Heart Realm Maintenance
by Etzion Becker
Nobody taught us the main lesson in life: how to handle the heart realm, the emotional realm, the perceiving realm. And this is mainly because no one knows, or they don’t care. But without this, we are bound to live like insane people who run amok after the emotions that ransack our minds and wreak havoc in our hearts. It is quite obvious, when you view a person in this state, how he/she is developing his/her own mental sickness, due to his/her constant frantic struggle for peace of mind. The goal of life is to achieve the state of serenity of the heart realm, under any and all circumstances. It is not a one-day achievement, and most likely it takes many lifetimes. You learn how to do it while treading the Spiritual Path.
How can it be explained? I can give it a try. What I am saying is from personal experience and practice. I came to the realization during 1976 that this is the main issue to deal with, that the goal is to learn how to protect and control the heart realm. I presumably received a few insights through contact with various spiritual movements; I was practicing centering on my Divine Beloved, while placing what was moving in my heart before Him, as if on an altar.
Your Beloved resides in your heart; He is yours, while you exercise, while you go to the toilet—no need to be shy in front of Him. You can adopt a substitute, such as a saintly figure, a true Perfect Master, The Avatar, or any divine face you adore. It is simply easier in the beginning, but you can choose any of the names of God. Your Beloved is all of these, He is everywhere, so why not use those forms in which He is fully awake? I give to my Beloved everything, every thought and feeling. When you turn your gaze away from your Beloved, you feel like a sinner, but actually nobody is. Sin is not the bad deeds you committed or the good deeds you failed to perform. It simply means that your gaze is not on your Beloved. (In the Hebrew language the word for sin means wrong direction)
Later on, when you feel that this practice brings some peace, you must learn how to develop a hedge around the heart realm. This hedge is not a barrier, like a stone wall to protect you from the cold winds of the world. It is a filter, which tells you that a sick emotion is approaching you, aiming at your heart. You ought to feel disturbed if this wave/emotion, which often resembles a dark cloud, enters. If it penetrates, your heart realm will become acidic. The serene heart realm is sweet, and the person thereof is a sweet, smiling person. As soon as you feel such a wave coming towards you, use the Face or the Name in order to annihilate it. This might occur again and again, many times during the day. You have to become a watchdog and learn to be alert. All forms of meditation and concentration are helpful here, but the apex of all meditation is to focus on your Beloved.
Simultaneously, you have to start pondering your subconscious realm, which is also your heart realm. I used to bring to the surface the names and faces of people with whom I have had any engagement whatsoever in this life (I don't remember past lives, which are immaterial). I ask myself, what do I feel towards that person? Is there any reason why I cannot hug the person? I would again use my Beloved and place that person on the altar before my Beloved, giving my emotion toward them to Him, to be consumed. One by one, you place all of your relationships before your Beloved, till the fire of His Love consumes all ill feelings. You might need to work on the same one individual for many years.
Let’s take an extreme example. We might say: That person raped me. How can I forgive him? Well, he did to us what we did to him, didn't he? Didn't we live in ignorance all these years? And what have we been doing in ignorance but inflicting suffering on others? And if we consider the broad meaning of rape, it is any form whatsoever of using a person or other living thing without their prior consent. Do you ask permission from the planet to walk on its skin? Do you ask permission from the carrot when you pluck it from earth? Do you ask permission from the water when you drink it? Why do you think it is to be taken for granted? And this body, have you woven its cells together that you use it as if it is yours? Don't you rape your own body? Now, once the name and face of your Beloved is constantly in your heart, like a shining Sun, all these things become eager to be used by you, because you invite them into the heaven of your being. You need no “official” ceremonies or religious blessings, because you yourself are a walking blessing.
All this has been well portrayed in the first three chapters of Genesis, which are actually a portrayal of these psychological actions in us.
****************
A suggestion for a meditation on this subject is what I call the Sun Meditation:
Take a comfortable position and close your eyes.
Go with your inner mental vision down to your heart realm. You use your head to enter the heart realm, and while there, say 'thank you' to your mind, and move to imagining pictures: Start painting this realm with light blue colour, the colour of the skies. (It is just a suggestion, you can choose any color.) Look at the skies; what do you see? Clouds come and go all the time. From where do these clouds come? They originate from the ocean. What is this ocean? It is actually your subconscious mind. Imagine your subconscious mind as an ocean full of fish and other creatures. These creatures symbolize your past deeds, both good and bad. Good deeds create nice looking figures, and bad deeds create ugly looking monsters. They all have to evaporate. But while evaporating, they form clouds in your heart realm, and thus distort your vision.
