Thich Nhat Hanh on awareness: “… Around us, life bursts forth with miracles—a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings …”
Heart centered awareness or awareness that is centered in the heart is naturally soft, gentle, and prone to compassion. It can be said that it is the mind at rest, attention that is immersed in equanimity, love that is like a calm pool of water reflecting all that is around. Sinking into silence or being in solitude brings out, or deepens, such awareness.
Scroll down past Hafiz’s poem to the section Heart Centered Awareness for further remarks on this topic.
And, here’s Hafiz on such awareness:
Beauty Radiated in Eternity
Beauty radiated in eternity
With its light;
Love was born
And set the worlds alight.
It revealed itself to angels
Who knew not how to love;
It turned shyly towards man
And set fire to his heart.
Reason ventured to light
Its own flame and wear the crown,
But Your radiance
Turned the world
Of reason upside down.
Others got pleasure
As was their fate.
My heart was
Towards sadness inclined;
For me, sorrow was destined.
Beauty yearned to see itself;
It turned to man to sing its praise.
Hafiz wrote this song
Drunk with Love,
From a heart
Carrying a happy secret.
~ Hafiz
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Poetry Chaikhana (attribution at the bottom of this post), a web-portal for sacred poetry from around the world, offers a brief and very pertinent commentary on such …
Heart Centered Awareness
In states of deep spiritual communion, when the agitations of the mind are at rest and the attention is not seeking outward distractions, awareness settles into the heart.
This is not to say that one is not aware of the outside world; rather, all of the world seems somehow gathered into the heart. It is as if the heart has expanded to encompass everything. Looking deeper still, you find that everything has always been held in the heart.
On a subtle physical level, you feel a warmth spreading across your chest and glowing in the palms of your hands. Often, you will feel an accompanying unlocking of tension and warmth in the belly, as well.
And you find that you are seated in supreme rest at the center of the heart, touching everything without the need to reach out to do so. It is an experience of expansiveness without movement, of absolute contentment and interconnection.
This is the seat of the heart praised by poets and mystics throughout the centuries. It is the particular focus of Christian and Sufi mystics.
SILENCE, STILLNESS, PEACE
My home is very near a busy road,
But Sitting in its lush garden,
The din and clamor, so close by,
While deemed by some, disruptive,
Are to me a Reminder that Silence,
Has naught to do with sound.
For hearing the myriad notes of Life,
Whether melodious or dissonant,
Within, my Soul’s attention is elsewhere,
Intoxicated at The Tavern of The Beloved,
Where Enraptured, it cups its ears and asks,
“Hmm, did you say something?”
My mind moves in continuous thought,
But Resting within myself,
The flow of words and images,
While deemed by some, a distraction,
Is to me a Reminder that Stillness,
Has naught to do with movement.
For as thoughts and images flow,
Whether pleasurable or discordant,
Within, my Soul’s attention is elsewhere,
Entranced by the Face of The Beloved,
Where, without moving its gaze,
It gestures, “You go on ahead.”
The psyche’s weather roils, ever changing,
But Abiding as the formless Sky,
The inconstancy of calm and catastrophe,
While deemed by some, a hindrance,
Is to me a Reminder that Peace,
Has naught to do with change.
For whether the vicissitudes of emotion,
Bring sunlit joy or darkening sorrow,
Within, my Soul’s attention is elsewhere,
Lost in Reverie of The Changeless One,
Ever Radiant in the Heart of Being,
Timeless, Spaceless, Objectless.
Abandoning silence and clamor,
We become Silence.
Abandoning stillness and motion,
We become Stillness.
Abandoning peace and unrest,
We become Peace.
Abandoning all dualities, we become our Essence.