Theos-Talk Archives (October 2006 Message tt00118)

Quoted from:  ES Instruction No. 5
[Excerpted from HPB's COLLECTED WRITINGS, Vol. XII]

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THE HEART

The Consciousness which is merely the animal Consciousness is made 
up of the Consciousness of all the cells in the Body, except those 
of the Heart. For the Heart is the organ of the Spiritual 
Consciousness; it corresponds indeed to PrāŠa, but only because 
PrāŠa and the Auric Envelope are essentially the same, and because 
again as Jīva it is the same as the Universal Deity (p. 672). The 
Heart represents the Higher Triad, while the Liver and Spleen 
represent the Quaternary, taken as a whole. The heart is the abode 
of the Spiritual Man, whereas the Psycho-Intellectual Man dwells in 
the Head with its seven gateways. It has its seven brains, the 
upādhis and symbols of the seven Hierarchies, and this is the 
exoterically four, but esoterically seven, leaved Lotus, 
the "Saptaparna," the "Cave of Buddha" with its seven compartments.

The Heart is the king of the Body, its most important organ. Even if 
the Head be severed from the trunk, the Heart will continue to beat 
for half an hour. If wrapped in cotton wool, and put in a warm 
place, the pulsation will continue for some hours.

In the Heart is a spot which is the last to die, a spot marked by a 
tiny violet light; that is the seat of Life, the centre of all, 
Brahmā; the first spot that lives in the foetus, and the last that 
dies. When a Yogi is buried in a trance, it is this spot that lives, 
though the rest of the Body be dead, and as long as this remains 
alive the Yogi can be resurrected. This spot contains potentially 
mind, life, energy and will. During life it radiates prismatic 
colors, fiery and opalescent.

The Heart is the centre of the Spiritual Consciousness, as the Brain 
is the centre of Intellectual Consciousness. But this Spiritual 
Consciousness cannot be guided by a person, nor can its energy be 
directed by him, until he is completely united with Buddhi-Manas. 
Until then, it guides him––if it can. That is, makes efforts to 
reach him, to impress the lower Consciousness, and those efforts are 
helped by his growth in purity. Hence the pangs of remorse for wrong 
done, the prickings of Conscience, reproaching for evil, inciting to 
good. These come from the Heart, not from the Head. In the Heart is 
the only manifested God; the other two are invisible. And it is this 
manifested God that represents the Triad, Ātma-Buddhi-Manas.

Anyone who can reach up to, and so receive at will, the promptings 
of this Spiritual Consciousness must be at one with Manas––that is 
must have attained Adeptship. But the Higher Manas cannot directly 
guide the ordinary man; it must act through the Lower Manas, and 
thus reach the lower Consciousness. The effort however should be 
continually made to centre the Consciousness in the Heart, and to 
listen for the promptings of the Spiritual Consciousness, for though 
success be far off, a beginning must be made, and the path opened up.

There are three principal centres in the Body of Man: the Heart, the 
Head, and the Navel; the Heart, as said, is the centre of the 
Spiritual Consciousness; the Head is the centre of the Psychic 
Consciousness; and the Navel is the centre of the Kāmic 
Consciousness. Any two of these may be positive and negative to each 
other, according to the relative predominance of the Principles and 
therefore of their organ for manifestation on this plane. The 
meaning of the words positive and negative in this relation is the 
same as is attached to them in electrical science. The current flows 
from the positive to the negative, or the impression is made by the 
positive on the negative.

For instance: the aura of the Pineal Gland vibrates during the 
activity of the Consciousness in the Brain, and shows the play of 
the seven colors. This septenary disturbance and play of light 
around the Pineal Gland are reflected in the Heart, or rather in the 
aura of the Heart, which is negative to the brain in the ordinary 
man. This aura then vibrates and illumines the seven brains of the 
Heart, as that of the Pineal Gland illumines the seven centres in 
the Brain. If the Heart could, in its turn, become positive and 
impress the Brain, the spiritual Consciousness would reach the lower 
Consciousness. The Spiritual Consciousness is active during deep 
sleep, and if the "dreams" that occur in so-called dreamless sleep 
could be impressed by the Heart on the Brain, your Consciousness 
would no longer be restricted within the bounds of your personal 
life. If you could remember your dreams in deep sleep, you would be 
able to remember all your past incarnations. This is the "memory of 
the Heart"; and the capacity to impress it on the Brain, so that it 
becomes part of its Consciousness, is the "opening of the Third 
Eye." In deep sleep the Third Eye opens, but it does not remain 
open. Still, some impressions from the Spiritual Consciousness do 
reach the Brain more or less, thus making the Lower Ego responsible. 
And there are some of these which are received through the Brain, 
which do not belong to our previous personal experience. In the case 
of the Adept, the Brain is trained to retain these impressions.

The Eastern Secret School knows each minute portion of the Heart, 
and has a name for each portion. It calls them by the names of the 
Gods, as Brahma's Hall, Vishnu's Hall, and so on. Each of these 
corresponds with a part of the Brain. The student will now begin to 
understand why so much stress is laid on the Heart in connection 
with meditation, and why so many allusions are made in old Hindu 
literature to the Purusha in the Heart. And so with regard to 
concentration the Blessed MASTER Koot Hoomi .. writes:

Your best method is to concentrate on the Master as a Living Man 
within you. Make His image in your heart, and a focus of 
concentration, so as to lose all sense of bodily existence in the 
one thought.

So again He says:

The great difficulty to be overcome is the registration of the 
knowledge of the Higher Self on the physical plane. To accomplish 
this, the physical Brain must be made an entire blank to all but the 
Higher Consciousness.

When the Brain is thus rendered a blank, an impression from the 
Heart may reach it and be retained; and this is what is spoken of on 
p. 618, with regard to the Chela, who is able to hold only parts of 
the knowledge gained. The above-quoted letter says:

In acquiring the power of concentration the first step is one of 
blankness. Then follows by degrees consciousness, and finally the 
passage between the two states becomes so rapid and easy as to be 
almost unnoticed.

He who can do this at will has become an Adept, and can "store the 
knowledge he thus gains in his physical memory."

Such is the kingly function of the Heart in the human Body, and its 
relation to the Brain, which, as a whole, "is the vehicle of the 
Lower Manas, enthroned in Kāma-Rūpa."
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Daniel
http://hpb.cc