Some traditions and experiences point to the divine as being discovered within, particularly in the heart. But what is more true is that we discover who we are, the Self, within. After that, the division of “inside” and “outside” falls away and we discover the Self as the container of all experience.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes it like this:
9.4. All this universe is pervaded by unmanifest Me. All beings abide in Me; I do not abide in them.
9.5 …Sustaining beings yet not seated in beings is My Self, the source of beings.
9.6 As the mighty air, moving everywhere, abides ever in space, so do all beings, know thou, abide in Me.
Some describe this as like living in an ocean of being from which all life arises. We are immersed in the divine be we walking or flying or sleeping. We feel separate only because of a confusion in who we are. When we discover who we really are, then our infinity and then our underlying divinity can unfold.
Eventually, we discover that even the Self of consciousness is but a pale reflection of pure divinity.
Davidya
🙂
David I was just thinking about this. So much emphasis is placed on the heart being the seat of consciousness yet I can’t feel my consciousness in the heart. This makes so much more sense. Restricting it to the heart doesn’t allow it to be as big as it is.
Hi Celeste
People with a more devotional orientation or those going through the GC stage may well experience the divine centered in the heart. But this is an orientation, not the fullness of it.
So yes, it is much more but comes to include the heart too.
And as I close, even the quote is an orientation of beings and the divine. From another perspective there is only the divine. 🙂