Category: Mystical Heart

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The Multidimensional Heart-based Consciousness

Our true self in Divine unity is a heart-based consciousness. This dimension of our being is nondual, nonlocal, and beyond time and space. Our true self of the heart is assisted by the mind to express our consciousness within the world. When unencumbered by the fear-based conditioning, this is the human level of being, that uses intention to create from the goodness, peace, and joy of the self in Divine unity.

In the physical world of time and space, we also live from a dimension of consciousness that experiences parts of reality through our sensory system and reason. While this level of awareness is intrinsic to our earthly journey, by itself it is a very narrow band of consciousness. The conditioning and programming of our fear-based consciousness and culture restricts our consciousness to an ego identity to sensory and rational mind levels of awareness.

As we heal and transform to the heart-based consciousness of the true self, the impediments restricting us to an identity with a narrow band of consciousness are released. However, transforming to a unitary consciousness does not necessarily shift the totality of consciousness outside the physical sensory and rational band.

In our multidimensional being, sensory and reasoning consciousness exists simultaneously with the infinite and eternal heart-based consciousness. The transcendent consciousness of the true self is beyond time and space, but it is also immanently present within time and space. Within this consciousness, sense and reason can be experienced, but they are no longer identified with the self. The consciousness of the true self is now understood to be infinite, peaceful, creative, joyful, and nondual. Now, the narrow band of sense and reason is not misidentified as the whole of conscious awareness.

Because of the experience of the multidimensional nature of our heart-based consciousness, we can have a clear awareness of current reality in sense and reason and not be indentified with it. This multidimensional nature of our consciousness is at the heart of our ability of creative intention. We can live from the pure consciousness of our intentions beyond time and space (in the now of already present) while we have a clear awareness of appearances without identifying with them.

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God Within

Knowing that God is infinite and eternal beyond time and space, and that Divine Being, Divine energy, and Spirit is a transcendent ominpresence across all dimensions including our physical universe, why is it a challenge to find and experience the Divine which is everywhere?

Our ordinary consciousness is relative. Through the five physical senses and the rational mind, this consciousness separates subjects and objects. We are always measuring our experience and thoughts into parts using time and distance. While observing the relative nature of physical creation can assist us in understanding the system as a whole, it cannot lead us to unity.

Unity is not relative. Therefore, if we look for unity in relativity, we will always miss it. Thus, in a relative fear-based consciousness that continually separates, we miss omnipresence by looking, but not seeing, listening, but not hearing. Jesus points us to the way of living in the awareness and experience of God in saying, “the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20-21).

Therefore, in order to find God, we must transcend our ordinary relative conciousness. We can only do this by looking within. By entering our awareness within the heart, we open to a transcendent consciousness that is the unitary omnipresence of the Divine energy. It is our inward gate to multidimensions beyond space and time, but immanently present in our being in this physical dimension. The omnipresence of God within the heart is our experience and knowing of love. The outside relative consciousness cannot make the awareness or experience of love. Separation always misses the mark. Love is Divine and God is love, a unitary Being not separated into subjects and objects in a time and space manner.

The awareness of the trancendent is always within. There is nowhere to look or search. It just is. No separation into distance or duration. As we develop our consciousness of our true self in unity with God from within the heart, our transcendent heart-based consciousness works in harmony with our sensory and rational dimensions to experience Divine unity throughout the entire outside world. We must first find God inside in order to be aware of and to experience the Divine outside. Uniting with God is neither an inward retreat nor an outward escape. The movement of finding God within the heart is how we transcend the ordinary fear-based relative consciousness of resistance and conflict that separates us from infinite love and creativity. By living from the heart, we experience the presence of God throughout the physical universe–we are connected in human relationships and to nature through the unity of Divine energy.

Thus, we are called to see and experience the unity of the Divine in a transcendent consciousness as expressed within our embodied life in the world. By developing our spiritual senses that transcend time and space within the heart dimension of love, we open to a higher consciousness that operates with our physical senses and rational mind to experience the world in a new way. We no longer just look with our physical senses and conceptual minds to find an ominpresence that cannot be separated. From the heart, we now truly see the inseparable omnipresence both beyond and within time and space. The way to truth and love is within the heart. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is within. We go within to see without. When we trust in the truth that we only find love within our heart, the inside and the outside become one. Through the eyes and ears of the heart, God is everywhere.

