Pathways #3: The Heart Path
On Surrendering 1: Surrendering without question, surrendering on terms that are bad, unjust, or harmful to oneself or others, this instills and/or encourages corruption, which becomes something eventually insufferable. Surrendering on such terms can become bad for a person’s heart and will block their access to the One who dwells within themselves. The act of surrender is subject to the mind and self, to the circumstances and situation, and to apposite contexts in time. But it must not be on terms that are unjust or harmful to others or that are corruptive or harmful to the conditions of life on this planet. One must always also specially consider surrender in terms of one’s own present and future good.
Aphorism 1: The greater need anywhere in the known universe is always for love rather than hate.
Aphorism 2: Awareness early means awareness alone (without family or friends), without one’s own resources or the experience and knowledge required for trustworthy allies, and so being unready for the interference and terrors of imperious powers. Awareness late means an awareness too heavy and oppressive, sated with too much history to physically bear, a material too depleted for use, and a crowd gathered who have already “seen everything before,” who have “given away or sold all their former understanding,” and who are too fearful and/or too proud to be seen anywhere outside their “rightful” place.
Quadrant 1: Shaping perspective
Purview→Vantage→Perception
→(Subjective-Personal Quotient or Product)←
/ \
↓
**(Situation, circumstance, contexts/knowledges)**
\ /
↓
Perception→Observation→“Seeing”
←(A correlate, a “heuristic,” an insight, an inference, a judgment/the Subjective-Personal)→
. .
On Surrendering 2: When brittle or in moments of frailty, one should mindfully attempt surrender for one’s own liberation. In order to surrender, one must first try to leave the moment, free oneself of it, or gain leave of it. This instills special knowledge. One should attempt to do so quietly, in oneself, and, if possible, gently. One will look back on these times and understand and see what was meant in it to be understood. If successful in leaving the moment, one might then surrender. If not, one tries to enter another moment. If successful, the thought of surrender made this possible, but surrender itself was not actually necessary to do so.
Aphorism 3: Knowledge is simply a better starting place or point of departure for oneself or others. It does not “make up” any destination or possible object in and of itself. One is always starting out. It is a content that is one with substance whose form is the object subject to understanding and whose object is knowing what for knowing how, for knowing when, and for knowing for whom.
Quadrant 2
Developing understanding:
1. The beginning of understanding is simple awareness coupled with knowledge for knowing (see: below).
2. Understanding is an ethical act.
3. Understanding always involves special (i.e. “personal”) appreciation shaped through and within perspective.
4. Understanding is always required for genuine forgiveness and genuine knowledge of others.
. .
On Surrendering 3: On surrendering to states of bliss, joy, or happiness: Apply, On Surrendering 1. The substance in a state of being or a state of mind conditions future realities for oneself and others.
Aphorism 4: . It is never a problem to start something without being able to finish. That should not be seen as the problem. If one does nothing else in life, one must start what one must start. Nothing is ever truly forgotten and everything that is subject to change retains its original and earlier forms, sometimes all the better and more clearly from a passage of time. Surrendering to the sense of a need to begin, or to the need to return to what one has started, might become one of the best things for oneself and/or others that one has ever done.
Quadrant 3
Moulding knowledge for knowing:
1. Knowing what for knowing how, for knowing when, and for knowing for whom.
2. All of the content in an act of knowledge is its substance.
3. Content and form are co-determinate.
4. Form is intrinsic within content.
. .
On Surrendering 4: Know what surrendering is and involves and always know what not to surrender to. The choice of whether or not to surrender should always be made subject to one’s perspective, understanding, and knowledges for the time and place. One’s knowledge of surrender develops in time and from experience. One must never surrender to anything bearing a mark or sign of present or future chaos.
