What if you knew there was a place you could go where all human problems disappeared, and you were filled with the most exquisite feeling of love and connection possible? Would you want to go there? I do. Increasingly. It exists in each of us, and it’s called “the sacred heart.”
For years, I would throw up in my mouth a little bit when my ministerial colleagues talked about “dropping into our heart space.” Many of them do it often (even my favorite friends). But I was studying the science of mind, not the science of heart, and the suggestion sounded even more woo-woo than the rest of our woo-woo stuff.
As a would-be math major turned lawyer/lobbyist turned minister, my mental/verbal/left brain/yang/masculine energies have long dominated. For me the attraction to the Centers for Spiritual Living denomination to which I belong, is its teaching of the science of mind which focuses on both science and mind but not, thank God, heart.
I wanted to control my life by gaining control of my mind. And to an extent, that works. Our founder, Ernest Holmes, popularized “change your thinking, change your life.” We are a “new thought” movement. We see thoughts as seeds planted in the soil of consciousness. When we have an experience we don’t like, we know that experience grew from the thought we planted in consciousness. We plant a new thought to get a new experience. We don’t plant the thought in our heart, we plant it in our mind.
for example
For years, I have known that I am critical of myself. I have constantly looked for where I fell short and berated myself mentally while simultaneously striving to constantly attract other people’s validation or approbation of me as a way to counteract the strain of that self-abuse.
Over time, I cultivated an awareness of my extreme self-judgment and, when I noticed it, changed the channel, focusing mainly on the next indicated action I could take in the world. This was an improvement for sure, but still mostly a mental action-oriented exercise rather than one based in self love.
At some point, I discovered the book Madly in Love with Me by Christine Arlyo. (Confession to 
Christine Arlyo: This book deserves its own post.) Self-love quizzes in the book helped solve a long-standing puzzle of my personality: for years, friends and lovers were baffled when I expressed that I did not love myself. I seemed so confident, so powerful, so self-assured. If I didn’t love myself, who did? Was it all fake, all a façade? What the hell was going on? Arylo’s eight branches of self-love answer the questions. Turns out that while I was strong on self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-trust, I was hecka weak on self-forgiveness and self-compassion, self-acceptance, and self-honor. (You need to buy to book to take the whole 8 branch test and see all the suggestions but she’s got a lot of free tools on her website including a shorter version of a similar test https://pathofselflove.org/assessments/self-love-quiz/) anyway, the point is, I began to zero in on which part of self love was escaping me but not so much what to do about it or why it was important.
Enter Love Without End: Jesus Speaks. In it, as I have mentioned in long ago posts, thoughts on the president’s unconscious legacy and how could God’s voice be still and small?, artist and author Glenda Green records her conversations with Jesus Himself who she says sat for a portrait of himself with her over months in the 1990s. She quotes this master teacher extensively on the subject of a “sacred heart” within each of us. He points us to a literal place within each of us that we can and should enter daily. In that place, we are united with love. in that unity, all things are possible.
Jesus tells her that the mind must always be a servant to the heart, not the other way around. He observes that the mental parameters in which humans operate are fine as long as they serve love, but the minute they start feeling fixed or permanent, they are operating as polarities that keep humanity stuck.
He says that love is infinite and all powerful; it destroys all polarities. I’m paraphrasing, but He continues that our only important choice as spiritual beings having a human experience is whether or not to be love. Once we choose to be love, all human problems disappear.
As I meditated on the Sacred Heart, I became aware that I was still allowing my mind to have supremacy over my heart. In doing so I was failing to use the infinite power of love in my life.
I began to use the specific method laid out in Love Without End to enter my sacred heart, and it works for me. I love the feeling I have in there. It is amazing, sweet, delightful, and powerful. I take off all polarities such as right and wrong, good and bad and lay them at the door to this heart. In the process, my harsh inner judge has retired from active duty and is starting a second career as a functional, helpful inner critic, one who is called upon only when necessary.
Here are two meditations you can use:
The first is a short preparation
the second is a 20 minute meditation
i still have a residual twinge at the term “heart space.” i assume that will eventually melt before the power of love.
