This Journal features comments about the role of the heart as the central organizing intelligence in our lives, and a recent message of encouragement from the HeartMath Institute entitled “Energetic Responsibility.”

To explain what I mean by heart based consciousness this writing will retrace some of the milestone developments in my earlier life which came from an exploration of spiritual paths and consideration of what the heart is doing besides pumping blood around. This writing is a little exegesis and summary of some well read texts from my past; most notably the text which lives in my heart, written as it is without printed words.

The times of agape

A couple of influential milestone events occurred in high school, when I attended a rigorous military school, founded in 1868 in the mountains of east Tennessee, known as Sewanee Military Academy. SMA was also a church based Episcopal school. We marched into the made-from-rock but nonetheless ethereal All Saints Chapel every Sunday to the sound of the battalion marching band playing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

In my sophomore year we had an English teacher named Captain William Goldfinch (1921-2008) whose classes were highlighted by daily exploratory discussions of the sublime New Testament passage I Corinthians, Chapter 13.

Cap’n Goldfinch, being rather keen on this piece of scriptural literature and being obsessively driven to enhance our teenage understanding of “faith, hope, and love,” went a step further to augment our spiritual study. He passed out 3 pieces of representative candy to each student before that day’s discussion of the lesson. He substituted the Greek word agape for the word love. The 3 pieces of candy were collectively known as agape throughout the battalion of cadets. Most of us had matriculated through Cap’n Goldfinch’s class, and so the term held sway throughout the corps. However, the deeper meaning of agape did not necessarily translate into the actions of our daily lives as students and cadets. The very plentiful discipline we were getting as young Christian soldiers kept us mostly straight and true.

Finding agape to be rather hard to translate and understand in my ordinary teenage mindset in any expanded or meaningful way, I tried to rely on the descriptions of it as given in the passage itself. But I tended to hang up on the opening lines that read, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Having learned (been indoctrinated) in some other Episcopal church Sunday school teaching that Jesus was hard on hypocrites, I imposed enough self judgment upon myself to abbreviate my young intellect from a deeper intellectual inquiry into the meaning of agape. Nor did I contribute anything of note to the class discussions. My contraction was a bit of a lost opportunity at age 15, and I have been endeavoring to make up for it ever since.

(Pausing for a footnote moment in my high school spirit story….as time passed I developed curiosity about part of that opening line: speaking “in the tongues of men or of angels”…most particularly speaking in the tongues of angels. How do angels speak about love? The answer to this query may be hard to fathom, but I wonder at one thing I have learned that is said to be true of the Essene mystics of the 2nd century BCE to 1st century AD. The Essenes believed that we come to this world to learn of a Love that is only possible in this world. The Essenes also said that this Love that we humans can learn here is greater than the Love of Angels.)

I was able to infer that agape is a more transcendent form of love, but my thinking brain was not very transcendent, and so I failed to accommodate a higher level of consciousness with which I might relate to agape. I also was not gifted with a heart open enough at that time to “get it.” The age old problem of having a limited brain mind was operating early in my life and this deficit functioned to override my heart, but I didn’t even know this. I was pretty clueless.

Other classmates also seemed to be so affected. But Cap’n Goldfinch mercifully and persistently tried to guide us deeper into the mysteries of love. Our very colorful and sometimes hilarious teacher was a fun respite from our military training and the dormitory and mess hall life pecking order. At this point in his life, Cap’n Goldfinch was 45 years old. He must have known from the wisdom of those years that we would probably never forget our classroom gatherings with him to ponder love. Truly, I cannot recall any other subject matter that we studied in his class.

Our headmaster was Reverend James R. McDowell (1924-2012). We called him JR, but not to his face. He did not approve of the unconventional way Cap’n Goldfinch conducted his classes. I never quite understood if JR’s disapproval was about the classroom candy, the agape subject itself, or the iconoclastic manner of our teacher. It was probably all 3 issues that drew JR’s disapproval. After many years of teaching English and mentoring the cadets of SMA, Cap’n Goldfinch’s departure to another teaching position at the end of that year was a downturn for many members of the corps. Having mentored many a cadet, he was known as “the cadet’s best friend.”

In addition to his headmastering JR conducted the senior religion class. In my senior year, when I had overextended myself with too generous of a pursuit of the military, academic, athletic, and school organization bits, JR gave us an assignment to write an essay on love. I thought back to Cap’n Goldfinch’s lessons on agape, but I knew better than to bring this up as a reference point in my essay. I Corinthians 13 stood in as being just about all I knew about love, and I could not base my essay for JR on that. Furthermore, I didn’t even really understand agape. Having built up some academic merit, I consciously decided to give it a pass and take an academic hit in JR’s religion class.

