Heart and head need to find agreement

I'm a big fan of Jack Haas' book, "The Way of Wonder." Click on that link to a Facebook post by Haas and you'll be able to read it. For free.

Recently I came across an interesting comment by Chad Royer on a post on Haas' Facebook page. I don't claim to understand everything Royer says below, but maybe that's why I like what he said. Give it a read.

I wrote the following to a friend who posted on FB “Never let your head overthrow your heart.”  (This was shortly before reading your book.)  

I'd say the reverse is almost as true. We really cannot be whole with ourselves or anything else if we are not willing to do the work to sift through issues until our heart and head find agreement. The heart might need to slightly lead the way, but unless each treats the other as an indispensable and revered partner we are bound to be hiding or suppressing a big part of reality.

I personally go back and forth between believing my heart must take a slight lead or dominant role and thinking they ought to be equal revered partners of each other and then oddly I normally decide there is no actual difference between the two approaches. If both are treating the other as completely revered/trusted partners they will listen to the other until a consensus if found and that will be the nearest thing to truth for that situation and moment in time.

At this point another friend asked, "Perhaps the more significant question: Who is this “I” you speak of who goes back and forth between your head and your heart?"  To which I replied:

This probably will not make any sense to anyone else, but I view this “I” as my Experiencing and Integrating Mind (EIM) from which my thinking (head) and emotions/feelings (heart) originate. My thinking and emotions are the result of this deepest and oldest self (EIM) experiencing and trying to integrate itself into the world it experiences.

Oddly, in order to fit into its surroundings and world that it intuitively knows it is hopelessly an inseparable part of our EIM has to adopt the collective paradigms of our clan and culture, which are mostly unconsciously agreed upon illusions. It starts to do this from a very young age with emotions, well before we develop any reliable thinking or reasoning, as we figure out what leads to feeling secure or scared and otherwise good or bad in our family/preschool/etc environment.

Later we are taught how to reason and view things from our culture and clan’s perspective. Sometimes our emotions and/or reasoning do rebel against part or all of our culture’s perspective/paradigms but we are still stuck in them if we are fighting for or against them.

Ironically, as our original, oldest and deepest self (EIM) is experiencing and integrating ourselves into our world it is tragically writing itself mostly out of the script/picture because the emotions and reasoning required to fit into our cultures paradigms are actually blocks/barriers from experiencing true reality.

I’m not a big fan of true self and false self lingo because if we are operating out of what is meant by our false self then that is what we are and a real part of our reality at that moment. At the same time the traditional meaning of the concepts of true self and false self might be helpful, compared to my own mumbo jumbo, if anyone is actually trying to understand what I am saying.  Basically what I am saying is our true self (EIM) creates our false self/ego in order to fit into the world we find ourselves.

It does this because this EIM/true self/image of God within each of us is the part of us that knows we are unavoidably a part of our surroundings and everything else. Being a part of something inescapably means we are vulnerable to the fate of that which we are a part.

We intuitively, through our emotions bolstered by our reasoning, realize the last thing we want to be is vulnerable. As such, we hide and deny our true self in order to try to fit into our world safely. In the process, generally without realizing it, we try to make ourselves less vulnerable at the expense of others by shifting our inherent burden, which is the creation and living out of our false self. And since most of the world operates out of this paradigm any vulnerability/weakness exposed is generally a target to receive another’s burden, reinforcing the need to hide and deny our true self with its known vulnerability.

We generally do not try it unless we are out of options to hide and deny it, but everyone’s greatest yearning is to get to be with their own true self and experience the world through it. Since our true self has created our false self by developing emotions and thinking to try to fit into our world, the path back to our original/true self is to evaluate/contemplate these emotions and thoughts/concepts from their source within, our deepest/original/true self.

And this process of contemplation/evaluation always consists of a gentle interplay between the heart (emotions) and head (reasoning) until they align into an epiphany of sorts from their common source within for at least that moment when that source or true/deepest/oldest/original self is experiencing and present/whole with its surroundings. This is of course commonly described as letting go, because it is the head helping the heart or the heart helping the head to let go of block/barriers to our true self.

If we go yet deeper we actually find this “I” or true/deepest/original self vanishes into union with everything else (including the past and future) to the extent we are successful in letting go of our false self/ways of the flesh/ego/shell/emotional and mental blocks.

To whatever extent we are successful in this letting go process at any given moment we will discover we have removed what keeps us separate or lost or broken (off) from complete union/communion. This is what Jesus was alluding to when he would talk about he and the Father being one and only doing his Father’s will, and is how Jesus was in this sense fully human and fully divine, after relinquishing all of his false self/ways of the flesh/ego/shell/emotional and mental blocks. It is also what the Buddha was alluding to when he said “Actions do exist, and also their consequences, but the person that acts does not.”

To the extent we are not using our emotional and mental faculties to protect ourselves and seek advantages for ourselves and our group we will be united with God (The Entirety). And we will feel united, which is bliss. We will still have this creating part of us within, but we will know it is a small indistinguishable part of The Creator, and we will accurately recognize this as our Source.

Unfortunately, I am not implying I spend much of my time being very successful in this letting go process. Unconsciously adopting the opposite as the wise approach I started out as someone almost entirely and exclusively committed to emotional and mental blocks with their commonly resulting behaviors, including the frivolous pleasure seeking and worldly success since meaningful enjoyment only comes from some variety of union.

