Do you live by your heart or your mind? In spite of my heart’s loving presence, my mind is ultimately in control — demanding the last word on everything. My heart waits patiently for me to redirect my focus to its all-encompassing wisdom. Sadly, I have betrayed my heart too many times and wandered lost down the corridors of logic’s limitation. Do you honor your heart as the captain of your vessel? Or do you attempt to make it subservient to the will of your mental ego? What does it feel like to truly have an open heart?
The Tibetan teaches that the heart orchestrates the path. In agreement, we declare that we’re heart centered. But most of us spend very little time orienting our compass to the heart’s messages. We ignore this vital Lighthouse of Guidance and beeline it to our lower minds to rationally think our way through life. Yes, we may dip into the hearts sagacity in moments of deep reflection. But these fleeting flashes barely hold sway over the mind’s tyranny. Attempts to be true to the heart’s vision are undermined by relentless thoughts that lure us into the prison of an obsolete logic — irrelevant to the emerging consciousness.
To cling to the lower mind’s "knowing" while turning our backs on the heart’s wellspring of wisdom presents a hardship to the soul who’s roots are in the heart — the true interface of heaven and earth. Since our destiny is to manifest heaven on earth, the heart is the ultimate gateway into the new consciousness. It shepherds us through the travails of transformation while cleansing and healing us in a sea of compassion.
Why have we given the logical mind so much credence and authority when it’s the heart that knows our best direction? Do we even know how to listen to the heart? Speeding through our days like the mind races through thoughts, we forget about the heart for weeks, even years. With its precious gifts to soul painfully neglected, an ignored heart becomes locked away — hardened in a prison of disregard. Then we wonder why we struggle with a subliminal undertow of free-floating grief that consumes our joy and its inherent pleasure which cannot be sustained without the heart’s platform of ecstasy.
Ultimately nothing can sever our connection to the heart. It’s the bridge to the soul. In spite of the mind’s dominance, joy emanates from the heart when least expected. We savor these precious bits of bliss and then resignedly return to the thought patterns that shrink our sense of possibility. We assume that joy is evanescent — a brief respite of delight from life’s drudgery.
It may be uncomfortable to dwell in the heart because its Field of Acceptance leaves us wary of the challenge of self-trust. We miss mental patterns of self-condemnation. What would we do without them? How will we know that we’re on the right track? These critical voices are the mental embodiment of childhood wounds based on karma. Strangely, we assumed that negative attention from parents meant that we were loved. So we gravitate toward judgment’s distorted focus — hungry for any self-reflection in spite of its castigating impact.
We don’t trust the heart’s unconditional love because it just doesn’t seem real. Messages of not-enoughness and unlovability hold the greatest clout. We use these denouncements as springboards for self-improvement. But human judgment-based mandates hurt the heart by overshadowing its pure instinct of unconditional self-love. We need to acknowledge the reflection from the heart’s mirror as our ultimate reality.
We’re not designed to grow through the punishing messages that constantly flood the mind. Humankind is challenged to withdraw credibility from mental accusations and perceive them as fading ghosts of the past. The obstinate habit of running to the lower mind for approval, permission, and credibility is not easy to break. But it’s absurd to ignore, discount and override the Divine Pleasure Bank — the heart — with its wellspring of powerful loving energy that fuels our core. The heart is the new terrain of evolution that reveals our destiny and encourages us to go for it.
To create an express highway to the heart takes discipline. We must use the will to trust the heart enough to build a bridge in our awareness that circumvents the logical mind’s rote negativity. We need to remind ourselves that we’re traveling down the wrong road when employing habitual thought processes to figure out the next step. Once we disengage from the mind, our attention can be directed to the heart for guidance.
The heart’s voice is subtle but always present. When the heart feels heavy/constricted it may be indicating that we’re overriding important soul needs. The more we discount the heart’s message, the more we become engulfed in feelings of depression and irritability. When the heart is light, happy and full, our chest expands/warms. The psyche calms down. There’s no need for agitation when we’re traveling in the best possible direction.
