A New Heart

A New Heart

“The most important hour is always the present. The most significant person is precisely the one sitting across from you right now. The most necessary work is always love.”

This wonderful quote from Meister Eckhart seems to encapsulate this Work we are engaged in, almost perfectly. It describes a Being who is continually present, continually in a state of external consideration. Kind, compassionate, humble and accepting. This is our goal, the state we are seeking, the state we are striving to ‘Be’.

But who can do this?

Here, another quote inspires me, this time from Cervantes –“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.”

We have to try. This is our work. And if we do try, sincerely and with attention, we will come to the conclusion that a ‘New Heart’ is needed; we cannot embody the state which Meister Eckhart so simply and eloquently describes, with the heart we have now, the ‘old heart’.

At least, I can’t. The ‘old heart’ is given to inner considering, pulled this way and that by the self-serving demands of the moment. Judgement, fear, criticism, sharp wit, rancor, impatience, guilt, shame, embarrassment, lust. I have seen all of these in my own emotional centre and some of them are quite persistent. Yes clearly, this ‘old heart’ will not do.

What does a ‘New Heart’ mean for you?

Join the discussion

Image: Illustration from Thomas Traherne's 'Centuries of Meditation