Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

Tubwayhun layleyn dadkeyn b’lebhon d’hinnon nehzun l’alaha.

”Blessed are the consistent in heart; they shall see Sacred Unity everywhere. Aligned with the One are those whose lives radiate from a core of love; they shall see God everywhere. Resisting corruption are those whose natural reaction is sympathy and friendship; they shall be illuminated by a flash of lightning; the Source of the soul’s movement.”  “Blessings of the Cosmos”, Dr. Neil Douglas Klotz.

Once again, the English translation of this beatitude does not serve us well. The word “pure” conjures up an impossible ideal that we know is not our reality.

The heart is the birthplace of our desires and motivations. Think of the heart as a piece of fruit. The outer layer can get easily bruised.

Similarly the outer layer of our heart can easily bruise. It is sensitive to what comes at it from the outside world. We can easily feel hurt, offended, or resentful. That pain can cause us to either want to turn away from the one who offended us, or can cause us to do hurtful things in return to the one who hurt us.  We also know what it is like to have our “heart broken” by someone, when our love is not returned.

There isn’t much consistency in the outer layer of the heart.

But the inner heart is another matter entirely.  The core and essence of our heart knows nothing but consistency. The consistency of love, peace, and a deeper joy.  It is not affected by anything from the outer world coming into it, because it doesn’t derive its life and well being from how any of the outer stuff goes.

It is from this interior of our heart that Jesus teaches us to live.  How is this accessed?

Well, it’s not easy. It’s really a matter of how much we want it, because it takes intention and inner work.

A key starting point is to work on no longer identifying with the thoughts in our head.

When someone hurts us, we tend to spin it in our minds over and over. “Look at what she did! That was terrible. How could she? I didn’t deserve that, so I’m going to get back at her by……or I’m just going to avoid her.” We only hurt ourselves.

These kinds of thoughts produce feelings which are even more powerful. The feelings of anger, resentment, or a desire for revenge can be overwhelming.

How do we not get lost in all of this? We can take an inner step back and observe those thoughts and the feelings they produce. The observer gets us in touch with our inner heart space.  And when we center ourselves in the energy of the observer, we can notice that the observer isn’t upset at all.

It observes fear while not being afraid. It observes anger without being the anger. It can observe the hurt without being hurt itself.

It is calm. It is love and peace. It desires no ill will toward the one who bruised the outer, more vulnerable layer of our heart.

When we do the work of this spiritual practice we can live more and more from that inner energy. We can know an inner freedom. We are growing into looking at the person that has hurt us through the eyes of our True Divine essence. Through the eyes of God.

And when we do so we will grow into “seeing God everywhere” as the Aramaic translation teaches us. We are resisting the corruption that can occur in the outer layers of our heart from the world coming in. And the natural sympathy and friendship of our inner heart can more naturally arise.

The same spiritual practice can serve us well for those “impure” thoughts or desires we have such as fear, greed, lust, anger or resentment. Be kind to yourself there. It’s all part of the human experience. Their function is to drive you deeper into your inner heart, which knows nothing of them.

When we practice and grow into living more from the inner heart, we are more open and capable of receiving the occasional “flash of lightning” or insight that may come our way.  The flashes or insights that move and motivate our souls.

We may respond, “Sounds good. But that’s so hard to do!” A response that only raises a question. Is the fear, anger, hurt or corrupted desire easy to live with? Which would you rather have as your reality?  The fear, anger, hurt, and corrupted desire? Or the love, peace, freedom, sympathy, and friendship of your inner heart?

Enter this space consistently and know you are Love!

Pastor Tim Tengblad

timtengblad@comcast.net