The path of the heart (2)

From Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

“Calvin and Hobbes” is my favorite cartoon and I felt the above image depicts somehow the path of the heart. I will go into the ‘elaboration’ now. There is the belief that the path of the heart is a ‘lovey dovey’ type of journey. In the Brahma Kumaris, “Baba is my everything” is one popular BK song expressing that emotion. That belief is further from my experience.

The path of the heart; when you have been conditioned to perceive everything through the mind, is not a flowery, baby, baby I love you oh yeah! path. It requires a lot of courage to ‘die alive.’ You (what you think you are and protect) are dying while experiencing all the hellish surrounding and emotions inside and outside and like Hobbes (Calvin’s stuffed tiger) you see yourself without a firm ground to stand up.

Life has taken me away from the ‘normal’ path of having 3.15 kids (according to some stats ) a big dream house, a wife and a dog… while ‘making at least 6 figures,’ of course. I had the potential to fit in rather nicely in that. However, Life has given me the necessary ‘successful’ experiences for some time (Some of which I have shared through these articles) and then took away the candy before getting painful cavities, which ‘normal’ people have learned to withstand or to look for a ‘doctor’ or ‘expert’ role to solve their issues. However, “I” did not like when the candy was gone. “I” fought back just to find that “I” was throwing punches at myself and needed to heal those wounds.

I know what it feels to be a “Captain America” or better yet, “Batman” and the sacrifices made to redeem yourself in the name of some wonderful ideal. That is a time of struggle, fight which consolidates ego.

Then, comes the time when you are in ‘limbo.’ Nothing moves on the outside, but many things happen on the inside and you would like for the Drama of Life to move quickly, but not… it has its own timing and then I have to learn to be patient with the rules of duality.

Unlearning everything takes time, just as learning does. “Limbo” time is that needed space for assimilation which could take a long time. The ego starts to collapse. It does not like to wait.

To spice things up, there are karmic accounts to settle. There are inner battles to watch. There are family ties to untie, there is emotional, physical and psychological suffering to heal. There is even a point when you ask yourself: When is this all going to end? It feels as if Life is a very long toboggan, and you are going down all the time in it, and the only cheering “positive” thought is: “I have to endure.”

I had a talk with my friends Mathias and Miguel, one time about this. I told them: “The only thing that makes me put up with this is the curiosity to find out what is at the end of that toboggan. I just want to see that.” Mathias then told me: “ But then the picture wouldn’t come out right once you get there! To endure, to resist the journey does not translate into a smile at the end of the toboggan!” And then, Miguel said: “ Miguel does not say- I am enduring. Miguel says: “Miguel is joyful.” (that is his usual phrase) Yes.. I get the ‘picture.’

The heart becomes strong but also pliable. You perceive Life with other set of glasses and find the illusion behind the pursue of happiness. The mind is set up to divide people into different countries, different cultures, traditions, beliefs, hang ups, etc. The mind forgets that we are all people, and beyond that a whole unity with Life itself. Nature provides a beautiful river and then “successful people” provide businesses to collect drinkable water on one side, and to dump garbage on the other. That is the sort of craziness going on! But yet some “smart one” may say: “We don’t care. We have technology to purify water” but their narrow vision does not see all Nature, animals and plants in that river, which are living in it. All of them have a direct impact in our livelihood. How do you perceive that unity? How do you see that all pieces are necessary to solve the puzzle? That greedy, narrow centered vision which only believes and thinks in profit as the means to purchase things and equate that with obtaining happiness, is completely in the mind and out of it!

So, the question could be, at the end of this what is in for Avyakt7-NG a.k.a Ahnanda? Perhaps marketing himself on the web to become an instant guru for the ‘people’? or to sell widgets like most everyone else to make it through life? That is not the plan, as I understand it. (It could change though. Life is change)

Ahnanda is getting prepared to teach children! How about that? I don’t even have children or a wife for that matter, to practice those skills. As a matter of fact, Ahnanda may be a Physical Education teacher! Can you imagine? Putting up with ‘all of that’ ‘just’ to teach children!! (ego pops-up like a jack-in-a-box toy) Pop! goes the weasel.

Perhaps it is a school for rich children so “i” can make lots of money, right? Nope. It is a school for “starseed children.” Also known as “crystal children,” including “indigo children, ” “rainbow” and the like.

What I understand is that these “unique” children are typically visiting the offices of psychiatrists and the likes, being drugged up with ‘medicine’ for they are completely misunderstood. In BK terms, these kids are “golden age” material without even ‘making any effort’ at all but yet suffering. They are just born like that, like Krishna. ( Doesn’t that story sounds like Professor X’ role in the X-men movie? or even Brahma Baba’s role in the beginning of the ‘Yagya’?) Therefore, they need some sort of ‘middle man’ between their side and this side of ‘real’ Life; otherwise, they may end up in mad houses. That is where “I” come into the ‘picture.’ See? The required teaching skills for these children is not aligned with the BEING of a ‘normal’ person who is used to the conditioning of society. How can you offer care, love and understanding for their development? By taking a master class on-line? By getting a Ph.D in Education from Harvard? By raising the tuition and foster competition with other institutions? That paradigm is gone. How about by ‘dying alive’? Now we are talking.

Did I ever sign up to this? Nope. (There comes Hobbes again: “The problem with new experiences is that they are so rarely the ones you choose”) But that sounds like fun. It is not a problem. That is my ‘glorious purpose’ and the path of the heart of sheer exploration is taking me there, through finding that taste for Life.

