Transcription of the visioconference The Heart in all its states, Saturday 20 june 2020.
Depths of the heart
Last time I gave a lecture on uniqueness (tawhid) and this time I wanted to go a little more in the direction of the heart, the heart in all its states.
Before I do that, I’ll make a preamble because, as a mystic, I’m going to use the word “God”. I know from experience that many people are reactive to this because of religion, education, projections, everything that has been put on the word “God”. So it’s important to understand that these talks come from what is called divine science, that is to say Brahma-vidya in Sanskrit, and to not worry about the vocabulary we are going to use but rather about the experience we are going to make.
For example, when I say the word “God”, what does it mean? I like the definition Babuji – who was my former Master – has given us: “God is a centre that has no name, no mind, no attribute.” The difficulty with that is that you can’t project anything. It’s a centre. In every being there is a centre, in every thing there is a centre, in every cell there is a centre, the atom is a centre too. Basically, this is what allows us to access our centre – here we decided to do it through the heart – and to experiment. So I’m going to use the word “God”. We can say, in relation to Islam, for example, that Allah, is the Essence too, is the Truth, is Reality. These are equivalents. Mystics will say the Lord, yogis will say the Self with a capital S, the Ultimate, the Absolute, the Source, the Goal… Everything is possible.
A brief metaphysical precision: there are big discussions about the Creator God or the Absolute God. In Sanskrit it is Saguna, the Creator God who is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and Nirguna, the God who is Absolute, who will be the Zero. Whereas the Creator God is the One and the Absolute God is the Zero.
What is God?
It is that and absolutely not that either, as all the connoisseurs, the Gnostics will tell you. But we have to be able to talk about it. Some will say: “No, God is the Zero, we can’t say anything, it’s that famous Centre.” Yes, but how are we going to approach it? We approach this dimension within us – it is a dimension within us – through the One, and the One will lead us quite naturally to the Absolute, to this famous Zero. We are human beings after all, so it is important to approach it in one way or another but, above all, what is important is that through the introduction to meditation and transmission, we will be able to experience the Divine, therefore God, in our heart. We will not need to have beliefs, creeds, we will have an experience and that is what is important.
Not everything that is added to this notion of God is necessary. That is why Islam says: “There is no God but God.” (“La ilaha illallah.”), and each religion will have its own approach. For example, I’ll tell you about the Orthodox Christians who say in Greek: “Kyrie eleison.” There are again we have translations, multiple translations (we will see later), but I’d rather say it in Greek because at least my mind doesn’t get on top of it. What is important is to get in touch with this spiritual dimension that is in us, through the heart. This is why I am going to talk to you about the heart.
The heart always amazes me, even on an anatomical level. It is really the heart that makes us live with arterial and venous blood, this circulation in all parts of our body, in the capillaries, even the smallest ones. It is omnipresent. Discoveries have been made, in neuroscience: there is an intelligence of the heart. We’ve known about it for a long time: even the Chinese in the book “The secret of the Golden Flower” evoked the intelligence of the heart. We have realized that the heart sends information to the brain through neurotransmitters, neuro-hormones.
So, we have given another dimension to this heart, even at the neurophysiological level. Here is an anecdote too. You know that heart transplants are done. An anecdote says that a young woman’s heart was transplanted to a woman. The first woman had been murdered. The culprit was arrested thanks to the memories of the transplanted woman. Because there was a memory, she was able to tell what had happened. So it’s rather worrying: “What have they put in my chest?” We put life in, it goes on and with time the cells get transformed, regenerated, the memories are also erased or distanced, that is to say, it’s not the same thing, like a story that doesn’t belong to us. But it is interesting to see that there is this memory.
