Mind and Heart

I was just thinking about the states of mind we have and the ways in which it often works… I might be wrong, but is asking for the opinions of all of you from your experiences and feeling about the same…

Often, when we think, mind is a very complex structure. The power to think and the power to make decisions are awesome. The more awesome is the ability to make the right decisions on the right time…

While referring to the thoughts are about our mind, we often hear people saying mind and heart. Don’t take these meaning verbally. Often we consider or refer to as our thoughts coming from the heart and some times we refer to as our thoughts coming from our mind. In Malayalam, we hear ‘manasu’ and ‘hridayam’. The same way we refer to as good hearted, kind hearted, hard hearted and all for different people.

Is this mind and heart the same? Or is these two different things? Are we using two different words for the same thing? It seems very confusing for me. I guess there will be some psychology majors in this community who can give me more clarification in this matter. My thoughts after thinking for a while developed in to the following. It might be right, or it might be very stupid. Either way, post replies honestly.

I like to consider the mind and heart as two parts of our ability to think. Often when we need to take a decision, we will be feeling a conflict with in us before deciding what to do. Even when we decide to sin, or when we have a drive towards committing a sin, we think twice, and our thoughts goes in to two different sections arguing against each other. It is like a balance and the side gaining more weight will win. So, if we are able to justify the sin we are going to commit, that side wins. But if we are able to grasp more points on the side of our thought that resists are speaks against sin, we will stay away from it. In a similar way, any important decision we take goes through a conflict with in us. Selecting a new job offer for example.

Let us think about the spiritual importance of this. We are called to be holy as St. Paul states. We are supposed to be growing in Christ everyday, like climbing a ladder, step by step to reach the Holy God. Or we are called to grow in holiness and each step that increases the holiness is like another step closer to the Almighty God. On this journey, we will be feeling two forces. One is the force from the world, and another from God. Therefore, we often get in to a conflict in selecting the right path.

Here, I am referring to mind as the worldly part, and the part that actually controls the body, but often does not recognizes the right and the wrong. Heart is that part that can guide us in the right path, or the part that is closer to God. It is the moral part of our ability to think. The brighter our moral part is, the more away we will be from sins. The darker the moral part is, we will be more prone to sin. Satan can influence the world part of our thoughts and blow like a wind in to our thoughts, thereby blowing or lessening the light we have in the moral part of our thoughts. God’s word helps us in glowing brighter and brighter, resisting the wind from the world, thereby making its activities in vain.

From where does true happiness or true sadness originate? I think it originates from the moral part of our thoughts which I called as the heart. We rejoice in Christ, and when the light of Christ over flow from our heart towards the mind, we will see the differences in the body in the form of happiness. When our heart recognizes our sins, and when it recognizes its need for repentance, gradually that sadness over flow from the heart filling the mind with sadness thereby making us cry.

The scripture says do not look tired when you fast. Fasting and praying are the time we spent with God, and it should actually give us happiness. That happiness when overflows from the heart towards the mind which controls our body, the mind trains the body to be as active as possible in such a way that no one will notice the fact that one is fasting. If one did not realize the happiness of being with God through fasting and praying, the body will seem tired.

 True happiness and true sadness comes from the heart, or the moral part of our thoughts. Controlling both in such a way that it will not affect our daily activities is a great success.  Happiness should not lead to an increase in activities; sadness should not lead to a decrease either... In other words, we have to learn to be still...