It's appropriate that as I write this Christmas is only five days away, for Christ was the supreme example of what living from the Heart is all about. At some point in our development we must truly realize that the nature of consciousness itself is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. As our conscious awareness increases, we too begin to display this natural characteristic.

In my understanding, the heart is the seat of the soul. It is the organ through which we are most in touch with our true reality as spirit in flesh. It too is the center where our passion for life and for our true work can be found. The heart is the place that knows. Our physical bodies sense, our conscious and subconscious minds think and feel, but it is the heart that truly knows. The pump that drives blood through our system in reality drives life through our system as well.

So, what does it take to live from the heart?

Courage, Trust, Faith, Forgiveness, Compassion, Truthfulness, Kindness

That's a good list to start from. Let's take each one by one:

• Courage is required because we have to let go of our illusions that the world is an unsafe place where we have to be on-guard and watching out for ourselves all the time. Also, we may fail in our attempts to follow our hearts bidding, but we must persist anyway.

• Trust is required both in ourselves and in others. Without trust, we have no true basis for treating one another with the true dignity and respect we rightfully deserve. Also, some of the things our heart tells us will not necessarily be pleasant to our thoughts and emotions -- resulting in potential battles between the head and the heart.

• Faith is required because some of the things our hearts tell us may have no factual basis to support them. Only faith will get us through and allow us to express these admonitions of our heart anyway. Also, faith is required for the communication of the heart to become a regular mode of expression to us.

• Forgiveness is required because others may do things out of ignorance that may harm us, harm themselves, or harm others. We must know that such acts are always performed due to a lack of light or consciousness. Literally, those who commit such acts know not what they do. If God can forgive them, who are we to place blame?

• Compassion is required because while all is consciousness, and all are souls in flesh, many are in dire conditions. While it may be illusion from a soul standpoint, it is very real from the point of the person experiencing the conditions. No, we do not have to step in their shoes. But, we should be open to their pain and suffering -- assisting where we can, especially when our hearts move us to help.

• Truthfulness is required because it allows us to express whom that we really are. Without this, we hold back a part of ourselves that we might prefer to hide from others. Sharing who we truly are is a key to allowing love to flow through us. No blocks, no barriers. We are consciousness in flesh, perfect and complete as we are. We must express the truth, regardless of what the consequences might be.

• Kindness is a basic requirement. It is only natural that we should be kind to one another and not do anyone any harm. It is one of the most important behaviors to be inculcated within any society. Without kindness, the very foundation of society crumbles.

These alone aren't enough, however. There must also be a level of spiritual awareness and understanding. Otherwise, what is done affects the surface only. For love to conquer all, requires a depth of comprehension about the true reality, the reality that lies just beyond our grasp -- the reality that separates the present world from the utopia that lies just beyond imagination. We're at the threshold of a new age, the Age of Aquarius. The dawning started some 30 years ago in the 1960s -- the dawn has not yet arrived, however, though it grows closer everyday. It is not clear exactly when the day will come, but it will indeed come, and when it does, the dawn will be glorious beyond compare; and a new day of consciousness will have finally arrived after a Play that's taken us 2000 years from the days when the Christ roamed the world in flesh. He was the example of what we all were to become prior to the close of the Piscean Age -- the age in which we now live.

Looking around the world today, it appears we are far from achieving this in reality. However, look beyond the appearances to consciousness, to the collective worldview that our best and brightest minds on the planet are beginning to create. Many of the latest theories and models coming from science are starting to take on a spiritual flavor, as is the latest philosophy of mind. Both are sounding closer and closer to what metaphysicians have been saying for years. We're realizing that consciousness impacts physical reality. As we get more and more minds focused on this, science will find ways to measure the various energy fields through which consciousness works within physical reality.

Also, it will become more and more apparent that not only does consciousness affect matter, it creates all of reality. Metaphysics will become a respected branch of knowledge. Consciousness workers at the frontiers of understanding will have to move further out to Meta-Metaphysics, the next major challenge for our intelligence.

Living from the heart, one joyfully does what one came to this existence to do. One realizes that it is all a game, a play of consciousness, and has fun with it. One enjoys one's part and fulfills one's duty. One stays awake and awaits the dawn, touching any who cross one's path with the unconditional love of one's center in consciousness. When one lapses and falls asleep awhile, one works to awaken in any way one can. The many are asleep. They have been for 2000 years. A few have found the way to wake up and have experienced glimpses of what is to be. More and more are beginning to awaken -- and learning to remain awake.

But, it is still night. So, remaining awake can be a difficult task. But the dawn is coming. Thoreau speaks of this:

• The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive ... We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Interesting. In a country of 250 million, by Thoreau's estimate, there are only 250 people awake enough for "effective intellectual exertion". That's 250 in all of the United States! I believe that with the proximity of our time to the Dawn, there are many more than that and the numbers are growing rapidly. At some point we will reach a critical mass that is sufficient for consciousness to close this act of the play and let the new act begin. The setting will still be Earth, but the stage may be new -- and our parts will be quite different than they were.

To start with, pay more attention to what your heart tells you. Don't let the logic of your head overrule what you know to be right. Right action is a key principle that must be followed for love to truly flow. Right is not right because society says so. It is right because spirit or consciousness say so. As an aware individual, it is up to you to find that part within you that knows right from wrong. I believe this is within every individual, and I know it's within me.

Remember, much of what I believe to be true in general is an abstraction of what I know to be true for me. One knows through experience. If a belief has no result in experience, it has no value. The true test of any belief is in its utility.

The true test of whether you're on the right path is how happy you are and how much unconditional love flows through you to others. It can flow physically in interactions, or in what you create that is of service to others. The work of Masters throughout the ages is distinguished by the amount of love that went into their work. The more love you put in, the more beauty that results. There is no other secret to great work -- it is Love, Love, Love.

Whatever work you do, do it with love. Treat everyone with kindness and respect. Remember the attitude that goes with the word Namaste, and take that attitude with all souls that cross your path. Above all, remember whom that you truly are and allow that gusher of unconditional love that dwells within you to flow freely out into the world knowing that the source from which it comes is none other than Consciousness itself.

NAMASTE.

Copyright © 1995, Wayne Hartman, Revised -- (17 Sep 95)