Where are Our Hearts?

As I watch what human beings are doing to one another in the Middle East; as I see our youth choosing sides in sometimes ugly protests all over the world; as I observe a mob take over an airport in Russia, trying to get to a plane full of Israelis, my heart profoundly aches. And I ask . . .

Where are our hearts?

At this point in human evolution, it may not be apparent but, as the Dali Lama says, the core of every human being is basic goodness. And in our hearts is the doorway out of the heartbreaking chaos human beings have been living in, into the communion we long for, communion with ourselves, with others, and with life in its entirety.

But the wisdom of our hearts has been overridden by our busy, busy minds. Most people live almost exclusively in the kind of mind that creates all the chaos we are seeing on our planet. It operates through the lens of I like this but not that; this is good and that is bad; I am right and you are wrong; and I am better than you because of my nationality, religion, gender, skin color, political orientation, etc. As we watch the news, we can clearly see all over the world the chaos that shows up from interfacing with life from a primarily dualistic mind.

This kind of mind excludes rather than includes, controls rather than communicates, takes rather than gives, lectures rather than listens, and thinks revenge is sweet. The startling fact is that this kind of mind also lives inside of you (and me), too. You are oftentimes at war with yourself, maybe not with the level of violence we’re seeing, but still you relate to yourself and others at times with harshness, judgment, arrogance, righteousness, and blame.

What can you do?

Uncover your beautiful, wise, intelligent, insightful, caring heart.

The first step is to open your heart to you. Why is this so essential? When you open your heart to you, it makes it so much easier to open your heart to others. You finally get that every single person you come across, whether it’s at work, in your home, or on the news, carries the same pain you do. They have been hurt, scared, betrayed, ignored, and judged just like you. At times they have felt unseen, unheard, undervalued, and deeply vulnerable, just like you. They have thought, said, and done things they don’t want anybody else to know, just like you. And they have been doing the absolute best they know how with the conditioning they were given when they were a child, just like you.

When your heart is closed, you don’t see anybody. You just see your ideas of them. When your heart is open, you can see the totality of any person and know that even if they are completely different than you, you don’t need to put them out of your heart. So rather than reacting like so many people in the world are right now, you can respond from the wisdom of your heart. And our world desperately needs more awake hearts right now!

What does it look like to open your heart to you? You understand you are a unique event in the unfolding of life on this planet. Life brought you forth out of mystery because it needed to have your presence in the world. And just like every single atom has a positive and negative charge, you are made out of dark and light – you have clarity and confusion, wanting and resisting, kindness and meanness, judgment and acceptance. Your dualistic mind also has an ongoing list of what parts of you are not okay, whether it’s your body, your thoughts, your emotions, or your actions. In other words, most people live in an ongoing war inside of themselves that rarely allows their hearts to be heard.

What your heart knows is you, like everybody else, are perfectly imperfect! And the gift you have to give to the world is to learn how to listen to your amazing heart and accept the totality of you. It does take courage to befriend yourself, bringing all the parts of you back home to your heart. But I am here to tell you there is not one thought, feeling, or experience that doesn’t deserve to come home to your heart.

We come back to the question I asked at the beginning: Where are our hearts? My answer is: It is inside of you. You are reading this blog because you are a part of humanity maturing beyond the old kind of mind that created the conflict in the Middle East. And each time you choose to respond with your heart rather than react, you become a part of the healing of our planet.

Are you willing to commit to the path of your dualistic mind coming home to your heart?  Love is the greatest power we can discover.  It is more powerful than fear, revenge, hatred, confusion, doubt, shame, grief, etc.  It is time for us to relearn how to love one another and that comes from learning how to love ourselves.