COMMENTARY BY MARTI

THE POWER OF THE HEART

Our frontiers of knowledge have been expanded beyond all imagination. We have explored the vast unknown oceans of galactic space and penetrated the tiniest droplet in the human cell. We live in a world of extraordinary technological miracles, and yet, paradoxically, our own planet is becoming inhospitable to the very humans who have sought to master its mysteries. 

NATURE AS SOURCE 

Today this is happening not only in spite of  the changes in human evolution but to a great extent, because of  these changes. We have ceased to see nature as the source of all life, and now treat her primarily as a resource to be exploited for human gain. Our greatest failing is that we no longer fully understand the interconnectedness of all things. As the MAYAN LACANDON Shaman Chan Kin Viejo says so aptly:

“What the people of the city do not realise is that the roots of all living things are tied together.
When a mighty tree is felled a star falls from the sky.”

While we may not really know what consciousness is, we do know that it is as fundamental to the universe as space, time, and matter. We also know that we have gone in a few thousand years from deep heart energy to excessive mind play. The consequence is that when we cease to cultivate our heart energy, we lose our balance and sense of respect for the very life forces that assure our continual survival on this small fragile planet we call Earth.

GENEROSITY & ABUNDANCE

In ancient cultures, our connection to nature was always expressed through the heart. Generosity begins with the heart. A good heart is believed to lead to wisdom, deeper human companionship with nature, and a feeling of the presence of the divine in nature. In contrast, the mind and moral virtues are seen as an expression of will ruled by ego. We are reminded in the words of David Ignato in News from the Universe, Poems of 2-fold Consciousness:

“ I should be content to look at a mountain for what it is and not as a comment on my life.”

For our ancestors, the heart was the balancing point between heaven and Earth in the great circle of life. They practiced generosity as a means of maintaining that clear and healthy life force. 

For the CHINESE, « hsin » is the combination of heart, mind, soul, and spirit. The heart was seen as a feminine attribute and was seen as a source of true greatness. Hsin is awareness, a union of the eye and heart, which is likened to a navigator observing the stars while also watching the currents and wind.

WATER AS A SYMBOL FOR THE HEART

In Taoism, water is the symbol for the heart. Uncontaminated water is said to keep hearts pure and vision unclouded. Water is supple, it embraces the earth, bends to the forces around it while remaining so strong that it can wear down the highest of mountains. A drop of water will eventually cross hills and valleys to surrender into the force of the ocean and become part of all and everything. There is a wonderful West African saying in Tshi: 

“Every river that flows into the sea loses its name.”

Ancient EGYPTIANS believed that acts of importance were recorded in the heart. It is the heart and not the brain that is weighed on the day of judgement. Actions were judged by the quality of discerning emotions and not on the basis of knowledge.  Egyptians so highly valued the heart as the center of physical life and the symbol of eternity that the heart was the only organ that they left in their embalmed pharaonic mummies buried in the North African desert sands.

In Europe, GREEKS used the word caritas, sometimes translated in the gospels of CHRISTIANS as "charity,". This originally meant "dearness" or "caring", or as the French say, "chère." Caring for others is an intrinsic part of the power of love. And deep unconditional love is seen as the highest form of love. 

REALIZING THE SELF

Heart energy was also viewed as essential in ancient India. It is what the VEDICS call the deep far-reaching love of at-one-ness. The Mundaka Upanishads say: 

“The self is to be realized in one's own heart. It is manifest there as consciousness, which pervades the intellect and senses as butter pervades milk…”

When we care for ourselves and others, we will feel a sense of unity with the universe. Love and a deep peace are the result.

BALANCED CONSCIOUSNESS

In the deserts of the Fertile Crescent, the early ESSENES had a highly holistic view of the heart. They considered that the body had three main areas of strength: feeling, thinking and acting. The feeling body's highest power is love. The thinking body's greatest power is wisdom. The acting body's main function was to translate the love of the feeling body and the wisdom of the thinking body into action, which brings a sense of peace and harmony into the world. The Essenes understood that disease and health are integrally related to a circular and balanced consciousness of these functions, which are ruled first and foremost by the heart. 

Like the ancient Indian rishis and the Chinese sages, the Essenes considered loving thoughts to be far more powerful than either feelings or actions. They also believed that each individual thinking body is related to a planetary and cosmic body. In this way, humans are co-creators with a divine force; their thoughts help to embody and sustain the world. The Essenes observed, as did other early cultures, that when imbalances are present, it is usually where the feeling, often emotionally-charged body, tends to over-ride the thinking body. Both must work in tandem. When we step outside our real place in nature’s circle of life, fear is inevitably the result. Fear, in turn, generates ideas of « lack » and « over-abundance, » which, result in self-centeredness and egotism. 