What we also find, for example, is consciousness. We say: “Consciousness is the brain.” Well, no, consciousness is not the brain. A person who has a stroke is in cardiac arrest and in cerebral arrest, but still has consciousness and is able to hear conversations, to see what is going on here or in another room when there is surgery. Then we think that we are something else. It’s vast. It’s interesting, as it has given, for example in France, the cardiac coherence Doctor Servan Schreiber explained, which allows the heart to be regulated by the breath, by certain rhythms. It also gave all of Hartmath researches. And it continues with the experiments made on Mathieu Ricard and others, to see what are the effects of Mindfulness or Heartfulness meditation on the cortex or on the limbic amygdala system. So, I think that in the times to come, we’ll have a lot of information on this level, to show the magnificent side of the heart and its multiple possibilities.
I will also be brief concerning Chinese medicine: in Chinese medicine, we speak of the heart as shen. The Chinese are very precise: there is the physical heart, which is called shin, and shen is translated as spirit or the organizing energy. This means that there, again, even in physiology and energetic physiology, the heart is still at the centre and will distribute both blood and energy, but it will also control all our emotions and feelings. We find again the five emotions, the five feelings. This is also part of Chinese medicine, with the five elements it mentions and links to the five emotions governed by shen, the mind. At the same time, they no longer make this distinction between body and energy. The heart will command, direct, harmonize all these aspects, so that the regulation of the heart is important at the physiological level, at the level of health, but also at the level of mental and emotional health. There are all kinds of techniques to work at this level. I had decided to be very, very brief on this subject. These are mere evocations.
Then we come to the heart I am passionate about; it is the heart as we last saw in the conference about tawhid and the levels of the heart. According to me, there are three levels of the heart:
– The first one is the spiritual level of the heart, which connects us to the soul, to what we really are;
– Then, there is a second level, which is the level of the depth of the heart, where we are in contact with our inner master. And when we have a Master, this inner Master is in contact with the outer Master who instructs us, who guides us, who therefore teaches us how to realize our union, our uniqueness.
Heartfulness is raja-yoga. We practice yoga, we learn to realize the Self, to achieve our mystical union with the Divine, with God within ourselves. Here again, whatever words we use, we’ll have access to this Reality, the great depth of the heart that we call God, Essence or Reality. This is very interesting because it depends on the different levels:
– At the first level, we are in duality, which is normal in the manifestation, as it is yin/yang. We need that duality. We don’t need to be dual to live in duality. And what are we trying to do? – Live in unity, in union with ourselves, be in oneness,
– To do so, we must manage reaching the second level of the heart, the one I spoke about, the level of the Inner Master, and we must be able to live that oneness, that union, in our duality. This is what meditation brings us. Meditation will not allow us to realize the Divine or the Self. It is an approach that will allow us to balance our mind, to give it the moderation it needs. The result is also equanimity, a way of looking at life in a serene, peaceful way, and thus to direct our mind – therefore our spirit – towards the depths of the heart. As you have done with the Heartfulness experiment (because the most recent newcomers among you have experimented it, for at least a fortnight I think, and others for several months), we propose to let yourself be absorbed by the divine Light in your heart – Divine means Essence, the essence of who you are – and see what it leads to. I think you have already experienced it.
What is interesting is that in a state of wakefulness, in a state of activity, it is always possible to remain in contact with this dimension of the heart. So, we have to be able to make it our own, so that when we close our eyes or when we have our eyes open, we are centered on the heart. We find the idea of Centre again. That centre is motionless, silent. From there, we are active, we live. This is the image of the wheel: the centre of the wheel is static and the periphery moves forward, progresses, as in a bicycle for example.
What is the reality?
– For us it is both, both the movement in duality (yin/yang) and the stillness, which is our centre. All meditations propose you to be centered, still. It’s convenient but it also needs practice, because it’s not easy to be centered, in the vertical, in the Presence and in the moment. So, the Heartfulness job consists in leading us to discover our inner dimension and our life path, because we each have our own and unique life path. Even if the methods are generalized, our path is unique. We must be able to go within ourselves and discover our depths.
What does it look like at first?