My essay was less than 1 page of hand written nonsense with absolutely no heart in it. JR gave me a well deserved F, written prominently in bright red ink. I wish I’d had the foresight to keep this page of my history, but I was too checked out into my self important worldly do-everything military school pursuits. And so I decided to lend some laziness, and maybe a touch of rebellious hubris, to my essay’s scant effort. I do retain all of my academic report cards from first grade through medical school. One of them has some rather merciful words written by JR about that love essay…”Excellent progress, love notwithstanding!” He gave me an undeserved B+ in the class, which I think was  overly generous.

This Journal is a short consideration of a few things I have learned about on the spiritual path that my life has taken. I am grateful for the discoveries and development I have experienced along the way, and I am very grateful for every teacher who showed up and helped me on my particular path and soul’s journey, such as my 2 high school teachers mentioned above. There have been many teachers who appeared with wisdom for daily living, pure spiritual wisdom, biochemistry wisdom, health and healing wisdom, and wisdom about worldly events and things of that nature. There have been great surgeons with whom I operated on thousands of patients. And there have been the patients themselves. They were some of the greatest teachers of all. There have also been those kinds of harsh and unpleasant teachers who appeared to challenge my comfort zones and complacent attitudes; often acting as a general foil, irritant, menace, and pest.

When you encounter the word “heart” in the writing below, which will be often enough, might you pause in your consciousness for just a split second, and visit the quiet motions of that organ in your chest? Your breath (spiritus) has already merged there. Might you follow along with the flow of spirit into and around your heart?

Beyond the times of agape

Daily actions, intellectual understanding, meditation, and prayer intersect in a mysterious locus in the heart which connects our lives into the infinite dynamic array of Creation. While the heart exists in our body’s local thoracic cavity physical place, it is also connected into the everywhere and everything of Creation’s entangled non-locality.

In a compelling lecture in 2005 I heard the luminary Deepak Chopra describe this entanglement effect as “a-causal, non-local, quantum mechanical inter-relatedness.” He was saying that consciousness is without cause (is self creating), is in all locations at all times, and is wrapped up with itself, inside of itself, as itself, in an infinitely fractal manner. Non-local correlation implies that everything is correlated and synchronized with everything instantly. In this consideration, time and distance are not linear. Time and distance are circular and holographic. One part (holon) of a hologram contains the whole which recurves into itself infinitely in all of its parts…in infinite dimensions…worlds upon worlds…worlds without end.

More simply stated…Everything is in everything else.

Our sense of the universe as an orderly expanse where events happen in exact locations is said to be an illusion; one which has been well penetrated by quantum physicists over the past century. Through a blending of the sciences of quantum physics and heart electromagnetics, knowledge of the heart’s primacy in our lives will become more appreciated, and the heart’s connection into the universe will become more common knowledge. Indeed, this is now becoming the case.

These concepts have been taught for millennia, in some form, by all spiritual adepts and sages.

Spiritual geniuses and great teachers have consistently held forth with the mindboggling principle that the Universe is enfolded within us. They say that the divine conscious energy which sustains this Creation is our true identity. They further say that this enfolded reality can only be known through the mysterious workings of the heart. Through various spiritual paths, this teaching has grown over the ages. It integrates with the current science of holography as this science applies to the human being. This science holds that any small part of the whole of something contains all of the whole of that something. We are said to be at one with everything in Creation, and all is included within us.

Stated in one way by the poet William Blake…God became as we are that we may become as God is.

What level of becoming is Blake referencing here? Does he mean that we become like the anthropocentrically described versions of God, live virtuous lives, and do good works? Or does he mean that God is enfolded within us as who we are at a more supreme level of identity? Perhaps he was writing about both considerations. Both are good to consider.

The heart is the seat of the mind. It is the central organizing intelligence in our lives; functioning via some hard-to-describe highly refined connection to all things. As I have come to understand it, the heart is where the quaternary of body-mind-emotions-spirit comes together and is integrated as our life. The heart also connects this quaternary into the vastness of the universe and its multidimensions. We may be able to intuit the truth inherent in our oneness with all, but to try to put spiritual truths, quantum physics truths, and science of holography truths into a neat package with a show of words is always going to be a high challenge.

