This morning, as I laid in bed half-awake, I tried to figure something out about how my Ego mind and my intuition work to learn important Truths. As my brain chugged away, I recalled something that I had read, by the Zen teacher Jack Kornfield: Our minds always try to figure out what only our hearts can know. (I’m paraphrasing.)

So there I was, stuck on the problem, because I was using my Ego mind to try and figure itself out. It’s just like the movie, The Departed (which I’m convinced now is an allegory for Ego) – We have hired the mole in the organization to try and find the mole in the organization, and just when we’re so close to figuring it out, boom, the investigation falls apart and the guy gets away.

But that doesn’t stop us from trying, because, our minds have convinced us that our little brains are the only organs qualified to make the investigation. It’s like the heart (the intuition) is sitting in the back row waving its hand in the air – I have the answer! Oh! I know this one! – and Ego is standing at the front of the room acting like the teacher, ignoring the heart entirely.

Sometimes we have to sit our minds down and let the heart take the podium. It has a lot to tell us, if only we’ll listen.

Mind wants us to believe it’s very complicated, and it has to be hard. So it struggles for years to try and figure out the meaning of life, and it can’t. And if Mind can’t figure it out after 30 years of trying, then, to save its own Ego from embarassment, it has to convince us that the answer cannot really be known.

If we want to know the Truth – the ultimate Truth – we need to allow our hearts to speak to us. And they can’t do that while we are only listening to our limited Ego-Minds.

Right now, take a moment to close your eyes and stop trying to figure everything out. Take a moment to feel the space around your heart. What is it trying to tell you? If it had a voice (and it does), what would it sound like?

Just listen. Don’t try. Just listen.

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