Fw: The Heart - 1

[Guest guest]

- Viorica Weissman

RamanaMaharshi

Cc:

Saturday, August 11, 2001 10:33 AM

The Heart - 1

Q: You have said that the Heart is the centre of the Self.

A: Yes, it is the one supreme centre of the Self. You need have

no doubt about it. The real Self is there in the Heart behind

the jiva or ego self.

Q: Now be please to tell me where it is in the body.

A: You cannot know it with your mind. You cannot realise it

by imagination, when I tell you here is the centre [pointing to

the right side of the chest]. The only direct way to realise it

is to cease to fantasize and try to be yourself. When you realise,

you automatically feel that the centre is there.

This is the centre, the Heart, spoken of in the scriptures as

Hrit-Guha [cavity of the heart], Arul [grace], Ullam [the Heart].

Q: In no book have I found it stated that it is there.

A: Long after I came here I chanced upon a verse in the Malayalam

version of Ashtangahridayam, the standard work on Ayurveda

[science of life, health and medicine], wherein the Ojas Sthana

[source of bodily vitality or place of light] is mentioned as being

located in the right side of the chest and called the seat of

consciousness [samvit]. But I know of no other work which refers

to it as being located there.

Q: Can I be sure that the ancients meant this centre by the term 'Heart'?

A: Yes that is so. But you should try to have rather than to locate

the experience. A man need not find out where his eyes are situated

when he wants to see. The Heart is there ever open to you if you care

to enter it, ever supporting all your movements even when you are unaware.

It is perhaps more proper to say that the Self is the Heart itself than

to say that it is in the Heart. Really, the Self is the centre itself.

It is everywhere, aware of itself as 'Heart', the Self-awareness.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

/join

All paths go

somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights, perceptions,

and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside back

into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than

the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of

Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always Present. It

is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart to be the

Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the Truth of

Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It Self.

Welcome all to a.Your use of is subject

to the