We are challenged to grasp thoughts like this with our ordinary thinking mind even though we may feel that these concepts reside in us like a kind of common sense; as if they are already known in our hearts. Can you sense this in your heart? I think most people catch glimpses of their greater connections. I wonder how humanity’s course might unfold if this experiential knowledge were encouraged by the institutions we entrust with teaching.

I view the heart as the central processing unit which interprets everything in our lives and is connected into an ambient standing energy field which sustains the universe. The way I choose to describe this ambient standing energy is that it is Love. If it is Love, then we are moving beyond the various qualities of agape as defined in I Corinthians 13. Love becomes something incomprehensively vast.

Is Love the matrix of all Creation? Is Love the source of all manifestation, all maintenance, all dissolution, and the concealment of all phenomena? Does grace operate thus?

What does the heart know? That is a question worthy of pursuit, and indeed, this question has produced the age old timeless longing to experience the great spiritual treasures which can only be truly known inside of a lifelong heart journey. The thinking brain alone cannot take us there. The heart is needed.

Beyond noisy gongs and tinkling cymbals

“The heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam.” These words of Indian yoga master Bhagavan Nityananda (1897-1961) came into my life in 1979 via teachings from the modern day Indian sage Baba Muktananda who espoused the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism; a philosophical spiritual inquiry with roots that are said to be 7000 years old, but were openly developed and espoused in the 9th to 12th centuries. The sages who pursued this knowledge had gone beyond their own thinking brain mind limitations, had traversed into the expanded connections of the heart, and had achieved self realization. Then they used some brain mind words to leave us a written and oral record of the wisdom.

Since learning about Nityananda’s simple words at an intellectual level, I have been learning about the depth of his message at a more experiential level via contemplation of who, what, and how spirit has become my life. Over time, my ranging emotions and mental attitudes have adjusted (calmed) to this fundamental heart teaching, and I have grown more and more into a formative state of awareness which I call heart based consciousness.

This terminology helps direct me to the heart as the primary place and force that directs my life’s spirit journey. Spirit journeys in the life of the physical body so that we may develop into and through spirit’s higher purpose. It is the emotions and mental processes in the body-mind-emotions-spirit quaternary which interfere with the journey and make the journey more or less pleasant.

In order to understand our soul and its journey, it is necessary to come to terms with nonphysical reality, which is really our home. It is where we came from. It is where we will return. And it is the residence of the larger part of our being. We have to expand our minds to higher levels of truth where our understanding and evolution can be supported.

“Your journey is toward your homeland. Remember that you are traveling from the world of appearances to the world of reality.”…a Sufi saying.

The very root of our problems is born from the fact that we tend to regard our life as being just our psycho-physical mechanism. As our consciousness stays trapped in a state of knower-known duality, we are turned away from identifying (merging) with the changeless principle of all changing experience. The Creator and its Creation exist as the non-dual highest reality in our heart, and can be known as our real identity, our true Self. This is the essence of that body of knowledge called Kashmir Shaivism. We are physical extensions of Creative nonphysical energy. We are one with that. We are not separate from the Creator and Creation. So say the sages. This supreme reality is known through the heart.

I believe that this is also what Jesus taught, but these principles of Identity have not been consistently referenced, opened up, revealed, and widely taught by the many forms and religious institutions of Christianity. Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven lies within. It is time to share more openly the treasures of Supreme Identity, found in the heart. As has been said, go to thy bosom, knock there, and ask what thy heart doth know. At some point, with even just a gentle pursuit and practice, this kind of reference point thinking becomes one’s lifestyle.

The exalted and luminous being Jesus came to be with us to preach forgiveness, love, peace, truth, and purity of the heart. Indeed, he did rail against hypocrisy. In one sense he was also trying to teach us about self love. At some point in our development we may decide to give up on the pain of judgment, we may yearn and learn to forgive, and then begin to embrace and practice self love…learning to love our life in its entirety. This means that we learn to understand and love all of the past experiences when we felt hurt and wronged by others. Such a radical forgiveness may be hard to stabilize at first, but the ability to feel forgiveness grows with one’s intention and practice.

I deeply love and accept myself is a helpful collection of words to contemplate in the journey when we feel contracted by the trials that life brings. Forgiveness is the only way we heal.

The sustained practice and development of heart based consciousness helps to center awareness of spirit’s intention in this life, allowing one’s mental and emotional energies to become clarified in order to assist the spirit journey. Emotions exist in our system in order to protect and heal our lives. They are not designed to be ignored, suppressed, medicated with chemicals, or violently acted out. Clarified emotional genius is one of our greatest spiritual allies.