– A state of balance and inner peace. And when you have this inner peace, there is a state that, in yoga, is called contentment. The interest is that we’re going to approach life and its many problems (we all have many) in a serene way. We’ll be able to use this famous second level of the heart that I also called the Inner Master, to find solutions, to know what is right or wrong. We always have this knowledge: when it is right or wrong we know it through our heart. This is the difference between the heart and the mind. The heart is really the master and the mind will allow the application. We have so many applications, as if we had a computer in our brains; there is so much information that there is confusion. The mind is linked to the wind, they say it’s the mad monkey, which goes all over the place. It is beautiful, but it has to be regulated. In yoga, the Bhagavad Gita gives the example of the chariot, driven by Lord Krishna, so that Arjuna can go to the battle of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna represents our Inner Master, who drives the chariot, i.e. the vehicle; the horses represent the senses, you also have the reins, which enable you to command them, to control them. And you have Arjuna, the one who is going to fight, who is going to live. But there’s a problem: he doesn’t want to fight, even though he’s a warrior, he doesn’t want to. The Bhagavad Gita is already the revelation of what he is, the discovery of his Inner Master, through Lord Krishna, and of the issue he has to face, e.g. having to fight his Masters, his uncles, whom he loves very much and who are unfortunately on the wrong side. His cousins, the Kauravas, are the tendencies, the hundred tendencies that are within us. He will have to fight them by himself; he can’t do otherwise. It’s a metaphor.
But who guides us inside? I suggest it is the heart. What heart?
– A heart that has been purified and illuminated, because around this wonderful heart, heaps of envelopes, of illusions have been put on. Babuji talked about it: there are five envelopes of maya, of illusions (it’s a metaphor). There are many more, sometimes thousands of them, i.e. all that we have created, all that society and education have laid within us, so that we don’t really have access to our hearts. This is why we have the purification technique, the cleansing technique, to return it to its original state, so that we can really refer to and trust the heart and the depth of the heart, that is to say the second level, which will guide us, the Inner Master who will tell us what is right or wrong to do. We gain confidence, once we know what we have to do or not to do.
At the same time, this second level is related to what has been called the cosmic region, which is situated here, at the level of the subtle centres of the chakras, which will allow us to access the universal mind – we call it the cosmic mind. And there, we’ll be able to pick up information. How shall we do it?
– In an intuitive way. You know, even the greatest researchers – they have worked hard, they have knowledge – and then, suddenly, they have an intuition: “Eureka, I have found.” (Here we are! And he gets an apple on his head); but often, researchers receive from somewhere, this level of intuition (Einstein talked about it); they are revelations, truths, that their knowledge allows them to recognize and develop afterwards. In that sense, our intelligence, our knowledge and our reason have their place, but only in a second phase.
So you are going to have intuitions, revelations and the divine science, Brahma-vidya: it is the direct knowledge of the universe, of the laws of the universe, of Creation, depending on needs. That’s why we must be ‘empty’, yet have an intention, but be empty to receive the knowledge we need. Everything is at our disposal. Everything, but if you want something particular, something specific, you put a limit. If you are open, everything can come, anything you need, all that your inner guide will tell you to do or to go to. If we are in a search, a system, it will surely go in that direction because we are human beings, we are in the finite. What matters is to be able to achieve the infinite in the finite.
The purpose of spirituality is therefore to be in the One, in Oneness, through diversity. In a slightly more mystical language, it is to recognize the Divine, to recognize God, in every creature, in every person, even in every thing, and to be oneself. Because we ourselves have our own place, like everything else, that exists in its rightful place. We do not determine. It is God who has determined this in His creation. And what did He do when He started creating us?
– He left us free, and that is why human beings are provided with free will. We have seen what, sometimes, we can do with it; it is not always extraordinary, but well, these are also the exercises we are offered to realize what we really are.
I also wanted to tell you that I was interested in what happens at the moment of our introduction to meditation. Some people even call it initiation. Initiation means movement, setting in motion. There are at least three introductory meditations that you have all experienced. The heart is prepared, i.e., there is a cleansing of the heart, a purification of the heart, which allows us to access its depths. In this sense, we can speak of initiation, because it puts us in contact with the essence of our self, with our Self, with the Divine within us. That is why we speak of Divine Light. So, that is the first aspect. There is the connection that allows us, afterwards, to receive directly the transmission of yogic energy which, in Sanskit, is called pranahuti, and which will feed our heart directly. It is like a very, very fine laser beam, because in our heart it is like a point. That’s why when we talk about chakras, at the beginning, we talk about points, nodes, chakras. The amazing thing is that we can say that God, originally, is like a singularity in us, He is a point that has neither space, nor time nor dimension.
