The importance of the heart

[skydog]

Ok Nei gong/stillness movement says relaxed awareness in the dan tien.

 

Many other traditions emphasise the heart, I also feel the heart has some value and immense power..

 

?

[Seth Ananda]

For me the when the LDT is full and humming, my heart and upper centers are on line.

 

LDT is the foundation for the rest of the structure that you are building. That is especially important for me, as I caused my self heart problems years ago, from excessive focus on the heart { years of intense Bhakti yoga }. IMHO the LDT is the only area that can not burn out from too much energy, it just spills out and starts activating other areas...

[XieJia]

not that the heart or the dantien is not important.

 

I think if we are to found ourselves without other of our main organs; we will be in distress too.

 

The body functions together.

[Chen]

There is a school in the Greek-Orthodox Christian tradition that the monks are focusing in the heart.

Of course the point of view is completely dogmatic,but the results,after many of years of pure life,fasting and pray is similar with what a yogi can describe opening of the heart chakra. they work only with heart and their goal is to succed the " Kathodos tou Nou stin Kardia",meaning the "Descend of the Mind in the Heart"

As they can achieve remarkable feats,we can say that you can do it only focusing in the heart,but it takes many many years...

The rest is deep Theology and religion,but I can say you can do it,ignoring the other chakras.

[Gerard]

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Edited September 13, 2013 by Gerard

[Jetsun]

I have heard a few healers say that it is not healthy to focus your meditation on your physical heart, but compassion energetic heart based exercises are good. Essentialy I think when you bring your identity out of your head it will help open your heart, so meditation on the ldt should help do this.

[GrandmasterP]

LDT is yer man for successful cultivation.

All else is but an inn on the path.

Too much focus on heart centre not advisable at all for beginning cultivators. Stick to what your teacher tells you or you find on the reputable DVDs.

It'll not be heart focus and there's good reasons for that, amongst which...

A: It gets you nowhere.

B: It can make you very ill very quickly.

 

Same goes for the head.

 

[Jeff]

Energy follows your focus/attention. The energy vibrates (impacts) issues (or obstructions) stored in the body. Different types of issues are stored at various levels. The LDT is a good place to start, but it is often better to have a balanced "flowing" meditation. Finally, in the end, it all comes back to the heart.

 

[GrandmasterP]

Err it goes through and past head n heart foci and thence to and from LDT Jeff.

Car don't get far without a petrol tank.

[Jetsun]

I have heard some people say excessive focus on the LDT is bad, people like Master Nan Huai Chin has said such things. I don't think the Buddha instructed people to use it, so it may not be the be all and end all of cultivation

[GrandmasterP]

Agreed. It's all a matter of degree and moderation, the movement's the thing.

Any excessive focus is counterproductive.

Chap posting elsewhere on here today has had a nasty stickage due to what sounds like excessive focus in cultivation.

We seldom see problems but where students do come unstuck it tends to be where they have gone off and done something they found in a book or on a DVD and are cultivating a mix n match cocktail of what they have been taught in class with stuff they are trying out without a teacher.

Chap who taught me always said...

 

Anyone who cultivates without a teacher has a fool for a student.

[Jeff]

Err it goes through and past head n heart foci and thence to and from LDT Jeff.

Car don't get far without a petrol tank.

 

 

The LDT is a major connection point for/to the "body". There are many layers (and loops). We are also the "petrol".

 

[GrandmasterP]

We are that and my tank is running low right now plus I'm stuck here at work 'til 9pm.

12-hour days!

Slaves worked fewer picking cotton.

[Jeff]

Can't be too "slave-like" if you have time for all of this posting...

 

Have a good one.

 

[GrandmasterP]

He shoots he scores.

Us slaves do what we can to resist the oppressor.

Skiving is but one weapon in the armoury.

:-)

[Audiohealing]

This is very interesting to know, especially in light of all the recent "heart-centered" living stuff that's been coming out..

 

For me the when the LDT is full and humming, my heart and upper centers are on line.

 

LDT is the foundation for the rest of the structure that you are building. That is especially important for me, as I caused my self heart problems years ago, from excessive focus on the heart { years of intense Bhakti yoga }. IMHO the LDT is the only area that can not burn out from too much energy, it just spills out and starts activating other areas...

