The Heart Is A Two-Way Organ

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 –

I sit here in wonder of the awesome mystery of the human heart. How is it that it can do all that it does?
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The heart is a two-way organ. It opens and closes, pumps in and out, receives and releases.
It follows its own rhythm and never stops to questions it.
For it is not an organ of questioning, but of being.

Why then, do we so often ask the heart to perform beyond its capacity and endurance?

We demand that the heart keeps giving,
forgetting that it needs to receive in kind;
We burden the heart with all of our longings,
ignoring the very real danger of it bursting with too much desire;
We use the heart like a weapon, in battles for love and power, control and manipulation, ‘good’ and ‘evil’,
without tending to its wounds, or asking what it needs to heal.
We take for granted that the heart brings to us joy, excitement, peace and satisfaction,
But blame it for feeling anger, pain, fear, boredom, jealousy and frustration.

The heart knows what the head does not,
That the two sides are really just one.
For the heart has wisdom, the head mere knowledge.

The heart does not think, “I have to hold on to her love!”
Nor does it judge: “I don’t want his love!”
It does not sacrifice itself: “I must give it all away!”
Nor does it try to strengthen itself: “I need to build a wall!”
It knows there is no need to hold on, for there is always more.
It knows there is no need to fight or resist, for that only causes harm.
It knows no fear for it does not believe in anything,
And there is no need for beliefs for it already is –
open and equal in its compassion and trust.

The heart grasps not the knowledge that the mind does with one hand,
While with the other it clutches the heart out of fear and doubt,
Caging it for its protection and its own ‘good’.
For the truth is, we can no more control the valves of our heart,
than we can tell it to discern when to start and when to stop,
what comes in and goes out.

The heart is a two-way organ, designed to give, to take, to let in then let go –
love and hate, joy and sorrow, anger and fear, pain and pleasure…
It experiences all and simply allows the flow, and itself, to just be.

~ Judy Hwang