How are clouds formed? By the heat of the Sun. Where is this Sun? It is actually the Divine Beloved, your Higher Self, which dwells within you, within your heart. Because you never knew how to dispel the clouds, your Beloved has been shrouded, and you stopped seeing Him; in fact, you actually forgot about Him.
Now, concentrate on the blue skies in your heart: Hang the Sun in its place, and focus your gaze upon it. When the clouds come, direct the rays of the Sun onto them, and they will evaporate.
Practically, you can focus on father or mother, the closest persons to you, and examine your feelings towards them – definitely, lots of anger and frustration will surface – it will take a long time till all the ill feelings will evaporate – then move to brother and sister, schoolmates, friends, enemies, the entire humanity. This can take a very long time – even many life spans, because we are dealing with billions and billions of binding impressions (sanskaras), which have been accumulated over aeons of ignorant action. If we succeed in a life span to remove even two percent of our binding impressions, it is quite a lot, and it is success; hence most humans keep on increasing this burden – especially those who are successful on the earthly plane, causing others harm in order to fulfill their wants.
Even if this takes long practice, the results are certain. This I can testify from personal experience. The burden of your dark, submerged memories—your past experiences—will gradually lessen, and the Sun will shine even brighter in your heart realm. Then you will become the shining person that you truly are.
What I can clearly see is that any grudge whatsoever which I maintain, for whatsoever reason or excuse, actually prevents me from entering the realm of Perfect, Absolute Love – the realm where our Beloved resides. Our Beloved has invited us to be with Him, and the only condition is that no grudge should remain in our heart realm.
This grudge will cause us to be rejected automatically from this realm. Even it is not possible to clear the entire subconscious mind from all the past impressions in a single life span, we certainly can reach in one life span the state of non-hating anyone, and this alone will ensure our entering the realm of Absolute Love – becoming the friends of the Divine Beloved. Then all this accumulation of the imprints of past bindings will become vehicles of serving humanity in His Cause.
Gradually, over the years, I have found many facets to this inner work – not only do I feel personally less burdened with the internal junk, but I have realized that this practice actually constitutes working for our Beloved – sharing His burden of wiping out sanskaras. We will find that our problems are not ours.
When we place these impressions before Him, we actually serve the universe, since He cannot help us unless we sacrifice our sanskaras on the altar before Him. And since we are all connected, we help those who don't have the connection with the Divine Beloved, and thus we become His instruments in helping humanity.
This is what I have perceived in this life.
by Etzion Becker
Nobody taught us the main lesson in life: how to handle the heart realm, the emotional realm, the perceiving realm. And this is mainly because no one knows, or they don’t care. But without this, we are bound to live like insane people who run amok after the emotions that ransack our minds and wreak havoc in our hearts. It is quite obvious, when you view a person in this state, how he/she is developing his/her own mental sickness, due to his/her constant frantic struggle for peace of mind. The goal of life is to achieve the state of serenity of the heart realm, under any and all circumstances. It is not a one-day achievement, and most likely it takes many lifetimes. You learn how to do it while treading the Spiritual Path.
How can it be explained? I can give it a try. What I am saying is from personal experience and practice. I came to the realization during 1976 that this is the main issue to deal with, that the goal is to learn how to protect and control the heart realm. I presumably received a few insights through contact with various spiritual movements; I was practicing centering on my Divine Beloved, while placing what was moving in my heart before Him, as if on an altar.
Your Beloved resides in your heart; He is yours, while you exercise, while you go to the toilet—no need to be shy in front of Him. You can adopt a substitute, such as a saintly figure, a true Perfect Master, The Avatar, or any divine face you adore. It is simply easier in the beginning, but you can choose any of the names of God. Your Beloved is all of these, He is everywhere, so why not use those forms in which He is fully awake? I give to my Beloved everything, every thought and feeling. When you turn your gaze away from your Beloved, you feel like a sinner, but actually nobody is. Sin is not the bad deeds you committed or the good deeds you failed to perform. It simply means that your gaze is not on your Beloved. (In the Hebrew language the word for sin means wrong direction)
Later on, when you feel that this practice brings some peace, you must learn how to develop a hedge around the heart realm. This hedge is not a barrier, like a stone wall to protect you from the cold winds of the world. It is a filter, which tells you that a sick emotion is approaching you, aiming at your heart. You ought to feel disturbed if this wave/emotion, which often resembles a dark cloud, enters. If it penetrates, your heart realm will become acidic. The serene heart realm is sweet, and the person thereof is a sweet, smiling person. As soon as you feel such a wave coming towards you, use the Face or the Name in order to annihilate it. This might occur again and again, many times during the day. You have to become a watchdog and learn to be alert. All forms of meditation and concentration are helpful here, but the apex of all meditation is to focus on your Beloved.
