Heart
The precious human heart, not only pumps the life force through our veins and keeps us physically alive in the gross realm, but it is also the storehouse and experience of our emotional activity. It is through how our heart feels that we discern if something is good or bad, positive or negative. Beyond this, the heart is where deep listening happens. In this respect it is our connection, or portal, to that which lies through, within and beyond that which is finite in nature. Here we are in the subtle and causal realms. You could say that our immortality is accessed through our heart, when we listen deeply enough. When we listen deeply enough, the experience of which requires a consistent meditative practice, the concept of listening through our analytical mind relaxes, allowing it to drop down into our deeper, clearer sense of awareness. At this level of listening we are simply that; pure awareness. And it’s at this level of awareness we become more premonition prone in that our heart can sense and feel things way before our reactive mind.
We are born with an open heart that is totally egocentric. The baby is all about herself, but her heart is wide open to receive the nurturing care of love that fuels her growth. As he develops he learns to take into consideration those around him and in doing so the heart may remain as open, open more, or close a little, depending on how he interprets his experiences from a more ethnocentric perspective. With continued self-enquiry, and from within an environment, or nature, that supports it, she will continue to evolve and grow to take on a more worldcentric view of life.
From the egocentric view we are all about our self. From there we mature into the ethnocentric stance where we evolve to now take on the capacity to care about others in our family, in our community and maybe even our country. At this level it is likely that we may exclude those of a different color, race, sex, creed, etc. But as our hearts mature and our love and care for all that is expands, we evolve into a worldcentric view where we begin to care for people of all color, race, sex and creed. We also take on the ability to care for the planet and future generations and situations we cannot yet perceive. From a worldcentric perspective we are advancing our stage of ethical development to include the notion of an ecologically sustainable environment that nurtures and encourages the growth of all living things on our planet. Beyond this level of growth we can expand into a kosmocentric view of the world where we no longer live the drama of an ego encapsulated mind. From here we get the sense that we are living for the whole cosmos and are moving toward an “as-yet-unmanifest” higher potential. At this level the ego personality has long been realized as a figment of divine imagination and ultimate freedom from the mind has been achieved – we now live in deep, pure Awareness available through the portal of the heart.
But we have to GROW through these stages. We cannot just read about a world or kosmocentric level of perspective and think that we can now live it. It has to be reached by growing through all the previous levels – we have to intrinsically “realize” it for our self in order for it to be authentic. In order to do this we have to learn how to change our knee-jerk emotional reactions into skilful responses.
Emotions carry data and information to us about our situation. They are an aspect of the 6th sense. Just as we know it would be silly to get angry at a smell we don’t like, we need to realize it’s just as silly to react violently to an emotion. We need to change how we interpret and perceive the information we are experiencing. In the way of Mondo Zen’ philosophical re-indoctrination, anger can instead then be viewed as deep caring and intense clarity, fear as deep interest and opportunity, anxiety as opportunity and new beginnings etc.
Relationships play a beautiful role in the development of the maturity of our emotions. So when we look to the quality of our relationships we receive an indication as to the level of our emotional maturity, or intelligence. Do they carry the qualities of openness for sharing and understanding? Or are they reactive and closed off? Is it ok to share your inner desires and dreams? Are you challenged in a way that encourages your creativity and inspiration, or in a way that seeks to shut it down? Do you let people shut you down? Do you surround yourself with positive, open minded people? How does your body react to the relationships in which you live? Are you confident, calm and relaxed in your interactions with people?
Our experience and response to relationships illustrates our relationship to our self; for example how loving and nurturing we are to our self can be reflected in how loving and nurturing our relationship is with our spouse. Take a look at yours… do you like what you see and how you feel in the company of that person? And if you haven’t got one, look into the reasons why not and how long it’s been. You certainly do not have to have a spouse or intimate relationship to experience love, and often time to ones’ self is a mandatory part of psychological development. But because we’re an evolving, tribal creature in an evolving cosmos, it is in our nature to gravitate toward company, communities and groups in order to expand and grow in all areas of life. And we need to learn how to do that openly and lovingly in an emotionally mature way that allows each person the experience of their unique qualities.
The Life Formula philosophy therefore sees the heart as an integral aspect of an evolutional process that requires healthy interaction with others for its growth. During these workshops we learn to feel our way through the heart and come to more skilful ways of responding to life’s challenges. Beyond this, it is the goal of this teaching to realize the embodiment of our awareness and to awaken to the notion that we have feelings and emotions, but that we are more than these feelings and emotions. In this way, you’re emotions can be your liberation!