Resting the Mind in the Heart

 

A very simple instruction found in the ancient Indian treatise on meditation, the Vijnana Bhairava, is repeated verbatim in the Orthodox Christian manual of prayer, the Philokalia: "Rest the mind in the heart." We meet here, in this brokenness, where all our pronouns dissolve into Thou. 

Rest the mind in the heart, until the path disappears. This journey from the mind to the heart may be twelve inches, or twelve thousand light-years. You decide.

The earth doesn't need capitalism or socialism. The earth needs to open its heart chakra. The sovereignty of the heart is the only real government, the kingdom of heaven within you.

At first you think your heart is just a blood pump. But as you rest in the valley at the tip of your breastbone, a mysterious warmth arises, then a glowing wholeness enfolds your entire body. After a time, your heart shines like the solstice sun. Your heart is not a symbol or reflection of that star in the sky above. That star is a reflection of your heart.

The nerves in the cardiac plexus pulsate with the same neuropeptide transmitters as our brain. But the radiance of the heart is hundreds of time greater than the energy field around the head.

The gentlest breath caresses the heart like a lover, and the heart responds by opening. The will of the heart is effortless yet ineffably powerful, infusing every cell in our flesh with the un-struck sound, anahatta, the primordial song that created the universe. Call it Shabda, Mantra, Logos, Word of God: the causeless gong of the heart chakra resonates through every galaxy and photon in the universe.

Flowering at the center of flesh, yet transcending the boundaries of matter, the bridal bower of the heart is not an abstract concept, or a metaphor. "Heart" does not signify anything but heart. Yet its atoms vibrate with glory overflowing, pressing out the very substance of grace from the cosmic Void.

The glory of the heart spreads an ever-expanding pavilion of forgiveness over your whole body. This luminous lotus-like canopy embraces the home, the city, the fields and forests, the planet. In the generous aura of your heart, minds estranged melt in friendship, conflict dissolves, sickness heals, and those who are ready to depart see their angels and loved ones approaching. Thus you serve all humanity simply by opening your hridaya, your heart chakra.

Under a momentary shadow of aloneness, you may feel that your heart is small; yet in that humble hermitage are many mansions. Your heart outshines you. Your heart is no longer in the body, the body is in the heart.

Your heart is so brilliant, it burns a black hole of purity through the core of every galaxy and every proton in creation. Fiercely beaming through time and space, the rays of the heart comfort your ancestors for seven generations past and to come. Your heartbeat threads each neuron to a star, entangling the farthest supernova in the wonder-woven fabric of divine beauty. Through the hologram of your heart, this human physiology becomes the sparkling garment of the universe.

Why not bathe in your heart? Now, with this very breath. Is there any deeper meditation, or purer wisdom, any fire more healing? Let your heart illuminate the planet, and behold your heart-light mirrored in the faces of both friend and stranger. I'm pretty sure this is why you are here.

Photo: Kristy Thompson