Through the Heart We Know

There are two ancient teachings that we call the Doctrine of the Mind and the Doctrine of the Heart. Through the Doctrine of the Mind we can understand the Laws that rule the Universe (and us). But it is only through the Doctrine of the Heart that we can actually understand life itself, or the mystery of life. There is an incredible mystery in being and it can only be appreciated through the Heart. No amount of scientific or occult knowledge can make you appreciate life. Even the most brilliant scientist or the occultist with the most fantastic occult knowledge cannot appreciate life. Only a person who can move into the Heart can actually appreciate life.

Imagine that you are in the desert in Saudi Arabia, just sitting in a spot and watching the locals go by on their camels. Now try to imagine the same scene, except a hundred years ago, and then a thousand years ago, and then a hundred thousand years ago, sitting in the same spot watching the people go by. What I’m getting at is that the whole movement of history, the whole movement of Humanity is like a dream, an unreal movie—as if it were happening on another planet and not to us. You can pick any spot in the world. Just sit down and watch life flow by and then take yourself back in time and see the movement of life passing by. Then you will realize an amazing truth about existence: that everybody who passes through that spot that you are observing in your inner consciousness appears to be passing through a dream. Then you will understand Life, the reality behind the dream. This is the Doctrine of the Heart. This is where you can feel Life, feel the movement of people and times and events in the same place.

But the people, the actors, do not know that reality. The real impulse of Life, the real movement of consciousness is completely unperceived by those who are passing by. What I’m trying to put into words is the significance of us being here at this spot at this time, why we are here and what we are doing here. But you have to understand it from your heart, not from your mind. If you can do that, you will also know that we have been in exactly the same situation many times before. You will realize that on the surface of the planet there is apparent chaos—people always struggling against people—but inside there’s Stillness. There is a plan and purpose behind all the seeming chaos, which is not perceived by the people who are working with the Mind.

It is inspiring to know that we’ve been together many times in many places, guided by the same Living Being, the same Living Intelligence. It’s an awesome reality because then you will realize that your life is not without meaning or purpose. And if you can actually move into the Heart Centre, into the inner dimensions of the Heart, the whole mystery of your life will be revealed—not as ideas, which is how the Doctrine of the Mind works, but through a subtle inner impression or feeling, which is how the Doctrine of the Heart works. This feeling is not an emotion or a solar plexus feeling. It’s like an impression by which you just know how things are now, how they were in the past and how they will be in the future. That’s the Doctrine of the Heart, the spontaneous, self-revelatory nature of the Spiritual Heart within you. It can give you the most awesome revelations and profound understanding. It can tell you what your destiny is, what other people’s destinies are and what the destiny of the planet is. And depending on how deep your Heart connection is to the Buddhic World, you will even know the destiny of the Cosmos.

You can get a sense of this profound mystery by simply trying to feel the place where you are and how you got there and trying to sense the impelling Spirit behind it all. Of course, your mind will tell you that you got there because you bought a ticket at such-and-such a booking office, and that’s a good enough explanation for the mind. But behind all the outer obvious events of life, there are the hidden—the real—events, and their real significance. People miss the real events of life, so they rush through life and it seems like a dream to them. The only time they wake up a bit (about twenty-five percent more than here) is when they go to the after-death condition in the Astral World. Then they realize that they were dreaming, but the real mystery of life still eludes them.

One of these nights when you are by yourself, look up at the stars. Realize that you saw the same stars in Asia Minor, Atlantis, China; that you saw the same stars a thousand years ago, ten thousand years ago, a hundred thousand years ago. It’s an awesome mystery. The apparent movement of outer circumstances is only a passing shore. Beyond that outer movement, and the appearance of constant change, there’s an eternal Stillness. And you can connect to that Stillness through the Heart Centre, the Spiritual Heart. Then you can understand the subtle impulses that emanate from the Spiritual Heart of the Cosmos, the Spiritual Heart of the planet and your own Spiritual Heart, and you can see how events take shape from those subtle impulses. Once those subtle impulses are caught by the mind, it claims them, not realizing that they are not of the mind at all, and it starts to act on them.

If you can be in Stillness and identify with the Spiritual Heart of the Sun, you will know all about solar systemic evolution; if you can identify with the Spiritual Heart of the planet, you will know what is going to take place on the planet; and if you can identify with the Spiritual Heart within you, you will know where you are going and what will happen to you in the future. So you are not here by blind chance or because of something your mind thought up. You have been impelled by forces beyond the scope of normal understanding. It is simply the Doctrine of the Heart.

If Humanity would listen to the Heart more, this planet would have progressed on its true spiritual evolution. It’s because human consciousness does not listen to the Heart, because it is receiving the Doctrine of the Mind, that it remains on the outer surface of life. So people rush around on the outer surface of life, looking for meaning. And yet, when they enter the Spiritual Heart within themselves, the mystery of life disappears and life becomes known; in fact, the past, the present and future become known and the forces at work are clearly seen. It’s difficult for the mind to comprehend this. If you try to analyse it through the mental principle, you will not be able to understand how it works. You should not even try because it’s not of the mind; it’s an existential reality. The Heart is another dimension, another principle. As soon as you start working with it, you will live life in a different way: less impulsively and more knowingly.

Try this out some day. Sit still in one spot and watch life flowing by and try to imagine it flowing by a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, a hundred thousand years ago, a million years ago. You will suddenly realize that the movement that you see is actually only a screen for Stillness, that it’s really the Heart that pulsates eternally in that spot. And you will see people rushing by, not seeing it, not knowing it. Then you will understand your own destiny and that of the planet. Then you can become a world worker, working for planetary evolution, for the liberation of Souls—a real Light-worker.

Nowadays they call mediums and channellers light-workers; but they’re not working with the Light, they’re just channelling. It’s not the same thing. To be working with the Light you have to know the Light through the Heart, not through psychic or mental faculties. The Light I’m talking about is not the Astral Light. It is the Spiritual Light, the Light of Buddhi, the Light of Nirvāṇa. When you work with that Divine Light, you become a real Light-worker; that is, you’re able to feel where the planet is heading, where Humanity is heading.

If you’re not in your Heart, you’re always displaced, out of tune with Reality. Things feel that they are not the way they should be. This is true for small things but especially true for large things, like your destiny.

Excerpt from Heart to Heart Talks (Pages 71 -76)