Nowadays, in TV interviews, the question is "What's your feeling on that?" and the same in social media's "I really feel that…". The discussions are more about how one feels, as opposed to well-thought-out or facts-supported opinions. The emotional response is continually validated and dramatised in the social media.
Until recently, we were taught to listen to our logical, reasoning mind and not trust the unpredictable, irrational emotional heart to take decisions. Now, the table seems to have turned.
So, what should we do? Do we get in touch with our emotions, find out what we want, 'set aside others' opinions and do whatever we feel like? Or should we suppress our emotions and make decisions based on logical and rational assessment, even though what we want to do may be different from what we have been told to do?
It seems like one must choose between the heart and the mind! To me, this struggle is tiring and nonsensical! Can we overcome this cultural conditioning?
What if it’s cultural conditioning?
Culture and Language: Looking for the “mind: inside the body by Farzad, presented at the International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, explains how different cultures and at different times conceptualised the locus of knowing, thinking and feeling to head region (cerebrocentric) or heart region (cardiocentric) or abdominal region (abdominocentric).
It traces the dualism between mind and heart centre in the western culture to the earlier interactions between the ‘cerebrocentric’ and ‘cardiocentric’ approach in ancient Greek philosophy and medicine.
It was fascinating to read that the ancient Malay and Indonesian cultures were ‘abdominocentric’, meaning that the locus of thought and emotions were believed to be in the abdominal regions, specifically in the liver. And it was a light bulb moment when I read that the ancient Indian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultural concept was ‘cardiocentrism’, meaning the locus of thought and emotions was in the chest region.
When I look back on my childhood, I can remember I lived those simplistic childhood days thinking and feeling through my heart. In school, I excelled in everything – studies, sports, and arts and at home, I enjoyed cooking and learning our traditional music and dance. Life flowed because the only way I knew to live was to go with the thoughts and emotions that swelled up in my chest and overflowed into actions.
The concept of division between the brain and heart came later in life when I went to university for my engineering degree, travelled to different countries, and started work. I applied more logical and analytical thinking and learned to suppress my emotions to survive in a world full of data, facts and formulas. The science, media, and anything I attempted to learn reiterated the idea of using my ‘brain’ to excel.
Let’s be clear. I am not disputing the function of the brain as an organ. I am questioning the concept of assigning the ‘mind’ and ‘thoughts’ to the brain and ‘emotions’ to the heart.
Could it be a single continuum?
If we explore deeply, thoughts and feelings exist within a single continuum. We are on the ‘mind’ end of the spectrum when we partially suppress our emotions, rationalise and define using words. And, on the ‘feeling’ end of the spectrum, when we lose words and verbalisation ability under the full charge of emotions.
If you are an emotional person, upon self-reflection, you will realise that the emotional state is linked to a subconscious thought pattern. Habitual thought patterns in the background shape our moment-to-moment moods. The shift in mood or an outburst of emotion is an indication that self-reflection is required. It doesn’t mean you are shifting from the ‘heart’ centre to the ‘mind’. It means you are uncovering the layers of subtle structures.
Similarly, if you are a rational person means that you have learned the tool to analyse and verbalise. If you follow your thoughts to the other end of the spectrum, you will trace it to emotions based on your belief, values, upbringing, and life history.
So, how can we stay balanced in the centre, neither in the ‘emotion’ end nor in the ‘mind’ end of the spectrum? And, above all, how do we know that the balanced position is intuitive wisdom and not arising from our samskaras (Sanskrit word meaning experiences, ideas and actions) for our personal benefit?
Intuitive Wisdom
The balanced intuitive wisdom is called Pratibha in Sanskrit. It is a deep inner knowing, a wordless sensing, spontaneous inspiration. It arises from the heart and is difficult to explain in words. It’s distinctly different from a whim or preference. Usually, it is a subtle, quiet pull; It may not always take us to what we want or think we enjoy. It may pull us away from a particular person or a career. It is a wordless undercurrent. Acting against it might feel wrong. Yet there may be a fear of the unknown. Because Pratibha often takes us to a domain beyond what we think we know. Surrender to it, and then you want what Life wants! By surrendering to Pratibha, we feel we are in a ‘flow’ in life.
How to get there? and above all, how to stay there?
Meditation
Did you watch the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity, a biographical drama about the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan on the SBS Movie channel? Though Ramajuan had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions and solutions to mathematical problems that were then considered unsolvable. He was one of the youngest to be admitted to the Fellows of the Royal Society. He credited his mathematical capacity to divinity and said his solution came through meditations. He once said, "An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God."
Without a contemplative, meditative life, we can’t access the inner wisdom of Pratibha. Without a regular practice of meditation, we won’t be able to discern whether the decision comes from emotionally charged assumptions, feelings, and thoughts or from deep inner knowing. During meditation practice, we learn to sit with discomfort, stay in stillness, in the unknown realm, not knowing what will come next, and notice what comes without judgement.
Cardiocentric Meditation
After attempting various types of meditation, finally, my breakthrough came through the Heart centred meditation that I teach now. My rational thinking mind says, Raji, as an Indian, your DNA is wired to the ‘cardiocentric’ system; that’s why your system is intuitively responding to the Heart centred meditation. Could it be true? Perhaps I should ask my inner wisdom and not my thinking rationalising mind!
The Heart Chakra (energy centre in the chest region) is where all emotional-mental states are experienced as vibrations of consciousness. Recent researchers call it Heart-Brain centre. The meditation I teach at my studio is about keeping your attention at a tiny point in the heart centre. Regular practice of this Heart centred (Heart-Brain centred in the modern language) breathing meditation has the power to dissolve ‘samskaras’ (impressions of experiences, emotions and thoughts) and take you deeper into the realm of the silence of consciousness. Anything that arises from this silence and inner knowing is your path to everyday life. Surrender to it and enjoy the flow!
What do you think? Feel free to comment or share your experiences. Or join me in the morning meditations in my studio to explore within. See timetable
More about the entire chakra system and different types of meditations next week.
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