Hearing Your Heart, Forcing Conformity, and Freedom

Some day I may tell more stories from my childhood as I did the last three days, but for now I will tell you that I was and am exquisitely gifted with some form or another of Attention Deficit Disorder. Oh, how my mind would wander to so many interests when I would be sitting in a school classroom — scuba diving and dolphins and whales and ships and submarines and baseball and composers and outer space. I may write about ADD some time, too.
However, I want you to know why I even bring this up. I have trouble focusing, so I think that is why my mind is always trying to make connections and unify things that at times seem so disparate and overwhelming to me. To me, that ability to create connections is a gift, one that resulted in my first novel, The Fellowship of the Heart. Thematically, the novel centers on self-awakening that occurs by hearing the steady voice of our hearts, which stands in contrast to interpreting and responding to the world through the voice of the ego.
The ego works as the default world filter because it functions to preserve us in an infinite number of ways. However, it preserves in a way that isolates us from our true core self, and it does so because expressing that core Self can threaten our psyche, our physical bodies, our social relationships, and many other aspects of our life. The decision to choose to listen to the heart changes our relationship to all of life, to the universe itself. It involves all human dynamics and interactions.
Obviously, I am passionate about this. Oftentimes when humans gain insight that is good for them, they want everyone else to feel the same. In fact, the ego will tell us that if we believe something so strongly, everyone else should, too, so that we don’t risk self, our emotions, our psyche; ego doesn’t want us to be outcasts. The tendency, then, is to preach to tell others, to convert them in order to make them conform. Preaching works efficiently, but that is not the way of the heart. Each one needs to hear their own heart, to realize core Self, and that experience varies. I had to revise my novel to remove preachiness from it. I mean it to be a novel of freedom from ego and freedom to live self.
It’s no wonder since I see how coming to know self and follow the heart changes our relationship to everything, which has prompted me to term it as the Grand Unified Theory of Humanity — not science, physics, or anything else except humanity, who and what we are as human beings set in relationship to all else. It comes up constantly as I view things like Brexit and the current presidential campaign or the violence around us or the great and good things and people around us. I see it all directly related to folks coming to awaken to their hearts and know core Self.
So, why not preach it far and near. Well, I will tell about the value of self-awakening, but any attempt to systematize it or force it or reject those who don’t see it the same way — well, that’s all ego. This is where I will end by letting a passage of The Fellowship of the Heart illustrate it a bit more:
Edward paced around the edge of the cavern, lightly brushing the walls and some carvings on them with his fingertips. “Then, how should we respond to those around us? Shouldn’t we be telling them about this?”
Alaun stood in silence for a few seconds. “What would happen if we did? How would we go about that? I really would like you to consider that. Right in this very space about two thousand years ago, I am quite sure that some gathered here wondered the same thing about friends and family that were being left behind in their village. However, they came to understand that the heart of a person speaks constantly, and if they will not listen to their own hearts, then the voice of others will not make a difference. Religions — paganism, far eastern, eastern christians, western christians, muslims and many other brands — try to tell others what their hearts should be telling them. Those rejecting the message are labeled as outsiders, infidels, unbelievers, enemies of the faith. Discord and blame and justification and so many other negatives ensue, and all in the name of religion, in the name of something that in the beginning was good, of something that in the beginning was a simple whispered message from heart to soul and mind of a person. Do you see this, Edward?”
“Yes, I think I do. But what about those who we know, those like Paul Egan, Jack Actov, Peter Colboard, and others who would set themselves against us when we try to follow our hearts?”
Eric, who had still been looking around the cavern, brought his full attention to the conversation.
“Alaun, may I say something here?”
Alaun smiled. “Of course, Eric. I am not a special authority. I merely have been around longer.”
Eric walked close to Edward and examined the carvings that Edward had been feeling. “Edward, I think that what the elders had to say to me through the vision that I saw answers to this. The group that left the mass of their tribe simply followed their hearts. I think that is the answer here — not running away but following our hearts, listening and receiving the message just when we need it most. We all, deep down, know the right thing to do. It’s like us back home. We battled — and it seems there are times to battle in such ways — but the time came to simply walk away. The time may come to return or find other means to express our purpose with our gifts and talents. We will know, if we listen to our hearts.”
Yes, we will, and we will know freedom