Good News / Mystic Traditions

Journey of the Heart
by wahiduddin 25.01.2007, changed 31.01.2007

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The ideal of religious experience is to discover the true peace and wonder of who we really are. But unfortunately, we often miss the point of religion, in which case, as Carl Jung once said, “religion becomes a defense against the religious experience”. That is, we are all too often so filled with our own petty opinions and preferences, our thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ‘mine’ that we are unable to experience the true glory and wonder of Life.

When the heart is open and the veils of ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ‘mine’ have been cast off, we are then able to directly experience the profound wholeness and peace that are our Divine Heritage. The poems in this collection encourage dropping one’s old defenses and pretenses, so that a new way of life new may be discovered and directly experienced -- a life centered on ‘Thee’ rather than on ‘me’.

At their best, words can only point vaguely in the general direction of the goal. The head may argue and whine and try to resist, but the heart will understand, because truly this life is a Journey of the Heart.

"The mind is the surface of the heart, and the heart the depth of the mind: they are two different aspects of one and the same thing. The mind thinks, the heart feels."

--from The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Volume VIII, Chapter XX

The spiritual journey is a sacred pilgrimage from the turmoil and turbulence of the surface into the calm, pure depths.

Enjoy!

with love,
     wahiduddin

[Editor's Note: This article is based on the Preface to a collection of Wahiduddin's poetry by the same name and is republished here with his permission. Journey of the Heart, together with additional collections of his poetry, are available at Wahiduddin's Web.]