The heart and heart mind

[Anonymous]

In this month meditation Bruce talks about the heart. I am not sure if it is the heart itself or heart center that is meant here. Also another question,is the heart mind where the mind meets the emotions?
Thank you!
Lili

[Anonymous]

One piece that might help, or add something, is the Hsin (heart-mind) is like the “heart” of the matter (the core, as well as the source-root-foundation of/from which)..

-just as one angle: imagine (a metaphor) the mind is a 3d hologram, that is projected and can be seen as a space, in which there are images, like an area here and there.. where is that being projected from? -not a direction, but the energizing-creator.. if one is inside a dream, what is “dreaming” that place? if that dreamer, awakens.. or a singer of a song stops singing, that song/dream vanishes, but it doesn’t go-away.. in the same way that they don’t come-from somewhere.

anyway- just as the centre (the lower-dan-tien) isn’t so much a location, but by mind being there (not so much looking-attn there, from elsewhere, but mind in/from that place) is like an access-pt… in the same way there is something accessed, being in that heart place..

(the muscle-pump, the nerve plexus there, the heart center, the midpt of torso on that central line, and the access-pt.. all sort of coincide, in terms of place.. but I think each of those are different, but can be blurred… -to clarify any/each they need to be slowly developed and you need to get-to-know each, otherwise they’ll seem all the same, or muddled.
….
I hope that isn’t too much,or off of what you asked.. thx luck

[Anonymous]

Your 2d question:
Simple answer: Yes.

However, your question distinguishes “heart-mind” from “mind.”
I’m guessing that by “mind” that you are referring to the “mind” that thinks, which is associated with the brain.

“Heart-mind” is a fundamental concept in Taoist philosophy/meditation.

I don’t know exactly where you heard Bruce talk about the “heart.”
But he does talk about the “heart-mind” in Month 4, Meditation Session 1, of his “Old Yang Style Tai Chi Edition” (an 18 month program).

There he says that the “heart-mind” is that what is enabling you to be aware of what you are experiencing or what you are feeling.

The heart-mind could also be called the “unconscious mind.”
(Not exactly what you may think of as “mind.”)
Bruce says that the heart-mind is way more than the unconscious mind.
The heart-mind is behind and linked to every part of your body as well every aspect of your ordinary mind.
It’s connected to your little toe as well as your physical heart.
It’s connected to conscious as well as unconscious mind;
so, yes, it is connected, meets, is behind your emotions.

This is why Taoists use the heart-mind to dissolve physical and emotional blockages.

I’m no expert/master of these things, but Bruce is and so is a guy named Michael Winn.
Winn collaborated with Bruce on Bruce’s book,
“Opening the Energy Gates of our Body”
Winn also studies with Mantak Chia.

Winn has a treatise on iBook called “Way of the Inner Smile.”
The Inner Smile is how the heart-mind expresses itself.
When babies are born they naturally Smile.

Winn writes,
“The ‘inner heart’ is not the physical heart.
It is not the emotional or feeling heart.
There is a ‘Third Heart’ just as there is a ‘Third Eye.’
This inner heart is a portal to direct experience of what is called ‘soul’,
a concept that has successfully eluded all definition.

Bruce and Winn are on the same Tao-page.

So, use your own intuition about your heart.

This is why we meditate.

I think the heart-mind/Inner Smile is our refuge.
It is where the prairie dog goes for safety–its burrow.
Where the snake goes– slithers through the tall grass.
Where the snow leopard goes to escape–back to the mountain forest.
Where King David went to avoid Saul,
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge…”

Join the journey.

Bob

[Anonymous]

Thank you Taokua and Bob for your responses I got a lot more than i aksed for. I found them very helpful. Sorry it has taken me this long to respond. I went back and listen to Bruce´s talk about heart mind, it was great to listen to again. It has deepen my understanding. I am very familiar with Michael Winn. I am also a student and instructor with Mantac Chia. What you pointed out with the inner smile and the heart mind I never had that distinction.
Towards the end Bruce talks about absorbing the emotions in the heart. Somewhere else he talks about: Inside your HT where did your thoughts come from? Is it the heart mind he means here or the heart center in the middle of the chest? I don´t think he means the organ the heart itself.
Thanks again!!! Lili

[Anonymous]

Hi Lili
-congrats on your further studies and discoveries glad you are finding more of value, and integrations…
In terms of your last question, in your response, (where did your thoughts come from)- the effect of heart-mind , which I was referencing in my last paragraph in my first response to this thread, .. (about different aspects of)- the the actual question-source of thoughts, (and just as we “have” a body, and you can “have” a thought.. perhaps we “have” awareness, rather than we “are” awareness, or we “are” a thought, or our body… ) thus thoughts, and awareness is created, arises, occurs at/from (and then back to) .. which I referenced in the first part of my first response to this thread.. (I regret if that wasn’t clear, or perhaps you wanted something else)

-in most times he has mentioned this, I thought he also would say, “the heart-mind is more than the Heart(emotions-feelings-reactions) and Mind(thoughts-insights-recognitions)” thought that could work as an access-pt, but that is like saying chigung means breath.. so breath in and out, feel that that is what chigung is about (or outer winds, or feel the energy-ball between hands) – these can be access-pts, but as it develops, these understanding could limit ones perception, if one thought these were the “final-answer”s

– the Hsin, is thus moreso (in contrast, or perhaps just a development-elaboration, of Robert’s description, I’d say the conscious-mind, as a whole is larger than what we exper thinking-paying attn with.. and (like an iceberg) the Uncon-mind also has an active part, and as a whole the Uncon-mind is larger still.. then below, incorporating all this, is the outer-edge/surface (metaphor) of the Hsin (heart-mind).. and thus relates to how something happens, arising action (from nothing-ness)
[ relate to Central Channel comments, TaiJi, vs LiangYi references to Yin-Yang exchange-flow and transcendence of opposites.. nature of Time, and Nature of Mind, in Buddhist terms. etc. ]

what it is, how to experience it, and how it works- are different questions.. how one can first contact it, isn’t the same way to understand how to work with it further..

(my exper is that Bruce is using the term in slightly a different way than the referenced other teachers.. but if that works well for you- but just as the different aspects of “heart” can be blurred together and confused, if not kept distinctly-clear.. so different, but seemingly related, contexts of teachings, or teachers-writings, are great, but if blurred together can confuse things.) -just my view, over my studies (and the muddlings I’ve run into)

luck

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