Spiritual Center or Right Side

[Guest guest]

Dear gentle individuals,

 

I was wondering if I could be helped with the following... My

experience is that heartfelt sensations seem to register in the left

side of my chest more of where I think the heart is physically

located. It seems I am mistaken in that I hear others refer to the

spiritual center being on the right side... would that be my right

side or the one who is facing me's right side direction which would

then be my left.

 

Also permit me to ask about Robert Adams who through listening to his

tapes introduced me to self-inquiry. Where can I find out more about

him vis-a-vis purchasing tapes and transcripts made by him?

 

I am lost in a blizzard of confusion and unrelenting distractions, but

hope to continue self-inquiry until freedom is realized.

 

Namaste,

 

Joe-M

[Guest guest]

With best wishes,

yours in bhagavanjoe7michael <joe7michael > wrote:

Dear gentle individuals,I was wondering if I could be helped with the

following... My experience is that heartfelt sensations seem to register in the

left side of my chest more of where I think the heart is physically located. It

seems I am mistaken in that I hear others refer to the spiritual center being on

the right side... would that be my right side or the one who is facing me's

right side direction which would then be my left.Also permit me to ask about

Robert Adams who through listening to his tapes introduced me to self-inquiry.

Where can I find out more about him vis-a-vis purchasing tapes and transcripts

made by him?I am lost in a blizzard of confusion and unrelenting distractions,

but hope to continue self-inquiry until freedom is realized.Namaste,Joe-M Post message: RamanaMaharshi

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[Guest guest]

om namo bhagavate sri ramanaya

Dear Joe,

> I was wondering if I could be helped with the following... My

> experience is that heartfelt sensations seem to register in the left

> side of my chest more of where I think the heart is physically

> located. It seems I am mistaken in that I hear others refer to the

> spiritual center being on the right side... would that be my right

> side or the one who is facing me's right side direction which would

> then be my left.

> Namaste,

> Joe-M

Here is an interesting conversation with Sri Ramana Maharshi regarding this subject:

D. Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness and as

identical with the Self. What

does the Heart exactly signify?

M. The question about the Heart arises because you are interested in seeking the

Source of consciousness. To all deep-thinking minds, the enquiry about the ŒI¹

and its nature has an irresistible fascination. Call it by any name, God, Self,

the Heart or the Seat of Consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be

grasped is this, that HEART means the very Core of one¹s being, the Centre,

without which there is nothing whatever.

D. But Sri Bhagavan has specified a particular place for the Heart within the

physical body, that it is in the chest, two digits to the right from the

meridian.

M. Yes, that is the Centre of spiritual experience according to the testimony of

Sages. The spiritual Heart-centre is quite different from the blood- propelling,

muscular organ known by the same name. The spiritual Heart-centre is not an

organ of the body. All that you can say of the Heart is that it is the very

Core of your being, that which you are really identical (as the word in

Sanskrit literally means), whether you are awake, asleep or dreaming, whether

you are engaged in work or immersed in Samadhi.

D. In that case, how can it be localized in any part of the body? Fixing a place

for the Heart would imply setting physiological limitations to That which is

beyond space and time.

M. That is right. But the person who puts the question about the position of the

Heart, considers himself as existing with or in the body. While putting the

question now, would you say that your body alone is here but that you are

speaking from somewhere else? No, you accept your bodily existence. It is from

this point of view that any reference to a physical body comes to be made.

Truly speaking pure Consciousness is indivisible, it is without parts. It has

no form and shape, no

Œwithin¹ and Œwithout¹. There is no Œright¹ or Œleft¹ for it. Pure

Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all; and nothing is outside or

apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth. From this absolute standpoint, the

Heart, Self or Consciousness can have no particular place assigned to it in the

physical body. What is the reason? The body is itself a mere projection of the

mind, and the mind is but a poor reflection of the radiant Heart. How can That

in which everything is contained, be itself confined as a tiny part within the

physical body which is but an infinitesimal, phenomenal manifestation of the

one Reality?

But people do not understand this. They cannot help thinking in terms of

physical body and the world. For instance, you say ³I have come to this Asramam

all the way from my country beyond the Himalayas². But that is not the truth.

Where there is a Œcoming¹ or Œgoing¹ or any movement whatever, for the one,

all-pervading Spirit which you really are? You are where you have always been.

It is your body that moved or was conveyed from place to place till it reached

this Asramam. This is the simple truth, but to a person who considers himself a

subject living in an objective world, it appears as something altogether

visionary!

It is by coming down to the level of the ordinary understanding that a place is

assigned to the Heart in the physical body.

D. How then shall I understand Sri Bhagavan¹s statement that the experience of

the Heart-centre is at the particular place in the chest?

M. Once you accept that from the true and absolute standpoint, the Heart as pure

Consciousness is beyond space and time, it will be easy for you to understand

the rest in its correct perspective.

D. It is only on that basis that I have put the question about the position of

the Heart. I am asking about Sri Bhagavan¹s experience.

M. Pure Consciousness wholly unrelated to the physical body and transcending the

mind is a matter of direct experience. Sages know their bodiless, eternal

Existence just as the layman knows his bodily existence. But the experience of

Consciousness can be with bodily awareness as well as without it. In the

bodiless experience of Pure Consciousness the Sage is beyond time and space,

and no question about the position of the Heart can then at all arise. Since,

however, the physical body cannot subsist (with life) apart from Consciousness,

bodily awareness has to be sustained by pure Consciousness. The former, by its

nature, is limited and can never be co-extensive with the latter, which is

infinite and eternal. Body-consciousness is merely a monad- like, miniature

reflection of the pure Consciousness with which the Sage has realized his

identity. For him, therefore, body consciousness is only a reflected ray, as it

were, of the self-effulgent, infinite Consciousness which is himself. It is in

this sense alone that the Sage is aware of his bodily existence. Since, during

the bodiless experience of the Heart as pure Consciousness, the Sage is not at

all aware of the body, that absolute experience is localized by him within the

limits of the physical body by a sort of feeling-recollection made while he is

with bodily awareness.

(from Maharshi's Gospel; Sri Ramanasramam)

Regards,

Miles

-- -- - -- --

"ekam sat vipraa bahudhaa vadanti

That which exists is One; sages call it by various names."