Furthermore, health benefits accrue when the heart is functioning in its resonant frequency of 0.1 cycles per second. This occurs in moments of inner calm, which can be regulated via the breath and states of practiced visualization, contemplation and meditation. Such practices enhance heart based consciousness.

Many of us have our human energy diverted by limiting beliefs and brain mind thinking patterns. Negative thinking processes operate simultaneously with concomitant shadow emotions and feelings which are triggered from our individual reservoir of unresolved traumatic memories. Unrelenting negative mental and emotional diversions leave little or no room to spare for the evolutionary unfolding of spirit in body.

Thus, mind and emotions, while giving us some significant dramatic context to consider in the course of life, are also a source of much noisy distraction in spirit’s quieter journey. However, our bioenergetic physical and spiritual heart can be cultured to exert itself as the foundational organizing intelligence in our lives; thus unifying and integrating the quaternary of body-mind-emotions-spirit as we continue to resolve old negative emotional and mental patterns.

Unresolved traumas find a ready outlet of expression in the mind-emotion interplay. On the other hand, as we resolve old traumatic memories and patterns of behavior we can claim more clarity (sobriety) of mind and emotions. This evolutionary growth process of living gives upliftment to our life energies with which we can develop our finer gifts, passions, and life offerings.

Forgiveness is the only way we heal as individuals, and as a collective.

Heart oriented Journals

Some of the writings on this website which develop these ideas further are listed:

1. The Pulse of Life…Heart Electromagnetics, Part I
2. The Spiral of Life…Heart Electromagnetics, Part II
3. The Prayer of Life…Heart Electromagnetics, Part III
4. The Beginning of Life…Heart Electromagnetics, Part IV
5. Adverse Childhood Events
6. Happiness vs. Joy
7. Minding your Meditation
8. Prayer 

Energetic Responsibility

We are encouraged by the HeartMath Institute to lend the finer energies and better angels of our hearts to “facilitate the planetary shift to its higher potentials.”

This is necessary at this time in world evolution. The development of a more global heart consciousness is the only way we will ever alter and correct humanity’s course away from its millennia old and ever evolving patterns of destruction.

From their corporate captured state of defending and maintaining a failing status quo our world leaders have not demonstrated any noticeable capacity of lending their own hearts to solve the variety of the planet’s and humanity’s pressing problems. It seems that we will have to lead the leaders into a finer consciousness from which compassionate decisions can be made without the shackles of corporate control, or even worse kinds of control.

As Albert Einstein once said…No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

The brain mind consciousness of our world leaders, and all of the people who support them, has to start evolving from the heart. The best way to start this movement of peace and abundance is to start it one person at a time. It will spread if people can learn to come out of their fear and contraction and stand more gracefully in their hearts.

Here is a proposal from the HeartMath Institute, entitled Energetic Responsibility.

“As the planetary shift energies intensify, there is more incoherence and chaos while old systems are breaking down. Emotional reactivity and separation are amplified through disinformation campaigns, political maneuvering, and authoritarianism trying to hold onto old paradigms. At the same time, this turmoil is supporting a heart awakening. More and more people are going to their hearts for direction as nothing else seems to be working. They are yearning for leaders who have integrity and compassionate care for the dignity of all.

It’s now time on the planet for aware people to increase our energetic responsibility to facilitate the planetary shift to its higher potentials. Increasing energetic responsibility starts with recognizing that our thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions have an impact on others and the world around us. It’s knowing that whatever is happening on the planet, we still have to be responsible for our own energy.

As this global storm continues, using tools and practices to connect with our deeper heart’s guidance becomes more significant. It helps intuition guide us through situations that call for adjustment, especially when we can’t change certain things. It’s also an important time to get more physical exercise (if your health allows), so the shift energies can move through you with greater ease. It’s a time to activate our self-empowerment potentials.

Even if you can’t engage in many physical movements, just imagining doing them has been shown to help. It’s a time to activate our self-empowerment potentials. This has more benefits than we can perceive yet. As we bring more of our heart’s guidance into our choices and interactions, this raises the heart energy on the planet, making it easier for more people to choose love, care and compassion in their interactions and with each other (the missing piece).

Science is helping to bring the effectiveness of love and compassion out of the closet. However, we don’t have to wait for science, as we can manifest our own proof of the power of our heart’s genuine intention. The planet especially needs caring compassionate interactions now. Together, let’s bring it.”

