What is the heart?

In the two most recent posts about mysticism by Hazrat Inayat Khan (here and here) we learn that the heart must be prepared for the inner journey, and that when it is beginning to awaken there comes a fountain of love and goodness that completely changes our relationship with the world. It might sound like an impossibly high mountain to climb, and yet Hazrat Inayat assures us that with patience (which he calls the oil that keeps the lamp of love alight) we may reach our goal.

The texts also provide, almost in passing, as clear a description as may be possible of the mysterious nature of the heart. All people know the organ that beats in our chest, but that is only a physical indication of something much more profound. After explaining that he does not mean the heart of flesh, Hazrat Inayat says, “if one comes to a mystic’s conception, one sees that it is the heart […] that is […] the beginning of the spirit; that makes man an individual. The depth of that spirit is in reality what we call the heart.”

The heart, in other words, is the point at which our individuality touches the infinite. It is a capacity, a potential that will accommodate or reflect whatever is placed there. When the heart is filled with thoughts of self, we are limited and unable to perceive the infinite; it is beyond our reach. When the divine fountain of love has been opened, as Hazrat Inayat says, “it purifies the heart, it makes the heart transparent to see the outer and the inner world. The heart becomes the vehicle for the soul to see all within and without; man not only communicates with another person, but also with God.”

What, then, is the lesson for the traveller on the inner path? To keep our gaze fixed on the horizon of infinity through the storms of life, and to leave behind all the petty limitations that block the flow of love: if we can adopt this as our course, in time the heart will become as clear as crystal. That is why in Nirtan, Tanas, there is this saying:
Crystal, what are you?
          I am the shadow of Christ’s heart.
What quality do you possess?
          I am empty of self, so that by gazing,
          one sees in me His heart reflected.

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