Saturday, August 29, 2015

Listening With My Heart – Part 2

Last week I wrote of the program on LinkTV called “Global Spirit.” It is a program that “…mixes evocative film segments with deep discussion, [and] takes viewers on a mind and soul-expanding journey, exploring the relationships between ancient wisdom traditions, diverse belief systems, world religions, metaphysics and modern science.”
I quoted one of the participants in a recent program, “Uncle” Angaangaq, an Eskimo-Kalaalit shaman, healer, and carrier of the Qilaut drum. He referred to the longest most complicated journey a person can take is the trip between the head and the heart. I went on to discuss what a wonderful sentiment that was and how I had experienced that in my life – outdoors being a part of nature.
I shared recently in my weekly meeting of A Course In Miracles (ACIM) about listening with my heart as I work in my yard. Our property is almost an acre, has a wet-weather creek that flows through it, and backs up to the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area (an 80,000-acre preserve owned by Tennessee).
During the meeting we discussed the issue of thinking with our heads. Cerebral. Viewing the world I see through my physical egoic eyes, interpreting what I see through the filters of my egoic thoughts, processing those egoic thoughts through my egoic filters, and pretending I am being impartial and rational. What a joke!
While I was out in the yard cleaning up the creek, I had, once again, a sense of being simply a part of my environment. I was not the “master” of my little corner of the world. I was just another being full of life just like the fire ants, beetles, worms, frogs tadpoles, water striders, rabbits, moles, gophers, and a variety of other critters. I was not a user of my environment, but a part of it.
It is an exhilaratingly calm sense of being at One with myself and my surroundings.
I had become aware of a sense of Oneness that I was absorbing – not thinking about. I was experiencing absorption through my heart-sense. I was not “doing” rational thinking through my mental capacity. It reminded me of taking medication. I was absorbing medication through my skin [aka: heart] rather than by injection or oral dose [aka: head].
When I process information through my thinking, I’m in my Ego. Granted, it may be my “higher” mind, but it is still of my ego. This can lead me to very dangerous places – namely, the place where I believe I’m right. And, if I believe I’m right and you disagree with me, then by definition you are wrong.
That’s a dangerous place for me to be.
It reeks of separation rather than Oneness. It keeps you “different” from me. It reeks of defensiveness and justification rather then acceptance and unity. It reinforces my ego’s (Felix) sense of duality – good/bad, right/wrong, spiritual/non-spiritual, appropriate/inappropriate – all of which requires egoic judgment on my part. Again, that is a dangerous place for me to be.
Perhaps it is a dangerous place for you to be as well.
I believe we have all experienced this sense of knowledge through absorption rather than through rational deduction or inference. We meet people that we “just know” we connect with. We meet people that are just the opposite. We find ourselves in places that fill our hearts with calm and belonging, although we cannot explain it. We also find ourselves in places where we are simply edgy. Somehow we “know” it to be so. It’s absorption rather than rational thinking. It’s intuitive rather than logic. It’s a feeling I get many times during an AA meeting: a sense of Oneness, openness and acceptance in the presence of a Reality I could not have imagined 28 years ago.
I also believe I can invite and develop more of that heart-based reality in my life. I desire it very much – but am afraid of it at the same time. After all, I’m the intelligent guy who used to drink a fifth of vodka a day and had to have alcohol in my system 24-hours a day in order to feel normal. And never once did it occur to me that that was rather abnormal.
So, I have a first-hand, visceral understanding of the games Felix can play on me. And I am always aware of that.
Relax and enjoy the most difficult journey you’ll ever take – the trip that will take you from head-thinking to heart-absorption. Simply practice being the observer of your thoughts and, in that stillness, listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit.
Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.
Don
#5 Aug 2015
Copyright 2015

PS: The website to Global Spirit is [ http://www.cemproductions.org/globalspirit/   and click on “Programs.”]

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