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A Spirituality of the Heart

The mystical way of transformation as a spirituality of the heart is the understanding of our true self as a unified spirit, soul, and body. The heart dimension is the center of our spiritual/psychological/physical unity. A shift to the heart is necessary if we are to move beyond the inertia of fear that has infected consciousness and culture.

I will briefly discuss how the heart-centered way of mystical transformation is found across many spiritual and scientific ways of human transformation. This is not intended to be comprehensive of all heart centered spirituality, but to be a short example of the breadth of this knowledge. My model of mystical anthropology and transformation focuses on the heart spirituality of Pseudo-Macarius, Symeon the New Theologian, and Gregory Palamas. These Eastern Christian mystics developed a way of opening to the transformation of our whole person within the heart.

I integrate this mystic way of the heart with the contributions of western mystics Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross. Again, we see the emphasis of living within the heart and soul dimension as the way to transform to our true self in divine union. In contemporary science, we find the important contribution of the Institute of HeartMath to understanding the higher heart dimension and its syncrony with the mind and brain. From this type of scientific approach, we gain perspective on how our true self of love and creativity in the heart expresses itself through mind and body.

In the heart centered spiritual tradition of Kasmir Saivism, we find some similarities with the spirituality of the heart of the Christian mystics. Thomas Matus, in his book “Yoga and the Jesus Prayer Tradition” correlates the experience and thought of tenth century mystics Symeon the New Theologian and Abhinavagupta. Paul E. Murphy in “Triadic Mysticism: The Mystical Theology of Saivism of Kasmir” also relates this non-dual tradition to several schools within the Western Christian tradition.

When we open to the heart, we will become more aware of the universal true self and the various expressions of heart centered mystical transformation that have been lived throughout many spiritual and scientific traditions. The heart is both the unifying center and highest dimension of the human person where our true self of spirit, soul, and body unites with transcendent divinity.

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Intention from the Heart

The center of human intention is within the heart. There, in the Spirit, we are outside of time and space where fear and doubt cannot enter. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you” (Mark 11:23). Jesus is saying that the heart is the center of intention. The heart is the key to human intention because it is only there that we find love and the Spirit.

In this one statement, Jesus conveys the complete context for the consciousness of human intention–there are no limits to what we can intend, we must be beyond fear and doubt, we must be in the heart, we must love, and we must trust in the grace of the Spirit. He continues, “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Intention is from the heart in the Spirit with the congruence of the mind, emotions, feeling, and body. This state of being is conveyed in the meaning of the words “believe that you have received it.”

The gift of human intention and spiritual creativity is a glorious gift that is the essence of our true humanity. Jesus teaches its broad scope and its simple unified qualities. However, the complexity of human wounds in a fear based culture often inhibit us from living in the heart dimension where intention is activated. Unconscious patterns of thought and emotion can keep us in the negativity of the fear conditioned false self ego personality. Therefore, at this stage in our humanity, intention and healing work together.

While healing and transforming to our true self in the heart dimension (where intention becomes reality) can be a challenging and winding road, it is imperative to know that intention is ultimately our gift as human beings in divine union. It is where we are all journeying to the fullness of the true self of love and creativity.

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Guidance from the Heart

The only place we find truth, love, and creativity is from within our interior. The place within is the human heart where we open to the Spirit. The prophet Jeremiah said that God has written his truth within the heart and Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God is within.

Often in a fear based consciousness and culture, we take a misguided approach that tells us that our true self can come through the externals of the world or from what others think. In reality, we can only express our unique being that is the true self from the Spirit in our heart. From the heart, we express our love and creativity through the mind and body in our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

As we heal and gain the trust to listen to our heart, our soul’s desire for self-giving love expresses itself in relationships, creativity, and work. It all emanates from within and moves outward. The truth of the soul can never begin outside and move inside. A fear based culture always seeks to control from the outside. Attempts to control emerge from fear of lack, loss, or rejection, and never allow the inner freedom to grow. The true wealth of contribution flows through the abundance of love from within, not through fear imposed from without. Love motivates in joy and gratitude. Fear only establishes underlying resentment and restriction. The resulting anxiety stifles peace, enthusiasm, and creativity. When we realize that we find love and creativity solely within the heart, our desire to share in community and create for others continually expands.