REALISATION 18: ON HEART AND MIND

A meditation student asked the teacher:
- What is the difference between heart and mind?

The teacher drew a ladle of water from the well:
- When the water is still, you can see the bottom. When the mind is quiet, the heart reveals itself.

Mind is a tool.
Heart is the source of light.

1) Two rivers within one human being

Within every person, two currents are always flowing: heart and mind.
The heart feels - soft, deep, easily moved.
The mind analyses - clear, lucid, reasonable.

When the heart is too strong, we are easily swept away by emotion.
When the mind is too strong, we can become dry and cold.
Yet both are necessary - because only in harmony do we truly know how to live.

The heart is the water.
The mind is the boat.
When the water is calm, the boat can travel far.

2) When heart and mind pull against each other

When heart and mind clash, a person falls into suffering.
The mind says, Don't.
The heart whispers, Go on.
The head analyses; the chest feels;
and we become stuck between inner waves.

In truth, heart and mind are not enemies.
They simply have not yet understood one another.
The heart wants to love.
The mind wants safety.
When we see that, we begin to learn how to listen to ourselves.

Emotion can throw our thinking off balance.
Thinking can block and suffocate our feelings.
They shape one another constantly.
To restore harmony, do not think only of yourself,
and do not build your happiness solely on conditions.

3) When heart and mind work in harmony

The heart is the root.
The mind is the branch.
The mind gives direction;
the heart nourishes.

When both work together in awareness, we become peaceful, deep, and clear.
A clever mind without heart becomes a cold kind of intelligence.
A good heart without mind becomes goodness that suffers.
To unite heart and mind is to understand the Way.

When the heart is still, the mind is bright.
When the mind is bright, the heart is at peace.

Hoàng Nhật Minh
Excerpt from the book: Spiritual Science - A Journey Back To Your True Self

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