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Contemplative Inquiry
Qualities of the Heart
We are human. And as humans, it is our essence to wonder. It is in that wondering that we allow ourselves to imagine. In our imagination, there is a certain freedom. We can imagine, for example, that from the heart radiates an infinite longing, a longing that seeks a response.
We can imagine that this longing comes in infinitely varied forms. And we can imagine that, in this world in which we find ourselves, we are given through this longing of the heart, a desire to know, a need to ask such questions, which can lead us in either circles of infinite boredom and confusion, or perhaps lead us each in their own way, to some insight, to some understanding, a revelation that will unite our mind that asks and our heart that responds.
The Qualities of the Heart that we are introducing here are existential questions, probing literally what it is that's going on in every aspect of our lives. The alchemical transmutation of this analytic process, into an intuitive, imaginative deepening, allows the awakening of our one heart.
These Qualities of the Heart, these questions, live within us; they manifest each in their own way, in their own time. And this manifestation is not necessarily in any way predictable. It won't be the same for any of us, for our need, our individual personal need in the moment, activates each of them. There is a primal awareness that recognizes the impulse of that active need, and that energy may provide guidance and resolution to the extent we may loosen the bindings that obstruct our awareness.
Qualities
Who
Who am I? Who am I not?
This quality seems to imply an obligatory and absolute response. Without it, can any of the others even be recognized? Is personal identity at the core of all else. Will it lead in a circle or a spiral?
What
The beating heart of blood and breath.
This quality is the substance of the thing. Meat and bones, as it were. The way from beginning to ending. Only through our bodies may we know and live any of it.
When
The illusion of beginning and ending.
Whether wave and particle, subject and verb or past and future, it is only the now that holds them all. There is no other.
Where
The dancing of atoms.
The reassurance of standing on firm ground gains no hold over this quality. The dance of form and emptiness frees us within its rhythms to find a balance without edge.
Why
Certainty, uncertainty. Knowing, unknowing. Neither, both.
One may expect some solace within this quality; some hope that certainty will allow a peace to prevail. Yet every step asks of us a faith in paradox that brings vitality to this quest.
How
The enlivening of the qualities of the heart.
As we respond to those questions above, how manifests in the form of authentic, sincere action. How is what we do each and every moment. How guides us, provides the inspiration to take the next step forward, and the next and the next…
If you would like more information about this modality, please contact Isha (isha@ sufiway.org
Living Sufism is a program of the Sufi Way