“Heart” Stuff
Sergio Milandri gave this great talk on “the heart”. It somehow managed to wrestle my mind down and access that indefinite place so I thought I would share some of the gems with you.
So here’s a reminder:
1.There are no nerves in the heart. There is no direct connection from the brain to the heart. The way the body “speaks” to the heart is through chemicals which are sent from the middle brain through the blood stream. So when your heart starts pumping from fear or excitement it’s a response the heart receives in the blood. The heart in a sense then doesn’t have a “mind” in the conventional sense!!! The heart is about feeling.
2.Messages sent in the brain are quick. The synapses fire and almost instantly messages can be coded, rent, resent, analysed, deconstructed, reconstructed. The “heart” messages take some time to reach the heart…they lag a little, they require a bit longer to register, to interpret, to respond to.
Of course, my dodgy biology lesson (doctors may elaborate further) has a spiritual side-kick. Loving God with “heart” is different to loving God with “mind”. I can read a scriptural text with my “mind”. If I’ve read it before it will probably bore me. If I read it with my “heart”, I read it differently. I linger there, I wait. I tread with sensitivity. I am awake to the nuances of how my heart is responding, what the heart is feeling and saying. It’s a different knowing.
The mind thinks in straight lines. It dissects, cut things in pieces, its “emotions” are often knee-jerk reactions, cut and dried. The “heart” builds relational connections, it ponders things, it’s much slower, it takes time for the emotions to well up.
On the road Emmaus, the men spoke to a stranger about the events of Jesus’ death. They were deeply troubled but somehow this stranger’s words made sense to them. Eventually they realised it was Jesus who had been talking to them all along that road. In retrospect they recognised the presence of God. They said “Didn’t we feel our hearts burn within us?”
I guess I’m chasing the place of “heart”. I know the chase requires an inverse response, a waiting, a patience, a listening… “heart” needs space and time. It’s not conjured up, it can’t be faked. Like a lazy afternoon when after a long time you feel the wind whispering in your hair.
4 Comments »
Leave a comment
About
What kinda animal is “Squarepig”?
“Squarepig” is a space for those who are “fat” with things to share
about God, life and the universe but who feel a little shy sharing them on a
“heavyweight” site. You may feel that what you have to offer is a little offbeat or may simply be too silly. Not here.
You’re most welcome!
-
Recent Comments
timvictor on Breathe in the peace… fakeexpressionsofthe… on A Universe to Explore deusjuvat on The “God-particle”… timvictor on A Universe to Explore timvictor on The “God-particle”…
-
Archives
- July 2009 (1)
- September 2008 (3)
- July 2008 (1)
- April 2008 (2)
- February 2008 (3)
- January 2008 (8)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
That’s a really interesting way of looking at things. I guess my thoughts are just tempered with Jeremiah’s thoughts in 17:9 that the heart is also “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”.
There is a great scene in “The Painted Veil” where a wise old nun calms the nerves of a willful young lady by telling her that “when duty and desire are the same thing, then there is peace”. For me, maybe that is the true “place of the heart”: The high terrain where the heart beats according to the will of God and where to do our thing and God’s thing is the same, singular pleasure.
I think when you reach that point, people can do what they want. They can even try and rip your heart out. But when you wake in the morning it will always, like The English Patient’s, be full again.
You’re right – trust you to put a spanner in the works deusjuvat!! I guess we do what we can to understand the “will” of God. At the end of the day only God really knows us well enough to get through both the thick skull and the devious heart (if it be so)….what exactly does the “Painted Veil” quote mean when it says “duty and desire”?? What we should do and what we want to do I am gathering…Even the “will of God” is a difficult concept for me to grasp. At times it seems clear and at times so elusive and theoretical….at times I am just thudding in the dry ground, a senseless animal. How do you descern the “will of God” in times like that??? I guess that’s why it is termed the “high terrain” huh!!
Yes, what we should do and what we want to do.
I don’t think discerning the will of God comes overnight, but I am sure it is possible. Unfortunately, it takes both time and includes the possibility of mistakes: two things which modern society is increasingly at odds with. Maybe that’s why the saints can so easily be ridiculed.
Speaking of high terrain, I’ve got a plane to catch. Hope the pilot is used to snowy high terrain (my garden is white!)
God bless
DJ
DJ,
I’m not sure that’s how that text is meant to be applied at all, especially not in light of SPs post. Our whole person, in fact our whole creation, is a bit at odds with Godde. The mind is in no better position. Every positive step is to be encouraged…
SP,
I think I’m with you. The heart is like a helicopter, responding slowly to direction but able to navigate the most complex terrain. From that pov the notion of small relational gathering takes on a whole new meaning, experiencing each other from the pov of the heart rather than from the voracious mind… I’ll ponder a bit longer.