"So the heart is the beginning of life, the Sun of the Microcosm,
even as the Sun deserves to be call'd the heart of the world;
for it is the heart by whose virtue and pulsation the blood is moved,
perfected, made apt to nourish, and is preserved from corruption and coagulation;
it is the household divinity which, discharging its function, nourishes, cherishes,
quickens the whole body, and is indeed the foundation of life, the source of all action."
~ William Harvey, 1628
On any one day the adult human heart will beat over a 100,000 times... The heart is one of the most important organs in the entire human body. It is really nothing more than a pump, composed of muscle which pumps blood throughout the body, beating approximately 72 times per minute of our lives. The heart pumps the blood, which carries all the vital materials which help our bodies function and removes the waste products that we do not need. For example, the brain requires oxygen and glucose, which, if not received continuously, will cause it to loose consciousness. Muscles need oxygen, glucose and amino acids, as well as the proper ratio of sodium, calcium and potassium salts in order to contract normally. The glands need sufficient supplies of raw materials from which to manufacture the specific secretions. If the heart ever ceases to pump blood the body begins to shut down and after a very short period of time will die.
The heart is essentially a muscle(a little larger than the fist). Like any other muscle in the human body, it contracts and expands. Unlike skeletal muscles, however, the heart works on the "All -or-Nothing Law". That is, each time the heart contracts it does so with all its force. In skeletal muscles, the principle of "gradation" is present. The pumping of the heart is called the Cardiac Cycle, which occurs about 72 times per minute. This means that each cycle lasts about eight-tenths of a second. During this cycle the entire heart actually rests for about four-tenths of a second.
In this way the Heart continually works as a pump, moving blood around our bodies to nourish every cell. Used blood, that is blood that has already been to the cells and has given up its nutrients to them, is drawn from the body by the right half of the heart, and then sent to the lungs to be reoxygenated. Blood that has been reoxygenated by the lungs is drawn into the left side of the heart and then pumped into the blood stream. It is the atria that draw the blood from the lungs and body, and the ventricles that pump it to the lungs and body. The output of each ventricle per beat is about 70 ml, or about 2 tablespoons. In a trained athlete this amount is about double. With the average heart rate of 72 beats per minute the heart will pump about 5 litres per ventricle, or about 10 litres total per minute. This is called the cardiac output. In a trained athlete the total cardiac output is about 20 litres. If we multiply the normal, non-athlete output by the average age of 70 years, we see that the cardiac output of the average human heart over a life time would be about 1 million litres, or about 250,000 gallons(US)!
From early days,
Beginning not long after that first time
In which, a Babe, by intercourse of touch,
I held mute dialogues with my Mother's heart
I have endeavor'd to display the means
Whereby this infant sensibility,
Great birthright of our Being, was in me
Augmented and sustain'd.
~ William Wordsworth (1850), The Prelude
The metaphorical meaning of the heart as the experiential origin of sentient emotions is characterized as caring, as love, as concern, as passion, as courage, as well as such conflictual phenomena as the broken heart, the troubled heart, the weakened heart springing forth from sadness, betrayal, confusion, and bewilderment. This suggests there is a reactionary emotional backdrop for the health of our body, whose study is the modern day evolution of holistic medicine, which incorporates all psycho-somatic or mind-body relationships. Shamanically speaking, the beating of our heart and its pumping of nourishing blood is a living symbol of our essential organic/spiritual vitality, as it is the heart that sustains us, drives us, engorges our sexual organs with vitality and rigor for union and procreation, allows us to run, to eat, to breathe, to be here now in the body we are in, to think these thoughts, feel emotions, and imagine the infinity of ourselves into self-realization, to be aware of our own cognition while embodied in human form. As such, the care of a human heart is within the domain of love's wisdom, for only love can bridge all voids of meaninglessness and collective indifference to create understanding of the complexities of the human heart's driving passion to beat and BE....
