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When you have lost your way, when things don’t make sense, when whatever you try to do seems to lead around in endless circles, stop. No, I can’t stop! you say, I must keep trying – I’ll fall too far behind!

Stop anyway. Save some energy for silence and allow your brain to rest. The universe, 13 billion years in the making thus far is still unfolding, so you can spend a few minutes to regroup.

Have you not had those clarifying experiences where you struggle unsuccessfully with a problem late into the night until you finally give up, go to bed, “sleep on it” and surprisingly wake up, either in the middle of the night or the next morning, with the obvious answer right in the forefront of your mind? Once the new perspective is clear, you wonder how anyone could miss a solution so obvious. We all know that sequence. Most times there is no need to wait for sleep since an appropriate solution hopefully will arrive from just taking a few deep breaths, or from walking away for a few minutes.

There is a Chinese proverb that claims,

“Tension is who you think you need to be. Relaxation is who you are.”

There’s probably some truth in a saying like that just as there’s some truth behind the theory that our real person is not the mask/ego persona we humans project to others (and sadly, many times to ourselves.) Psychologists tell us we present these masks to compensate for perceived characteristics in ourselves which we wish were different. Apparently the school kid who is always bragging and showing off may actually be indicating a low self esteem. College professors and scientists sometimes feel as if they need to posture their appearance as haughty and aloof, perhaps with a pipe and tobacco, adding a tweed jacket to complete the image. Years ago, a preacher would almost always be dressed a suit and tie when delivering a Sunday sermon, but today a trendy young male preacher will be dressed in jeans, or anything but a suit and tie.

These images, often intentional, send messages to the local audience. They can become habit, persisting subconsciously if not present subconsciously right from the start. The point here is there seems to be evidence of a kind of hierarchy within the human person where the will, a higher level of the person, can decide which persona will be presented to the public. Likewise a person can act the part, for example pretending to be happy when sad, or vice versa. The will, much like a stage director, decides which character is center stage. But over time the acting persona itself can become so prevalent that the will is no longer needed to call upon the actor. The character simply takes center stage due to a process which has become predictable and comfortable to some if not all the people involved.

We need not be qualified experts to become aware of such entities. Knowing they exist is enough to motivate us to re-take charge of our own faculties. The masks we wear have been learned. We probably like them, but every so often they snarl our ability to function, as the authorized person within demands the center stage. Hopefully we recognize those confusing and frustrating times as opportunities to lead us to an action, such as taking a walk to quiet the mind or, symbolically, vacating the whole stage for regrouping later.

In humans, the real person within has the right to ask all the acting characters to take a break while we treat ourselves to a deep breath, a walk alone among the flowers, acquire some time to sleep on it. It is in these times of rest that the enormously powerful and complex human mind can stop itself from acting, calculating and ever-planning what’s next, in order to give itself a chance to breathe, to just be. From this fresh start the original structure of internal authority is reset allowing the quality of behavior to improve.

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

                                                                                                                                   Martin Luther

1. Abraham, the patriarchal figure of ancient times, was not Jewish. He was Chaldean. Jesus was a Jewish teacher and Rabbi, but it was years after his death before his followers were first called Christians. Martin Luther, a devout 16th Century Roman Catholic monk, became the seminal figure of the 17th Century Protestant Reformation.  John Wesley, though a founder of the Methodist movement, was actually an Anglican (Episcopal) priest. The mission of these men and others was not to create new religious denominations; they were reforming the doctrines of their already existing life-long religion. In the early 16th Century Martin Luther translated the Holy Bible from St. Jerome’s 4th Century Latin Vulgate into a vernacular German language which was more readable for the public. The first complete Bible translation into English was the Coverdale Bible published in Belgium in 1537, exactly 100 years before the  Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts was built. Currently a museum, the oldest wood frame house in the US still standing, The Fairbanks House, was built by Jonathan Fairbanks as his farm house located a few miles from Boston. Open to the public, you can visit this historic treasure today.

