The Heart of the Matter
The tragic disconnect between the head and the heart has caused, and is causing, unimaginable suffering, and it is on display for all of us to see by the world governing systems’ responses to Covid 19.
Rather than go over (again) how mass reactions of fear are now endangering us all, I want to return to what the spiritual adept, Hilda Charlton, said in like instances; “This is your opportunity.” Indeed, this is a true golden opportunity to look into our hearts and ask ourselves if we are living lives that are worthy of our souls. Virus or no virus, we do not have that much time you and I. Our lives are not even a blink in the eye of eternity, but sadly, we are no longer conversant with eternity. We are consumed by the narrative of the ego: its’ projects, its’ judgments, its’ endless distractions, and its’ “knowledge.”
Some millennia ago the “root guru” of Western Philosophy (Socrates) was declared by the oracle of Delphi to be the wisest person in Athens, precisely because he ever-affirmed that he knew nothing. When you are moved into confrontation with unknowing, you can make herculean efforts to protect your imagined self with all kinds of theories and explanations, or you can return to the pure heart; for the heart is all that is left when everything else is taken away. To turn back to the heart is to trust life and to share your life from the heart.
When the mind bows down at the altar of the heart, there is everything we’ve ever been looking for: peace, gratitude, and deep connectedness with everything and everyone. One’s entire being can become flooded with the waters of life, and the overflow is what you “do.”
My friends, being “right” is not enough. The Desert Fathers, who created sayings for the seven deadly sins labeled “anger” as “I am right.” Being right, being first, being vindicated, even attaining your dream, will only allow you to die happily ever after.
When the mind sinks into the heart, what to do becomes obvious, because you have been touched by what really matters. Suddenly the trees, the flowers, the winds, the animals, and yes, the people are alive to you. It is as if they smile and say, “Finally, you have come back to us.”
I used to wonder why the great devotee of Krishna, Uddhava, prayed to be born as a blade of grass in Vrindavan (the land of the heart). Now I see, that from the heart connection with everything and everyone, it does not matter what you are, because there is indeed only one of us through the miraculous dance of many. This is not a “philosophical truth” statement. This is given and maintained by Grace. When you ask, “Whose grace,” you have left the precinct of the heart. The shared heart opens us to community, to the earth community, to the heaven community, to forgiveness, to freedom, and to the greatest gift of love. If it takes a pandemic to push me to go there, I’ll take it.
There is a practice of allowing the mind to sink into the heart. We will be sharing it at the Manifestation Café on June 4 (7:30pm: https://vassar.zoom.us/j/95362951138)
and at the Hilda Charlton Peace Meeting on June 18 (Registration for Rick Jarow Peace Meeting 6/18/20 7 PM)
Until then (and always now), may the wings of our prayers fly like eagle’s and carry the words of our songs. And special remembrance through the spheres to our beloved Karen Fromer Blanc, who received the following transmission from Sai Baba that she shared with our Hilda Satsang one glorious evening: “Surrender to the moment in love and for love. For that is where God is, and the everlasting peace that you seek.”
