Following on from my previous blog post, where I was describing what it ‘feels’ like to go within, to drop out of the mind of thoughts and words, structure and content, to really feel our truest nature and really feel our extraordinary capacity for loving exploration.
I felt led towards exploring a condition that modern humans experience:
‘the dissociation of the heart’
It seems that humans somehow, at various points along their evolutionary history have decided that being reasonable, expert and rational are the cornerstones of living a respectable life. With what seems like, very little consideration for the heart’s call or ‘feelings’ from the heart.
I read an article by Stephen Harrod Buhner some 3 years ago that inspired a change in the way I viewed myself within the world around me. It switched me on to something that had felt off for as long as I could remember.
I had felt that the in-congruence between our thoughts and our inner feelings was being reflected in our behaviour and ultimately reflected in our language.
It was somehow OK to express what we think or least more widely acceptable to say what we think about things, however to speak openly of feelings, well that was an activity saved for private ‘Consulting Rooms’ where we may dare to speak openly about our childhood trauma.
I felt and continue to feel that humans are living an automated existence. However, the automated program that is running is generated, its not activated. It’s made, its not created. Its root is scientific in its expression and its capacity for expression is limited.
I found his article, in its essence, to be a permission slip. For me to be able to shift into an alternative perspective that I already knew existed but wasn’t quite sure how to actualise.
The article also influenced how I framed questions towards my young children. I wanted to create a more open and honest system of communicating between us with its central tenet being heart/soul sourced. I wanted to encourage us all to feel our experiences, our environment and to be equally curious about our inner world as our perceived outer one.
An important distinction to make here is that the feeling state is not the same as the emotional state. Feelings are the vibe you get when you walk into a room and you choose to stay or go based on ‘a feeling’. Emotions are responses to thoughts (fight/flight/freeze situations) i.e. someone is driving erratically, your response will be emotional, generated by your thoughts – this response does not originate from the feeling state. Or you walk into a lamp-post, depending on your thoughts you may have a mixture of emotions ranging from: embarrassment, anger and so on.
As a kind of visual context I have coloured the words with some photos of time spent in India. India is a place that insists on evoking, it is a place of feeling. It is not possible to be there and be rational and reasonable. It is a place of wonder and magic, if that is how you choose to see of course. It is a physical place that is felt deeply within my soul.
The article from Resurgence and Ecologist (2015) written by Stephen Harrod Buhner is such a gem and contains so many inspiring quotes from other visionaries that I simply wanted to share them all with you here.
So I have taken these quotes from his original article and have woven them together with some of my own narrative, to create this piece.
“Somewhere along the way our human capacity to feel became suspect and, in consequence, most people have lost not only the response of the heart to what is presented to the senses, but the ability to speak of the heart’s responses to the touch of the world upon them” – Stephen Harrod Buhner
John Ralston Saul remarks:
“The undermining of universal language, in large part by the dialects of expertise, has meant that we can’t turn to the word to steady ourselves….Yet to argue against reason means arguing as an idiot or an entertainer who seeks only to amuse”
He goes on to say:
“…The structures of argument have been co-opted so completely by those who work for the system that when an individual reaches for the words and phrases which he senses will express his case, he finds that they are already in active use in the service of power.”
We have been taught that intellectualising is the only valid line of enquiry. We have created a linguistic world where we frown upon the merest attempt to express a ‘heartfelt’ desire. That when we even dare to express ourselves from the perspective of ‘feeling’, the words have already been hijacked, they’ve been swallowed up in the industrialisation of vocabulary. Their true potency dulled in the smog of reasonableness.
I am not a reasonable person.
What I Am is: Alive!
The language that flows from my Heart is Alive.
Its that simple.
Let me give you a heads up on how to connect to your feeling state…
Ask a different question.
Re-frame your question.
When you hear yourself asking:
“What I think about that is…” or “what do you think about that” or “what are your thoughts” or “I think that…”
STOP.
Change it.
Ask instead:
“How does this place feel?” (Be curious)
“How does this food feel?”
“How does this life I’m in feel?”
“How does the deforestation of the planet feel?”
“How does my home feel?”
Be curious and notice the difference in how you feel when your enquiry comes from your thinking mind or from your inner world, or as I’ve already described it, your heart.
We have the capacity to choose to direct our enquiry from the heart, from our space of feeling. We can reconnect to that part of ourselves that has been forgotten, derided as the”idiot” or “entertainer” but is in fact the truest most ancient and Original part of our selves.
We are reclaiming our lost words, our Sovereign Word, our language of the heart. Our feeling state.
And collectively we are shifting this old paradigm of revering rational, reasonable, expert language over and above all other forms of expression and we’re creating a new paradigm for linguistics.
Buhner describes this paradigm shift as “an experiential movement from dissociated mentation to the use of the feeling sense as a primary aspect of cognition”
Meaning, that its not an intellectual shift that we can make, its experiential.
It means: “diving into the heart of the world and finding out for yourself what is there. It then means speaking of, and acting upon, what you have found, what you felt during the journey. For the feelings that you have as the world touches you and as you touch the world are unique to you.”
“The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best it can point to it. For example it can say: “All things are intrinsically one”. That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point” – Eckhart Tolle
E.E. Cummings wrote:
“A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words…A lot of people think or believe or know they feel – but that’s thinking or believing or knowing: not feeling. And poetry is feeling – not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why?
Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people, but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.”
I invite you to take a minute just to pause here. Allow yourself the space to feel the expressions being described. Allow yourself to marinate in your feeling state. Drop any form of judgement that may be arising within your thoughts – just for now, only enquire from within your heart.
Rest for a moment.
Our strong social and cultural bias towards being seen as intellectual, reasonable and of sound rational mind may influence your response to what I have discussed with you here.
Do you feel a resonance with this perspective we have offered?
I am not advocating for a complete dissolution of reason or rational thought here. What I am saying is that when we are practised in the heart of communication our thoughts will align more fully, they will naturally become more colourful.
It is definitely possible to experience both, a union of heart and mind, where our mind (thoughts) no longer dictates and runs the show but becomes the willing ally to the Heart with its compassionate and infinite capacity for expression. Wow what a team!!
So this feels like a great place to finish. And this expression would not be complete without asking this question:
How does reading this article feel?
If it felt good, if you resonated strongly with it, will you share it with your friends?
Will you dip your toe into the crystal clear waters of True Direction?
Its been fun for me to write this and explore this topic a little more personally. I have especially enjoyed connecting to all these other visionaries and feel into how they experience them selves, how they feel and experience their world. Not only the authors of the quotes but also the beautiful people I have met in my life and who are shining their radiance within these photographs.
I would love to hear from you. You can send me a personal message or comment on here.
I am Feeling the LOVE – such a gracious world. These guys slept here every night, under cardboard. They asked for nothing. We gave them our heart’s to hear, so they could share their stories.
Namaste
Anya Ward 