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It is no exaggeration to predict large amounts of conflict will result for one who takes a position on the topic of Bible translation accuracy. There is so much controversy over translation authenticity, the best course of action is to study the subject yourself, then follow your own heart. In any serious topic, the subject of Bible translation included, the word heart gets my attention. The writers of religious texts curiously use that word heart in many different ways. Translators see it in one language, then struggle to discern the authors’ intent as they choose the word to use in the second language.

For example, quoting Abraham in the King James Version  (KJV) of Genesis (verse 17:17) he is said to have…     “laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old?’” 

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and the New International Version (NIV) both have that same verse as, “…laughed, and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?’”

More comparisons from the King James (left) to the      NIV or NRSV (right) follow:

 Ge v 20:5      integrity of the heart                      =>                  clear conscience   

 Ex v 35:35  filled with wisdom of heart           =>                filled them with skill

 Pr  v 8:5      be ye of an understanding heart =>               acquire intelligence

 Pr  v 14:30  a sound heart is the life                   =>                a heart at peace gives life

 Pr  v 14:30  a sound heart is the life                    =>               tranquil mind gives life

 Ec v 1:17      gave my heart to know wisdom    => 

.                                                         applied myself to the understanding  of wisdom

 Ec v 1:17     gave my heart to know wisdom     =>

.                                                                                    applied my mind to know wisdom

 Ec v  8:16 applied my heart to know wisdom  =>

.                                                                                            applied my mind to know wisdom

Are the words  myself,  heart  and  mind  synonyms? The words are different. From the examples above, “integrity of the heart” in one version is translated “clear conscience” in another; “wisdom of heart” is translated “skill.”  Does wisdom of the heart mean the same as skill to you? Sure, one can see the contextual connection, but a reader might also perceive the authors’ intentions quite differently based upon the translator’s choices. The meaning often does depend on context, and on the perception and life experience of both the translator and the reader. How did someone who “gave my heart to know wisdom” actually do that? “Did they “apply their mind…” in some reasonable way?  Probably so, but two people who are attempting to document firm dogmatic rules from a verse that varies from translation to translation could write those rules such that they could be read and understood (or misunderstood) quite differently. The best advice? Be aware of the way words can work; it is a concept worth thinking about before committing strong opinions.

The word  heart  is often used to represent many different concepts. To name a few: wisdom, compassion, intuition, creativity, conscience, motive, emotion, instinct, integrity, intelligence, memory, knowledge, mind and soul, etc. There are almost one thousand appearances of the word heart in the Bible, most of which were represented ‘as is’ by English translators, but many of which were not. Those differences reflect the complexity of the translators’ responsibility to represent what they believe the author’s intention was in one language, and what it means to them in the other.

The common ground for these seemingly diverse meanings of the single word heart seems to be a consistent reference to a type of unique core source of wisdom found in the human person.

The Core

During a visit to central India in 2017, I met or observed countless people. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how respectfully they treated each other. Although the roads were noisy and crowded with vehicles, camels, oxen, sheep and school children in uniform, everyone I observed was polite and patient with everyone else. It was the same story on the sidewalks and in the shops. I have been in crowded cities in Haiti, the Philippines and Europe. I’ve lived in Boston and New York City – need I say more? The Indian culture, ethos and moods were noticeably different. Yes, as an elderly foreigner with white hair and fair skin it was be hard to be unnoticed, but I had many opportunities to observe local people from a distance. Despite the age group or economic level, they demonstrated obvious mutual respect as they interacted with each other. I wondered what gave their society such pleasing and public maturity. Was the fact that the vast majority of people there were Hindu a factor?

Christian, Hindu, Buddhist

Raimon Panikkar was a holy man of our time who, as his name reveals, was born to a Spanish mother and Indian father. It’s not surprising to learn that Raimon has a heart for understanding the Christian and Hindu theological philosophies of each of his parents. Growing up north of Barcelona, he then earned a doctorate in chemistry, studied at seminary, became a Jesuit priest and after a trip to India at age 35 is reported to have said, “I left as a Christian, discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist, without ever having ceased being a Christian.”  A statement like that from any serious person gets my attention. I became further attracted to his work by the title of one of his books, The Unknown Christ of Hinduism, written way back in the ’1960’s.

