Care and Feeding of the Spiritual Heart

Allah - that intelligence and love that permeates the universe, flows in our veins and hearts, and spins in the quantum states.

Nafs - Attachments and habits that have gotten stuck in who we think we are.

HU - The essence of Allah

Beyond Mindfulness is Heartfulness.

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Transcript

Care and Feeding of the Spiritual Heart

shaykh ibrahim ansari

Allah - that intelligence and love that permeates the universe, flows in our veins and hearts, and spins in the quantum states.

Nafs - Attachments and habits that have gotten stuck in who we think we are.

HU - The essence of Allah

Beyond Mindfulness is Heartfulness.

Out of all the glorious things that are priceless, exquisite and rare, the most precious of all silver, gold and jewels in our possession is our heart. Our body is doing Zikr to stay alive: Pounding out the message ALlah, ALlah. Breathing we are saying HU. We have been given two ultimate gifts from our loving Creator: our spiritual heart that is connected to Allah, and Choice. We have the freedom to choose to be with our heart and Allah, or not.

If we choose to be with Allah, there are certain hurdles to overcome, and part of earning our closeness to the Divine requires us to deal appropriately with our Nafs.

This is the moment, in understanding this choice, that we leave adulthood behind and attempt the cliffs of maturity.

An adult has serious list of duties and responsibilities, and takes them - and themselves - seriously. Worry, stress, and concern for the bottom line remains constant. 

However, when we seek maturity, we don’t take ourselves so seriously that we cannot play, seek beauty and are grateful to have a few moments in a world of change and challenges.

To be able to hear your heart, because it does speak to us, we have to silence the brain long enough to hear what the heart wants. Notice that the word ‘hear’ is in the spelling of ‘heart’. 

Everybody always asks, “How do I know it’s my heart speaking and not my brain or nafs?”

If it is your nafs or brain, the subject or object will always start with ‘I’ or end with ‘me’.

There is no selfishness with the heart. When it is pleased, we feel a sense of purpose and meaning to our life.

The heart will not argue, try to persuade or want anything illegal or contrary to the moral code. It revels in love, and is pleased when there is happiness, love, awareness and adab present. It lives and exists with Allah’s Love, and, by following its hints, we become fulfilled. It gives us purpose.  

The heart is connected to Allah. That is why one of our Zikrs includes ya Latif - The Subtle. Connecting with the heart is a subtle and finely balanced action. Allah is both obvious with the outer but whispers the secrets of creation through the heart within you. The world is in a constant state of transformation. It is easy to get lost in any part of it. It is truly marvelous that Allah’s manifestations are exhibited through matter interacting with other matter. Thus it is normal to become distracted and fascinated by matter-stuff. 

It is often difficult to extract our self from the roiling insistence of not just things, but also relationships. Life turns complicated easily and quickly. Family, work, relationships and career - it is easy to forget one’s heart when everyone is acting from the script they’ve written.

But when you can extract yourself from the drama, get away from the script and go sit in the audience, the heart’s perspective will guide you towards  a more moderate and clear through-line.You will find that it can guide you. There are suggestions it will offer if you are looking for them. It is the heart that will help you understand and learn from experiences. This is spiritual gravity that pulls you towards Allah. 

However, again, you can always choose NOT to learn or grow. That way nothing will hurt, and your life remains the same. That kind of static existence is what pulls you into the world that is forever changing. Which means, because you did not choose to change, you will be constantly changed by nature.

We are continually choosing which magnetic pull we wish to be drawn into. There is the world whirlpool that will suck you in and spit you out before you realize it. It is contractive and tends to make you feel small and insignificant. It creates a disconnection leading to depression and meaninglessness.

The spiritual, angelic or Divine energy will also draw you in, but it is gentler and expansive. There is the additional Love bonus that makes the effort and focus embody meaning and substance. 

To keep the heart alive and present, you need to be focused on what kind of nutrients it thrives on. This may require some experimentation and observation. Staying present with the heart feeds the heart. What feeds yours?

Indications that the heart is being nourished, you feel:

Happy

Content

Loving

Present

Sincere

Honest

Caring

Grounded

Playful

Courteous

Generous

Creative

Understanding and Objective.

Of course, when you are not with your heart you will be: Busy, thinking about the next thing to do, worried, stressed, afraid, and ‘what people will say’. In other words, disconnected.

The heart connects us to the micro and macro universes, with all the wonders still to explore. We will never be able to see the whole picture puzzle. It is only the heart that can smoothly navigate the swells, riptides, hurricanes and tsunamis.

What is especially interesting is that we only experience less than 5% of the universe. Most of it is invisible because it is out of range of our senses. That means that the majority of this wonderful show is unseen: Another reason why tuning in the heart expands your perceptions. Everything in this universe vibrates. We hear 20-20,000 cycles per second. Going up we enter radio waves, the waves that work in the little computers in your pocket. Because the spiritual heart perceives subtle frequencies not decipherable by equipment, the information is accessed through a delicate and practiced focus.

This idea of listening to the heart requires a continual state of sincerity and humility. Sometimes this is known as ‘Surrender’. The heart does not respond well to arrogance and egotism. It prefers empathy, compassion, love, and the struggle needed to practice and grow. It does not need to be ’manifesting’, ambition, fame, wealth or power.

Excerpt From

Tao Te Ching

“It (Allah) is unseen because it is colorless; it is unheard because it is soundless; when seeking to grasp it, it eludes one, because it is incorporeal. Because of these qualities it cannot be examined, and yet they form an essential unity. Superficially it appears abstruse, but in its depths it is not obscure. It has been nameless forever! It appears and then disappears. It is what is known as the form of the formless, the image of the imageless. It is called the transcendental, its face (or destiny) cannot be seen in front, or its back (or origin) behind. But by holding fast to the Tao (Allah) of the ancients, the wise one may understand the present, because they know the origin of the past. This is the clue to the Tao (Allah).”

Lao Tzu

https://books.apple.com/au/book/tao-te-ching/id861022702

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