NATIVE AMERICANS and other indigenous traditions understand this well. When we over-emphasize bodily feats and mental acuity as signs of achievement, we cannot fulfill our true psychic, or true sacred potential. To this day in the LAKOTA tradition, life is measured not by what has been accumulated, but what is given away. True generosity is generated by the heart, not the mind or ego. A Lakota giveaway is a time of celebration, gratitude for life and abundance and this brings happiness and a deep sense of belonging.

SANGA, A COMMUNITY OF SHARING

For BUDDHISTS, the practical application of the heart is sangha, an intentional community where harmony and awareness are shared. Buddhists say that the heart apprehends « the thing in itself », and through loyalty, purity, and discretion, comprehends the universe as a whole. This leads to the highest source of love: deep compassion for all sentient beings. 

The KABBALISTS speak of the Sefirah Tifereth, the place of the heart, or the inner eye where the individual is conscious of the needs of others. The heart is represented by the moon, and as in the Chinese tradition, this is seen as the feminine principle. Human wisdom is partially of the mind,  or intellect, but primarily of the heart. And knowledge is attained when we see through the eyes but understand through the heart. In the medieval tradition, PARACELSIANS extended this to say that the astral spirit is in the heart.

East and west

In ancient times, attitudes towards the body were important in understanding heart energy. In the Orient, the body was always seen as part of the spirit, which was vast and all-encompassing. In the West, in contrast, there was an attempt to localize the soul in the body, or to see it as distinctly separate from everything else. The GREEKS, for example, exalted the body for its beauty and proportions, but they rarely expressed its deeper abilities to engender spirit. 

The ROMANS saw the body as an instrument of strength and power, which could be used to conquer nations and to maintain political sovereignty, but they rarely encouraged its cosmic dimensions. 

MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANS disdained the body. They considered it as a barrier between humans and the divine.  This led to a deep sense of separation from our inner being and our understanding of how everything is interrelated. This, alas, has lead ultimately to the rise of colonialism, capitalism and the heartless exploitation of nature for profit.

HONORING THE CYCLES OF LIFE

In response to the modern environmental crisis, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, reminds us that the most important thing for humans is to focus on having a peaceful heart. Separation and grief are seen as forces that obscure the heart and break the flow of Earth and cosmic energy, which can only be renewed by returning to the spiraling circle of life and a deep sense of unity. It is likened to looking into a clear body of water where we can see the rocks and stones and fish below.

If harmful actions towards nature continue today it is because the human mind, by and large, rules the human heart, instead of the other way around. A return to nature as our teacher is a return to the heart and an understanding of who we are. As author Herman Hesse describes the Indian seeker Siddhartha:

“The river looked at him with a thousand eyes--green, white, crystal, sky blue. How he loved this river, how it enchanted him, how grateful he was to it! In his heart he heard the newly awakened voice speak, and it said to him: "Love this river, stay by it, learn from it." Yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. It seemed to him that whoever understood this river and its secrets, would understand much more, many secrets, all secrets.”

A deep respect and love for nature and all beings may be the only power that can help us to recover our split personalities, to develop a new language based on a return to heart energy, and to return to the spiraling circle. In the words of the South African writer Laurens van der Post:

“Love is the aboriginal tracker, the bushman on the faded desert spoor of our lost selves.”

The Vedic Sutras add an important precision to this, as Indian yogi philosopher Gurumayi Chidvilasananda says:

“Love, but do not get attached. Love departs the moment attachment forms. For attachment is a cover for claim and claim is an assertion of the ego. Love dissolves the ego. Love melts you into the divine. Love is the key.”

Pure love sheds attachment and maintains balance in the world.

SINGING THE SACRED SONGS

NATIVE AMERICANS say that when we have humbled ourselves to receive the power of love, we gain understanding and the force of positive action. They believe that a healthy planet can have a strong effect on our physical, psychic, and spiritual state. The validation of heart energy has to do with loving nature for herself and not for what nature can do for us. It’s about inclusivity, respecting all creatures from the all-seeing eagle to the tiny field mouse hidden in the grass. It is acknowledging an old UGANDAN proverb, which exists in countless cultures: "The Earth is mother of all." 

When we truly love nature, we will be overwhelmed with respect and gratitude. A tiny forest flower will glisten in the morning dew as majestically as a precision-cut diamond. 

Australian ABORIGENES call upon us to raise our voices and sing songs of love and gratitude to Mother nature, for they understand: 

“We don't sing the songs anymore. And when we don't sing the songs, the animals soon leave. That what we doin' to the world: lettin' nature go off to die. Because we don't sing the songs.”

THE PSYCHIC BIOCOSM

Heart energy is not about what nature can do for us, but about how Mother Earth nourishes our universal soul through her mere presence. It has to do with real caring for our planet, for our own Psychic Biocosm and for everything in it. It is based on the spiraling circle, and the deep underlying understanding that there is no redemption, just responsibility; no standing still, only evolving; no asking, only honoring and deep respect. 

Then our intrinsic message will be: cultivate the heart and sing songs of gratitude for life itself. Songs that honor nature and guide our evolutionary journey. Songs that create a landscape full of power and love.