"There are many levels of the heart. And the human heart will break because it empathizes. The deeper heart... that heart is the one that looks at the universe, just as it is, in a non-reactive way and says, 'Ah so,' 'Yes'. And it includes your human heart which is breaking, but your identity isn't only with your human heart. Your identity is with a deeper, intuitive heart wisdom which is different. You don't deny the pain, but you don't get reactive to it.
The hardest state to be in is one in which you keep your heart open to the suffering that exists around you, and simultaneously keep your discriminative wisdom.... Once you understand that true compassion is the blending of the open heart and quiet mind, it is still difficult to find the balance. Most often we start out doing these things sequentially. We open our hearts and get lost in the melodramas, then we meditate and regain our quiet center by pulling back in from so much openness. Then we once again open and get sucked back into the dance.
So it goes cycle after cycle. It takes a good while to get the balance.... You have to stay right on the edge of that balance. It seems impossible, but you can do it. At first, when you achieve this balance, it is self-consciously maintained. Ultimately, however, you merely become the statement of the amalgam of the open heart and the quiet mind. Then there is no more struggle; it's just the way you are." Ram Dass
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| Parson's Point by Jon Wilkinson www.fogforestgallery.ca |
That is a wonderful quote. I’ve found that the connection between the heart that breaks and the “deeper heart” can be a beautiful and poetic one. All of human anguish and sorrow experienced by the human heart is the field on which we play the game of life. Perhaps mind is an extension of the heart and the way the field gains substance.
ReplyDeleteIt’s as if the deeper heart is watching and gathering the bits of learning we take away from the field into itself. The two hearts blend as the game progresses and there is a union of the two and the mind finds it’s solitude by floating on the endless sea of the heart.
Yes, whether we call it heart or awareness, we learn & really flourish by means above & beyond verbal-egoic reasoning.
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