Living from the Heart
When we are envious of somebody, it is because they are mirroring a place in us that does not feel abundant. After all, if you feel abundant, if you are overflowing, the symptom of abundance is that anybody's success makes you joyous. If anybody's success makes you feel anything less than joyous, that is a symptom of scarcity. So if we can resist being angry and focusing on the external and really look within ourselves, we may get very valuable information about what we need to be doing to make us feel better about ourselves.
Now, I want to be very clear here. The energy of the heart center has to do with giving and receiving. That means, it has to do with supporting others and receiving support from others. Supporting another person does not mean that you support their stupidity. It does not even mean that you support their behavior. If your kid comes to you and asks you for money to buy drugs, you do not support that behavior. But you can challenge that behavior without withdrawing your love and this is absolutely crucial. The heart center unites, the mind divides.You may not like what someone is doing. You may even be in a position where you have to reprimand, punish or condemn someone for what they are doing. But that is very different from withdrawing your love energy from them, withdrawing your compassion from them.
I heard a story that really touched me a while back. The Dalai Lama was performing the Kalachakra initiation, a great Tibetan Buddhist ceremony of empowerment in Dharamsala in India. In the middle of this very formal ritual, some Tibetan monks came running into the room, screaming, crying that the Chinese had just murdered hundreds of Tibetan monks. The whole ceremony was disrupted. Everybody looked at the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama stopped the ceremony and said to the people, "Now, we are all going to pray for the Chinese."
This may sound idealistic to you, this may sound impossible to do to you, but I invite you to think about it from the philosophical perspective of interdependency. From the philosophical perspective of karma that if you hurt somebody, you will be hurt. You need to be prayed for.
If a 4-year old or a 3-year old comes up to you and hits you, you don't get angry. Because you have expanded beyond that level of consciousness. This is what we are trying to achieve in the heart center. To have the compassion, to have the breadth, not to react, but to respond from a different level. And this will have everything to do with your prosperity in the world.
-- by Rick Jarow, in "The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide"
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: The author emphasizes that maintaining our love for others does not necessarily imply condoning their behavior - how do you relate to this notion? Can you share a personal story of challenging someone without withdrawing your love for them? How can we inculcate the strength and wisdom to be able to do that? What does "Living from the Heart" mean to you?
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13 Past Reflections
On Aug 17, 2020 Poulomi wrote :
Forgiveness is a strength and is so important for an individual to forgive not for another person but for oneself and I too learnt this from my parents and my Buddhist practice of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism :)
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On Oct 8, 2012 lady opada wrote :
true love doesn't set conditions. It understands, accepts, and forgives.
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On Oct 5, 2012 kawere siraji wrote :
its good to love some one minus condoning their behaviours because they feel small.
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On Oct 3, 2012 Karen wrote :
What a nice article on compassion, abundance and the heart. Thank you. I've shared a link to this on my blog.
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On Oct 2, 2012 Maya Vidhyadharan wrote :
Living from the heart really reaches depth when I have emotionally healed from past life wounds, and shadows. The virtues increase. Until then living in the heart is just a concept.and the heart center is not fully open.
Once the heart center is open, it has the power to stop accidents on the road by your command.
Once I come to this state, and continue working on myself to face shadows that need releasing, I can live from the heart. When someone hurts me I stand up fearlessly without anger. This means standing up to Corporate Vice Presidents and Managers who are abusing their power, lovingly and fearlessly,, without the fear of being fired stopping us.
Living in the heart means, I feel the sadness about what did not work in my life. I feel the sadness for the loss caused by my shadows. I feel sadness for the poverty and the corruption and I can cry. It also means I need to open my heart more to KNOW in by being that God is in charge and everyone is allowed their creation of d... [View Full Comment]
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On Oct 2, 2012 Lennox wrote :
Thank you for sharing this inspiring writing. The point about scarcity mentality is worth meditating on. In our post industrialized society of material abundance vast majority of fellow humans still fight for the basics. How do we account for this? Why do we continue to accumulate more to "secure our future" when millions suffer "now". This is a large scale example of "mind over heart" divide the author points to. Somehow all of us well meaning spiritual seekers continue to live with this conflict. Why?
