This Sunday, I encourage you to bring into sharper focus your inner directive(s) that shapes your life course. Earlier this year, an old friend texted me a strange message simply saying, "Tell me! What is coursing through your heart ? A voice asked me to ask you." Knowing this meant an inner voice, there was no need to pursue that thought. As to the question, it had been a long intensely busy day, with an even longer "to do" list waiting. I was tired, pre-occupied with various events, including world news, with no energy to explain. So I began by writing, "not possible to boil it down to a text", but then I remembered philosopher Blaise Pascal's quote, a favorite saying from my mentor in Psychiatry training,"The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." I paused with the realization that all my rumination was a mental process that brought more fatigue and more thinking. So I asked myself: "Ok, what comes from the heart, at the root of now, what is my sustaining course?" The words were quick and clear (and I have used them often, in various forms in these Sunday posts). I ended the text with "Now it comes: Feed the light, feed the light, feed the light." That seemed to satisfy the questioner.
That sense of a sustaining course is what I mean by inner directive, a principle that you are committed to and live from. This can roughly refer to your guiding values, but has the added element of conscious agreement and your intent to live according to the "directive". We can have a kind of 'thumbs up' response to general good acts and social mores but that is not the same thing as an actual commitment to ourselves to live as an expression of such a value. In Sanskrit, this idea of commitment to an inner directive is called Sankalpa. 'San' refers to one's connection to the highest truth; 'kalpa' is a solemn vow. Although there are various levels and historic interpretations, Sankalpa refers to an intention formed by the heart and mind; a solemn vow that becomes a commitment to your highest truth or deepest meaning. In a recent Iyengar yoga publication, UC Berkeley literature professor and Iyengar yoga teacher, Michael Lucey discussed the ancient Sanskrit concept of Sankalpa in the context of Pascals' quote on the heart's reasons. A brilliant Renaissance mathematician and physicist, Pascal had a profound religious experience that altered his life in a time (1623-1662) of new scientific discoveries, new art forms, and expanded exploration of foreign culture. He walked the path of science and gave his heart to God.
Professor Lucey envisions Pascal's understanding of humans as "a combination of body and mind, of matter and spirit"; since both aspects are "embodied", the physical level (that fundamental building block of creation) may "offer a way for heart and mind to communicate." The focus of the article is the practice of yoga. But I read a broader, analogous process that applies to our individual (and unique) sense of meaning and purpose. To paraphrase Professor Lucey, sometimes, our intention begins in the mind, in the world of mental ideas, reasoning and logic, and our directive is to live that intention, through actual concrete physical activity, guided by an inner listening for the heart's support; keeping that inner channel open. Other times our intention springs directly from subtle intuition. The pull of the initial intuitive vision can fade, unless it is put into practice with habitual reinforcing activity that includes mental process like planning, scheduling, choices and goals.
Today I am encouraging you to consider your life intention, that inner directive. Perhaps you have several. Pick one, or let one leap out at you. Take a look at the goals you have set before you, big ones, or even one day's 'resolve to do list' to point you in the direction by raising the question, "why does this matter to me"--there is a value, a principle, an idea that has some degree of meaning for you, or you wouldn't act on it. Values are related to meaning; human satisfaction (and health!) is imbedded in our sense of meaning. Contemporary research has shown in varying ways, a clear link between our sense of meaning and our health and recovery. What is coursing through your brain? and What is coursing through your heart? (Susan Nettleton)
"We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.” Blaise Pascal
For poetic perspective, follow the links:
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../housewasquie/index.html