The heart is as wild and mysterious as we ourselves are, it's innate behavior of constant ebb and flow are a mirror image of the undulating tides of life and creation where change is a constant and flow depends upon acceptance of what IS, which is the fundamental basis of non-attachment. In this way only love can create a quality of acceptance for the human condition with its ups and downs, desires and longing, dreams and expectations, visions and disillusionments, that provides a healthy psycho-somatic foundation for a well balanced lifestyle of human being. The understanding that "there is no truth without love" seems plain and simple to those who live through their heart center, since it is common sense to lovingly consider and care for what we are relating to. Whether that be: ourselves, others, or nature and reality in general; ideas which come into our mind; our feelings and emotional body; our physical body; our sense of spiritual or transcendental identity in the universe; the mysterious contents of our imagination --- all is some form of truth to be related to in a caring and considerate way, which is the true meaning of LOVE, and the true purpose of a beating heart.
Each rhythmic pumping involves the entire body working synergistically, and though this divine mechanism of organic biological complexity may be used to create death and destruction, it is love that is essential in objectively relating to life on Earth and which manifests sustainable futures of empathetic clarity through transcendental morality. Hence, the difference between caring and not caring is vitally important since carelessness may lead to not only metaphorical heart break and psychologically destructive feelings in our interpersonal relationships with ourselves, others, and nature --- carelessness may also lead to serious injury and death, possible social alienation and upheaval, bloody revolutions and riots, starvation, economic depressions, and even extinction of our species. Still, complexity persists, because it is also clear that one may care from a self-oriented survival aspect devoid of concern for others or the environment, and thus evidence a fractal of egocentricity which may lead to destructive behavior patterns because of intentions and actions rooted in narrow minded self-interest only...
In contrast, one typically loves from a selfless orientation geared towards the greater good of whatever or whoever she/he/it loves. For instance, if one loves oneself, then in recognition that the body and all its organs, such as the heart, need clean air, clean water, clean food, a rational conclusion is reached that paves the way for ever deeper insights on why being on Earth in a harmonious manner is vitally important to humanities' evolution as a sentient species. Therein it is a factual reality while existing within a spherical symbiosis of biological/spiritual consequence, that Love as a behavioral paradigm is the only choice, and that the heart of every new born beats towards love's endeavor becoming the 'norm' of human understanding and action/reaction. And any scientific/political/economic/martial/institutional or religious ideologies that seek to separate us from ourselves, each other, and nature, consciously or unconsciously creating civilized realities of behavioral immorality and violence, unethical uncleanliness and industrial toxicity, such forms of ignorance spurned by a lust for greed and power wrought in fear and terrific bloodshed for control of humanity and reality, are obviously ignorant and self-destructive and must be done away with through personal and collective, even political/legal/corporate/military/religious embodiments of grace, compassion, acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness.
To this degree of application there is no mystery to love's truth, it is common sense, it is caring about others as one must care about oneself... Still, there is a great deal of unspoken confusion because our heart keeps beating even while killing and raping and stealing and cheating and hating and cursing, which conflicts with our sense of love and the reasons for our beating heart of existence. That the word 'love' has many uses becomes obvious as we grow up, not all of which are really caring, or considerate... As in, someone may say/think/feel: "I loved murdering him;" "I love beating my prisoners;" "I love criticizing and teasing others;" "I love making money even if it means the industrial pollution of nature and the death of innocent women, men, and children;" "I love interrogating and torturing people as my job;" "I love playing the field and cheating on my wife because I love all that sex," "I love the money I make experimenting on animals in the lab," "I love the money and power I have even it means I had to sacrifice myself and what I know is right to gain these...." So 'love' in the modern linguistic mutation into collective meaninglessness has come to represent the often malignant and misguided fallacies of the deluded character/ego, and thus may be used to describe anything we enjoy, even if causing others or ourselves to suffer directly or indirectly is what we consciously or unconsciously enjoy. This indicates that enjoyment and happiness have necessarily nothing to do with right action, right thought, or right behavior, because joy and happiness are relative experiences that different people experience for different reasons.