Crestone and Beyond

The 2 statements in this message which I put into italics are good to see and read again.

More and more global citizens “are yearning for leaders who have integrity and compassionate care for the dignity of all.”

And…”we don’t have to wait for science.”

Anyone, anywhere, and anytime can practice a shift to the heart as the guiding source of all intelligent choice and action. The science based Prayer of Life writing linked above will help your understanding of this science. The science of heart based consciousness is here, and should spread.

The problem which impedes our progress in this regard is the ages old entrenchment of what I call brain mind override. Our fear based brain thinking most often overrides the heart’s messaging.

Purity of the heart is the best thing to contemplate and culture. This leads to a loving and more bountiful experience in the course of life. Some pure heart qualities taught by all authentic spiritual teachers, like Jesus, are forgiveness, humility, kindness, compassion, empathy, non judgment, patience, gratitude, courage, joy, and faith. These qualities are present in the heart without words to make them so.

The heart is not thinking in words. It is dreaming, knowing, and longing in its own very unique nervous system of neural cardiocytes. Even so, it is good to contemplate in one’s thinking brain the presence, or absence, of these qualities, and then practice lending the brain’s intellect and will power to serve the heart’s deeper purposes in our lives.

The heart is the hub of all sacred places. It is good to go there and roam while being mindful that the heart is a silent thing except for the vibrational closing of the 4 heart valves. Our greatest understanding comes through the quiet of meditation, contemplation, awareness of the breath, and identifying with Source through the heart. When the brain mind becomes quiet and is also not thinking in words, then the heart’s messages may be more easily experienced.

All you have to do to start your own heart based consciousness journey is to follow your breath down into your chest where it merges into your heart. And then, stay there a while with each passing breath of your life. Heart based awareness will begin to accumulate. From time to time inquire of your heart what it wants you to do when the trials of life press you.

Listen to the heart’s answer. And then act on your heart’s answer. This will strengthen your heart.

Life will change into more of your special and unique alignment with Creation and Creator. Such has been espoused through time by all of the spiritual paths so oriented.

We don’t have to go looking for Love in the heart. It is already there. We just need to start aligning ourselves with it and begin to share and spread its essence.

Thank you for reading.

Signing off from Crestone, and Beyond

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. . . . Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”…General Omar Bradley, Armistice Day, Boston, 1948

“Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?”… Job 38:36, KJV

“One’s life story cannot be told with complete veracity. A true autobiography would have to be written in states of mind, emotions, heartbeats, smiles and tears; not in months and years, or physical events. Life is marked off on the soul by feelings, not by dates”….Helen Keller

Associated Reading

The reading links below might have some commentary to help keep our heart based orientation in play.