[Birch]

"Anyone who cultivates without a teacher has a fool for a student."

 

Which has often been meself Mr GranP. Not to sound all techno on you but I do expect online to be a pretty big vector of learning for cultivation for some time yet. So IMO, it would be a pretty good idea for good teachers to hang out where those students happen to be. If anything, just to help people avoid typical newb cultivation mistakes and not hurt themselves.

 

Seems the TTB's does quite well at it:-)

[Mokona]

It just depends on your goals, dawg. Of course different centers have different effects. Hey! Just practice and practice and practice.

[GrandmasterP]

"Anyone who cultivates without a teacher has a fool for a student."

 

Which has often been meself Mr GranP. Not to sound all techno on you but I do expect online to be a pretty big vector of learning for cultivation for some time yet. So IMO, it would be a pretty good idea for good teachers to hang out where those students happen to be. If anything, just to help people avoid typical newb cultivation mistakes and not hurt themselves.

 

Seems the TTB's does quite well at it:-)

 

................................................

I must admit that Ian Sinclair's YouTube lessons are a guilty pleasure of mine.

[GrandmasterP]

Only to watch mind you.

I could no more do that stuff Ian does than fly.

:-)

Edited November 6, 2012 by GrandmasterP

[Jetsun]

Thomas Merton

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is

untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or

spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal,

from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the

fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This

little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory

of God in us. It is so to speak his name written in us, as our poverty,

as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a

pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in

everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of

points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that

would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.

. . . I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But

the gate of heaven is everywhere.

 

“Spiritual Homilies” of Makarios,

The heart governs and reigns over the whole bodily organism; and

when grace possesses the pasturages of the heart, it rules over all

the members and the thoughts. For there, in the heart, is the intellect

(nous), and all the thoughts of the soul and its expectation;

and in this way grace penetrates also to all the members of the

body

 

Titus Burckhardt

Among [the human] faculties, the heart (al-qalb) is central, for it is

the “place” where the Transcendent Realities enter into contact

with man; it is the organ of intuition and of Divine Revelation (attajallî).

 

St Mark

There is a breaking of the heart which is gentle and makes it

deeply penitent, and there is a breaking which is violent and

harmful, shattering it completely. Vigils, prayer, and patient

acceptance of what comes constitute a breaking that does not

harm but benefits the heart, provided we do not destroy the balance

between them through excess. He who perseveres in them

will be helped in other ways as well; but he who is slack and negligent

will suffer intolerably on leaving this life. A self-indulgent

heart becomes a prison and chain for the soul when it leaves this

life; whereas an assiduous heart is an open door

Edited November 6, 2012 by Jetsun

[Jetsun]

Mark Griffin

 

“In the region at the heart there is a structure shaped like a cave, the size of the thumb. Inside this structure is the secret essence of the Guru. What that is, is the anchor of the one single thread that goes through all hundred fibers*, up through the very center, bypassing all the hundred fibers to get to the three points, A, Ka and Tha, up through the HamSa. So it goes from the hundred, to the three, to the one. The one fiber threads through.

From there, the one fiber threads the needle, it threads the needle, it threads the needle. The Sufis call it the Reed of God, because it is one fiber out of millions of fibers. There’s 72,000 fibers just moving off the three fibers and the six chakras. Of that 72,000, a hundred are important. As it hits the heart, it turns into a fan.

All the data of your experience is stored there. But out of that hundred, there is one that originates from the secret seat of the Guru at the very center of the body. The heart is considered to be the center of the body: there are three chakras below, three chakras above.

All of the fibers that flow out from the heart go to all the extremes of the subtle physical body and physical body: down the legs, out the feet into the earth; down through the center of the body, down the spine, between the legs and down into the earth; out the arms and hands, up the neck and head, etc. All of the various orbits, micro and macro orbits, up the back, down the front, etc., all key into the heart.

The subtlety of this fiber is beyond description. Without the Guru’s grace, you would never find it. [it's like:] 'There is a needle, and I’ve hidden it in North America; you have to find that needle, and here’s a clue.'

The Guru’s grace is simple. That thread becomes magnetized. You just have to look for it. You’ll find that there’s this magnetic throb pulsing down this infinitely refined fiber. That’s the Guru. It is the one fiber that penetrates through all four bodies, and moves into the space of emptiness."