I was recently at dinner with some friends and our conversation turned metaphysical. You know, as you do on cold, wintery Pacific NW evenings. Warmed by the glow of the fire, we immersed ourselves in the topic of growth and consciousness expansion. Particularly, we were interested in the nature of learning and how people integrate their consciousness-expanding experiences into their life from meditation, tantra, plant medicine and other entheogens, etc.
This topic is near and dear to my heart, having studied it tirelessly for the last decade. I think Brandon stated the point most succinctly: “You know it’s a wisdom teaching when you can’t unlearn it.”
And I thought, this is why Hermetics is an oral tradition! We tend to not write things down, because anything you write down will just be your mind trying to make sense of what your heart already knows. And when your heart knows something, there’s no forgetting it. That wisdom is with you always.
You’ll never forget a wisdom teaching
So when you hear a wisdom teaching, you’ll know it’s legitimate when you can’t forget it. Although your mind might forget it, your heart will always operate with that wisdom from that point on. It’s also another reason why wisdom traditions cannot be taught over the internet. At some point, there has to be a physical meeting of the teacher/student to get the energetic download of the information. It’s the living presence that is an integral part of the experience of the wisdom teachings.
Science Behind the Heart
Those of you who follow the Heart Math Institute already know that the heart’s primarily “language” is electromagnetic in nature. The electromagnetic field of the heart is exponentially bigger than that of the mind. This means that forces that are electromagnetic in nature can affect your heart. This has two practical applications: 1) your heart force is more powerful than your mind force—remember that next time you’re analyzing your partner, and 2) you are a generator of electromagnetic force! So pay attention to your impact on others’ hearts. This is also why presence is required to convey information to the heart. As an aside, please don’t try to convey messages that are emotional in nature over text message, it NEVER works.
Have you ever had that experience of wanting to fall asleep when in a retreat or teaching or some kind, even though you’ve had plenty of sleep? Forces that affect the heart can completely overwhelm the mind, rendering it kind of useless. This is why sometimes people want to go to sleep when exposed to a wisdom teaching, their mind becomes overwhelmed trying to process information that’s actually meant for the heart.
If you want to communicate to someone’s heart, you must speak the language of emotion or the heart will barely ‘hear’ it. I encourage you to put this concept to good use this week, and Happy Valentine’s Day!