Emotion is like the wind unleashed in the unruly passion of a hurricane. Experience its power and intensity, but don’t attach. Don’t mistake passion for the heart’s intent. The wind is a passing sensation. How can the wind offer stability? Such an illusion breeds only delusion.

A child’s innocence is not childish. To the contrary, innocence is the only requirement to advance in infinity. Innocence greets oncoming time with total attention, unencumbered by thoughts, needs, desires and entitlements that filter the discovery of what truly is. Innocence is the key to hearing the heart’s true message.

The ego is the master of our time. The ego both generates its own thoughts and attaches to the pervasive flow of thoughts in the universe. The ego also harbors the childish child that seeks to remain the eternal child, driven by the pleasure principle.

Even the most mature thinker might belie the hidden child insisting to live in the sandbox of its thoughts. Be mindful to distinguish the golden child—the child that grows through innocence—from the eternal child, the one who refuses to ever leave the nursery.

For the ego to mature to innocence it must learn to command its attention. Much of the time the ego is asleep at the wheel of consciousness, as the drone of the subconscious flits from association to association and takes it down different roads of thought. Of course, thoughts automatically generate emotions befitting this unfolding drama of thought.

As in meditation, the task for the ego is to become aware that it has slipped into unconsciousness and to bring its attention back to presence in the current moment. Placing attention on the breath is a universal alternative to the focus on thought.

As the mind is cleared of its preoccupation with thought, the ego can place its attention upon the heart. Breathing into the heart focuses attention to the place of truth. Sometimes the heart speaks with a subtle or strong sensation that punctuates a word or thought that spontaneously presents itself as you ask the heart a question. This is an affirmation, either a yes or a no, or a suggestion to explore further.

Sometimes the heart affirms with an outside synchronicity, like a bird loudly breaking into song at the moment a thought appears. Sometimes the heart speaks directly in words of calm whisper. Often there is a definite feeling of rightness, a knowing of what is right to do. Feeling is a weighing function, like a scale, distinctly different from the windstorm of powerful emotion.

The heart is the place for ego and High Self to meet. Ego, however, must be cleansed of its egoism and narcissism to enter the chamber of the heart. Short of this, the ego, like every narcissist, can only hear itself. The ego must surrender to its true purpose, to serve the intent of its High Self, like the knight who serves the ruler.

Freed of attachment to emotion, with the receptivity of pure innocence, and the commitment to serve the intent of the High Self is the path to receive the truth of the heart.

From the Heart,
Chuck