1. Helen Keller Quotes…this is a link to a site with pages of hundreds of quotes from Helen Keller. Each one is its own special contemplation. These quotes are a more refined and elegantly stated version of everything that I have written in the composition above. I hope you will spend some time absorbing just some of the wisdom of this spiritual genius. My physician mother introduced me to Ms. Keller in 1961. This memorable event in my life consisted of sitting with Ms. Keller, her sister, her translator, my mother, and my brother and sister in the living room of her sister (Mildred Tyson) in Montgomery, Alabama, and getting to know each other. She was with her 3rd translator at this time. The translator touched her hands and forearms as if she were typing letters and words, which she was. Ms. Keller spoke directly in an intelligible voice and sometimes back to us by “typing” on the translator’s hand and arm.  I was dressed in my sweaty kid YMCA basketball practice garb. I was 10 years old. When it came time to leave I walked toward the door. She stood in front of the door, blocking my departure. She seemed to be looking directly at me. She walked towards me; standing less than a foot away from me, eye to eye. I was just slightly taller than her. She felt my face to see what I looked like and then she kissed me on the forehead. Something was imparted. I have never forgotten the moment and the touch. This touch augmented my baptismal fount experience at age 4, an event I also vividly recall when sealed by the watery cross traced upon my forehead.
2. The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality…a very readable 1991 classic by Michael Talbot. This writing is an important contribution to help us merge science and spirituality. My copy was given to me in 1998 by the daughter of one of my surgical patients, with a note, “I suspect you were the kind of kid who colored outside the lines and so, might enjoy this book.” As a kid I was very much inside the lines, breaking out into wider spiritual studies in my medical school years. Here is a quote about Talbot’s contribution, “Nearly everyone is familiar with holograms—three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world’s most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, an architect of our modern understanding of the brain, have developed a remarkable new way of looking at the universe.”
3. The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe…another very readable 2002 publication by Lynne McTaggart which follows Talbot’s Holographic Universe nicely. This book “presents the hard evidence for what spiritual masters have been telling us for centuries…During the past few years science and medicine have been converging with common sense, confirming a widespread belief that everything―especially the mind and the body―is far more connected than traditional physics ever allowed. The Field establishes a new biological paradigm: it proves that our body extends electromagnetically beyond ourselves and our physical body. It is within this field that we can find a remarkable new way of looking at health, sickness, memory, will, creativity, intuition, the soul, consciousness, and spirituality.”
4. The Seat of the Soul…written in 1989 by former Green Beret Gary Zukav who is now 80 years old, this rather profound but very readable book explains the author’s treatise on what constitutes what he terms “authentic power.” Without mentioning any spiritual texts or teachers he takes aim and cracks open some nicely worded explanations of consciousness subjects for the modern mind. In the chapter entitled Light, the author posits thus, “Every decision that you make either moves you toward your personality, or toward your soul. Each decision that you make is an answer to the question, ‘How do you choose to learn authentic empowerment–through doubt and fear, or through wisdom?'”
5. The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy…the 1998 classic by psycho-neuro-immunologist Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. This book opened many readers into a clear understanding of the heart’s primacy in our lives. Take the Heart Energy Amplitude Recognition Test (HEART) on pg. 30, if you dare. I have given this test to many clients over the years and only one person passed an acceptable HEART score. He got it right because he used his formidable brain mind to discern and outsmart the test. I always regarded this person’s example as being a classic response of using the brain to override the heart. Here is a description of this book…”A fascinating synthesis of ancient wisdom, modern medicine, scientific research, and personal experiences that proves that the human heart, not the brain, holds the secrets that link body, mind, and spirit. You know that the heart loves and feels, but did you know that the heart also thinks, remembers, communicates with other hearts, helps regulate immunity, and contains stored information that continually pulses through your body? In The Heart’s Code, Dr. Paul Pearsall explains the theory and science behind energy cardiology, the emerging field that is uncovering one of the most significant medical, social, and spiritual discoveries of our time: The heart is more than just a pump; it conducts the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being.” Pearsall concludes this writing in Chapter 11, Healing from the Heart, the best short treatise on the healing of brain vs. heart that I have ever enjoyed.
6. Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience…an acclaimed 2021 publication by best selling author Brene Brown. “In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.”
7. The Heart of Healing, From Trauma to Health and Harmony…a 2017 writing by Boulder psychologist Christine Hibbard, Ph.D., who put her heart to work and practiced some Energetic Responsibility. “In this inspiring memoir, Dr. Chris Hibbard, a psychotherapist specializing in emotional trauma, tells us stories of healing and transformation from her years traveling to many of the most troubled parts of the world, determined to help survivors of war.”
8. The Hoffman Quadrinity Process…since 1967 this process helps people overcome their negative love syndrome problems by moving away from the negative love trait imprints in their lives. We took on negative love traits from our parents and other caregivers to get their love. As an adult we either adopt those traits or we rebel against them. This process helps heal the traumatic physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wounds we have carried.
9. Forgiveness…a salient message from the HeartMath Institute about this healing heart process in our life.
10. Light 04–Body-Mind-Spirit in Harmony…a June 13, 2023 post by Mark Macy which considers body-mind-spirit harmony. He chose to not include emotions to round out this trinity; probably because the consideration of emotions poses more cumbersome considerations in the writing process, and might make brain mind clarity a murkier process. Nonetheless, he makes very meaningful and helpful points, as always, and rounds this offering nicely into the heart. Our unique meeting in 1988 and my website writings are kindly referenced.
11. Chapter 38, Book of Job (NIV)…these 41 verses are as nice of a contemplation of Creation as may be found in the world’s collection of writings. The Lord comes out of a storm to ask us some orientation questions…”Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Thus spoke the Lord God Almighty in the Book of Job. 
12. Psalm 104…in another special written version, Creation is described in its myriad forms…a sweetly worded praise which opens thus, “The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.” Such a vision! 