Sometimes we can’t even feel our heart. Dullness, deadness, numbness are the warning signs that we’re cut off from the heart — usually due to the pressure to safeguard our "sanity" from the heart’s unusual pathway. So, we have to pretend to feel the heart, make up its messages, and then honor these "fabrications" until we realize that the imagination is an effective link to the heart’s voice. Like priming the pump, soon the heart’s insight naturally flows. Its voice of acceptance and encouragement offers the most loving solutions to life’s dilemmas. The heart is amazingly responsive when we honor its messages. It immediately softens and cascades love — filling us with a profound sense of well-being.
The simple exercise of checking in with the heart to discern its environment — quality of presence — may seem rudimentary. But few people know how to feel their heart, much less decipher its messages. The will gives us the determination to hold the focus on the heart. What a joyous surprise it is when we begin to taste the wealth of guidance emanating from this place of greatest access to the Masters.
Our world would change dramatically if everyone aligned themselves with their hearts. We’d live in a state of true acceptance of all that is —judgment-free. We’d walk the most efficient pathway for the soul, revealed through the heart, with no wasted efforts in generic directions irrelevant to our individuated evolution. There would be deep respite from all mental assaults. Wars would cease. As the world practices and finally comprehends the true nature of Divine Love, we would finally trust the vast terrain of Joy.
The Tibetan approaches with his enormous wide-open heart streaming powerful rose Light in all directions. He teaches:
"The heart, a Vessel of Acceptance, is unable to assimilate/hold the dynamics of judgment that denounce aspects of self and others. It’s cosmically designed to pump unconditional Cosmic Love. Humankind has yet to embrace the experience of unconditionality. It practices a modified compassion based on requirements, however subtle — as if Source holds a list of prerequisites for worthiness. To receive the full impact of the heart’s power to shed Light on the Mystery, all judgment must be released. The heart experiences judgment as poison — humankind’s distorted perception of its spiritual essence.
"The Heart Beacon shows, while simultaneously creating, the Way. This brilliant vessel has the greatest capacity to embody Source’s driving Force. It’s the central intake valve for the absorption of Universal Love — the platform of wisdom’s genius. Humankind uses only a fraction of the heart because it tries to fill it with conditional beliefs. The heart cannot function through that restrictive filter.
"The energy in the heart moves in a kundalini spiral. Therefore, it cannot interpret the linear logic of mental conditioning. The lower mind creates boxes of impossibility because 99% of life is not logical, predictable or analyzable. When the energy flow needed by the heart is usurped by the lower mind, self is more vulnerable to a broken heart. Attachment to the lower mind distracts self from the opportunity to follow the heart’s directives that ease the path with compassionate insight and illuminate all the possibilities obscured by prison walls of negative thought.
"The environment of the heart is soft, nectar sweet, profound, brilliant, filled with rainbow colors. It’s unique intelligence lubricates the Divine Flow that generates a profound ease factor. The lower mind’s racket, like T.V. static, shreds the nervous system, bewilders the inner mystic, is repetitive, unimaginative, black and white, and limited by a hard edge that makes it difficult to absorb life force, chi. It breaks, rather than bends, under the challenges of transformational change. Surely the lower mind will not tolerate the new vistas so sweetly embraced by the heart.
"The heart holds the key to the emerging consciousness which springs from a highly magnetic field of compassion. The heart’s magnetic force creates the Magic of Love that unites all beings. Because the new paradigm is based in Unity, the heart is the central orientation point for today’s evolution. The lower mind’s matrix of duality will soon be obsolete as humankind is vibrationally pulled into the domain of the heart, the Realm of Oneness, that carries the soul through the portal to the world of advanced human beings.
"Because of its inclusive nature,the heart’s compassion changes humankind’s perception — paving the Way with crystal clarity. Create the bridge from the crown to the heart chakra — uniting wisdom and love. Trust the heart to lead self into the profound adventure of awakening into Oneness. Only the heart knows the Way. Bask in the Ease it brings to the restless soul who has finally found its way Home."
Next column will be in October2008. Moriah Marston, soul mentor in private psychotherapy practice since 1983, combines her tools of soul-based astrology and depth dream analysis with her intuitive blend with Ascended Master Djwhal Khul’s metaphysical perspective on karmic belief systems to her penetrating multidimensional approach to healing and transformation. Specializing in phone sessions for individuals & couples, she offers group intensives nationwide & is author of Soul Searching with Djwhal Khul, the Tibetan. 413-624-9606, Colrain, MA. moriah@transformationaltimes.com www.transformationaltimes.com.