Coralization at work
It occurs to me that, in all the time I’ve been speaking about vasanas, I haven’t spoken about coralization.
It’s very unlikely that any of us will have the time to become coralized and so this discussion has an aspect of being a little anachronistic, but perhaps an understanding of this side of things may help in gently pushing us towards processing our unfinished business.
I use the term “coralization” to refer to what happens to us when we don’t reduce our stock of vasanas. If, when we’re triggered, we act out, project onto others, or even beat ourselves up, we re-energize the original vasana, add a fresh layer to it, and reinforce its strength exactly as little coral organisms do when they attach to the main reef and add their bodies to the structure.
Other words that would work just as well would be petrify or concretize. In the case of both these words, something that was originally soft becomes hard. In the same manner, we too are originally soft and when we constantly add to our stock of vasanas by acting them out rather than processing them. we become hard.
Probably we’ve all seen cartoons of old fogeys, rocking in their chairs, and saying, “Oh, yes, I remember Jimmy Brown. He was that young feller who never knew when to…,” etc. They’re opinionated. They’re reduced to their memories. Their minds have narrowed down. They simply wander in the grooves of memory.
In a certain sense, they’ve become sclerotic in the nerves and senses, arthritic in the mind. All these are metaphoric ways to try to convey the impact of our vasanas or “sleeping volcanoes” over long stretches of time.
I’m sure everyone has listened to AA Michael, Hilarion, Saul, Matthew, SaLuSa and numerous other masterful voices encourage us to reduce our mental and emotional baggage. They’re telling us to, in my terms, source or flatten our vasanas. In terms of coralization, what is their point?
Well, from so many angles, the more supple we are in the times ahead, the better. If we are sclerotic or coralized, how are we going to flow with the new concepts that are going to be introduced soon? Sclerotic or coralized people don’t like change. They’re too set in their ways and beliefs and don’t much want to change with the times. Like blood vessels that have become clogged with fat (or whatever blood vessels get clogged with), they let very little energizing, oxygenating blood through.
Coralized people tend to be needy people. They have chosen to shut down more and more of their faculties and become less and less whole, complete, integrated, balanced and so on. So they often opt for a partnership with others that is based on collusion, neediness, and opaqueness. They enter into hidden agreements to hide their own faults. They support each other in remaining incomplete and under-functioning, a recipe for disaster. This also won’t serve us in the times ahead.
And finally, given that we are these ways when coralized, when the time comes that that tidal wave of love sweeps over us and calls on us to say “Yes!” coralized people may feel very uncomfortable, attached, and resistant. They conceivably might reach a threshhold of pain and suffering and say “No!” They want an end to the discomfort they feel in the face of love and openness. They cannot or will not follow the process through to its end and so they may not come with us.
So there conceivably can be a lot at stake if we simply continue to project our upsets on to others and add and add to our existing stock of vasanas. On the other side of the question, there is a lot to be gained from reducing our stock of vasanas. To go down, down, down through our stock, making vasana after vasana disappear, is to move ever closer to our original, childlike state, fit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven – which, by the way, we appear headed towards some time prior to the end of next year.
If anyone were to ask me, what’s the single biggest thing I could do to make mine an easy passage, I would say (pretending that I could ignore “love” for the moment) reduce your stock of vasanas. Complete your old business. However you do. Doesn’t matter how. Ho’oponopono, asking forgiveness, doing the “Work,” however you do it.
But come to peace with your life, with others in your life, with your past and your future. Reach a point of completion and wholeness if at all possible. We already know that you don’t need to reach a point of absolute wholeness. So there need be no franticness about it. But begin to move in the opposite direction from creating more new vasanas to reducing their number. I don’t think you’ll find any other investment of time and energy (except loving) that will pay a higher dividend.