If I have to put all of these experiences into a nutshell, I’d say: From a respectable “somebody” once upon a time, into a caring “nobody.” Let me share a secret: “Nobody” is necessary to break the shell of self absorption and to cease thinking only about ourselves. Moreover, while society and some religions will teach us to become somebody in this life or the next one, the gist of spirituality is to peel off the skin of that onion until it gets to the last layer. What remains? Nothing at all. Nobody. Get the idea? Though, in the process you may shed some tears. Ego is like an onion after all: It is used to spice up a life experience with that distinctive pungent smell and taste, but once you have the courage to peel it, there is nothing to it. 🙂

P.S: If you resonate with the “starchild” concept, here you may find some needed info.

The path of the heart- Part 1

After so many experiences in Life, we may wonder: What is the purpose?

From that question, many movies have been made. Nevertheless, it is not about the usual plot of “good vs evil” with sound effects, but the personality and emotions of the characters which could lead us to some interesting realizations. I will use the character of “Loki the god of mischief;” a recent Marvel Comics series, to elaborate this article.

In the first episode, Loki was shown some ‘highlights’ of the movie of his own Life. He finds about his violent nature and he says: “The first and most oppressive lie ever uttered was the song of freedom. For nearly every living thing, choice breeds shame and uncertainty and regret.” His words have meaning, but his emotion will show more. Through that line, Loki was trying to justify his attempt to control and dominate the Earth. It was another lie, but this time to himself. Once Loki was able to see the complete movie of his own Life until the “end of the file” (death) was reached, he realized how his attempt for glory and fame wasn’t a “glorious purpose” after all (he uses that catchphrase all the time.) This movie introduces the “concept” of predestination to a larger audience, something well known by all Bks already.

Later, in a quick assessment of himself (self knowledge) and under the compelling evidence, he said: “I don’t enjoy hurting people. I don’t enjoy it. I do it because I have to – because I’ve had to, because it’s part of the illusion. It’s the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.” If that realization was deep enough, touching his heart; we should see some change in him. That “shadow” should go away.

Nevertheless, whether Loki changes his ways or not in future episodes, that is to be seen and it is up to the movie writers. However, he now knows what he is meant to do in Life regardless of his words and beliefs. His freedom does not reside on what he DOES, for he is fixed by destiny to DO particular actions. His freedom is in what he IS.

That may be very hard to explain with dualistic language to someone living in the head, the mind.

The path of the mind is concerned with concepts, with analysis, with separation and thus, confrontation. Our society values the path of the mind over anything else: Math, Science and Language are everything in our society, all mind. I am not saying that those subjects are negative for people. I am saying that we are over using the mind to the point where we as a race, are losing it. Observe how the mind is taking human beings to value things which truly don’t have a concrete existence: Gold has intrinsic value. It is tangible like paper money. Now; there are bitcoins, and NTFs which are intangible creations of technology. The concept of “supply and demand” has created those artifices which have a large following and that is what will give their value. I am not against or for investing in intangible assets, I am just showing how the mind has taken us into this route.

Let me illustrate how the path of the mind misinterprets spirituality. Whenever a deep “spiritual quote” is uttered, typically there is misunderstanding of it; for the experience cannot be rationalized. For instance it is said in spirituality: “Intention speaks louder than action.” Contrast that with the popular: “Hell is full of good intentions.” Most believe that actions (DOING) should follow good intentions. But that is not the “intention” spirituality refers to. Intention resides in BEING. It is a quality of being, not in thinking or beliefs; and that quality is action in itself. Refer back to Loki and his issue with freedom. It is not what he DOES but what he IS.

Then someone ‘spiritual’ says: “It is not about action. It is about vibrational alignment.” What is that? Someone in the head, in the mind, will have no idea.

What is vibrational alignment? Just a pointer word. If you have FELT it, then there is no question.

Let us change the pointer words and try Intention, BEING, Presence instead. That is where Freedom from the movie reel starts to happen. Another pointer word for that? Detached observer (Something known by Bks ) and beyond the observer, there is the witness; which is even harder to explain to people in the mind. It is not the “witness” in court, it is something else but using that pointer word for lack of a better one.

The path of the heart is available once we have crossed the conditioning of the mind. That is the starting point. Caged in the importance of interest rates, the economy, uncertainty and fear, we are living our own comfortable sweet ‘matrix’ of mind made concepts, ideas and beliefs to pretend to be “safe.” In that cage, we have created the “I” who is trying to control life and become something else, to “improve” by fiercely competing with another and blindly following those values to earn more wealth, more respect, more influence, more power. That is the ‘purpose’ of living in that madness. Then, comes the search of a unique “glorious purpose” like Loki did. Something which will separate us from the rest and pamper the “I,” something unique, “special,” which is a lie. Then, that is the end result of exercising what we perceive as our “freedom” to choose: “Shame, uncertainty and regret,” under Lokik’s view.

If we had the chance to look at the whole movie of our own lives until the “end of the file,” we could probably figure out that whatever we have done there had no purpose at all. It only had to be done: The “doer” can believe whatever purpose he wishes to and create a beautiful prison, sort of like taking the “blue pill” in the “Matrix” movie. Actions had to be done for other things to happen, things which the doer may never realize the true ramifications of his actions. Another way of saying it: We are all One, no matter what we believe our life’s purpose is. See?

However, did we enjoy the moment? Did we taste the time, the experience just as when we taste a delicious ice cream? You see, taste is like the path of the heart.

The path of the mind is in purpose, that is for the ice cream to go down the pipes of the body and accumulate in the stomach so we feel that we have eaten and then DO something “more important;” until we feel pressured to eat again. That is the prison of hunger where there is no escape, no freedom. We are running from one ‘achievement’ into another, not realizing that we are in a hamster’s wheel. Glorious purpose!

When we discover ‘taste of Life,’ then purpose has no meaningful purpose. That is the path of the heart.