Jesus is the most impressive human being I have studied. I would have loved being with him during those few years of his earthly ministry because I have come to believe he would have been not only an astounding mentor and first-hand source of wisdom, but also a most enjoyable and genuine friend. He was more than just a religious teacher; he understood people. Writers from that era lacked adequate vocabulary to describe his deep understanding of human psychology, and Jesus himself used parable stories to communicate new, yet universal concepts to those historic, dogmatic minds. Folks seem to forget that Christ is not his last name. Jesus’ grasp of the cosmic, universal and eternal Christ became his earthly life and our model for living beyond selfish fear, greed or cunning manipulation as well. His example was to demonstrate a life of connecting unselfishly and genuinely to others, and for living to the fullest. The “Unknown Christ” of Dr. Panikkar’s book represents the heart level transformation of human consciousness available to all people, irrespective of and often unrelated to religious backgrounds.

 The ancient word for heart is cor from which we get our word, core. An ocean of wisdom is available to humans, to be found more at the level of heart than mind. I think that’s what the phrase “made in the image of God” refers to. We have access to a deeper mind by quieting the conscious mind once in a while with meditation breaks. Meditation does not refer to some kind of extra-intense prayer effort; it doesn’t imply effort at all. Nor does meditation necessarily refer to any Eastern religious practice. Meditation trains the busy mind to relax its constant train of thoughts for a few minutes several times each day, which eventually opens the path to deeper wisdom. The cumulative effect of a daily meditation practice makes that access easier over time, the way repeated exercise eases the lifting tasks of our physical muscles. There, in the heart, lies the wellspring of creativity, compassion, patience, justice. Once we have access to this universal wisdom, we experience these and other original heart concepts such as forgiveness, overt generosity, and freedom from resentments, righteous anger, etc., etc., Though seeming illogical due to cultural habit, these renewed heart characteristics are nonetheless beneficial to finding the more abundant life. We learn from wisdom to make wise decisions.

As Blaise Pascal said,  The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.   

In the months following a metastatic cancer diagnosis, anxious thoughts interjected themselves into my mind every five minutes of the day. The reality of unwanted weakness, joint pain and insomnia from chemotherapy demanded attention. Looking back, I willingly admit: the difficulties had value. I had to grieve the loss of familiar foods, favorite clothes, an enjoyable job and some routine activities. I had to consider my immortality. But now I am glad for those inconveniences, because the whole scary process kept bringing me back to face an ego that could no longer maintain its denials and inflated status. It finally had to surrender, allowing the coexisting, more authentic, “real me” to surface and occupy the driver’s seat of my person.

Reflecting on the larger reality and question of  human existence as if being viewed from a far away galaxy and, driven by the process of accepting my mortality, philosophies that had been mysteries to me as a young adult started to gain new clarity. The old view, from an ego position, had limited my understanding to a very, very small portion of the big picture. After facing my condition it occurred to me that the Creator of the vast universe into which we humans are born had a sequence in mind that started with the creation of planets and stars. The solar system was delicately designed with earth planet having just the right conditions for human life, long before human life emerged. It would be irrational, I decided, for the Creator to provide all of that, across so many eons, to give humans a place to live for such a tiny ‘moment’ in that big project, just to have it all end when they die.

The process reminds me of the space shuttle where a sophisticated rocket is designed, constructed, tested and launched for the purpose of delivering an enormously valuable payload into orbit. It took centuries of research and experimentation to bring that first lunar rocket to a Cape Canaveral launch pad, but for what?   …just to have a short flight during which the large booster section lights up the sky for a few minutes, only to fall uselessly into the sea? No, not at all. Compared to the mission history, that booster rocket’s life is a fleeting moment, but a moment necessary to allow the payload to escape the pull of gravity. The “lifetime” of the payload gives testimony to complex, long-standing work performed prior to the flight from earth, to the flight itself during which fuel is constantly diminished from fighting gravity, and to the adventurous destination too, as it finds its intended orbit. If the payload is to arrive at the destination, it can not cling to the booster section; it must completely break away and travel in space alone to guarantee success.