Quadrant 4
Evolving knowledge for history:
1. To be truly wise requires knowledge for knowing and the ability for understanding.
2. A person or people, no matter what they themselves believe, can’t really be known from how they are and how they act when they feel they are being observed, viewed, or regarded for or toward some end. What they do when they are not feeling that they are actually being watched by other people, while counting far less towards the significant human action and activity on record in history, is an image just as important but because it presents a special matter for metaphysics–for true and real knowledges of the One, of one’s own soul, of spirit, and of substance in the living universe.
3. People act differently in groups of their peers than they do when in groups of people other than their peers or when alone.
4. Substance, however many-faceted, is two-sided. The human history of corruption and corruptibility of humans means it is always more one-sided than two-, or always learning more toward one than the other side.
We at F.L. Ternskie have been getting pathways via e-mail from people who are visiting the site. We are happy for the interest people are taking in this interesting spin on an ancient form, and we are happy also to share any pathways that we think may offer something of value at these times. Of course, if you share your pathway, you must be open to an interview on it, so that we can present it. Even if only for discussing, presenting a pathway can help “unblock” a person and cause them to begin thinking for themselves and from their own experience in terms of what can form from possessing a “way” or from becoming a “wayfarer.” It can cause a healthy kind of interest in what one may only then discover to be what one has been needing in life, as one encounters what appears as something that might be “at hand” or as something that “can become at hand.” So thinking for oneself with an open-mindedness and a generosity of spirit toward oneself and others—that sort of buoyancy of being, which is a “lighter” and “airier” state of mind, that allows one to take a greater view of each particularity in terms of some place for it within a whole—can sometimes cause one to be seeing what just then appears within a further and also more definite horizon. When looking at a pathway, one might say, what would this path be like for me? One need not think it “perfect” or “ideal” for oneself at this time, but one might consider what its tenets are meant to mean, “to do,” for oneself in one’s current circumstances and situation. And: What are some possible contexts that appear to ones mind with this pathway being experienced in oneself?
This month’s pathway is called “The Heart Path,” and I found this name for it to be quite interesting. I would think all of it is good for the human heart both as an organ that pumps blood and needed nutrients to every part of the body and as the seat in the mind for a person’s own sense of vitality, strength, and the capacity for feeling, self-control, as well as the “psychic” awareness of the different gravities in all that exists in relation to it. I will be interviewing the designer of this pathway like in previous months, but we have agreed to let him or her forgo the summary article following the interview. We see this as fine because this pathway is far less complicated than the other, previous two pathways. So I don’t fear that a reader’s getting lost in it will pose any real danger to them. This pathway, The Heart Path, is actually fairly straightforward and needs only some further explanation. So I thank the pathway’s creator for sharing it and also for agreeing to participate in the interview. This will be the last of the pathways that we’ll be presenting at F.L. Ternskie for at least several months. We hope you enjoy it.
F.L.: First of all, you call your pathway “the Heart Path” and in the introduction I’ve explained a bit about what we think that might mean. It is understood that people who “have heart” don’t lack in courage or inner-strength or resilience or self-control. It is said that they “have heart” and they possess things like “fortitude,” “stick-to-itiveness,” and when they commit to something that they feel is right, they are likely unwilling to stray from it. How do you see the heart in terms of what you intend your path to help people understand and to develop in terms of their own heart?