Simultaneously, you have to start pondering your subconscious realm, which is also your heart realm. I used to bring to the surface the names and faces of people with whom I have had any engagement whatsoever in this life (I don't remember past lives, which are immaterial). I ask myself, what do I feel towards that person? Is there any reason why I cannot hug the person? I would again use my Beloved and place that person on the altar before my Beloved, giving my emotion toward them to Him, to be consumed. One by one, you place all of your relationships before your Beloved, till the fire of His Love consumes all ill feelings. You might need to work on the same one individual for many years.
Let’s take an extreme example. We might say: That person raped me. How can I forgive him? Well, he did to us what we did to him, didn't he? Didn't we live in ignorance all these years? And what have we been doing in ignorance but inflicting suffering on others? And if we consider the broad meaning of rape, it is any form whatsoever of using a person or other living thing without their prior consent. Do you ask permission from the planet to walk on its skin? Do you ask permission from the carrot when you pluck it from earth? Do you ask permission from the water when you drink it? Why do you think it is to be taken for granted? And this body, have you woven its cells together that you use it as if it is yours? Don't you rape your own body? Now, once the name and face of your Beloved is constantly in your heart, like a shining Sun, all these things become eager to be used by you, because you invite them into the heaven of your being. You need no “official” ceremonies or religious blessings, because you yourself are a walking blessing.
All this has been well portrayed in the first three chapters of Genesis, which are actually a portrayal of these psychological actions in us.
****************
A suggestion for a meditation on this subject is what I call the Sun Meditation:
Take a comfortable position and close your eyes.
Go with your inner mental vision down to your heart realm. You use your head to enter the heart realm, and while there, say 'thank you' to your mind, and move to imagining pictures: Start painting this realm with light blue colour, the colour of the skies. (It is just a suggestion, you can choose any color.) Look at the skies; what do you see? Clouds come and go all the time. From where do these clouds come? They originate from the ocean. What is this ocean? It is actually your subconscious mind. Imagine your subconscious mind as an ocean full of fish and other creatures. These creatures symbolize your past deeds, both good and bad. Good deeds create nice looking figures, and bad deeds create ugly looking monsters. They all have to evaporate. But while evaporating, they form clouds in your heart realm, and thus distort your vision.
How are clouds formed? By the heat of the Sun. Where is this Sun? It is actually the Divine Beloved, your Higher Self, which dwells within you, within your heart. Because you never knew how to dispel the clouds, your Beloved has been shrouded, and you stopped seeing Him; in fact, you actually forgot about Him.
Now, concentrate on the blue skies in your heart: Hang the Sun in its place, and focus your gaze upon it. When the clouds come, direct the rays of the Sun onto them, and they will evaporate.
Practically, you can focus on father or mother, the closest persons to you, and examine your feelings towards them – definitely, lots of anger and frustration will surface – it will take a long time till all the ill feelings will evaporate – then move to brother and sister, schoolmates, friends, enemies, the entire humanity. This can take a very long time – even many life spans, because we are dealing with billions and billions of binding impressions (sanskaras), which have been accumulated over aeons of ignorant action. If we succeed in a life span to remove even two percent of our binding impressions, it is quite a lot, and it is success; hence most humans keep on increasing this burden – especially those who are successful on the earthly plane, causing others harm in order to fulfill their wants.
Even if this takes long practice, the results are certain. This I can testify from personal experience. The burden of your dark, submerged memories—your past experiences—will gradually lessen, and the Sun will shine even brighter in your heart realm. Then you will become the shining person that you truly are.
What I can clearly see is that any grudge whatsoever which I maintain, for whatsoever reason or excuse, actually prevents me from entering the realm of Perfect, Absolute Love – the realm where our Beloved resides. Our Beloved has invited us to be with Him, and the only condition is that no grudge should remain in our heart realm.
This grudge will cause us to be rejected automatically from this realm. Even it is not possible to clear the entire subconscious mind from all the past impressions in a single life span, we certainly can reach in one life span the state of non-hating anyone, and this alone will ensure our entering the realm of Absolute Love – becoming the friends of the Divine Beloved. Then all this accumulation of the imprints of past bindings will become vehicles of serving humanity in His Cause.
Gradually, over the years, I have found many facets to this inner work – not only do I feel personally less burdened with the internal junk, but I have realized that this practice actually constitutes working for our Beloved – sharing His burden of wiping out sanskaras. We will find that our problems are not ours.
When we place these impressions before Him, we actually serve the universe, since He cannot help us unless we sacrifice our sanskaras on the altar before Him. And since we are all connected, we help those who don't have the connection with the Divine Beloved, and thus we become His instruments in helping humanity.
This is what I have perceived in this life.
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