Through this approach becoming repeatedly untenable and an enormous amount of luck/good fortune/grace, including great people wanting to be helpful and viable paths to a better way, I have stumbled into some mystical adventures that at times bring great clarity, when I successfully surrender to the letting go process. When considering the tremendous amount of grace I have received and how guarded I still am most of the time though my life is still mostly only a shell of what it could and can be

Comments

[al]

Hi Brian...much love this solstice and always. In my humble view, the quintessential query is offered in this narrative: [At this point another friend asked, "Perhaps the more significant question: Who is this “I” you speak of who goes back and forth between your head and your heart?" To which I replied:]

It would be a wonderful synopsis for you to compile a number of unique replies to this question from your readers/bloggers. Thanks and many blessings.

[vinny]

Sant-mat has done great disservice to people by presenting before them half-baked truths.
Unified field of consciousness can be accessed by numbing the mind. Mind can be easily numbed by breath control. Forget Pranayama , even simple slowing of breath starts numbing mind.
Yoga includes sant-mat , sant-mat does not include yoga.
Proof: Since time immemorial Yogis are teaching "Naad Yoga" / Yoga of Sound current.
Sant-mat never talks about "Breath Control " to numb mind , it only shows the insecurity of Sant-mat gurus. Yogis have classification for these sant-mat/ sufi people . Its called Bhakti Yoga / Yoga of devotion but yogis do tell people that Bhakti Yoga is not everything. It must be balanced by breath-control.

[Jen]

... "our true self (EIM) creates our false self/ego in order to fit into the world we find ourselves"

Yes, its not easy being our genuine self especially if we are supersensitive and don't like conflict ... and yet its very rewarding when we do step out of our comfort zone and it works.

Its such a game, this world and we can play it the best we can with integrity, watching our thoughts, triggers and our reactions, being an observer.

Observing and then letting go, the surrendering process. This is the answer!

Really nice post, going to read it through a few times more... thanks.

[Spencer Tepper]

Just as there is no definable God, there is no true self.

Strip away one layer, and there before you is another.

So how can any layer be "you?"

Clothes don't actually make the man.

Unity is the answer. So that's not this, it's not that. It's not you. It's not me.

All of that changes and evaporates.

And if you are very lucky, it happens every day. That's what meditation is for.
If anything can be said to be real, it is only the Sound.

[vinny]

Akhand Mahayog : If death of disciple occurs during yogic practice , he starts the journey from that level of consciousness in next lifetime. Akhand means continuous / perpetual without interruption.
No-one can absorb in sound without numbing mind. For numbing mind , Akhand Mahayoga.

[Spencer Tepper]

The unity, the integration of mind and heart cannot be achieved by mind or heart, by critical thinking or sentiment.

Because critical thinking can only conjecture about the answer, and the mind's logic is hopelessly limited and twisted by its own limited experience, conditioning and education. The mind, without our consent, almost always moves to justify wherever we happen to be; our beliefs, our politics, our habits, our existing views. Rarely do we give up a sacred opinion through reason, unless we are paid to do so, or are threatened. Then, like Hitler youth, we adopt that view as if we had created it ourselves, we own it as fact, as if it were a part of nature, a reality.

Reason is nothing more than a prostitute who will assume any position for a fee. And those who rely upon reason alone are his servants.

The heart is moved by sentiment and can readily be deceived by emotional appeal, the victim of exploitation.

Unity is achieved by going beyond both, to that place from which both are projected.

And that deconstruction of these false and artificial constructions is the practice of meditation.

Then we look upon mind and heart as gift wrap. Elegant coverings for the true gift within which we have found and enjoy.

[Turan]

"This probably will not make any sense to anyone else, but I view this “I” as my Experiencing and Integrating Mind (EIM) from which my thinking (head) and emotions/feelings (heart) originate. My thinking and emotions are the result of this deepest and oldest self (EIM) experiencing and trying to integrate itself into the world it experiences."

I always find any talk of 'head and heart' a bit of a turn-off. Thinking, emotions and feelings and mind all originate in the brain (ref to the brain sciences). No doubt when the brain (head) through perception generates emotion then it may be felt in the heart area (and also the gut) but it is not its origin.

And the references to (integrating) mind which is also an aspect of the brain. Mind simply being accrued information that is constantly being updated. It is perhaps our automatic reactions to situations, to perceptions that react from our store of information due to being unaware of the brain/mind processes that is the main problem - perhaps our only problem!

[777]

That is pretty good analysing

Where contemplation/meditation ( it's a wave ) is a strong help
is in balancing between these two and more
Specially the Stop Thoughts part
is flabbergasting and part of when Charan said :
Between the 6th and the 7th chakra
That's where the real Path begins :
2 cm equal to lightyears, impossible to grep but
do-able by HIS Love and Grace
No other way to lose all hypocrisy

When Gurinder was appointed I had doubt too
and until I saw and clearly saw:
"No Hypocrisy in there - Wow"

[777]

Hi Karim

Perhaps it's quite arrogant to reflect even
on HIS attributes

I woulds be quite happy to stay as I are
with Charan's attribute of "It ever grows" included

The ultimate perfect for me can wait - HE killed me almost
already with HIS Words
So, "grow" by tiny bits please

Also : How can something stop growing when there is no end
The Holy End is DYNAMIC, not static

We follow the incersed Fibonacci rule with no end
and each cm the amplitude doubles, triples, quadruples

And then reflect the Jap Ji and what follows

Islands within spheres - How can we graps all that beauty

It's a little bit like : You are in Love
with a certain Lady : . . The others can wait . . . or in a way they are already included

OMG
so out of topic

Great to be a witness of all that

777