THE HEART AND CIRCUALTION: EMPOWERING PUMP AND PIPES

The heart pumps unstoppingly to keep us alive, providing us with an inspiring model for compassionate love for our fellow humans. Just as a pump is a practical instrument, there is strong practicality, too, in healing compassion.

“Great thoughts come from the heart,” wrote French philosopher Blaise Pascal. In the West the heart is the seat of emotions, although many civilizations locate intellect and intuition here too. Emotion linked with thoughtfulness is a powerful combination.

As a symbol for love the heart is universally understood. Most profound is love in the sense of outgoing warmth towards others at large, not just one individual. The heart is an emblem, too, of this compassionate magnanimity.

In biology the idea of the heart as a pump is also rich in symbolism, for it suggests how important work is as an aspect of love: relationships need work, and to express compassion adequately requires us to be active on behalf of someone else – to understand their predicament, communicate generously and perform useful service.

The contribution of our time also has a part to play, since the heart never stops beating while we live, and compassion likewise is an outpouring without end.

In Islam the heart is the “throne of God”, and there is something telling in this conflation of divinity with the organ that no human being can live without. There is cosmic significance also in the expansion (diastole) and contraction (systole) of the heart, a rhythm that determines cycles of time in the universe.

The mandala here incorporates all these symbolic elements, as well as the association made in ancient China between the heart and the fiery sun. One important text, the Su Wen (“Basic Questions”), describes how the heart “lifts itself up to the principle of light”. In Sufi thinking the light of the spirit is apprehended by the “eye of the heart”, and similar ideas are expressed by St Augustine.

By meditating on this mandala you can enhance your awareness of the sacred gift of life itself, understand how compassion, towards yourself and others, is fundamental to your being, and draw strength – or “take heart” as one might say in popular parlance – from these insights.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.”

Ezekiel (36.26)

Focus on your breathing / Enter a relaxed awareness / Look at the heart and circulation pattern, the dance of blue and red, and the time symbols / Think of the flow of blood as a dance / Visualize the oxygen inside you as a gift, unwrapped by the lungs / Affirm that the heart is precious to you / Meditate deeply on the circulation system, and the heart at its core

HEART AND CIRCULATION MEDITATION

PUMPING THE LIFE FLOW

This meditation focuses on the heart within the circulation system, pumping oxygenated (red) blood around the body and deoxygenated (blue) blood to the oxygenation chamber of the lungs. The meditation has a centring effect on heart and self. It also contains affirmations for those with medical heart issues.

Sit comfortably with the Heart and Circulation Mandala (shown on the previous page) in front of you.

Empty your mind of anxieties. Be aware of the rise and fall of your breathing. Inhale and exhale slowly, becoming more relaxed with each in-breath and going deeper into awareness with each out-breath.

Now consider the main features of the mandala. The central image is the heart with its circulatory system – the blood vessels that take blood to the lungs and other organs. Also shown is the dance of the heart, representing in a symbolic form as a pas de deux. The watch/time and sun/moon motifs underline the connection of the heartbeat with time.

Contemplate the heart in its relationship with the lungs and the circulation of blood. This is a sacred diagram – a mandala – in itself, perhaps a biological version of the Tibetan mandala known as a Sri Yantra. There is no more profound image. Later in this session you will meditate deeply on this pattern.

Think of the flow of blood through this system as a vital dance whose magic keeps humanity alive. Turn your attention to the dancing figures, blue and red. Blue stands for the arteries; red, for the veins. The difference between them is the oxygen carried by the veins.

Spend a few minutes meditating on the oxygen in and around your body, invisible but all-powerful – like the life force and the spirit. Imagine this oxygen as a wrapped gift offered to you. Inside your body you remove the wrapping and use this most practical gift as the giver – nature or the divine – intended.

Contemplate the detail of the heart itself while making these affirmations: “I will treat my heart as precious”; “I will be true to a heart-preserving lifestyle.” If you have issues with your heart, add these further affirmations: “I will honour my caregivers and show them gratitude”; “I will live my life well, whatever the limitations.”

Gaze at the images of time within the mandala: the workings of a watch (clock time), the sun and moon (planetary time) and the symbol of time as an infinite loop (spiritual time). Meditate on each time frame in turn, progressing from the artificial to the spiritual. Know that the spiritual is the time frame of your own heartbeat.

Conclude your meditation by spending five minutes tracing the heart – circulation – lungs blue and red pattern with humility and reverence, starting and finishing with the heart. Use this pattern as a portal through which to enter a deep awareness of pure being.

“The heart is the perfection of the whole organism.”

Aristotle