Dear folks of Baba, In this chapter, Darwin introduces the metaphor of an inner barometer for reading our internal weather. Is the sun coming out or are we heading toward a cloudy day? As our awareness turns away from being primarily focused on the outer world toward the heart center within, we begin to see the ever-changing dynamic of emotions, desires and the deeper feelings. We begin to observe more of what is clouding our awareness and what is letting in the light. This is not an...
Dear folks of Baba,
In this chapter, Darwin introduces the metaphor of an inner barometer for reading our internal weather. Is the sun coming out or are we heading toward a cloudy day? As our awareness turns away from being primarily focused on the outer world toward the heart center within, we begin to see the ever-changing dynamic of emotions, desires and the deeper feelings. We begin to observe more of what is clouding our awareness and what is letting in the light. This is not an intellectual or mental approach to our interior, based on theory and belief, but an actual first-hand reading of our heart center using awareness itself and not the mind.
The mind can only take momentary snapshots of our heart, whereas our awareness can view the whole panoramic film of what is taking place in our heart center. We may ask ourselves, what is the effect of this emotion that is now moving through my heart? Where is it leading? Is this impulse I’m feeling aligned with love or is it reinforcing something selfish in me? Is this deeper feeling flowing into me bringing in more light?
From Darwin we learned that we could be pro-active in creating our inner environment with Baba. Prior to that, in my youth, my attitude was to just let things happen as they will, a more passive approach. By being pro-active inwardly, we are able to head off unwanted and binding impulses closer to their source and give them energetically to Baba before they project themselves into action. The practice of scanning our interior, which Darwin and also Eruch greatly encouraged, is something we can do in spare moments throughout the day. Baba has said that as we put into practice those things that partake of the light, using our intuition, more intuition will be awakened in us. Rather than viewing life through the lens of the past and the imagined future, which is our age-old habit, we make efforts to stay more and more in the present moment and view our life instead through insight and intuition, which are faculties of the deeper heart. In all of this, Baba is always working intimately and continuously with us, though it may take a long time to see that this is so.
The work of heading off unwanted impulses, desires and emotions is what Baba calls the process of sublimation. The lower selfish impulses are exchanged for the expression of our better angels, our loving responses. This process is not easy but requires tremendous and ongoing efforts, as we are often struggling against the ages-old power of our selfish inclinations. But as Darwin would say, this effort of giving our negative side to Baba does not lead us into a void because this loss is being replaced simultaneously by an increasing measure of inner freedom that leads us toward a higher and more loving expression. Thus, as Baba has said, anger is sublimated into patience and tolerance, greed and possessiveness into generosity, and desires and cravings into purity. We become adept at picking up the first vibration of anger, the initial feeling of possessiveness or the first sensation of desire, and give these to Baba. Our negative and selfish reactions are gradually transmuted into loving responses, and all the energy that was locked up in our reactions is transmuted and released into longing for Baba and the Divine.
Darwin speaks of “peace of heart” which is much more difficult to achieve than peace of mind, for the impulses, desires and emotions of the heart are much more intense and require great effort to bring them under a natural control. The quote of Baba often repeated by Darwin over the years was: “All finiteness and limitation is subjective and self-created.” He would say that we are beneficiaries of unlimited freedom, and through our inner efforts, we can help Baba to help us rise to the highest in ourselves. We have only to catch the prevailing breeze of His grace.
Faith is the sail hoisted above the ship
of your being. When there is a sail,
the wind of the Beloved’s Love can carry you
to place after place of grace and wonder.
Without a sail, your ship will only drift
with the tide of the world.
- Rumi
As Baba lovers, I’m sure we all have our own version of this practice, checking in with our interior state. What is your unique approach of tuning in to the heart? How does it help you as you respond to the daily situations you find yourself in? Do you find that this practice brings you into a great intimacy with Baba?
In His love, Jeff
PS. We continue on page 20
To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela
This event was recorded live. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily
