In my last post, I wrote about how the brain can literally change when we practice mindfulness. And when we think about mindfulness, we tend to associate it with things that go on in the head: thinking clearly, being focused, being aware. Ask a student where their mind is. They’ll probably point to their head.
But for any of us who have an active practice, mindfulness goes well beyond the head. If you look at the Chinese character for mindfulness, it’s more holistic. In fact, it’s composed of two symbols. The one on top means “now” or “this.” The one on bottom means “heart” or “mind.”
Think about that for a moment. We have this tendency to separate our head and our heart. To separate thinking and feeling. Reason and emotion. It’s a distinction as old as philosophy. Plato compared reason and emotion to two horses pulling us in different directions, with emotion often leading us astray. Descartes followed his lead, going so far as to argue that his entire existence could be proved by the fact that he could think. Later, David Hume made a clear distinction between reason and sentiment, privileging sentiment as a way of knowing. No matter which you choose, the legacy of this tradition has the effect of fracturing the way we think about ourselves.
But you can no more understand yourself by looking at your head or your heart than you can understand a song by separating the music from the lyrics. Sure, the head and the heart each have their role, and contribute to who we are, but you can’t be reduced to thinking or feeling alone. The song emerges from the interplay of the two elements (and many more!), just as you emerge from the interplay of your head and your heart (and bones and breath and senses…).
So the character for mindfulness comes from this interplay, grounded in this moment. Bringing your head-heart to now-this. What a beautifully simple way to capture a complex idea! And what if we added “heartfulness” to our understanding of what it means to be present in this moment? What would that look like?
Instead of just bringing our mind to the space we’re in, what if we also brought our heart? What if we sought understanding through empathy, connection through compassion?
It might look like this week’s guided meditation. It’s inspired by the work of Linda Thompson, which you can explore more fully here.
Comments