What happens when we work, when we give Him a little more room?
– This point will open up, that’s why we talk about chakra, like a lotus flower. It will open up, there will be an expansion that, for us, will correspond to an expansion of our consciousness, i.e. that we’ll become aware of the reality of the Divine within us, of our reality too. Different dimensions of consciousness, different aspects of consciousness, are going to be revealed to us from within.
One thing I find beautiful with cleaning is that the first thing we clean is the samskara, viz. our tendency to fear, because fear prevents us from living well, fear prevents our access to love within us and to love in life. So, that too is cleansed. There is this connection of the heart of the meditator to the heart of the Master, which allows us to receive this famous transmission.
Afterwards, what I observed was that it was necessary to have the notion of the goal, and this is what Babuji was talking about. In the third maxim, he said: “Set your goal which is complete union with God.” I insist on the word “complete”. “Complete” means that there is both the One and the Zero. There is the Divine, God, who allows us to meet the union and the union of the absolute Zero, which we cannot talk about. That is it, but it is very important (I have seen this in people who have been meditating for a long time), they lose the sense of purpose. So there is no longer this strength, there is no longer the enthusiasm we had, at first, there is no longer this will to go in one direction. So it is important, until this union has been made, to make this effort. This is why, in the raja-yoga we practice, Heartfulness, we propose to meditate very regularly, to cleanse regularly and to make micro-practices which are really excellent to install this, to install this dimension.
It takes a lot of efforts, it takes practice, until we have free access to the second level of the heart which is that cosmic dimension within us, which some call the Kingdom of God. Then, the work is completely different. We talk about making an “effort without effort”. I like the image of the particle: a particle that we send into an absolute vacuum goes to infinity. There is no friction. So the initial energy is sufficient for the particle to go to infinity and that’s where the “effortless effort” has to be made. As we saw last time, Babuji then mentioned the eleven circles of the ego, that is, of the ego that can prevent us from giving way to the Divine, to God in us. Here again, there are steps, but they will be made. This is where we must show more humility, abandonment, and let it be. What are we letting ourselves be managed by?
– By this second level of the heart.
The five points of the heart.
You’ll say to me: “You’re not talking about the third one.”
– Ah! the third one is extraordinary, but it is really difficult – except for raja-yogis or very experienced meditators – to live it with our eyes closed, because these are levels of absorption, of samadhi where, in the first one, we get completely lost, we are conscious of ourselves, but we forget ourselves completely. In the second level of Samadhi, one is totally absorbed and conscious, and the third level is the sahaj-samadhi, where we are both totally absorbed in the heart and totally present to life, to beings, to what we have to do. It is a state that realized beings, Masters, I think, have reached. There are still other stages. The levels of depth seem infinite, but they must be experienced, and not be described or talked about.
This is why I thought it was important to also talk about this introduction to meditation and also about the energy that must be maintained and put into it. I think that this energy should be maintained mainly in the heart area. You know, we talked about the five points of the heart, in the region of the heart, so we are going to have a journey of the soul which is called yatra in Sanskrit, from point 1 to points 2, 3, 4, up to points 6, 7, and then we go to the upper parts. But we are going to experience this later.
What I’d like, in order to warm up not our legs, but our hearts, is to take a little break, a micro-practice for now, and go into the depths of the heart.
Please, close your eyes.
Turn your attention to your heart and let yourself be absorbed by the Divine Light that is there. (Pause)
Become aware of the first level. It is vast. (Pause)
Now, let yourselves be absorbed into the second level. (Pause)
Then let yourselves be absorbed into the third level of the heart, which goes to the infinity of your being. (Pause)
Slowly, come back to the surface while keeping contact with the depth of your hearts. (Pause)
When you feel it, gently open your eyes, still being in contact with the depth of the heart. (Pause)
Then look at the screen again, while being in contact with the depth of the heart.
