When an open heart implies chaos

[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.