H.S.: I started creating this pathway intending to make a path that was for those who believe in “what is just.” But I didn’t want to make “The Justice Path.” I think that being for what is just requires “heart” and “courage,” as you’ve said. I agree that “having heart” means all those things that you yourself raise and what is commonly associated with “heart.” I thought about my own experience when times were difficult. One thing kept consistently appearing and it was this question of whether it was best to surrender or not to surrender. I made what I learned from those times with respect to surrendering a special matter in and of itself and that became the central theme for this pathway, The Heart Path. I think being mindful about when one is feeling the pressure to surrender, or the expectation that one shouldn’t or mustn’t surrender–being mindful that one is being or feeling compelled to do so or not to do so–mindfulness itself with respect to this is the key to allowing oneself to relate oneself to it as a test first, and then as a skill needing development in its own right, and for being able to see oneself through the trial, whenever it appears, in terms of one’s circumstances, situation, and the contexts apposite for drawing on one’s understanding and knowledges. One ideally will see the situation and the circumstance, and the contexts that are involved, 360 degrees, and then surrendering will be something that speaks to one’s higher wisdom and may offer insights for developing resources in its own right. The awareness that one is being presented with the choice, or the directive, to surrender, the awareness of this itself, allows one the chance to base ones own feelings, intuition, understanding, sense of right and wrong, basically the basis of one’s being in the One, upon the ground of reason in which one can then think through the difficulty from which surrendering is making its appearance for oneself. So to answer your question, “surrender” is the central concept on this pathway, and it comes to be what I think has a great deal to do with looking after the needs of one’s own heart. Surrendering this way or that, or resisting, can take a toll on one’s heart. So all the quadrants are intended to develop the wisdom, and the resources and the knowledges for these times, for when the following question appears: Should I, or should I not, surrender?
F.L.: So to reiterate what you started out in saying, you intended this to be for people who seek or desire justice in the world, who still believe in justice but might need something to help them endure or persist in the face of all the injustice that’s out there. Is that fair? So the temptation to surrender, the feeling that one might be at risk if one surrenders or doesn’t surrender, being better prepared in this regard, that is one of this path’s main purposes.
H.S.: Yes, I think that that is probably the greatest danger or threat to someone who seeks higher wisdom in the world while knowing enough to know that they must be also for higher justice. The two sometimes become sundered from one another, with higher wisdom being pursued at the expense of higher justice, and vice versa. So this path is for people who are aware that they cannot be pursued separately or that one cannot be “dropped” for the purpose of the other. They are both required for either to be possible.
F.L.: That’s very insightful. Can I ask then about the aphorisms? They feel like “something extra,” “something additional,” and yet, they do offer much needed support or ballast to everything else. So what they add to ends up, by them, feeling more integrally, more solidly, part of this pathway. You have them alongside the main theme, which is, “On Surrendering.” But they feel rather secondary because they seem to “follow along” the other parts making up the pathway. Is that intentional?
H.S.: Yes, the aphorisms arose from thinking about everything else on the pathway, but actually that’s not entirely true either. The process of coming up with the aphorisms was even less “rigid,” or “looser and freer” than that. The aphorisms arose after each “On Surrendering” part was thought about and added, but the quadrants were also then being added as the aphorisms were being thought about and written out. There is an advantage to the aphorisms being more loosely connected to the other parts within the pathway. They are significantly associated with other parts in the pathway, but the nature of the association probably is different at different times and at different stages of the wayfarer’s journey. They are meant to be “food for thought” of course and to be fruits for and of memory. They are meant to be essential upon learning them, but not knowing them doesn’t mean one is dispossessed of what one needs for the pathway. One is meant to remember or to recall them when making one’s way and perhaps when one encounters a certain difficulty or challenging situation. They are important but they do not have to be fully grasped initially to be a source for the understanding or to be something that will aid or further knowledge along the pathway. They are meant for reflection along the pathway even while one is unaware. When one becomes aware, then one can find how everything in the pathway becomes better connected by means of any aphoristic wisdom in the form or style in which I present it here.
F.L.: Yes, this pathway feels far more “open”, probably because much of it is in the form of “higher principles” or critical insights. You talk about Content versus Form. I feel that the pathway itself follows your own principles for Form and Content. It can all feel extremely “airy,” a term that one of us has already used with respect to the conditions under which a mind can best observe and draw on what it senses and grasps around it for what it needs. But there are a couple of points you include that are even more major or critical. Critical in life certainly, but also critical in their being included on this path for the purposes of being able to make the most of this path. Can you perhaps talk more about Aphorism 2 and Point 2 in Evolving Knowledge for History? In Aphorism 2, you talk about gaining awareness early and gaining awareness late. And In Point 2 of Evolving Knowledge for History you talk about a realm in the self that is perhaps naturally or even independently metaphysical within history, and you even go so far as to suggest that this place “beyond” recorded history, when we do not feel we are seen by human others, may be the only place from which we can ever know ourselves in our souls, spirit, and personal relation to the One.
