Often we hear the adage, “Follow your heart.” But having practiced and looked at all the things that have arisen in my heart, I’ve seen that while some things were fine and beautiful, many were not so noble. The heart is not only driven by love, kindness, and compassion; it is also driven by desire, greed, and anger. We need to train the heart, not simply follow it.
Joseph Goldstein, from A Heart Full of Peace (Wisdom Publications)
Received as Daily Dharma from Tricycle.com on the 13th of June 2009
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In the guise of Bodhisattva Manjusri, Joseph Goldstein slashes directly through so many spiritual niceties. And does so with compassion.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
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2 comments:
Most importantly, we can view all these states - love, rage, kindness, greed - as "fabrications" (to use the Buddha's term). We fabricate these states to serve a purpose. The work of practice uncovers our original intent.
To me, there is a difference between 'following your heart' and 'following your feelings/emotions'. How Joseph Goldstein interprets 'following your heart' is 'following your feelings/emotions' to me. The heart needs no training just like the sky needs no traing. It's our habitual reaction to always 'follow our feelings/emotions' that need to be trained (and become a master of them) before we can find our heart and follow it.
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