The mind and the heart perceive and comprehend reality differently.
The mind’s modus operandi proceeds on the understanding that it is observing something separate from itself. The mind constructs models of reality based on evidence it receives from the senses and other sources. These models are constantly changing as new evidence comes to light, just as the mind itself is subject to constant change.
The heart’s way of knowing is through identification. The heart’s capacity of love enables it to enter into and become one with reality. There is no process or procedure involved – just instant intuitive awareness.
The mind approaches reality from the outside; the heart from within. The mind’s processes of observation and analysis can be slow and laborious and are always suspect to doubt, rejection and revision; the heart’s knowing is immediate and absolute.
In Western civilisation we have been using the mind as our primary instrument to know and understand ourselves and our universe. This would be all very well if we were finite beings. But we are not – so this mode needs to change.
To use the mind to understand ourselves and the universe is akin to measuring the sky with a 30 centimetre ruler, an exercise in frustration and futility. It is simply the wrong instrument.
A 30 centimetre ruler is excellent for measuring anything up to and including 30 centimetres, but beyond that, it is useless. The mind is a marvellous instrument for measuring, understanding and relating to the finite world, but when it comes to the infinite universe and to life itself, it is helplessly and hopelessly inadequate.
Only the infinite can know the infinite.
To know our infinite self, we must use an infinite instrument – our spiritual heart.
So, meditate…