Why Opening the Heart Is Fundamental in Kuṇḍalinī Practices - Part 3
Review of Part 2
We did a simple exercise, where using our breath and awareness, we began to discover our heart. Then we explored in more detail the experience of being in the heart versus the mind. Both experiences are very different, seeming to confirm the idea that the heart and the mind are mutually exclusive, but is that really the case? It is, on a certain level of understanding. In Part 3, we show that there are higher perspectives/experiences of the relationship between the heart and the mind, experiences that can we discover within.
Evolution of the heart - intermediate perspective
Over time, as we function more and more from the heart, we begin to move away from dualistic experience of the seeming friction between the heart and mind. We begin to be mostly open while the mind continues to function in the background. Nathaji describes that as a radio station. We tune into the station of the Heart FM 108, while the mind is doing its thing on FM 88, but it does not affect us as much. Both the heart and mind function simultaneously but the mind does not bother us as much. We are so busy being in the heart, operating from a higher resonance, that the mind is just a minor annoyance. This is both a dualistic and non-dualistic understanding.
Exercise 2:
During the day, stay centered in the heart. Engage people and situations by extending from the heart. Do it over and over again. You will begin to relate to people and situations from the openness of the heart. Listen to what people say from the heart, feel the real resonance of what they are saying versus what they are "actually" saying with their words. You begin to experience life from openness vs the superficiality and the drama of the mind. We begin to relate to people in a simple way, from openness. This exercise helps us break-down the sense of duality of "me" versus "them."
Evolution of the heart - advanced perspective
We started with the experience that the mind is the slayer of the soul, which is very true at the level of dualistic understanding. Next we saw that the heart and mind exist in our experience simultaneously as palpably different resonances and that we can choose to function from the higher resonance of the heart.
Exercise 3
Do Exercise 1 until you experience a sense of deep stillness. As we tune into the heart and as we let go of whatever arises in the heart, our deeper discriminating awareness begins to see thoughts as they begin to arise. Notice that there is a revving of energy, an impulse, before the thought takes form. As we stay in that level of awareness, we begin to have the insight that the initial impulse is simply the pulsation of the heart. It is only our ego that takes that impulse and molds it into form, i.e. thoughts and thought constructs, to reinforce our separation from our own heart.
According to nondual scripture, ultimately, wait for it, wait for it…….the mind is simply a vibration of the heart. In other words, the heart is the source of the mind. We can verify that statement for ourselves by doing Exercise 3. We have finally arrived at non-dual understanding!
This is a shocking teaching when you consider it. However, it totally makes sense in the context of the highest understanding of nondual practices that consciousness is the source of everything. It is consciousness itself, that out of its own freedom, created the mind to conceal itself from itself as part of the cosmic play. Non-dual practices have a more sophisticated description of what are called the Veils of Duality (of which the mind is an important part) that we will explore later.
Conclusion - the heart is the pathway to liberation from the suffering caused by ego
Notice how we moved from form, i.e. thoughts as the mind, into feeling the openness of the heart, then the pulsation of the heart, and finally into awareness. It is that awareness or consciousness that we seek to find in our own heart, the consciousness which is our own real essence. This is why focusing on opening the heart is pivotal in our practice.