13. Autobiography of a Yogi…the classic writing of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), a yoga master who came to teach in America in 1920. I read this book during my senior year of medical school in 1977. In addition to its wisdom, the life and teachings of Jesus are explained in an expansive and resonant way. My life orientation changed.
14. The Holy Science…the guru of Yogananda was Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936) who wrote this 77 page book, introducing it with some important words that are born from his advanced spiritual state: “The purpose of this book is to show as clearly as possible that there is an essential unity in all religions; that there is no difference in the truths inculcated by the various faiths; that there is but one method by which the world, both external and internal, has evolved; and that there is but one Goal admitted by all scriptures. But this basic truth is one not easily comprehended. The discord existing between the different religions, and the ignorance of men, make it almost impossible to lift the veil and have a look at this grand verity. The creeds foster a spirit of hostility and dissension; ignorance widens the gulf that separates one creed from another. Only a few specially gifted persons can rise superior to the influence of their professed creeds and find absolute unanimity in the truths propagated by all great faiths.” The book is presented in 4 chapters: The Gospel, The Goal, The Procedure, and The Revelation. On page 34 in Sutra 5 in the chapter entitled The Procedure, he introduces the term sraddha, which is the heart’s natural love. This literary spiritual gem explains many aspects of Creation in a sutra and commentary format. Both Yogananda and Sri Yukteswar spoke and wrote about what they called Christ Consciousness. They considered Jesus to be their spiritual brother in a long line of avatars. Their writings are my first introduction, and inquiry into the state of consciousness which they had mastered.
15. Sri Yukteswar…a website devoted to Swami Sri Yukteswar, his life and teachings. Regarding spiritual study based on books and scriptures, he said, “Do not confuse understanding with a larger vocabulary. Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realization, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Continual intellectual study results in vanity and the false satisfaction of an undigested knowledge.”…“If one busies himself with an outer display of scriptural wealth, what time is left for silent inward diving after the priceless pearls?”
16. Incredible Life Story of an Avadhuta and His Advice for You!/Bhagavan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri…a 15 minute pictorial biography of Nityananda who I learned about in 1979 from his principle disciple Swami Muktananda; visiting him often over the next 3 years until he left this earthly plane. His teaching and presence grounded me in Identity of the Self and more exalted considerations of what the heart is doing besides pumping blood around.
17. Play of Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography…the spiritual autobiography of Swami Muktananda, who was my first teacher of Kashmir Shaivism and heart knowledge. This book, and Yogananda’s book (above) changed and moved my spiritual understanding into broader and deeper considerations.
18. Jesus in India, Tibet and Persia–An Account Missing from the Bible…a 33 minute expose of Jesus’ “missing years.” The early founders of the Christian Church in the 3rd century AD did what they could to ignore (obfuscate) the years of Jesus’ life from age 12 to 30. These years of his life have simply been dismissed as if they did not even exist. For many, it would be Christian heresy to think that Jesus had any other spiritual teachings and pursuits in his life than what was advanced by the ecumenical councils where the rules of engagement were founded. The only…and I mean only…reference to Jesus’ 18 missing years in the 4 canonical gospels ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is a one liner, seen in Luke 2:52. This is 2000 year old censorship in action. You have to peer beyond this censorship to more deeply understand the life and historicity of Jesus.
19. Jesus and the Essenes…in addition to his travels in the Orient, many believe that Jesus lived and learned with Essene mystics in his youth. This writing reveals some information about this spiritual sect. The Vatican Archives is said to hold writings about the Essene people, their practices, and other very valuable, but obfuscated information. The Vatican people deny this claim, naturally. Insomuch as the Essenes authored the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is not too far of a reach to surmise that the Vatican has records on the Essenes. As is stated in the text above, the Essenes said that we come to this world to learn of a Love that is only possible in this world. The Essenes also said that this Love that we humans can learn here is greater than the Love of Angels.
20. Michael…a fun entertaining 1996 film in which John Travolta plays the part of Archangel Michael who has taken on human form to help some people understand love at their human level, and also catch a glimpse of it at the level of his angelic being. Michael the angel appears in human form and acts like an uncouth slob who enjoys sampling a few earthly pleasures along the way while imparting love lessons to his human companions. This movie received poor reviews; perhaps because the critics didn’t consider the love of angels.
21. Open Question Podcast–The Middle Way Initiative…Crestone Buddhist teacher  Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel conducts excellent podcasts of 30 minutes or less on Buddhist topics and modern day living. Her presentations and information are delivered with great clarity. Here is a nice collection of her stimulating talks. Common podcast themes often relate to 2 of her favorite subjects: prajnaparamita (transcendent wisdom) and pratityasamutpada (dependent arising). This latter term and concept holds that everything arises from some precedent phenomena in a dependent manner. Creation is like this. Her 2 books (see her link above) develop these subjects. Her sangha is Mangala Shri Bhuti where she studies with her root teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, and serves as a lineage teacher in this tradition. This sangha’s place of teaching and worship in Crestone is in the commanding and supernal Sangdo Palri Temple of Wisdom and Compassion. Crestone is also home to several other Buddhist lineages, as well as a number of other Eastern spiritual paths.
22. What is Kashmir Shaivism?…a 50 minute discourse on the spiritual philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism. Some people have described Kashmir Shaivism as a blending of Jesus’ teachings, Hinduism, and Buddhism. I think so too, but my study and contemplation of these wonderful teachings has taken me further along the path. At their deepest essence, all great spiritual paths are supposed to help us understand our place in this universe which is ordered in a field of Love. The essence of all words about consciousness and creation is Love and identity with our higher Self.
23. There are 5 major texts about Kashmir Shaivism, all of which came from the 8th to the 11th centuries through 5 major teachers of this path which you can read brief descriptions of here. The volume of writing from the early Kashmir Shaivism yogic philosophers and polymaths will last beyond a lifetime of study and contemplation.

