Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Living in the Deeper World
Stay calm, serene, and self-possessed while fully active — controlling and redirecting feeling rather than being controlled by it — by acting from a ‘deeper world’ of mind that is not disturbed by outer confusion.
Aim for serene-and-fully-active, not detached. The rule: let no feeling possess you — but don’t suppress it either. When a feeling rises, take hold of it and redirect it: throw your whole soul into something you want to accomplish, and the unwanted feeling fades. Lift strong emotion into a higher expression and enjoy it more. Act from a deeper, steadier interior place that outer confusion can’t easily reach. In trouble, keep poise instead of feeding it with more trouble-feeling — you’ll pass through wiser and stronger.
What it is
Larson’s teaching on inner stillness while fully engaged — being, as he says of the master mind, “strong, joyous and serene under every circumstance.” It is not detachment or withdrawal; it is a governing calm at the centre of activity.
He locates it in the depth at which you live: “When the will is strong, you live and exercise self-control in a deeper or interior mental world, and you look out upon the confusions of the outer world without being affected in the least by what takes place in the external.” The practical heart is emotional self-mastery: not the suppression of feeling, but refusing to let any feeling possess and rule you — taking hold of it and redirecting it.
“Emotion is one of the most valuable factors in human life… but should never become a ruling factor.” And in trouble specifically: “the person who retains poise and self-control in the midst of trouble will pass through it all without being seriously affected.”
The Method
- Decide that no feeling will rule you. “We must not permit any feeling whatever to take possession of us.” This is the keystone — possession is the enemy, not emotion itself. When anger, hurt, despondency, grief, or excitement rises, notice it as something to govern, not obey. (Larson: each of these, indulged, “weakens the will.”)
- Redirect, don’t suppress. “Do not give in to any feeling or desire until you succeed in directing that feeling or desire as you like. Feel only the way you want to feel, and then feel with all the feeling that is in you.” Lift the energy: “whenever you feel the touch of some sublime emotion, try to direct the force of that emotion into a finer and a higher state of expression… you will enjoy the pleasure of that emotion many times as much.”
- Use the redirect-into-an-aim move under bad feeling. (From Ch. XIX) “Whenever you feel the way you do not wish to feel, begin to think deeply and in the most interesting manner possible, of those things that you wish to accomplish… throw your whole soul into those new directions, and you will soon find your undesired feelings disappearing.”
- Act from the deeper world. Place your will and self-control “as deeply in the world of your interior mental feeling as you possibly can.” From that depth, outer confusion doesn’t reach you: “the stronger the will, the more difficult it is for anything to disturb your mind.”
- Hold poise through trouble, not by avoiding it. Don’t feed trouble with more trouble-feeling (“the more trouble we feel in the midst of trouble, the more troublesome it becomes”); retain poise and “pass through it all… much wiser and stronger for the experience.”
- Let serenity be a mark of mastery, not passivity. The master mind is serene and fully active and improving; poise is the steady base from which you do more, not an excuse to disengage.
Source & Lineage
Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912): the deeper-world poise and emotional-mastery teaching of Chapter XII (“The Development of the Will”), the serenity of the master mind in Chapter XVIII, the redirect-feeling method in Chapter XIX, and poise-in-trouble in Chapter XVII.
The theme is also central to Larson’s Poise and Power and The Pathway of Roses. Christian D. Larson (1874-1962). → (larson christian d).
Common refinements
Suppression dressed as poise. “Let no feeling possess you” is easily misread as “feel nothing.” Larson explicitly wants emotion directed and enjoyed, not killed. If you’ve gone numb, you’ve overshot.
- Bypassing. Using “serene under every circumstance” to skip grief, avoid conflict, or deny that something is wrong is a misuse; poise is meant to coexist with honest response and firm action.
- Forcing calm. White-knuckled “calm” is just suppression with tension. The redirect-into-an-aim move is gentler and more effective than clamping down.
- Confusing poise with passivity. Larson’s serene mind is the most active and improving; the calm is a base for doing, not for disengaging.