The Awakened Heart

From Kabbalistic & Sufi esoteric teachings

The 'False Ego' vs the heart of the 'True Self'

A narcissist is only aware of his own needs and desires and puts himself before others and even before God. Everything else comes second place to his own ego. So the Narcissistic ego is directly opposed to our spiritual nature, it contains all tendencies and vices that are in direct conflict with our spiritual nature.This includes; all desires of the body, weaknesses come from uncontrolled desires and self will, like sexual desires or the need to be praised and glorified by others for self gratification. Understand, oh Reader, the ego self is the most unintelligent, misguided part of our nature and most easily manipulated by the Dark. It's the dominion of the spoilt child that can never be satisfied but only for a moment. As a baby, our only desire was for food and comfort, i.e. basic survival instinct, when we grow up out desires become more complex, we reach an age where we seek the approval of others, i.e social desires, which is an endless highway of status seeking and vanity. The highest of worldly desires is the desire to seek worldly knowledge for the purpose of attaining authority or even control. No matter how hard we strive as long as our focus is on satisfying the false ego through seeking fulfillment of our worldly desires, we are never relieved neither can it bring happiness for more then a moment. If you are thirsty and you drink, it is only for that moment when the thirst is quenched that we are satisfied, and no matter how much we keep drinking it will not satisfy us anymore. This is the condition of our false ego no matter which of these desires one tries to fulfill, it is short lived and we look for more of that feeling of fulfillment, yet it can never be more then temporary. It is like sand in the palms of our hands that slips away from us, the energy disappears and we are left again, empty and unfulfilled. Yet there is another desire, that is borne from our willing and peaceful surrender to our Lord that is not a worldly desire it is the Divinely intended desire that is in the heart of hearts waiting to be discovered, the key that our creator has given each human, the desire to want to know Him and to please Him alone. A sincere striving from deep awakening of the heart, such that our compulsion for worldly achievement starts to diminish, it is only through the striving to reach proximity to our Lord most High and understand why He created His creation that we move beyond the false ego self and the wanton passions it harbours. Our desires become 'corrected', so to speak, and we are no longer enslaved by our worldly wishes and no longer seek fulfillment through them. When we start to fill our mind and heart with God’s wishes for us to seek him alone, so that when we enjoy and receive the bounties our Lord has provided us with in this world, we do it for His pleasure alone. When we take from the world with gratitude and thankfulness and share with others freely, and generously giving from ourselves with no fixation on material gains in return, except to earn the pleasure of our Lord, that we can actually be truly fulfilled because we are doing everything for the Love of our lord alone and His pleasure, and he provides us with everything we need in this life and the hereafter including Guidance at all times.

According to teachings of Kabbalah, from our own selves we have nothing to give back to an all encompassing creator, an ungerminated seed. No one is better then anyone in their worth except for those who have given their will in service of their Lord, through the guardianship of the soul and owners of choice. Blown into our clay vessels that gave us life to bring His Divine presence in this earth, we would never be more then that potential unless we brought it to life in our life. We would be no more than an if, a might have been, if it were not for the Creators Gracious mercy and kindness toward us, but Mankind has a choice, the dynamics that can transform anything we do into something greater, alchemy of the Soul.

"I was a hidden treasure I would fain be known so I created man" (Divine tradition) We are only receivers, God alone is the Bestower and needs nothing from his creation. So how do we give to our Lord when we can only receive from Him and He needs nothing from us and we have nothing to give? Everything we have is given to us by God. Why do we then have the desire to give if we can only receive? Because our essence is from God and therefore have the desire to give, and it is part of our nature which is in direct conflict with our will to receive, so how can we fulfill this desire to give if we are receivers and have nothing to give? If we choose by intention with the heart of your hearts, to give the sake of our Creator alone then everything we do in His name becomes an act of giving, and an act of worship. We can only give to GOD through being of service to humanity and by being kind to people and reminding them of their purpose and true nature, to follow His divine Will for the sake of pleasing Him only, not for any other reason.