Anahata-chakra (the heart chakra)
Since it is the International Days of Yoga, today and tomorrow, I couldn’t help but tell you about the heart chakra, anahata-chakra. It is part of a set of seven chakras and, as you can see, it is at the centre of the chest, in green. It makes the link with:
– the lower part, the three lower chakras, the root chakra (muladhara), the sacred (swadhistana) and the solar (manipura) chakras,
– and the three superior ones, which are the throat (vishuddi), the third eye (ajna-chakra) and the crown chakras (sahasra-dal-kamal).
It is with this crown chakra, when it has fully unfolded, that we say we have achieved our Self-realization, our union with God. In general, in yoga, this is the maximum. The Masters of raja-yoga have gone further, to go towards this aspect I told you about, the absolute aspect, which is at once the Source and the Goal.
Let’s come back to the symbol of anahata-chakra. It is important to say that they are constituent chakras,which are there when we come down here, when we incarnate in this world. We start with the subtlest mind and then we incarnate. We will pass through the chakras, which are also linked to the elements. The last chakra, muladhara, is linked to the earth. It is the earth chakra.
We work on the lotus of the chakra, on the flowers. The five points of the heart are the flowers. Generally, you have the chakras, which are not physical but physically represented: these are the plexuses, the different nervous plexuses. And there are the organs (these concern Ayurvedic or Chinese medicine). So you have the subtle dimensions of the chakras, and what appeared is that, from the heart, we had the capacity to realize anything. You see, you have two intertwining triangles: it is the seal of Krishna, which later was called the seal of Solomon. But it is the seal of Krishna that represents the meeting of the energies of heaven and earth, of purusha and prakriti. At the centre of this heart, which is the centre of the Centre, where lies the Essence, the great depth of our heart, is the kingdom of God. Traditionally it is said that Lord Krishna prepares the meditator, the yogi, for connecting with God, who is represented by the last chakra – sahasra-dal-kamal.
This is very important. You see, at the centre, you have a little tube that goes from the centre to the top. There is a direct connection, which does not pass through the other chakras located between anahata-chakra, the heart, and the crown (sahasra-dal-kamal), to allow the union with God. Now what happens when the connection is established?
– That is when we can receive divine grace. Divine grace is something that has nothing to do with technique, but which can descend into the meditator’s heart only when it is totally purified. So, you can see all the work of preparation that has to be done, which is well explained here.
Daaji even tells us that a thousand transmissions (this transmission of yogic energy, which you have experienced and is quite extraordinary) are worth a grace. Grace is something that comes down when one is ready, when it is God’s will. It works miracles and it is what also gives us that inner joy, a state of bliss, a permanent one, and the consciousness of being.
Around this central aspect, there is a lotus; it has twelve petals, corresponding to twelve qualities, including one I like so much that I put at the central level – it is unity. The other qualities are: love, joy, peace, bliss, purity, compassion, clarity, understanding, forgiveness, patience, and kindness. These twelve qualities, will be realized as we realize the heart and its purity.
These twelve petals will be found again in the lotus of a thousand petals, at a central level. There, they are red; at the top, they are said to be colourless, golden. This also shows the crucial importance of the heart in achieving the Ultimate. Moreover, see there are six branches (hence a hexagram), each one representing one of the chakras. That also shows that one can realize each chakra, integrate each chakra in the heart. Hence the wonder the heart is. The anahata is considered as being related to the “air” element and to the mind. That is why we use the mind in the field of the heart. The Sanskrit translation for anahata means “infinite”, ‘continuous’. It reveals the Word of God, called the Brahma-shabda. That is when people say the “Om”. There is a specific sound, “So Ham”, which helps to realize the heart. It means “I am That.” Another extraordinary thing is that the sound of the heart is a sound without percussion, a sound without sound. You see, it is normal: if you go into the great depths of the heart, the Word, God’s Logos, is not humanly audible with the ear, even if we say the “Om”. “Om” is magnificent; it gives access. But we should do as we do with prayer (we spoke about prayer, the dhikr, issued by Ghazali); there is no sound anymore, there is only silence, i.e. sound without sound.