Certainly a big deal has been made of joy and happiness as signifying the 'better,' more healthy, positive, advanced, evolved choice of being, but there is much misunderstanding on this issue which has prevented truth from circulation. These so-called 'positive' emotions, hedonistic ways of being (a backlash from centuries of religious/governmental/cultural oppression), are experiences of the emotional body and general state of being, and are only conducive to the wellness of the individual and the whole system of earth when realized from a ground of opened awareness, correct understanding, proper belief, and right action. Whereas if a positive state of being is used as a shield against negativity, when happiness is used to mask fears of the unknown or insecurity in general - or to create a facade of invulnerability, when joy is used to feel above others - as in superior, or when the evolved choice is paraded around as something which separates us from those who may be suffering or beneath us because of their general state of being, then we have surpassed the humility required to be Love and honor the gift of our beating heart of consciousness. A notable example of how dangerous joy is, the modern destruction of the Earthen environment achieved while humanity has succumbed to the imbalanced egocentric ignorance of beliefs and technologies which have no love or respect for the sanctity of the very Nature which sustains us, the creatures, and the overall symbiosis we are an integral part of.... As a global collective this is all due to being possessed of a faulty foundation of beliefs devoid of love, however joyful and happy the individual may be, the effects upon the whole have been catastrophically unsustainable and anti-ecological.
While complex systems of denial are implemented, evolved facades are applied, and willfully executed technologies of mind shun the embodiment of an emotionally mature and spiritually realistic humanity, personal/global 'harmony and peace' are but myths of fanciful thoughts and feelings yet unrealized in this dimension of Earth. With all our human nonsense born of unexplored and often denied psychosis as a reference point of 'what love is not,' let's make the distinction for the purpose of this written expression that the 'love' being referred to here is that quality of being and consciousness which leads to clarity, freedom, insight, acceptance, forgiveness, healing, wellness, health, and harmony. And though love in the mainstream is most often associated with romance, passion, and sexual intimacy, at present this is a dangerous association since it appears humanity has a great many sexual wounds being worked through and healed. Because of this vulnerable-raw-trigger-happy aspect of our wounded sexual-relational aspect, both psychologically and pscho-somatically the concept of love is disadvantaged and the innumerous charged projections concerning familial/romantic/sexual love often lead many individuals into fear, negativity, bias, mistrust, and disbelieving cynicism concerning the relevant uses of love in all facets of life. Thus as a result of being betrayed or let down via our expectations: of familial/romantic love and intimacy with other equally flawed human beings; and ideas of reality and God we have been given by systemized belief systems --- we may observe that some human beings often give up on love all together. In failing to recognize that we are already possessed of a great many childhood wounds, our adult relational experiences often serve to back up any jaded views and reactions we may be inadvertently harboring within, leading to a reinforcement of our particular severity of disenchantment concerning the magical/miraculous/scientifically healthy and logically sound qualities of love.
It is currently a fatal flaw to think that material or social success in the human world is truth... This is a collective lie and an illusion of popularity pole-based realities being perpetuated by all who have succumbed to the pleasures of convenience. Rather, such lifestyles are not truth, are not sustainable, and are not actively involved in helping to heal humanity, and are instead merely concerned with benefiting those who are on the receiving end of the financial spokes turning each particular wheel spewing half-truths, legalized drugs, and trash technologies to help others hide from their truth and feel secure in a world of unceasing struggle and strife. Healing our wounds of the broken heart-mind instead requires a great deal of strength and courage, insights whose awareness and development demands stillness/patience/and time, as well as powerful qualities of the sovereign mindful-being that many of us in the haze of our human imprinting and the inhumane pace of capitalistic systems where time is money and the bills and taxes pile up by the minute, are not prepared to deal with.... Because we have not been given a proper model of how to create peace, nor the functional tools to accept ourselves or our issues and heal them accordingly, we find our familial/cultural/societal/governmental/militarized/legal/socio-economic programming automatically creates the relational dysfunction which abounds on earth at present. Worse still, even psychology, western medical drugs, science, education, and religion, nothing ultimately can save us but our own understanding and implementation of love! This is because all axioms of belief existing within the system are part of the problem, as it is the system as a whole which is killing the earth and hence killing us, so one must step outside the box of all present philosophies and ways of being to give birth to a new belief system and behavior pattern which works for this present version of life on Earth. Realistically, what we WILL to be may consist of a mixture of what has come before, because it is in reflecting upon all experiential wisdom that has come before us that we may weed out what works and what does not, and thus implement lasting change from the ground up.... All paths ultimately must lead back to this one single convergence of a human being learning to BE, to be LOVE., if not, planetary civilizations digress into abject nihilism and myriad possible variations of unending battles ending in total annihilation... To be love requires we free up our truth, yet due to the large number of opinions and viewpoints, powerful minds and arrogant egos, spiritual materialists, and the reigning paradigms of fear/mistrust and competition --- the individual may find it difficult to form an original synopsis about what they are experiencing. One may wonder, which feelings or thoughts matter, what is real, who is right, who is wrong, who can I trust, what should I believe, is what serves me always the best, what about the big picture, how can I know the truth, who am I, why does my truth matter, what is my truth, how do I find it?
