Acting From The Place Of Our Wholeness
by Jesse Wolf Hardin
It peals like quiet thunder when I have completed my climb, especially audible now with the cessation of noisy footsteps on loose volcanic gravel, and after the arresting view of the multi-hued canyon had stripped away all distracting thought. Thump-thump, thump-thump, reverberating in my ears. Of course we can hear it anytime we quiet our minds and really pay attention, a steady cadence not unlike the paired drum beats of the Siberian shaman or Rastafarian Nyabingi. It can seem slightly unsettling to those out of touch with their bodily processes or uncomfortable with indications of mortality, yet we should find reassurance there in this audible evidence of a heart not only extant but active, the rush and wave of blood a reminder that we are indeed alive.
For most of the civilized age people have held the heart to be the seat of emotion, and the mind the repository of knowledge. New science, however, has increasingly demonstrated what some ancient tribal cultures long ago understood––that the natural mind is also an organ of feeling, and that elements of what we call intelligence and even awareness extend throughout the adrenal and nervous systems, and thus throughout the entire body. To feel like one's heart is broken is not just to suffer the typical tightening in the chest, but to ache as though our entire selves were being torn down the middle. To “follow our hearts” is not just to do what feels best, but to heed the primal instincts housed in the so-called “reptilian” cortex at the base of the skull, to act on our bodily intuition, and “to use our heads” to find the best ways of serving ourselves and our perceived callings. We say, “have a heart” when we want someone to be more caring, but compassion is a product of the discerning mind as well as the empathy of the heart.
We can better understand ourselves as whole beings made up of innumerable interdependent organs and aspects ... and better understand the heart as the vital core through which pumps the blood and experience of our lives. We call acting courageously “showing heart,” meaning to expose, activate and thereby risk. To “get to the heart of the matter” isn't just plumbing its emotional aspects, but getting to the core essence that knows, represents and can speak for the whole subject or situation. The heart of any spirituality is not only the subjective emotional experience, the sentiment and love, but the wholeness of its truth ... the ways that it manifests, and the results that it leads to.
It feels safe to say that the heart of various forms of spirituality lies not in their dogma, but in the values they demonstrate, the ways it gives or even the damage it does. It's not in any requirements that exclude, but in all that it encompasses ... not in its rules and control, but in the kinds of experience it engenders, and the degree of empowerment and responsibility it inspires. At heart may be a system of empowerment and inclusiveness or exclusion, repression, escape or denial, requiring us to notice and decide accordingly. Indeed, this heart does not “lie” anywhere so much as “move” there, exists not in what it postulates so much as in what it brings about and what it does. It can be discerned in how a spiritual tradition treats its women, its children, and the living, inspirited land. In the honesty, depth, delight, purposefulness, freedom and fullness of its practitioners’ lives.
In this way, the many traditions I personally respect most are grown in the community gardens they organize, and freed in the wildernesses they actively support. They percolate, are challenged and evolve in the schools they found; unfold as self-love, dignity and individual rights; blossom as community service, social and environmental activism; stand tall against oppression, and reach down to the lowest rungs of society. They are strengthened with practiced interconnection with the natural world as well as all of humanity, with proffered insight and the encouragement of choice.
The Animá that I teach is not a religion, but its emphasis on clarifying, expressing and manifesting spirit make it as much a spiritual practice as a system of awareness and self-growth. At its heart is an evolving set of insights and tools that: Aids a sense of presence and increased mindfulness. Helps one find their unique personal direction and path, to deepen their awareness and understanding of their natural authentic selves. Awakens bodily senses and helps us see more patterns and beauty, hear more exquisitely, taste every nuance of our food, and savor even the mundane details of our mortal lives. Teaches us to trust our own intuition and instincts. Deepens our sense of place, of family, home, land, ecosystem and bioregion. Furthers our awareness of and active relationship to the natural, revelatory world. Helps us recognize the intrinsic nature of and animating force in everything, and every thing's intrinsic value apart from human use. Increases our sense of self worth and confidence, based on our true abilities rather than imposed or imagined characteristics and gifts. Helps us realize that we are co-creators of not only our reality but our world, and urges us to act accordingly, to go beyond the role of victim and any attachment we might have to escape or distress. Prods us to extricate ourselves from unhealthy habits, expectations, judgments and ways of thinking, and to develop healthy attachments to life, spirit, values and missions. Encourages us to make every moment a decisive moment, and take responsibility for both what we do, and what we fail to do. Reawakens in us a childlike sense of wonder and connection. Inspires us to consciously have a positive effect on everyone we meet, to make our environs more healthy and beautiful as we increasingly heal, express and manifest our natural selves. That makes sacred our celebration of––and savoring of––life.
I've caught my breath now, and the pounding in my chest and ears has slowed and softened. I start walking back down the slope towards the river and then our cabin, trying as I descend to imagine all the people in the world who truly live their various forms of spirituality. We are connected not by belief necessarily, but by a depth of integrity, experience, expression, caring, commitment, action and follow through. We are joined at the heart, acting from the heart of our wholeness.
Jesse Wolf Hardin is an acclaimed teacher of Animá earth-centered practice and the author of five books including Gaia Eros (New Page 2004). He and his partners offer online Animá correspondence courses, as well as host students and guests for wilderness retreats, counsel, vision quests, internships and powerful group events in their river canyon and ancient place of power. For a complimentary copy of the colorful Animá Journal, go to www.animacenter.org/journal2007.html. The Animá Wilderness Retreat Center & Women's Sanctuary, Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830, www.animacenter.org.