
Religion reveals its deep roots in the egoic mind wherever it promotes the notion of sin. Without the presence of the ego in religion, it could never have conceived of such a thing. Anywhere sin and punishment work its way into a dogma, you can bet that the heavy hand of the ego is behind it. In the same vein, wherever unconditional love shows up, the heart is behind it.

If religions are best guided by the wisdom of the heart, then of course, so are we. When we perceive through the heart, we have an unobstructed view of reality. We are never as close to the truth as then. According to Carl Jung, “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your own heart.” Consider how empowering such a perception would be, especially in regards to perceiving ourselves.

The first time we catch a glimpse of ourselves from this angle, it can be one of the most moving experiences of our lives. All this time, we believed that somehow we did not quite fit the bill. Something was off. Or maybe we perceived ourselves to be special based on some attribute or talent we possessed and thought our value relied on it. These self-concepts shatter when we see ourselves from the heart. It is the most humbling experience to realize that nothing we have or don’t have has any bearing on our value. We are pure love, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Even as our sense of love grows, we will have moments when we fall back into the mind. Someone pushes our buttons and the old defenses kick in. It is as if some people know the combination to our ego and waste no time in using it. Our perception of them becomes pure cerebral, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot shake the image of them as an adversary. With our ego inflamed, all our perceptions are redirected to the brain. Our clear vision goes out the window and with it, our feelings of joy and peace. There is only one way to get the feeling of wholeness back, and that is to make a deliberate intention to drop our awareness into the heart.