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On Oct 2, 2012 Ron Lopez wrote :
I love that being said " The Heart Centered Unites and the Mind Divides" An excellent mantra!!
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On Oct 2, 2012 bckmishra wrote :
It is really pleasant to go through the writing of Rick.Living from the heart very truly means "be guided by heart in every thing you do". All your deeds should be governed by compassion, care, concern, fellow feelings and empathy which is the essence of the heart.
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On Oct 2, 2012 BCKMishra wrote :
It is really pleasant to go through the writing of Rick.Living from the heart very truly means "be guided by heart in every thing you do". All your deeds should be governed by compassion, care, concern, fellow feelings and empathy which,the essence of the heart.
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On Sep 30, 2012 Narendra wrote :
The author emphasizes that maintaining our love for others does not necessarily imply condoning their behavior - how do you relate to this notion? I agree. The example of a mothers’ discipline for a child is the essence of practice of love in nature. This conditional or tough-love is designed to make children peaceful and productive citizens of community. This also applies to religions, cultures and communities, if we are to coexist peacefully on this planet. The world evolved with three layers of brain-mind, Tamas/body, Rajas/emotions and Satwa/Love. These need coordination and discipline. Unconditional love and nonviolence encourages oppression of the peaceful by the aggressive, as in colonialism, terrorism and wars. The world is in transition from ignorance/selfishness based survival and competition, to survival based on awareness, mutual respect and cooperation. Some religions and cultures are ahead of others in this process. For some, this trans... [View Full Comment]
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On Sep 30, 2012 david doane wrote :
I very much agree with maintaining our love for others when not condoning their behavior. The opportunity to do this occurs frequently in raising children, and it is easier to maintain the love because they are out children, though sometimes the love may not come across. I have found the bigger challenge to be in dealing with other people. What helps me be able to maintain love while not condoning the behavior is the awareness that we are one, which has helped me be more compassionate and patient. Living from the heart means having the awareness that we are one and maintaining love for the other while not condoning their behavior. Someone said, "There's something about that guy that I just don't like about myself." For me, that attitude helps me live from the heart. I love the story about the Dalai Lama -- it's beautiful and profound. It reminds me of the scripture passage about pray for those who persecute you... [View Full Comment]
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On Sep 29, 2012 Ricky wrote :
I have come to realize I can’t live any other way, than from the heart. Nothing else has meaning. We are all connected as One. The Four Immeasurables, the Four Qualities of the Heart, are a most outstanding guide for this way of living. The four are Maitri, friendliness; Karuna, compassion; Mudita, delighting in the joy of others; and Upeksha, practicing equanimity. In some circles, the heart is center for the Big Mind. The Heartmath Institute (highlighted in the documentary ‘I AM’) shares that the heart is the energetic center of us, and has more radiant vibration than any other area. This would make sense on a physiological plane, but when you live from the heart, you recognize it from a deep connection with the emotional, mental, intuitive, and spiritual plane as well.
Every day I wake up with gratitude for another opportunity to share my life with all others around me. And there are a lot of others around me.&... [View Full Comment]
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On Sep 28, 2012 Conrad P. Pritscher wrote :
Thank you for the opportunity to respond. "Living from the heart", to me, means noticing that I am one with everyone and everything. That is beyond "philosophical." As a Western student, I have been taught that being philosophical is being somewhat different from living from the heart as St. Exuperey's "Little Prince." I have been told that the ancient Chinese word "hsin" means "heart/mind." I find that useful, as I find it useful to notice that the ancient Chinese never separated philosophy from poetry. I notice that at one time I hated Richard Nixon. I am now sorry about that hating and while I do not love him as I love my wife and family, I intellectually love him without a lot of feeling because I think that is best and because I am one with Richard Nixon. Karl Rove and some Republicans are difficult to love, but when I stop to think about it I find that I too have some of hi... [View Full Comment]