vice, without any stipulation, without any envy or regret. If your peoples learn even half of this lesson they shall advance into a civilization which is compatible to ours. "

I think people take this simple, sincere message of love, love always, and get lost in chakras and balances and archetypes and harvests.

Now on to the Ra quote above, and let's read it carefully:

The 5th density entity is trying to harm Carla.  In part because of her incredible shield of Love, the 5th density STS can only do the following: exploit her pre-incarnative bias toward love by make her feel extra loving and caring, while at the same time limiting her access to her intuitive guidance.  What does that buy the STS entity?  Carla's love drives her to physically work harder than she otherwise would have in loving service to others, somewhat overtaxing her body.  That is all. That is the worst that the STS entity can accomplish.

A terrifying cautionary tale?  No, this is actually a nice illustration of how healthy and protective staying in a loving state is. 

So if you want to follow Carla's example or Q'uo's clear, explicit teaching, then love all, love always, and love as much as your heart will bear.

(P.S. Let's be clear that I am referring to the state of having a compassionate, kind, loving attitude toward all that surrounds oneself; NOT to any particular set of actions.  The act of loving, itself, is an STO polarizing act, whether or not you give the shirt off your back).

[xise]

I think this single Ra quote, which repeatedly gets used on these forums as an example of the dangers of having a too-open heart, is being taken completely out of context.

I too agree that there's no such thing as a too-open heart. I think I need to backtrack a bit as I would agree that I don't think it's all that dangerous to work with green and my earlier post did seem to have that tone that it was dangerous (whether green adept-level workings or just green workings). I do believe it is, however, a longer path than directly working with the lower rays, while keeping the heart open, and to naturally allow the love to flow upward:


I would only posit that I see many people who take a longer path focusing on the heart when they have severely distorted lower rays - you see this in many forms of Christianity where the heart is emphasized, often to the detriment of loving life or loving self or embracing one's sexuality - some versions of Christianity actively preach life is painful, or that the self is not worthy, a person is completely powerless, etc. For this distorted Christian hypothetical, I am only saying that it may be faster to understand the nature of love if you keep one's open heart as is but focus on truly getting to a place where you understand that life is not inherently painful  (red) and that you are worthy of love (orange), etc.


I am probably not explaining myself properly. But I feel I've met a lot of people in life, including family members, who have stagnated in their spiritual journey and in their understanding of love, and perhaps even haven't met harvestability, because they focus on the heart without understanding how the lower ray concepts build naturally into unconditional love. Ie they profess unconditional love to others, but judge the s*** out of themselves. They hate life. They find they are powerless. And when they are faced with catalyst of these lower rays, their green ray temporarily shuts down. They struggle to radiate love on a daily basis because of such catalyst. Often the mantra is to have faith and just 'try harder' and perhaps it does eventually work. But I think there's a more direct path is to accept, integrate, and learn from the lower ray catalyst.


I will say that the touch of green ray unconditional love does give one great faith that the universe makes sense, and was key to my spiritual path, and was the springboard into exploring the Ra material and all of the concepts in general. Though I used the green ray revelation / perhaps temporarily piercing of the veil to motivate my self-work on my lower rays, as opposed to the green ray first path that you followed Stranger. But either way, there is indeed something to be said of a green-ray first path.

[Louisabell]

A terrifying cautionary tale?  No, this is actually a nice illustration of how healthy and protective staying in a loving state is. 

Interesting perspective on Carla's case. I see the issue with over-activating the green ray, beyond what the lower chakras are naturally capable of, is the potential for a big crash afterwards (much like taking a drug such as MDMA). I see this as possibly leading to periods of depression when one's energetic resources are spent.

Moreover, if one has not learnt to identify subtle (and not so subtle) manipulations from others, or aren't practiced enough in setting boundaries, then that person would more easily be taken advantage of as they attempt to express unconditional love without an appropriate level of self-love to balance their choices.

I agree that one should err on the side of acting respectful towards others to the best of their ability. However in my personal experience, forcing a loving state internally has only been detrimental to my long-term ability to express unconditional love. I have found it much more efficacious to sit with whatever emotion arises in the moment in non-judgment in order to better understand myself (yet I suppose this is an extension of unconditionally loving the self).

Although, I do agree with you that trying to find the love in the moment is a good practice to focus one's intention, and setting one's intention is the precursor to all inner work.

[Plenum]

(To be fair, I don't think that was what you were saying, Plenum, but it seemed that an important distinction was not present).

yeah - that's really well elaborated.  Thanks!!

G

[Sacred Fool]

There is a premature danger of doing work in the higher centers. But is there a premature danger of doing work in the heart? My question is specifically addressing adepts.

