Heartfulness is Not Separate From Mindfulness
One basic definition of mindfulness is paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment without judgment. With this definition, already we can see that mindfulness is not completely neutral: it’s asking us to bring specific qualities to our attention, such as non-judgment. You might emphasize the opposite of non-judgment, such as open-mindedness or receptivity. This is an excellent starting point.
The Buddha highlighted four qualities that are particularly important for us to cultivate:
Loving Kindness
Compassion
Appreciative Joy
Equanimity
In the early Buddhist lineage (Theravada), these qualities are referred to as the Brahma Viharas (“the Divine Abodes,” or “the Sublime Attitudes”). In later schools of Buddhism, such as in Tibet, these same practices are often referred to as “The Four Immeasurables” since cultivating these attitudes develops a boundlessness of the heart. This set of teachings and practices is common to all schools of Buddhism (these four qualities are also found in other Indian schools of thought, such as The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali).
Meditations that focus on cultivating these four “sublime attitudes” are sometimes referred to as “heartfulness” practices. In Eastern traditions that developed these teachings the concepts of “heart” and “mind” were inseparable. In many Asian languages, the word for “heart” and “mind” is actually the same word. This is in contrast to Western civilizations, heavily influenced by the French philosopher Renee Descartes, that splits the mind and body into two.
This has practical implications: Westerners tend to think of their minds as located in their heads. In Eastern cultures, traditionally people conceptualize the mind as being located in the physical space near the heart. So for those of us coming from either a Western background or from growing up in a modern culture that has conditioned us to live from the neck up, this an invitation to feel what it’s like to go through life in a way in which the mind and heart are not separate but one and the same.
Only after I started practicing mindfulness meditation and yoga did I realize how disembodied I was.
It’s this inseparability of the heart-mind that underpins the teachings of The Buddhist traditions and the teachings of mindfulness meditation that derive from Buddhism. These heartfulness practices are not merely a nice supplement to, but in fact an integral part of, mindfulness meditation. They are part of the fourth foundation of mindfulness: mindfulness of dhammas.
Through these heartfulness practices, we’re developing positive mindsets.
From one perspective one might view these practices as an early form of positive psychology: focusing on developing mindsets that enhance “positive” emotions. Above all, meditations on these Four Immeasurables orient a person towards a more sustainable and expansive vision of happiness: one that is based not on hedonia, what we take from the world, but on eudaemonia, what we bring to the world. This is a vision of happiness that we can tap into even when external circumstances aren’t conforming to our preferences.
When we practice loving-kindness we can do so through a number of practices that come to us from various traditions within Buddhism, one of which I’ll share below. What’s important to emphasize up front is that we’re not trying to force some kind of contrived, positive emotion of love and kindness when we feel the exact opposite.
However, in this practice, we are inclining the heart towards opening, towards loving-kindness.
Loving-kindness practice, therefore, is aspirational: it’s the offering of our sincere wish that all living beings flourish, that all beings may be happy, healthy, and live in peace.
Therefore the loving-kindness that we’re cultivating is not primarily a feeling. The feeling of loving-kindness will arise and pass away, feel relatively stronger or weaker, at various points throughout the practice. Naturally, as we do the practice more often and our concentration improves the heart will begin to open, we will experience more feelings of love, kindness, and ease. This is true. However, all feelings ebb and flow. When the feelings of love and kindness are not predominant this is not a problem, or slip into the belief that we need to recreate a positive feeling akin to love and kindness.
In loving-kindness practice what we’re really cultivating is the aspiration that all beings flourish: that all living beings may grow in happiness and the causes of happiness.
It is the very act of offering that invites us into a more expansive state. We’re planting the seeds for genuine happiness as our heart-mind wishes for the well being of others. By contrast orientating our lives around the feeling of grasping after what we identify with as “I, me and mine” leaves us feeling contracted.
Happiness and its causes are not finite resources that we must accumulate lest there is not enough for us; rather, it is the feeling that arises through letting go. Happiness can arise more readily when the mind relaxes and melts into awareness; it’s the felt sense of an ego expanding, rather than contracting, that’s concordant with a more sustainable vision of happiness.
In a series of posts, I’m going to elaborate more on each of these four qualities of the heart-mind and how they can help us to cultivate the causes of genuine happiness.