The Head & The Heart

[pixiedust]

Starman,

Something you wrote above. I have had a pain in a certain part for decades and I think it is now causing other problems. Something you said above, about thought forms or beliefs. I suspect things are stuck there. If I sit and listen, there can be no thought, how do people uncover what is silent? It seems that we can only look at our beliefs or atttitudes through other mechanisms, although I know meditation does reveal them with sincerity, consistency/discipline.

[pixiedust]

Unseeking Seeker,

I usually look at head and heart in a similar way. On one level, even being in the head is simply the heart being confused/stuck in its own wares, but the heart is always there.

And the difference though in those that act from head or heart can be monumentally different.

My terminology would say the way is to let the heart lead and the head follows, silently, as you suggest. I don't live it, but it doesn't mean I don't subscribe to this as the way.

I miss Shivani Devi too

[Unseeking Seeker]

@ pixiedust ~ I’d say there is no this vs that. The difference or discord of differentiated awareness arises from association and indulgence with a specific attribute of our being that here manifests. As such, our ignorance is the first problem and ability to hold our awareness steady in the knowing (meaning, we have imbibed but not assimilated the truth) is the next problem as we are subject to the three Gunas* (* Satva or purity, Rajas or desire and Tamas or inertia) ~ for example waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, within each too our awareness oscillates.

[Starman]

pixiedust, your question is how can you uncover what is silent? I can only speak from my own experience. Allow silence to grow within you and it will show you what is there beyond uncovering it.

If you let inner silence grow, nurture it, and it will replace discomfort with peace. Silence has a very rich and thick presence. It is everywhere; to experience it all we have to do is remove the noise. Silence is always in the background of noise.

I use my mind when I want to but otherwise I keep my mind quiet. Most people let their thoughts run 24/7 without a break. Mind is a construction tool. The energy which we use to construct thoughts and imagination, takes away from the growing of inner silence.

We can readily heal ourselves when we feel that silent presence has engulfed us, we can also heal ourselves with our thoughts. But I have worked with patients who had thought disorders, and also people who were emotionally out of control.

I had to learn to trust the silence, and keeping my mind quiet greatly helped my combat-related ptsd. It amazed me the health I experienced by diminishing my internal dialogue. The first rule of communication is to learn how to listen, and I can listen more keenly when I am silent inside.

The human aspects of consciousness are Attention, what we consistently give our attention to will grow. Memory, this is our rearview mirror; it gives us a continuity of existence here on Earth. Imagination, this is the creative principle within us. Attitude, this directs our life; we can say that spirit directs our life but only if we have the attitude to listen. Intuition, which is a very wise inner teacher. There are other things but these are the basic aspects.

Ego is a meeting place for inductive self consciousness and deductive sub-consciousness. We can humble ego but can we really ever get rid of it? Regardless, it is wonderful to have a big heart but not okay to have a big head.

[Starman]

Every culture, religion, philosophy, theology, theosophy, or psychological school of thought, has their own way of describing the aspects of human consciousness and how they interact. They each may use different words, models, or ways of describing it.

In traditional yoga the Sanskrit language is used to describe it, in Ageless Wisdom the Hebrew language is used, it is described differently in Freudian psychology, or Esoteric Psychology, differently in Jungian psychology, or Christian theology, but in my opinion they are all talking about the same thing only using different words.

All of the methods of looking at human consciousness, study the aspects of human consciousness, as a roadmap of understanding from their perspective. It is difficult to be objective about our most intimate experience, that which we call consciousness.

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

@ pixiedust

Thank you very much, Unseeking Seeker!

pixiedust

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by Starman

pixiedust, your question is how can you uncover what is silent? I can only speak from my own experience.

Gratefully received, dearest Starman.

May I ask your perspective on the "hidden" beliefs, attitudes etc. we hold?

Somewhere above, I recall you mentioned that we can hold on to thought forms, that can cause other issues. How do we see these thought forms, these beliefs, that cause us issues?

How do we see our own attitudes? In silence, we observe thought patterns?



Gratefully,
pixiedust

[Starman]

pixiedust, we can find out what is going on with us sub-consciously by looking at our patterns of behavior over time, or by the words we frequently use when we speak, or by observing our thoughts and feelings.

I did my autobiography decades ago; it took me about a year to write, and it showed me a lot of the patterns I had engaged in over time. Patterns which I was unconscious of, mostly involving how I went about relationships with others. Another method is to either record or write down your thoughts, do it everyday for one month, and at the end of that month look to see what is persistent in your journaling.

Our sub-conscious functions in patterns according to how we think and feel in an ongoing basis. Silence will also give you a keen observation of your own behavior, and when the silence inside you grows you will increasingly be separated from your thoughts and can better look at them as objects coming and going in your head. Although the thoughts we constantly feed will stay with us longer whether we are conscious of them or not.

We do not have hidden thoughts, in fact nothing is hidden from us. We wake up to what has always been. Learning about where we are stuck in our mind requires an unflinching look at ourselves. Things like writing an autobiography or journaling helps us to put it outside of ourselves so we can see it; even if it is just with a bias perspective, it can still be helpful in showing us how we persistently think or feel.

This is a part of working on ourselves. There are people who carry unhealthy or counter-productive thoughts all their lives, and in many those thoughts and feelings manifest as disorders in that person’s body. I have found that most people are looking for an instant fix, they want instant gratification, but it took a while to develop that pattern and it will take a while to discover and release it.

Most people who do not want to work on themselves, want to avoid the pain or shame of what they have stuffed inside of them, or maybe they feel the work is too hard. This is the path of conscious self transformation. Over time silence will cause what is in you to rise to the surface; whatever we have stuffed down inside of us consciously or unconsciously, will rise to our conscious awareness if we continue to nurture inner silence.

To get to our deeper being we go through the layers of stuff that we have covered our soul, or deeper being with. The process is automatic and is increased with the continual nurturing of inner silence. Things that I had forgotten about have come to the surface in me, and I now cringe at some of the things I did and ways I thought in the past, things and ways that I used to embrace as normal. These days I do not care about being normal.

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Starman

in my opinion I believe that the middle path is best and we can
benefit from both the path of the head and the path of the heart, especially when mind and emotions are synchronized.
Although as I have embraced it, the spiritual experience is beyond mind and emotions.

Very nicely described polarities and how the balance in them through middle path can help us . Excellent and thanks for wonderful post.

[pixiedust]

Dear Starman,

I recently had a strong headache and since then, my brain isn't working as well as I'd like.

That said, I've been reading this and will continue to absorb it. I .. don't always find it easy to see things objectively. Do you remember you once sent me a gift? It was a read.

Anyway thank you so kindly once again

pixiedust