Follow your Heart
I sometimes tell people to follow their hearts rather than give them advice. They almost never do. They follow their minds, which they often call their intuition. One FB teacher calls her mind “woman’s intuition.” For others it is advice received. For others it is a book or something a guru says.
You can watch someone who follows their heart. They glow. They are filled with life and yet there is a deep peace. The heart knows with utter certainty.
Then the mind descends. It is like a dark blanket. It settles downwards from the brain to the rest of the body. The happiness is gone. You can actually see the change in their faces, which becomes contorted with doubt, and even their posture changes. Confusion prevails, and then again begins a desperate search for signs or guides to the way, which hours before had been so perfectly clear.
Then there is utter lostness with only a few hours or days of mental “certainty.”
"They become like a starving person who has found a crust of bread on the kitchen floor and is so fixated on that discovery that they spend all their time looking for more fallen crumbs instead of standing up and walking a short distance to the dining room, where there is a nine course meal waiting for them.
"He/she asks, in agony, where the rest of the food is.
"Several people who care about them deeply hear their cry and tell them of two different paths they can take to reach the feast. But rather than take either path, they decide to read books about the best methods to find crumbs on the ground."
Yet, what to do? We each have to find our own way, in our own time.
"Then the mind descends. It is like a dark blanket. It settles downwards from the brain to the rest of the body. The happiness is gone. You can actually see the change in their faces, which becomes contorted with doubt, and even their posture changes. Confusion prevails, and then again begins a desperate search for signs or guides to the way, which hours before had been so perfectly clear."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. It is shocking how quick this descent into doubt seems to happen and in no time clarity is replaced with confusion. The process so trusted in earlier is weighed and found to be wanting in every way.
This was my experience just this morning. During this time it became so obvious to me that the mind can and will create doubt, yet all the while the Heart remained true to itself, unaffected, staying its course...
Thanks for sharing this Ed.
With Great Love,
Joan
Is there a difference between mind and heart? How can you know which is which? Surely all actions arise from love itself, then perhaps, the mind is simply getting in the way of seeing clearly?
ReplyDelete--Bernet Cook
Bernet, to answer your question is difficult because the path to this knowledge appears quite clear to me but it is not easy or quick, and few want to transverse it. Books are more interesting.
You want simple, three paragraph answers, but actually it requires a life-long dedication to meditation, having a good guru, and learning how to love.
I think God or Consciousness directs the whole process. But you have to meditate to learn all about emptiness and how the core you does not move when the mind or consciousness do move. This can be a long and tedious process.
You learn consciousness comes and goes, but you do not move. You are untouched by the comings and goings of consciousness. You learn that you have a sense of presence that comes from both introspection on your own existence, and learning how to love. You learn how to control the mind by watching it and manipulating it, until you can stop it instantly when thoughts arise, and stay in the heart.
Then awakening comes and everything gets a little easier.
But there are no simple FB-type answers to your questions. It is a matter of spiritual maturity. Most people want to "move on" when not a lot seems to be happening, or the happening is not dramatic enough, or becomes too filled with drama and emotional pain.
It took me 27 years before awakening, and another ten or so years before I started teaching. Ramana's post awakening sadhana lasted over 20 years. Robert wondered India 17 years after awakening before he taught.
Most people want to see completion of the search in under a year or they get restless and "Move on," to the next shallow hole they dig.
Not many people really awaken, although nowadays, many, many claim that their tiny experiences were awakenings. You see they do not have humble presentations and are filled with concepts.
thank you edji.
ReplyDeleteit is this constant battle
to stay here, in the heart,
with you.
i don't want to dig any more 'shallow holes'.
just sitting here with the guru.
nothing to figure out, nothing to understand. trusting 'consciousness directs the whole process'.
i'm convinced the garden of eden tale, the command from god not to eat from the 'tree of knowledge',
is a warning of the dangers of the discursive mind.
how many times has this mind ruined my peace, love, life?
the guru screams 'STOP IT!!'
he knows we'll never be free if
we don't shut it down for good.
that when we do, we'll stroll blissfully with him in the garden once again.
It seems that the FREE, the truly FREE are rare indeed.
ReplyDeleteThere are many who are merely conditioned to 'believe' they are free, but are not.
It would seem to me that when we know ourselves well enough that we could live without the need of beliefs, even the belief that we are free.
But then again, maybe this is just a belief that I have.
Love,
Joan
Brilliantly stated, Edji. So, so true, and funny, and sad.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janet C
edji, i have a feeling you've seen so many people come and go, so many looking to dig yet another
ReplyDelete'shallow hole' with you, that you're hesitant to invest totally in people until you're sure.
i love you
john