Thursday

Heart Space


The Heart Center is a very real neurological matrix in the body, which is also a focus of electromagnetic and spiritual energy, as significant in our intelligence as the brain. The following quotes and videos touch on the practice of shifting awareness from the brain to the heart, opening deeper levels of human creativity and communion. These statements come from spiritual masters, philosophers, artists, poets, physicists, and medical researchers, both ancient and modern.

"The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body, not only envelopes each cell of the body but extends in all directions into the space around us. IHM Research suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." (Dr. Rollin McCraty, Institute of Heart Math)

"In the mid-1970s, the benchmark Framingham Heart Study found that suppressed anger could help predict the incidence of heart disease." LINK

"The souls ability to nourish itself lies in the heart." (Aristotle, one of the founders of Western philosophy)


"Let the mind descend in  to the heart." (Philocalia, Eastern Orthodox classic on Prayer of the Heart)

"After sunset, having asked the help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you down on a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing, keeping the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,' connected with the breath." (The Monks Callistus & Ignatius, Directions to Hesychasts, 14th C. Orthodox)

"Prayer is constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining."(ibid.)


“Breathing out and breathing in, relinquish your mind and enter your heart, the lotus where the energy that creates the universe flows”. (Vijnana Bhairava, Medieval Yoga scripture of India)

Hridayeh chitta-sanghattad drishya-svapa-darshanam: "When the mind merges into the heart, one perceives the true nature of the external world as the dreamlike projection of consciousness." (Shiva Sutras, Kashmir)

"If the mind remains in the Heart, the I or ego which is the source of all thoughts will go. Then the Self, the
Real Eternal I, alone will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there is the Self." (Ramana Maharshi, Vedanta Master)

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am. I am. I am." (Sylvia Plath, poet)


"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know." (Pascal, Enlightenment mathematician)


"
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." (Marc Chagall
, 20th C. Russian painter)

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." (Thomas Carlyle, 19th C. English humanist)


"Don't dismiss the heart, even if it's filled with sorrow. God's treasures are buried in broken hearts." (Rumi, Islamic Sufi poet)

"When the bud breaks, it becomes a flower. When the heart breaks, it becomes divine." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, contemporary master of yoga & breath)