It seems God has a similar design for “human life.” We humans are created from dust, then “launched” at birth into our temporary position on this planet, then occupy adult bodies for a few short decades as participating observers of His plan. We learn, often the ‘hard way’ it seems, the value of relationship, authority, quality and priorities. We comprehend Jesus’ description of rebirth, accepting his offer to transition our consciousness from ego to soul, created in His image, eventually without need for a body. 

English burial services often include the saying, derived from the Bible’s Genesis 3:19, Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. I have been aware of the fact that all bodies return to dust from the time I was just a tyke, hiking with my dad who explained what would happen to a dead bird we came across. However, it did not occur to me then that all living things on this earthly life are simultaneously dying. 

Yes, death as we talk about it (or perhaps don’t talk about it) is an important part of life. It is a necessary factor in the sequence that reaches far before birth, yet also far ahead, into God’s eternal kingdom, “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”     Soren Kierkegaard

The perspective of time changes as one gets older. For example,  studying history in grammar school the Civil War, the American Revolution and the Roman Empire all seemed  to me to have occurred an equally enormous long time ago. Beyond that, the Biblical characters Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, King David, John the Baptist and Jesus all seemed like folks from a single story, even longer ago.

Now that I’m approaching eighty years of age I can better relate to the characters and stories of Civil War battles, since they happened in the same range of years as the experiences of my life have since my birth. My father lived to be almost ninety. Go back about ninety years before his birthday and you can be watching George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jeffferson leading a brand new nation and the Lewis & Clark expedition pushing it west. (I can now better relate to some of those Bible characters too, especially the imperfect ones, but for much different reasons! I’ll spare you the details.) 

Most elderly people will tell you (even if you don’t ask) that past events are now recalled as if they happened more recently than they actually did. Ironically, the older we get the younger things seem. My grandparents and their entire generation seemed to me to be classic “old.” They acted like old people when they were in their sixties and seventies. Quite the contrary, I still view myself and most of my peers as young. I behave differently now, and yes my joints ache a bit more, but I think about myself pretty much the same was I did when I was forty or fifty.

Often things actually are not what they appear to be and, since events and experiences seem to appear differently to different people anyway, it follows that communication about important realities in life are sure to be difficult.

There is a concept of redemptive listening which can be thought of as sacred observation. It’s a discipline where we humans choose to stay completely objective as we see or hear things going on around us. I think animals are probably better at sacred observation than we are. They just do what they were created to do, whether its a bee collecting nectar and pollen or a dog reminding us of the value of positive attitude. But with a little practice sacred observation, redemptive listening with its many benefits can be relearned and become habit. “Re”-learned because as young children we did it naturally, watching older siblings and adults, figuring out the mechanics and motives, learning how to do things ourselves. It’s natural in the very young years because young kids respect elders without question. But when exposed to wider society and its adopted values, and the concept of ego develops, we elder humans become more skeptical, less open, less candid. We gradually, unconsciously become different from the original person we were created to be, becoming more competitive, judgmental, impatient and unforgiving. 

An interesting experiment would be to have folks try sacred observation for a while to see if it improves things. Those who are willing, could train themselves to “see” people as curious tykes living inside, trapped inside, an outer shell of persona formed by the years of wounds, worries, memories and moods from both positive and negative experiences. God only knows the quantity of events that contributed to all of our forming an outer shell persona. But if we each observing others with intentional awareness of their original, supple, attractive mix of kind, careful, inquisitive, appreciative and humble attributes that reflect mutual respect, compassion and willingness to forgive, we would set the framework for redemptive listening.

To practice this idea, charge yourself with the task of developing the skill of looking past the outer person, where subjective opinion, socially-acquired values and behaviors impact us, to see what lies behind that screen. Quietly accept the lessor known inner person as “good” irrespective of reputation or appearance. Acquiring this skill can be difficult, especially when evidence seems scarce, but easily done in the private thoughts of your head. It will help you feel better about yourself as you move away from repetitive, socially acquired judgements, some of which were acquired unintentionally and open up a less rehearsed, more genuine and objective pattern of thought.

Try it.