From the Intellect to the Heartfelt

One of the most well-known sages in recent history is Ramana Maharshi. In Nonduality circles he is universally acclaimed as an example of perfect enlightenment. If you read his dialogues, it is quite clear that his main instruction is to inquire, "Who am I?" But there's also this enigmatic reference to the "Heart" or the "Heart Cave".

Self-inquiry is a most effective method if followed to its conclusion, but often the inquiry happens to take place at the mental level. Only involving thinking. And that is where it fails. Understanding what the "Heart" refers to can be crucial in moving past an intellectual understanding to the deeper and true Understanding.

In Ramana Maharshi's own words, "Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for I-I to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason." This quote is from a dialogue and in response to this a questioner asked, "Moreover it is not in the head but in the right side of the chest." And Ramana Maharshi replied, "It ought to be so. Because the Heart is there."

You find in the dialogues the reference to the Heart being on the right side of the chest. Two fingers to the right of the chest. In another dialogue someone asks Ramana Maharshi, "Why do you say that the heart is on the right when biologists have found it to be on the left? What authority have you?"

And he replies, "No one denies that the physical organ is on the left; but the heart of which I speak is on the right. That is my experience and I require no authority for it." He does then provide some reference to a couple of Indian texts. But really the core point here is that there's a distinction between the physical heart and what we actually all call the Heart.

The emotional center of your mind and your being. Feeling and not reason is the primary factor here. That is what takes an intellectual understanding and transforms it into something more. If you've seen some other videos on this channel you will have noticed that they're designed to evoke an emotional response.

I too see self-realization as coming through the Heart, not through the mind. The final Understanding, when it unravels, is very intuitive and intimate. The mind fumbles when you try to put it into words. When I record these talks, I do them in a meditative state, sitting in the dark, early in the morning, while the house is still quiet.

And in that state these words they come from the Heart, not from the mind. As soon as the mind steps in, the fumbling with the words begins. You start to create new concepts. That's how religions begin.

Wisdom can only come from the Heart. All love, all joy, all inspiration, come from the Heart. This is already well known. It's only when you think of it, it starts to get mysterious.

But if you look back at your life, bring up any of your treasured memories, the emotion that was felt, where did you feel it if not in the Heart? There's no reason or logic behind it, but that's where it is felt. The core of your being, the core of every being, is the Heart. In the dialogue we were talking about, the questioner goes on to ask, "Why do we have a place such as the heart to concentrate on for meditation?"

And Ramana Maharshi replies,

"Because you seek true Consciousness. Where can you find it? Can you attain it outside yourself? You have to find it internally. Therefore you are directed inward. The Heart is the seat of Consciousness or Consciousness itself. I ask you to observe where the 'I' arises in your body, but it is not really quite correct to say that the 'I' arises from and merges in the chest at the right side.

The Heart is another name for Reality and this is neither inside nor outside the body. There can be no in or out for it, since it alone is. I do not mean by 'heart' any physiological organ or any plexus or nerves or anything like that; but so long as a man identifies himself with the body or thinks he is in the body, he is advised to see where in the body the 'I'-thought arises and merges again. It must be the heart at the right side of the chest since every man of whatever race and religion and in whatever language he may be speaking, points to the right side of the chest to indicate himself when he says 'I'.

This is so all over the world, so that must be the place. And by keenly watching the emergence of the 'I'-thought on waking and its subsidence on going to sleep one can see that it is the heart on the right side. When a room is dark you need a lamp to light it, but when the sun rises there's no need for a lamp; objects are seen without one. And to see the sun itself no lamp is needed because it is self-luminous.

Similarly with the mind. The reflected light of the mind is necessary to perceive objects, but to see the heart it is enough for the mind to be turned towards it. Then the mind loses itself and the Heart shines forth."

So, from this dialogue it does sound that Ramana Maharshi would be shocked to see people pointing to the head when they say 'I'. That is not how it used to be.

It was always common to point to the heart; the feeling center, the emotional center, rather than the thinking center when saying 'I', referring to yourself. Nowadays people are locked up in the heads. Thinking. But even so, all of us know when you feel joy, or love, or happiness, or sorrow and grief, the thing you clutch is your heart. That is where your love is directed, at yourself or anyone else.

That heart is what has to be meditated upon to turn the mind inwards. That is the seat of Consciousness. You see, as soon as you admit that others feel love; that they have a heart, then you're admitting that the Heart is accessible to everyone. All love and joy are felt in the Heart, thus the Heart is universal and available to all.

The Heart does not reside in the body, it is felt in the body. It's not a physical object that you can say resides in a particular location in space. It is felt in the body, but it is felt in all bodies. And that is because all bodies are connected to the Heart. Are not separate to It.

The thing that takes ownership of the Heart and calls it 'my heart', that is the ego. The 'I'-thought. If the Heart is in the body, cut it out and show me. We're not talking about the physical heart, as we've already discussed.

The emotional Heart, the seat of Consciousness, the seat of love, joy. What you want to protect in yourself and in everyone you love. When you feel the Heart, it may appear to be located at the center of this body, but that is just from where it's warmth flows. From where life emerges.

Instead of the location, notice the depth. Then you will know the true extent of the infinite Heart. How deep does your love go? In all those treasured memories, how deep was your emotion?

The dimensions of a cave are never really visible in the dark. You only get hints of them based on the sounds. And it is so with the Heart Cave. The emotions, the depth of emotion, is what gives you a hint of how deep this goes.

In the depths of the Heart Cave you will find who resides in every heart. Then the body the mind the person, these are just the outer layers; the skin, the clothes. The Heart is what is real. It's not constrained to anybody. Not contained in any body.

It is the Infinity; the point beyond space and time, connecting all lives, all beings. It is not these organisms that are conscious in fact. It is the Heart that is sentient. The Heart of Reality is sentient.

Is You.

Is where all these emotions come from. Where life comes from. The entire world takes shape in the realm of the Heart Cave.