Peter Clenott

There is more and more written about mindfulness because of the growing pop-ularity of meditation and Buddhist philosophy. But what about heartfulness? Not that there's anything wrong with mindfulness. In fact, in Buddhist teachings, mind and heart often refer to the same thing.It's just that, in Western civilization, we have come to separate mind and heart. And then we have gone a step further ... we have glorified our minds. The philosopher, Rene Descartes, is famous for the line, "I think, therefore I am." Well, what about "I feel, therefore I am."? And ultimately, in the highest language of the heart, "I love, therefore I am." The two of us believe that love is the highest validation of our existence.Real wisdom can only be found in the heart, in a much deeper place within us. The heart holds the feeling of expansive openness and love and, therefore, the feeling of real power. The mind can be a great tool, but it can also seek control in the guise of power. The heart is already powerful and intuitively knowing, so it has no need to con-trol anything. Those of you who, like us, came of age in the sixties and seventies, remember the excitement and the struggle to bring feelings into our awareness. A big focus of en-counter groups and therapies of that period was to get "out of our heads," to get be-yond our minds and enter the rich domain of feelings, and ultimately our hearts, our love center.Heartfulness means so much more than sentimentality or schmaltz. The heart chakra in yoga is the spiritual center of the body, with three chakras above and three below. It is the balance point between lower body and higher body, or between body and spirit. To dwell in your heart is therefore to be in balance, to integrate the lower three chakras with the higher three.When you are centered in your heart, you are the most powerful. You are like a tree deeply rooted in the earth with its branches reaching to the sky. When you are cen-tered in your heart, you know and feel a deeper spirituality.This book contains writings and stories that all illustrate the many facets of heartfulness. For over 35 years we have taken turns writing a monthly self-syndicated column for newspapers and magazines all over the world. That's over 420 articles! For this book, we have chosen 52 articles that most illustrate heartfulness. That's one per week.Our goal is to lead you into your heart. Our goal is to give you a feeling experi-ence of the heart in its many dimensions. We could say each piece will make you feel good. And this may be true. But each will also challenge you to grow in spiritual awareness, for there is often a certain risk that must be taken before the heart can open. Sometimes we need to leave our comfort zone to really live from the heart.