Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships, we may wish for better.
Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American Foreign.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: And welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host. And today we will be talking about purity of heart.
Might be something a little bit new, but you may enjoy this concept. So before we get started, please consider, like, sharing and subscribing. As you know, this helps us to get this content out to more and more people. And of course, please consider sharing with your friends and family so they can benefit as well.
So purity of heart, what is that and why is it coming up as a topic?
I think that we don't talk enough about our heart.
There's a lot of emphasis on intellectual knowledge or understanding. And even on this podcast we talk about understanding a lot of intellectual information and so forth.
And that's important. But it's also important to have experiences of ourself in our pure state or in an innocent state. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today. First, we'll talk about what isn't pure in our heart. Like what are we experiencing now that is keeping us from experiencing this authentic, pure, heartfelt way of being?
One of the things that we experience is judging ourselves based on past actions. This is a big one.
So in my mind, something happens or my life is happening and I'm remembering it right. And as I'm remembering, I'm judging myself based on those past actions. And because I am judging myself, I'm using some kind of right and wrong that I learned that this is the way I should be. So that's when, as I move forward into the future, I'm using that as a way to think about, judge, make decisions and how I'm going to be in the next scene.
Purity means that it's authentic and in the moment. And maybe I would say happy or innocent or maybe those original qualities of the soul, like peaceful. We're going to. I'm going to give an example of what that is, a really good example in a minute. But this idea of I have been looking at my actions, judging myself, and then that judgment is being used to make decisions on how to be. So it's kind of like a false or if maybe not false, but it's influenced by the past, right? So my activity and how I'm seeing things and how I'm Perceiving life now is being influenced by the past.
Second thing, difficulty letting go or forgiving the self.
So what is difficulty letting go?
Have you ever had a situation where after you had an interaction with someone and when you left them, the scene kept rolling around in your head? I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe I don't understand. Maybe I'm angry with them and so forth. I have a hard time letting go of what just happened. I have a hard time letting go of maybe my mistakes. I have a hard time letting go of my judgments of myself and others. I have a hard time letting go of this feeling of right and wrong.
I feel like that's wrong. So I'm feeling uncomfortable. I can't let it go. And then forgiving. Forgiving means that I'm not making it wrong anymore.
Forgiving means that I understand and that I'm not going to be upset about it anymore. How many things am I holding on to that I'm still a little upset about?
So when I'm holding onto those things, they're in my mind. They're like floating around in my consciousness. It's difficult for me to be pure in a moment when all that stuff is hanging around. Whether it's negative feelings, whether I'm holding on, whether I can't forgive myself. I feel regret, I feel guilt, maybe I'm angry. And then keep replaying activities. So this is again, not only activities, but I keep overthinking. Maybe I'm planning, maybe I'm trying to figure something out. So how can I be authentically present and have a purity of heart experience if I'm using my mind to try to figure something out, try to plan, try to get it right.
That means the energy is being used there.
So all of those experiences that we have in our mind, they create a heaviness in the self. It create a heaviness.
So it's difficult for us to show up, like clean and real and maybe the way we want to or our best. My best self.
So I'll give an example of what purity of heart would look like.
Imagine that you're in a room. And I may have given this example already. So if you've heard it already, it's a really good example for purity. So let's say you're in a room and you have 10 adults in a room. And you're standing around. And then somebody walks in with a baby.
Somebody walks in with an infant, like in the arms, like a mom with a baby in her arms.
As soon as that baby enters the room, everybody changes, everybody's interested. I'm talking about, like, normal. Maybe somebody doesn't like it. There could be variations to what I'm asserting here. But let's say that the baby walks in and everybody responds naturally to the baby. A natural response to the baby would be, I'm happy, I'm happy to see the baby. I want to interact with the baby, I want to see its body, I want to touch it. And I feel curious, I feel happy, I want to be part of it.
There's no negative thinking or anything about the past. In that moment, the baby is bringing in a pure energy.
The baby can't talk, the baby isn't giving a lecture. The baby doesn't have a degree.
The baby doesn't even know it has a body. Baby has this kind of unlimited awareness.
It feels very interconnected with everyone. It doesn't feel differentiated from others.
So purity of heart means that there's feeling of connection that I naturally feel loving towards everyone. I naturally feel connected. I naturally feel happy, I naturally feel curious. I naturally feel friendly or in harmony with everyone.
That's the example. But another thing. A small child also relates to the world with pure feelings.
Like a small child, they live in their own world. Have you ever noticed this? So a small child knows they have a body.
A small child might create imaginary friends, may play tea party or fix it or whatever. Different games that the small child might play. But for them, it's real. Do you remember being a small child?
Think about it for a minute. Do you remember what it's like being a small child?
As I'm saying it, I. I kind of remember.
It's. You're in the world with everyone else, but you're not in touch with everything that's going on for them.
You're interacting with them, but you're not in touch with. Let's say maybe your parents are stressed out about money, or maybe something else is going on, or somebody's cooking, somebody's cleaning, somebody's doing this or that. You don't have any relationship to that at all. But you're still there. You're still interacting.
So how does this help us with purity of heart? I just am bringing this up for us to think about that we have the ability to access an experience inside that's not intellectual, that's not based in the past, that doesn't have any judgment or history or rules or right and wrong or good and evil or anything like that.
We can have access to this pure, benevolent, happy self.
Now, if you've Been watching. You heard me talk about nature too. Nature is another example of this.
Nature lives without ever having any of this in their mind.
So purity of heart for me means that I'm accessing my pure feelings. And one way we can practice this is we do this in the Raj Yoga meditation, our daily routine. We have evening meditation. So about 7:00 in the evening, we sit down for meditation. And during that time it's more of a world service theme.
So I am sitting peacefully. I am a peaceful soul and I wish for every soul in the world to be peaceful.
I wish that all of nature is peaceful and harmonious.
I have good wishes for everyone, all souls, all of nature and myself.
This is practicing that purity of heart.
If you notice, the intellect is not involved as usual. The intellect of like, oh, I'm going to do this and not this. No, it's not engaged in that way. It's just me being peaceful, being happy, being generous, having good wishes for everyone and then sharing those pure feelings.
Why is this helpful to us?
This purity of heart is our natural nature.
This podcast is called the Spiritual American. If you notice, I'm not talking about religion, I'm not talking about any dogma or rules. We're talking in this podcast about getting in touch with yourself, your true self, your eternal self, the real self, the authentic self that is the self that has purity of heart, that wishes the best for everyone. And as I'm talking, I'm getting in touch with that feeling.
Many times when I'm speaking, I'm speaking from intellect because I'm trying to describe one point or another, but now I'm speaking from inside.
So I would say think about this this week.
Spirituality is not about becoming something other than yourself.
It's about discovering and knowing and feeling and being yourself.
I am a peaceful soul and my original nature is peace. And I have loving, good wishes for everyone, all souls, all of nature.
Can you see how that's a pure thought? It has nothing else on it, right? And it's coming from the heart.
We can practice this all the time and it only does us good. It helps our immune system, it helps our body, helps the mind and reinforces the truth. Helps me to also start to change my personality, right? Helps me lessen anger and upset and everything and begin to feel more peaceful and generous.
So I hope that's given you something to practice and think about. I'll leave it there. Remember, our slogan is heal, empower and serve. And as we learn these new ways of accessing ourself, we continue to progress. We continue to be empowered and then. And heal and change. And then when we get better, everyone gets better. And that's service.
So until next time, take care.