This is what we can appreciate because we often say to ourselves: “But what is going on, inside?”
– We can appreciate the quality of depth in our inner silence. We can appreciate the quality of the audience at the quality of the silence they can all keep. That’s why Babuji said that silence is the language of God. That’s why in meditation we are silent, to be receptive, to listen. It is also said that when we pray we address God, and when we meditate we listen to God. We listen to this “sound without any sound”, anahata-chakra, with our internal organs. That is why, at the second level of the heart, clear hearing and clairvoyance will develop. We had talked about chahid last time, i.e. developing both our inner vision and our inner listening. It is one of the things the practice of heart meditation can reveal.
Something I haven’t talked about yet: in the symbol of the heart, you have an antelope at the bottom, representing alertness. This little antelope, at the slightest danger, flees away very, very quickly. It corresponds to our alertness, to our attention. To introduce a future topic, I link it to the guardianship of the heart, i.e. to watchfulness. Once our heart is purified and we are in a state of constant remembrance, we are alert, we prevent things from penetrating and disturbing us, in order to keep this inner purity and this contact with what we really are. Trust. So, yes, we find what I like in Catholics and Orthodox Christians, in Philocalia, when they talk about “guarding the heart”. We must guard this heart. It is a precious place, we must not let anything in. We must keep it pure. It is in this sense that, when we keep it pure (you know that famous grace that comes down), we live with that vibration called the Presence that the mystics will call God. It is the Presence. Living in the Presence, being able to continue living in the Presence, whatever we do.
We practice: doing it is much easier to do through meditation, because our senses are withdrawn. It still is yoga, ashtanga yoga, when we withdraw the senses, pratyara, and turn them inwards. Our attention, not concentration, but attention, is focused on the heart. All right? We are motionless (asana), we have a perfect posture (manamyama), no problems: they are outside and we needn’t worry about them for the time being. There is pranayama, too, but we needn’t do breathing exercises. You know that often, in meditation, you are asked to breathe, to hold retentions or to make specific breaths to be able to meditate better. It’s true; it works. That is to say that if you are mentally agitated, observing your breathing without changing it can really regulate it a lot.
In social networks, there was a young Tibetan Buddhist who explained how to regulate the mind and especially the ego. And I found him magnificent. He said: “Oh, it’s very simple: ‘Breathe in, breath out, breathe in, breath out.”. And he had a beautiful smile saying: “There is no problem.” The only thing he didn’t say was that he had meditated for years to get to this calmness. But most of all, what I find extraordinary, which we find in many Buddhists, is that they have both a basic serenity and an inner joy. We can see that in the Dalai Lama’s interviews, for example. They are constantly cheerful; they are like children. And that, for me, is a sign that they have penetrated the depths of their being and that they have discovered this dimension we have been talking about, because there is an inner joy. There is that peace, but there is also the inner joy that is there. When a spiritual seeker looks sad, or goes through a difficult period, well, he needs to move forward somewhat further on.
The points of the heart
I am going to move on to the last topic I wanted to talk about: the points of the heart. In Heartfulness, we are told that the first step is practice, a rigorous practice, and if we want to have results, a daily, almost permanent one. This requires effort, effort because we are in the world of duality, effort because we have a lot of inner complexities, a lot of tendencies, because the heart is covered with veils so we don’t have direct access. What is interesting is to see that, as we progress spiritually, things will appear. And there again (I love paradoxes) it is all about knowing oneself. It is the area of the heart, of the manifestation that will allow that knowledge of the self, whereas to achieve the Ultimate, one must practice forgetting oneself. You see the paradox: to know oneself and to forget oneself. And these work together, because we are human beings, therefore paradoxical: we are at the same time bearers of the greatest qualities, of the greatest spiritual and divine virtues, and we are sometimes sinister individuals, strange, complex, magnificent and horrible people. It is these two aspects that are apparently contradictory.
