Is it possible?
Howard Thurman, the spiritual leader and mystic, wrote Meditations of the Heart. Being a man of faith, his meditations frequently mention God:
God is at work enlarging the boundaries of my heart. God is making room in my heart for compassion.
Arguably, one could replace the word God with Life, which would make these sentences read:
Life is at work enlarging the boundaries of my heart. Life is making room in my heart for compassion.
But, what does this mean?
You have a physical heart and a spiritual heart.
Your physical heart pumps blood around your body. The boundaries of your physical heart can’t be enlarged. Its size is predetermined by your DNA.
Your spiritual heart abides in your physical heart and extends outwards without limit. There is nowhere that your spiritual heart is not. Just as you can’t enlarge your physical heart, you can’t enlarge your spiritual heart either, but that’s because it can’t be larger than it is already.
Your spiritual heart pumps love throughout the universe.
Now, Life isn’t literally enlarging the boundaries of your spiritual heart. It’s simply making you aware of it, and as you sense its all-encompassing nature, it seems to enlarge.
So, how does Life make you aware of your spiritual heart?
By breaking your heart through suffering.
Once upon a time I had a hard heart. I believed God had called me to be part of His chosen ones. He would protect me while the rest of the world experienced war, famine, plague, fear, torment, pain and death. According to my childhood church’s teachings, this is what the world deserved for not obeying God. I was smug in my sense of safety. I learned not to care about the suffering of others because I was told — and believed — it was their fault.
At the time, I believed I was filled with the love of God, but I wasn’t aware of my spiritual heart. I was cold, hard, mean, dark and withered.
Then Life happened. Prophecies failed. Doctrines crumbled. Christ didn’t return. My family splintered. Distrust reigned. The church disintegrated.
All these things broke my heart and let light in. I felt the shell of my spiritual heart crack and break open. I became aware of the boundary I had built around my spiritual heart.
Mindfulness and Your Spiritual Heart
Once you become aware of your spiritual heart, you never forget about it.
The more you dwell in it, and act from within it — reaching outwards — the more aware of it you become. The more it enlarges.
So, I say with Thurman:
Life is at work enlarging the boundaries of my heart. Life is making room in my heart for compassion.
Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now:
Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.
This often unnoticed, caring spiritual heart is pumping in you and me and all things.
Always.
With love, Marlane
Mindfulness connects you to your spiritual heart. Take the free 7-Day Mindfulness Challenge and find out how.
First published in https://medium.com/spiritual-tree