Without going into any heady explorations of metaphysical transcendence of our earthly experience where all sense data is illusion and this is all but a dream of quantum Potentia, it seems simple enough to observe that sometimes our truth is in our feelings, and sometimes our truth is in our thoughts. Sometimes our truth is an other's truth, sometimes our truth is what has been, and sometimes our truth is something that has never been (as far as we know or are aware of).... It seems evident that perhaps there is no absolute method to discover the balance of truth between our emotions and thoughts, new and old ideas, tried and true or false and misleading 'ways', that there is seemingly no exact 'way' that may deliver us into the auspices of the heart throne wherein love's wisdom and clarity abound as a matter of fact. Still, if one follows the razors edge between all extremes and is delivered to the purified respiration of simply Being As Is, to being as pure and strong as the heart which innately drives us ever onward towards an unknown series of events, to being Love by the strength of our will and the grace of our trust and patience in the process of life, then a humble intuitive understanding of self, others, and reality is matter-of-factly afforded us.... And along the way towards being our own personal savior and genius, one may begin to discover an array of judgements concerning our mental/emotional/intuitive truth. We may find that if we express how we feel, or if we think too much and are over-analytical and examine things too deeply, if we are too sensitive according to others, certain expressions may be judged as radical or weird. In a world where most are hiding their vulnerability of truth, competing and killing for what others have told them is true, cowardice and varying levels of ignorance abound as the heros, the stars, the leaders... and so the blind lead the blind and the Earth is toxic and biological life as we now know it is an endangered phenomena. So what slows and prevents change? Often our ideas and concepts of how things 'should,' or 'could' be, may seem too fantastic to others or even our own inner critic.
Cynicism touts, "that is not possible!" Still, we progress towards paradigm change one step after another, perhaps noticing that in our ascension unto awakening and awareness and higher intelligences, there are often judgements and hopelessness shared with us by others and inner aspects of ourselves that are afraid of change, fearful of the unknown, mistrustful of the infinity of our potential contrasted with the seeming heaviness of our past and all those types of suffering and disappointments we have experienced.... We may feel wary of any way of being that suggests we are being mysteriously carried towards our own personal freedom and away from the maddening crowd of normality. We may also discover that a great many beings including ourselves are in and out of denial of the causes and effects of the current reigning paradigms of competition, struggle, and strife. Many of our minds have learned to find comfort in the mainstream media illusions fueled by corporate greed and governmental manipulation, we may not want to hear about global nihilism because we are shunning awareness of our self destruction, ie. suicidal tendencies.... In honest self-reflection we may observe our usage of legalized drugs such as sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and pain killers, hoping to deny any inner intuition of what is real and true in reality and self. Look at the debts, the wars, the pollution, the abuse, the harassment, and all of humanity can be observed to be engaged in some form of nihilism whether we are aware of it or not... This information is not meant to shame the reader, there is no room for shame in self-realizing truth, shame and the punishment of guilt only block awareness and fuel self hatred, instead this realization is meant to induce the observation that a great many psychological aspects of the human being restrict the journey towards truth and love, which restricts the body and the heart. In realizing it is our negativity, avoidance, and beliefs which prevent healing and change, then we may free ourselves by freeing our mind, which frees our soul, which brings us closer to the innate intelligence of the human heart of which we find beating within us as evidence of our multi-faceted presence and purpose upon Earth... To Be Love.
~ Towards A Center-Point, by Brennpunkt of the DPC
The paved highway of belief through touch
And sight leads straightest into the human heart
And the precints of the mind.
~ Lucretius (c. 60 B.C.), De Rerum Natura