Actually, in meditation there is a work that we have to do by ourselves, it is the work on: who we are – character and way of life – because the Divine has provided us with free will, so we do what we want with our lives. Why do we do whatever we want, why did He leave that to us?
– So that we can be co-creators with Him. That is to say, Creation being non-completed, it is expanding. New discoveries are still being made and so, if He had limited us, as angels for example can be, we would not have this possibility to co-create with Him. But in order for this to happen at best, according to His plan, we must be connected to Him, as otherwise we are in our own creation, and see what happens on earth. No comments.
So we have the first point, which is, for me, the point on which we are going to meditate, the point of the earth, Point 1. When we have cleansed it properly, purified it, and let it be illuminated by the yogic transmission, there will be a more or less permanent feeling of contentment. This is where we can assess ourselves, saying: “Where am I? Am I in contentment?” Babuji used to say: “A happy man is a happy man in all circumstances.” That doesn’t mean that one is blissful, that life is a long quiet river, it’s not that at all. It’s the way we face life, its difficulties, its beauty, everything that presents itself to us, with a feeling of contentment. And to see where we stand, we can observe: “how am I when I am dissatisfied? Am I dissatisfied with life, with society, with so-and-so, with my husband, my wife, my parents, my children, etc.?” This shows that we are still on the surface and that the Divine is not yet fully in place within us, because we do not have access to the reality of things, the reality of beings, the reality of the situations.
When we are contented, we are generous. Whereas when we are not very happy we are often rather cramped, we lack something, we are selfish. “Life isn’t easy, you understand, it’s difficult to get by, I have to protect myself, as people would sort of attack me, you see.” That’s also why Babuji said that there is in the heart, an upper part and a lower part, the more spiritual part and the more human part, we’ll say. But He says that when the lower part is illuminated, you are going to find God in you, and when the upper part is illuminated, you can look at God in all things and in all beings. So, despite what is happening, despite the expressions, we still manage to see the real purpose of our lives, but also every human being’s purpose.
That is why there is also this much finer analysis: we can look at the points that Daaji and Babuji were talking about: A, B, C, D, the subtle centre of the heart. So we start from the region of the manifestation known as the heart, pind-desh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and when we come to 6 and 7, we are in the cosmic region. Again we have five points there, up to 10; then we pass to the supra-cosmic and central regions, 11, 12 and 13. At level 13, we have within us the expression of God without form, without name, without attribute, the Centre, the Absolute, the Ultimate.
That is lived and integrated in the heart, therefore in the three levels of the heart. We can make this journey of the soul, we can find our way on this map, but we can make all this way through the heart, the depth of the heart and the purification of the heart. Here is the wonder, this is the direct way, the vertical way Babuji was talking about, and you also have a path via the subtle centres of the heart chakras (each person has his or her own way).
If we want to have a better knowledge of ourselves, point A, for example, represents our relationship to life and to others. That’s why I suggested meditating on it while feeling that we are all really brothers to each other. This is somewhat like the 9 p.m. universal prayer for humanity. When we don’t have this feeling, we don’t have this reality within us, we don’t have this feeling of fraternity, of community, of oneness. This is also what is important when we have succeeded in realizing this light in the heart: this ‘unicity’ where we see the union of life. Otherwise, we remain in duality.
Then we move on to point B, which represents all the obsessions. It is also said to be in direct contact with the first three chakras we mentioned: muladhara (the root chakra), swadhistana and manipura. This is the cleansing that we can do from the front. We cleanse the whole human part of our personality that corresponds to what we are as human beings, and therefore that will allow this, and it’ll also allow us to free ourselves from our obsessions. Let’s consider the sexual obsession, which is the strongest: what is important, as in all things, is to have a balance. And what is proposed in the technique is to let the Light go, that is to say that the light of the soul comes out from point B, and that’s the moment when we are much more ourselves.
Then we have this point C. At point C, we’re always there, saying: “I like it, I don’t like it. We are attracted, we are repulsed, etc.”. So we see that in ourselves.
