Everybody knows what "heart" means, right ? There's - take heart / have a heart / with all my heart / you've gotta have heart / hard-hearted / the heart of the matter, and countless other expressions used in daily conversation, song lyrics, films, and letters. I'll bet that I've included the word "heart" in 99 percent of every Fresh Horses article I've ever written.
A local artist wrote in his newsletter the other day about "one type of artist who believe all you have to do is "wing it," "anything goes," "anybody can do it,"
and "I can do what I want as long as it has 'heart'." Is this what I mean by heart ?
A friend with a scientific frame of mind asked, when I use the word "heart", do I mean the organ in your chest which pumps blood around your body until the moment you die, or do I mean the metaphorical use of heart ? He was looking for some more precise definition, and feeling a bit "over- sugared" by what seemed to him like cloying descriptions.
Good question ! Do I mean the lub-dub heart, or the sweet-anything-goes heart ?
My answer is - neither. From the bottom of my heart, I don't mean the blood-pumping organ in your chest, nor do I mean the metaphorical heart.
Popular language throughout the world has adopted the heart as the centre of loving feelings. Some scientists say it should actually be the liver, spleen, or thymus gland. Others claim the mind as the centre of love. But logic and scientific evidence aside, the heart has it, hands-down, for popular acceptance throughout centuries of time and all cultures.
Even physicists say that everything is made of Essence. To Sufis, the heart is an actual organ of access to the Source. High up on your chest, where your collar bones meet is a notch. That is the physical doorway to access the Essence, Spirit, One, or the Source.
So how do you find access to your Source ?
In every great spiritual tradition there is an emphasis on remembering. Christians speak of the recollected heart, and of being in a state of recollection. In Sanskrit, it is Smirti. In Pali it's Sati. In Tibetan it is drenpa. In Sufism it's the Remembrance. All of these mean to remember, or to re-member, or re-collect ourselves; to stop all our outward striving, to pull ourselves together, to be connected inside - body, heart, and mind.
Qalb is Arabic for heart. But Qalb means much more than just heart. It also means turning, turning away from the world, turning inwards.
Until very recently, I had used Zen meditation or Quaker silent sitting as a way to get past my controlling mind whenever I made art. It didn't work reliably, and depended on my changing mood. At the tender age of 66, I finally ran into the simple, ancient spiritual practice of the Sufis, the Remembrance. And this has changed my whole life, my art, and my teaching.
It doesn't require any particular spiritual or religious background, which was good because I had none. Unlike many methods of meditation, the Remembrance doesn't try to quiet your mind, but to nourish your neediness. It doesn't require you to do any strange, woo-woo rituals, only to be open to the possibility of there being a spiritual being.
Practicing the Remembrance is simply taking time to remember, repeating the name you're comfortable using for the Essence into your heart. You do not need to change a single thing. Whatever your physical or emotional state is, is perfectly okay as is.
The Remembrance is an invocation, not invoking the Source into this space, but invoking yourself into the Source. You are remembering that the One is present in everything. As you call the Name into your heart, your heart starts to witness that Reality.
It's not about having a wonderful experience. It's sometimes really uncomfortable because it brings up emotions that can be hard to access. But these difficult feelings don't appear out of nowhere - you were carrying them all along. The aim isn't to get past them or change them. When we stop trying to fix things, then we can feel the support that's right there underneath all the time.
Remembering is calling in the unknown, making space for how you are right now, and having your neediness filled. Anything you do "from your heart" is bound to be fully authentic. When faced with a challenge you don't have answers to, you are shown the way.
As one client said: "It's much easier to work from my heart - both in expressing and interpreting. So, I'm going to find it exciting to look at artwork with my heart rather than my head..." May Johnstone, Scotland, http://www.delicioushealing.com
Remembrance allows you to stand where your Reality is right now, so you can feel the strength of the ground under you, supporting you. It is like coming home to your deepest knowing. It's simple; it's universal; and it works!
About the Author
Hello, I'm Celeste Varley and it is my passion to help people seeking spiritual development to find and explore their own inborn potential for visual expression. Once you learn a new way of seeing, you can access and express deeper feelings that are normally hidden. If this article speaks to your heart, you may want to see more "Fresh Horses" articles on my website. Check it out and see if it's right for you.
Celeste Varley
http://www.heartsongstudio.com
Discover, uncover & recover
your wild creative potential!
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