Read The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life Online
Authors: Baptist de Pape
The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life (15 page)
However successful your personality is in everyday life—with an impressive career, luxury goods, prestigious address—as long as you are not exercising Authentic Power, your success will not bring you satisfaction.
NEALE DONALD WALSCH
If we ignore matters of the heart or if we do not consult the heart, as we move through the experiences of life, then we wind up with a series of events leading us nowhere. But if we follow the advice of the heart, if we seek the counsel of the heart, then we wind up with a series of experiences that take us back home.
GARY ZUKAV
As you create Authentic Power, your life begins to fill with meaning, and purpose, and vitality, and creativity, because you are moving in the direction that your soul wants you to go.
You can use every new experience to align your personality with your soul. Every situation gives you the opportunity to approach life with an open heart, conveying love to the world. That is the purpose of the human experience you have as a spiritual being. That is the reason for your existence. That is Authentic Power.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Calm by Looking Deeply
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us that, whenever you become aware of a strong, troubling, or negative emotion, you can calm yourself by focusing your mind on your breathing. Putting attention on your breathing, in and out, you calm down. Just concentrate on breathing from the abdomen. Breathing in, feel your belly rise. Breathing out, feel your belly fall. Breathe in with your mind on your breathing—is it fast and short or deep and slow? Breathe in and out mindfully to calm your breathing.
When your breathing is deep and slow, breathe in and be aware that your strong emotion is subsiding. Breathing out you feel that any anger or fear is ebbing. Breathing in, you feel that your emotion has passed. Breathing out, you feel that your emotion has passed. Stay in the long moment of peace. Now you can see beyond the emotion. You are aware of your deep connection to the person or situation that gave rise to the emotion and now you can act with Authentic Power, with awareness of your soul connection.
It is more important to be of pure intention than of perfect action.
—ILYAS KASSAM
Everything you do, as well as everything you think, originates in a certain intention. Your intention not only rules your life but it also determines the outcome of all your actions.
ECKHART TOLLE
Whatever situation you find yourself in, a very important question to ask yourself is “What is my intention here? What is my primary intention?” In other words, what really matters first of
all at any given moment, and no matter what you are doing, is, What is your state of consciousness out of which you act?
Deep in your heart you know what the intention is that feeds your actions or thoughts. Only you can know. And you know whether what you are doing is aimed at harmony and cooperation or at personal gain only.
MAYA ANGELOU
You may intend to have a million dollars, and that intention will need you to rob a bank or to mug somebody in the street. Your intention might be to have this woman: “I want this woman, I want this man for my man.” However, if we really want the thing, go to the heart and say, “This is what I want.” And the heart can say, “Well, I’ll help you to get it. I’ll show you how to get it. You must be willing to work now. Trust me now and then you can have it. Yes, if it is not going to hurt anyone else. Yes.”
The intention underlying your actions and thoughts is energy. Any energy you expend always comes back to you, either directly or indirectly. So you want to act with that in mind. You want to act mindfully, from the heart, with love, and Right Intention.
Maya Angelou
ISABEL ALLENDE
I have to act from a place of good intention, a place of love and kindness. It’s a place of good intention that will allow me to walk in this world, without creating any damage.
If you radiate genuine love and compassion, you will ultimately receive love and compassion back. If, on the other hand, you radiate fear and suspicion, you will encounter situations full of fear and suspicion. It is simplistic to say that, if you are angry today, you will attract angry people tomorrow, but, if you are generally rather tough and distrustful, you will in the long term attract people who have those personalities and attitudes. You are attracted to people with the same energy, and you attract people who experience the world as you do. They understand you and you understand them. You could say that you receive from the world what you give to the world. So your intention is a cause that gives rise to the same effects.
ECKHART TOLLE