Point D is the point of guilt. That’s the worst thing, because we’re not happy with ourselves, we feel guilty and we close our hearts.
This is a way of getting to know ourselves. So, afterwards, how do we work?
– We don’t have to deal with all that. We just clean. The heart is cleansed and that cleanses all these subtle sub-centres.
How do we get our bearings?
– When we feel an inner peace, a state of contentment. When it is there, there’s a nice step forward from that first point.
Then we go to the second point, Point 2, the point of the soul or, for the Sufis, ruh, the spirit, which allows one to be in contact with true love, with devotion. We start from this generosity of point 1, which goes towards point 2, which will be this subtle centre no. 2 that will allow us to be more in the gift of one’s self, in empathy, in compassion. I consider compassion as love in action. And when this centre (in order to find one’s way around again at the level of knowing oneself) is not cleaned, illuminated, in place, the world is narrow, we are dejected, we are retreated in ourselves, but we are in torment. Whereas otherwise, there is peace, there is inner peace and we want to give, and that leads to feeling more love, a more universal love.
Then we move on to the “fire” point, point 3, which, when it is purified, illuminated, will give us enthusiasm; it is fire, and love increases, we have a greater alertness of mind, we can understand things better, there is understanding. Otherwise, when it doesn’t happen, we are angry. And if we can’t express anger, we are in a state of frustration, resentment and bitterness. Enthusiasm is also impulsiveness, irritability. So when you see someone who is irritable or angry, think that it is a divine energy that is there, and that if it is turned, it will be turned towards enthusiasm, and enthusiasm means “in God, in Theos.” So this is the beginning of wisdom, when we start understanding better.
Afterwards, we move on to point 4, which is linked to water and which will give us both courage and serenity. When we dive deep, we will be in contact with the divine will, with faith, which will give us more determination and self-confidence in life. There again, if this point is not well cleaned up, it will manifest fear, fear for everything, for oneself, for one’s life, and for progress.
And we come to Point 5. When this point is purified, we have access to viveka, i.e. discernment, clarity, clarity of mind in the face of illusion. That is why this point 5 is linked to point 10, or sahasra-dal-kamal, i.e. to the realization of the Self. This is where the last illusions related to the world of manifestation are dispelled.
So you see, what I find very important is to understand that the heart is a magnificent integrator of all the plans: the divine, spiritual and human plans.
How do we find our bearings in relation to this heart?
– The heart unites, it unifies.
What does that poor little ego do?
– It tends to separate, to feel disunited, to exclude, to exclude itself, to feel apart because there is fear. So, what Heartfulness proposes, is to manage for the ego (which is interesting because it uses the power of the will) to be at the heart’s service.
How can this be done?
– Through love, for the heart to be subjugated by love, so that the ego can be subjugated by love and then become a true servant, who will enable us to achieve what we have to achieve here on earth, in a joyful, eager to share, and extraordinary way.
Theophile the Elder
Extract of Talks
Visioconferences
Some recommended reading
I have three minutes left. I will take advantage of these three minutes to do my press review.
– Meditating like a mountain, is Jean-Yves Leloup’s Ecrits sur l’hésychasme.
– A book I recommend, which is easy to read and which clearly explains the perpetual prayer of the Orthodox Christians, is The Way of a Russian Pilgrim. It really has everything in it. It talks about Simeon, the new theologian I adore, who is really extraordinary, and about Seraphim of Sarov (I’m not certain they talk about him). A must read.
– I referred to the Small Philocalia: the prayer of the heart.
– Then, for the yoga day, this notebook on yoga Daaji wrote. (Heartfulness Magazine, December 2018). It really has everything in it, the sutras of Patanjali, etc., etc. It’s really magnificent.
– And, finally, a book that is available: Heartfulness, the method. You can get it through Amazon, the Fnac, etc. It has everything you want in it, and it’s very clear, it covers all the subjects with a clear, modern language that goes much further than anything I’ve been able to express to you.
See you soon. Thank you for your patient listening.