Only in the instance where the spiritual heart is awakened can we become fully human. In Sufi psychology the Ruh insani is in full essence ‘spiritual’. The soul of man is located within the heart of his heart, ie in the depth of our heart. This is stirred and awakened when we fill our heart with God and align entirely with His Will alone. When the heart opens through the striving for this submission to our Lord, wisdom and intuition shine and radiate within. When the heart is awakened we begin to see with our spiritual eyes through the heart, this is heart intelligence, which is guidance, because it is directly in harmony with His will. With this opening of the heart we are able to develop a new deeper capacity of love and compassion toward others, that is beyond the physical desires and senses, ie. the five senses. We become Human antennae that are broadcasting our thoughts, intentions and actions, into the atmosphere, when we are thinking and breathing in rhythm with our creator we are broadcasting His divine glory to the world! We are all tuned into His Divine light and it is reflected into the world from the spiritual heart of the awakened believer. From this new 'view' from the heart we can see the true reality and truth above and outside of the material world of the manifest, to the hidden world of the unseen. It is the emotional and spiritual world connected to the true self. This is the stage where true faith is developed and more finely tuned into its station. According to our own striving to get in touch with our inherent spiritual nature- we can develop a noble heart and become a tuning fork of the Divine that shines onto the world. "The heavens and the earth cannot contain Me, yet I fit into the heart of the sincere believer" (divine tradition) The heart was built by God to house only Him, whoever fills it with Him, connects to the guidance of the universal intelligence alone and begins to understand there is a creative force within them that comes from his Lord alone - and that when awakened within us reflects the divine attributes of God )has blessed each individually, with that is your personality. When the character, which is standard, is ennobled; vices are neutralized and we reflect only positive archetypes of our personality. The most creative and successful of people are the most passionate about the work they do and their intentions are in the name of their Lord. All praise goes to Him alone who only Good comes from Him and all negatives come only from our self. 24:34 "God is the light of the heavens and the earth. His light may be compared to a niche that enshrines a lamp, the lamp within a crystal of star-like brilliance. It is lit from a blessed olive tree neither eastern nor western. Its very oil would almost shine forth, though no fire touched it. Light upon light; God guides to His light whom He will."

The mind is limited and is part of the physiological system, the central nervous system, it cannot receive information as fast as the heart, it can be easily overloaded and 'short circuited' by events of the world. It is the heart that balances and weighs things out and it can only do this when it is connected to the Divine source. The mind is like a computer that stores things and manipulates the information, formats it several ways, but cannot create new ideas. This is because the mind cannot be inspired, divine inspiration always enters through the heart. The heart is the battlefield of our two selves, our worldly and spiritual natures that conflict in purpose. When we become distracted by worldly things, it fills our hearts with love for the worldly and its ostentatious ornaments, and the heart becomes loaded with material attachments which are like veils that keep the soul hidden and silent and obscure our spiritual natures.' As we empty out our hearts and detach from the love of material things and the world, we become lighter and more subtle, even invisible to those who want harm against us. God breathed His ‘spirit’ into Adams body which became the soul of Adam, and then into Eve. Our origins are a combination of our material body and our transcendent spiritual self - the soul. The Souls are all sparks of the divine that was/is transmitted to us directly from Allah (swt). The soul is hidden and as a light behind a veil, even if it is not seen, its light remains unchanged. The Soul is a spark of the divine, it is prayer, it is Remembrance, it is infinitely larger then material creation because it remains intact and in connection to the infinite nature which is divine source, and the nature of God is infinite. The heart is a mirror of the divine that is polished and clear, it must be kept clean of the worldly dirt that gathers upon it so that the divine can reflect within it. When our heart becomes saturated with divine love it is completely fulfilled and present. Every moment of our life, each breath, becomes an act of giving; to be of service to humanity, for His sake alone. Our heart is awakened through this intent, everything we do becomes a divine act, a worship. We become a seeker of what is hidden within each of our hearts. The key to awakening the true passion within us to seek and build a relationship through the heart, a lasting fulfillment (energy) that is infinite in nature.