H.S.: Those are both insights that I think people intuitively encounter throughout their lives. We are all familiar with the experience of “knowing something” that others would “rather not know themselves,” and we all feel the burden of knowing it especially at these times simply because others are not ready or simply not “good enough” as human beings at that time to accept the burden of that awareness. I say “early” or “late” to characterize two experiences of awareness in circumstances or situations in which awareness cannot be freely shared. We all have experienced this “early” or “late” feeling, although I do not intend for those to explain the circumstance or situation one may find oneself in with awareness that one knows one will find oneself uncomfortable or highly burdened in possessing. It may actually be “too early” or “too late” but it may not be. The feeling will be as “being early” or “being late” as described will feel. But those two states are not simply caused by the “timing” of one’s awareness. In fact, one can be both early and late as one becomes aware. This will actually be more common than being either one or the other. I provide this aphorism to go alongside the first entry for “On Surrendering,” which deals with the experience of feeling the need to surrender when one more deeply understands one mustn’t or when one at the very least questions their own desire to surrender. These two points are at the beginning of the pathway and I feel they are the most important experiences someone can have in their ethical life. You are immediately presented with the choice. Putting them side-by-side is intentional, as is putting them at the beginning of the pathway.
The other point you bring up is one of the more challenging insights along this pathway. People may not intuitively recognize it, or they may not judge it, as I’ve presented it. We are all familiar with the feeling of being watched, observed, or of being “on the clock,” both on and under “someone else’s watch.” Actually, I think that this experience is probably the most common universal experience of any human being on this planet, the feeling of, “Oh, I’m being watched now. I better do everything as I’m supposed to do it.” People might make the unfortunate leap that “doing everything you’re supposed to do” means that you’re “doing everything the way it is supposed to be done.” Well, it can be true, but people can discover that they were on the “wrong side” of history the entire time they were doing what they were led to understand they were supposed to be doing—I mean this in terms of what they later learn with more understanding and knowledge, and then, in realizing they must change, what they come to prefer for themselves and their loved ones–and yet it remains true that they had always felt that they were doing everything the way they should, or “were supposed to.” History is a record of people being on the right or the wrong side, but I believe that everyone believes in this “history of what is seen and observed” and that most people believe further that they are, or had believed they were, on the right side, doing all the right things. And yet, when we are not observed, we may feel differently, or we may even think completely differently from how we think when we feel we are being observed. I make a bit of a leap from my own experience. When I wasn’t being observed, I felt things were really very wrong when I was doing what I was “supposed to be doing” while I was being observed. Sometimes the only chance someone has to correct their path is to allow themselves to think freely at times when they are not being observed. That might very well allow you to put yourself on a pathway that you find also puts you in the realm of knowledge of metaphysics—which I see as “knowledge of the soul,” “knowledge of the spirit,” and “knowledge of the heart.” And yes, all of this contributes to one’s “knowledge of the One within one’s own being.” To connect this to The Heart Path, this “metaphysical” knowledge shouldn’t be denied a significant place in our lives and in our selves. This “less accessible” knowledge can be the very difference between being a healthy human being or degrading our lives to where they become unbearable or a highly dim reflection of what we will realize at some point we always had the potential to be. This time “unobserved,” which throughout recorded history varies in its accessibility to us, is likely the difference between us becoming “higher humans” and being “lower vessels” of what is always aberrant and most undesirable throughout recorded human history.
F.L.: Thank you very much. The Heart Path actually feels like the pathway that I think will make more people consider drawing upon their own history and their own hard-earned wisdom and sharing it in this excitingly new and yet venerably old way. Thank you for what I feel will surely become needed inspiration for others.