Skimming through this thread of thoughts, I didn't notice anyone mention that, yes, some chaos can be introduced in this sense.  Blockage of the heart might indicate that you defend yourself from catalyst in ways that you will no longer be able to use once you allow your heart to participate in the way you accept life circumstances.  In other words, you may be thrown off by having to soften your approach to people.  The more constricted your blockage, the more it will throw you off-balance to alleviate it, I would guess.  You may feel awkward being less self-directed and going more with the flow, as another example.  Perhaps you could be disturbed by coming to understand what a louse you've been to others?  Taking it a bit further, you could--potentially--discover that all your life you have been unloved and that this fact has severely warped your personality. That could be somewhat disturbing, no?

The process may cost you something in some way, but on the other hand, what price would you not pay for greater wholeness?

 

[Stranger]

A terrifying cautionary tale?  No, this is actually a nice illustration of how healthy and protective staying in a loving state is. 

Interesting perspective on Carla's case. I see the issue with over-activating the green ray, beyond what the lower chakras are naturally capable of, is the potential for a big crash afterwards (much like taking a drug such as MDMA). I see this as possibly leading to periods of depression when one's energetic resources are spent.

Just to make sure any misunderstanding is avoided, I was not referring to conducting any manipulation or over-activation of any ray.  Rather, I refer to: choosing to approach people and situations in a loving, compassionate way.  I assure you, nothing gets over-activated when such a choice is made.  

In fact: making the effort to find love despite our automatic negative reactions - vs - going along with whatever negative emotion a situation automatically triggers: that is the fundamental choice when we encounter catalyst.  That is the choice that determines whether you are using that catalyst to incrementally polarize STO or STS.

Even when there is no catalyst and our state is more neutral, finding love toward anything is STO-polarizing.  

This isn't something controversial, either: Q'uo repeatedly states that the answer is to find love in every situation.  In all honesty, this is the foundation of the entire practice and teaching.  If getting into the concepts of rays and whatnot distracts one from that basic truth, then all those concepts are actually doing a disservice.

Moreover, if one has not learnt to identify subtle (and not so subtle) manipulations from others, or aren't practiced enough in setting boundaries, then that person would more easily be taken advantage of as they attempt to express unconditional love without an appropriate level of self-love to balance their choices.

No question - love for others and love for self need to be equal; all is One, and the answer is love for All, oneself included.  

Until one reaches that perfectly balanced point, however, it is important to distinguish earthly benefit from spiritual benefit.

The only thing the larger/truer You - the You outside of incarnation - cares about is polarizing, being of service, coming closer and closer to God.  To achieve that goal, the larger You is willing to endure all kinds of suffering - in fact, intentionally programs all kinds of suffering for itself - because from the other side of the veil, it knows that the Love you farm inside yourself while on this planet is what you get to keep.  Emotional wounds heal, the physical gets left on the physical plane, but the Love you grow makes you ever more radiant and whole.

So, clearly, from the point of view of our more clear-headed (unveiled) Selves, if you sent love to someone and they've taken advantage of it - and you've been able to meet even that catalyst with love - then guess what, you've just "won" in the only way that matters.  Consider the example of Jesus on the cross, forgiving and loving those who put him there "for they know not what they do", and forgiving and loving those crucified next to him.  

There is also a great allegory about this by Isaac Bashevis Singer - a short story called Gimpel the Fool.  Gimpel is continuously being taken advantage of but remains a steadfastly decent, generous, kind, service-to-others soul; spiritually, he is the "winner" of all those interactions.  His love was not balanced by wisdom, but that's not the goal of 3D.  If he were real, he would have graduated to 4D with honors.

Clearly, if you're being taken advantage of, it makes sense to walk away - but to walk away with love, without bitterness or retribution; and if those feelings are there, then definitely they need to be met, within oneself, with love.

I agree that one should err on the side of acting respectful towards others to the best of their ability. However in my personal experience, forcing a loving state internally has only been detrimental to my long-term ability to express unconditional love. I have found it much more efficacious to sit with whatever emotion arises in the moment in non-judgment in order to better understand myself (yet I suppose this is an extension of unconditionally loving the self).

That's exactly right - by meeting your emotions with compassion, you are reacting to the catalyst in a loving way.  The most wholesome response, again, is love to all parties involved at all times; it does not have to be either /or (compassion to self or to the others in the situation).  

[Glow]

Just another perspective in the breeze. I don't see how it could ever be to early for the heart chakra to open. I believe a lot of humans are born with it open only to start guarding it and closing it as blockages in the lower centers develop due to trauma, or they forget their nature.

In my own case my heart chakra open well before any of the lower rays could gain steam but the heart actually pulled them along keeping me in the incarnation until the blockages could be dealt with.

heading out ` be back