HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS - POEM AND ARTICLE.

[Pravin Kumar]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... bn0IC3_7W5


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... npTg4zWxwl


Home is Where The Heart is - poem and article.

At home, in the essential Heart,
The central innermost vital part .
Here we flourish, live and reside,
Wherein there is no need to hide.

From which we can never leave,
Thus there is no need to grieve.
Imagining we have already left,
Evoking feelings so bereft.

This is part of the cosmic play.
Through which consciousness may,
Experience the amazing range,
Of thoughts and sensations as they change.

For if we continually stayed home,
Not allowed to seem to roam,
We would always be totally at peace,
So ‘variety of life’ would greatly decrease.

This gives the secret clue,
When suffering, just ask ‘who?’
Revealing that feelings come and go,
In That by which our minds can know.

In which mind and body appear,
By which, through us, That sees they’re here,
From which we are never separate,
Awareness, our essence, so innate.

So to return home again,
To That which you need not attain.
See that you are This, never apart
From home, in the essential Heart!
-------------------------------------------------------

To be truly ‘at home’ in the universe is to be totally free from all existential angst and anxiety, to be utterly at peace, to feel absolutely free to be what one is, to feel completely accepted and loved, with no judgement whatsoever. One of the best definitions of such a ‘home’, in the Oxford English Dictionary, is: ‘a place where something flourishes or from which it originated’. Another definition is: ‘the place where one lives’; which gives the clue to being totally ‘at home’, for if one could truly ‘live’ in the ‘place in which one originated and where one flourishes’ then the problem would be solved.

This may be all very well but where is such a place and how do we find it? Here that old saying ‘home is where the heart is’ gives the clue; not the physical heart but ‘the central. innermost, and vital part’ (OED) of our being. Also ‘where the heart is’ symbolises that which we love and where we are totally loved and accepted. All that needs to be determined now is: where is the ‘central, innermost, vital’ level of our being, where there is absolute oneness; in which all things arise, exist, and subside? For in this all things are loved and accepted as they are never separate from this…

This is pure consciousness which has two different modes, or levels; firstly when it is totally still, at rest, aware of everything that is occurring within it (that is pure awareness); to be totally aware of what is going on in a busy environment one has to be still, just witnessing the activity. Secondly when it is in motion (cosmic energy) manifesting as the physical universe; for the ‘string theory’, and the theory of ‘relativity’, both show that matter is synonymous with energy. Now all motion arises in, and from, stillness, exists in stillness, is known by its comparison to stillness and finally subsides back into stillness. For example if you walk across a room, before you start there is stillness, as you walk the room is still and you know you are moving by comparison with this stillness, and when you stop once again there is stillness. Therefore every thing, which is a manifestation of cosmic energy (consciousness in motion), arises in awareness (consciousness at rest) exists in awareness, is known by awareness, and finally subsides back into awareness.

Thus our true essence, from whence we originate and where we flourish, is this level of awareness, where there is only peace and tranquillity, being the level of consciousness that is totally still and at rest. This awareness is always present as we are always aware of our thoughts and sensations, which in themselves are manifestations of cosmic energy (consciousness in motion). These are just ephemeral, and fleeting, and arise in (exist in and return to) awareness, the constant, conscious, subjective, presence; which at the deepest level we truly are.

This is the sub stratum of existence, the most fundamental and essential level of being; for even at the level of manifestation we could not exist without awareness of our thoughts and sensations. This is our true ‘home’ where there is only ‘oneness’ (consciousness), and thus everything (just a movement in this) is loved and accepted as one with this. So to be truly ‘at home’ all we have to do is identify with (and as) this pure awareness, and see thoughts and sensations (indeed all physical objects) as what they truly are, ephemeral movements in this; which is easy to see just by taking a few moments to notice how thoughts, and sensations, come and go in awareness, leaving it totally unaffected.

To put it in a slightly different way: before any particular thought or sensation there is effortless awareness of 'what is' (the sum of all thoughts and sensations occurring at any given instant), during the thought or sensation in question there is effortless awareness of it within ‘what is’, and then when it has gone there is still effortless awareness of 'what is'. So awareness is the sub-stratum in which thoughts/sensations arise, exist, and back into which they subside.

All that is needed to be ‘where the heart is’ (and thus totally ‘at home’) is to live in, and from, this ‘central, innermost, vital’ level of our being, which is awareness itself. For this is truly where we originate, in which we exist, to which we return, and that which we truly are. In this we are absolutely ‘at home’, totally free from all existential angst and anxiety, utterly at peace, free to be what one is, completely accepted and loved, with no judgement whatsoever.