One of the main texts of Kashmir Shaivism is The Pratyabhijna-hrdayam (The Heart of Recognition), written as 20 sutras in the 11th century by the sage Kshemaraja. There may be some readers who are curious and wish to learn more about this particular text, and so I will list some versions for you to consider.

The first sutra of this text is a wondrously elegant opening…citih svatantra visva siddhi hetuh…”Consciousness, in her freedom, brings about the attainment of the universe.” The sutras which follow take the reader further into the process of Creation and how we can find our way home to understanding who we really are.

There are 3 well recognized written treatments of The Pratyabhijna-hrdayam which are listed here.

1. The Splendor of Recognition…a 2003 treatment of The Pratyabhijna-hrdayam by Swami Shantananda. “Swami Shantananda, a Siddha Yoga monk and teacher, comments on a key text of Kashmir Shaivism called Pratyabhijna-hrdayam (‘The Heart of Recognition’), written by the sage Kshemaraja in the eleventh century. The text, consisting of twenty sūtras (aphorisms), is directly relevant to Siddha Yoga students since Siddha Yoga philosophy is imbued with the fundamental nondual teachings of Kashmir Shaivism. Swami Shantananda’s commentaries, including personal observations and contemplation techniques, help the reader assimilate and put into action the profound teachings imparted by this classic scripture.” On Amazon this is a well reviewed book. Here is one of the reviews…”This is an extraordinary book, out of print now. It could only be written by someone who has achieved the states of consciousness described in the book. The author is an advanced meditator, following a spiritual path with a Master for almost 40 years as well as being a superb scholar. The genius of the book is that he gives the reader an experience of the states of consciousness which he describes.” Swami Shantananda stayed in my home in Boulder, CO, in March, 1987, when he was conducting teachings in the area. His face always glowed and he always greeted you with a true smile; one that comes from a pure and expanded heart. Swami Shantananda’s text is scholarly and is most beautifully written. This is my favorite interpretation of Kshemaraja’s 20 sutras on The Heart of Recognition. I recommend that you consider purchasing this book from the Siddha Yoga bookstore instead of Amazon.
2. Pratyabhijnahrdayam, The Secret of Self Recognition…by Jaideva Singh, a scholar of Kashmir Shaivism who studied with Swami Lakshman Joo in Kashmir. This author has translated and commented on all of the major texts of this spiritual path. Be warned that this text has Sanskrit source words throughout, in almost every sentence. If you like to learn about new words from one of the world’s oldest languages, then this book is for you.
3. The Recognition of Our Own Heart: Ponderings on the Pratyabhinjnahrdayam…a well reviewed 2019 contribution by Joan Ruvinsky. This would be one to acquire by any who wish to gently wade into the waters of this particular stream of contemplation.”…non-dual yoga and meditation teacher Joan Ruvinsky offers up a beautifully illustrated interpretive translation of one of the foundational texts of Kashmiri Shaivism–twenty short verses that address fundamental and universal questions. Part poetry, part guidebook, part art, it conveys the richness and incandescence so characteristic of the lineage…In her distinctly poetic and down-to-earth fashion she reminds us to live directly, moment to moment, in the mystery. ‘You already have what you need. All contemplations are valid. There are no right answers, no dead ends, only pathways in the infinite.'” There is a beautiful 2 page introduction by Mark Dyczkowski, the world’s most recognized scholar of Kashmir Shaivism.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”…I Corinthians 13, 8-12 

The End…thank you for reading and considering all of this.