As intellectual human beings, we associate words with images and we form conceptual understandings about ourselves and the world around us. In this way, something which we feel, experience or observe can be put into words for someone else to understand.

When we successfully convey an experience and they do understand it, that does not mean they have now experienced what we experienced. They simply have a conceptual (i.e. mental) understanding of it. It is very important to distinguish actual experiences and actual feelings from the conceptual understandings of them. They are not equal, as understanding is simply cerebral, whereas experience and feeling occur much deeper; in our body, in our senses and emotions, and also in our heart.

Many things simply have to be felt or experienced to be truly understood. For example, I could describe to you in very accurate and sophisticated language what it feels like to swim with a dolphin in the ocean, but to truly know what it feels like, you would have to swim with a dolphin in the ocean.

Now, we categorise and conceptualise most of our experiences so we can relate them verbally, but the words did not come attached to the experience. We choose which words to attribute to the experience. We label things so that we can converse and mutually recognise what we are referring to. But we have to remember that the experiences and feelings that we’ve had exist separate from the words, in another realm, in the experiential, sensual and even spiritual realm. Words can only approximate to them. They can only point to them.

So here I will attempt to use words to point to an experience, a spiritual experience that you are capable of having. You are a spiritual being in a body, so having spiritual experiences is actually very important and totally natural to you. The only problem is that many people have forgotten how to attend to their spiritual nature, and have become totally absorbed in the material aspect of their being.

The spiritual aspect of you is that which perceives light internally, because spiritual truth is essentially light; spiritual light that we see in our mind and feel in our heart. When spiritual light illuminates our heart, we experience peace, joy, and a sense of freedom; a sense of unboundedness and expansion. We also experience the warmth that we mutually understand as “Love”.

Now, with our conceptual mind we cannot understand things that are spiritual in nature, and it is counterproductive to try and do so because the mind grasps for concepts, when we actually need it to be silent and inactive so it can receive spiritual wisdom. It is like a hand that is grasping for something it thinks it understands and wants, yet because of this grasping it is not able to fully receive that which comes from beyond the realm in which it is grasping.

This is exactly why spiritual practices such as meditation were developed, because they prepare our being to receive spiritual wisdom. They focus the mind and with the power of the breath, they lift our perspective above the mental realm, just like rising above the clouds to behold the sun. This in fact is a very accurate metaphor.

Thoughts obscure our awareness of spiritual truth, which shines above them like the sun. And when we connect this spiritual awareness with our heart directly, bypassing all thoughts in the process, we restore consciousness to the very centre of our being. We become fully connected, switched on and illuminated by the light which shines from within our heart, in the form of Love. This makes the spiritual tangible, because other people can feel our love. Their heart can sense it and resonate with it.

This is why in a room full of people who are meditating with their attention in their heart, there is a powerful energy field of Love that can be felt by anyone who enters that room. Love is more than spiritual. It is very real, powerful and tangible, capable of changing a person’s life in a matter of seconds, especially if that person had never experienced it before. This is why activating the love that exists in our heart is such an important – if not the most important – thing we can do.

By doing so, we reach out to people without words. Our heart touches theirs in the most basic, primal, natural and instinctive form of communication that exists. We all have this power, and to exercise and practice it is the most rewarding thing you can do. It goes beyond self-fulfilment. It connects your fulfilment with that of other human beings, and thus the sense of fulfilment is greatly magnified and amplified.

There is one last thing I wish to share with you in this article, because I know that not everyone enjoys meditating and that many people find it difficult to connect to their heart. Now, I am not a big fan of religion or the Bible, but along my spiritual path (which you can read about here) I came to realise (or more accurately, it was revealed to me) that the divine consciousness which many people call “Jesus” or “the Christ light” is a very real thing. You can invite this divine light into your heart, and it will literally ‘switch your heart on’.

This obviously does not mean becoming a Christian, it means accepting the most powerful spiritual assistance that exists in the Universe. When you call the light of Christ into your heart, no darkness can overwhelm you because Christ is the greatest force of spiritual light available. In fact, your heart is designed to accommodate this light. So you can verbally or mentally call upon Jesus to enter your heart whenever or wherever you want, and your heart will be lifted, fortified and illuminated by this divine presence.

But don’t just take my word for it. As I said at the beginning of this article, the truth goes far beyond words, and everybody needs to encounter and embody the light of spiritual truth, if they are to fully enjoy the luminous aspect of their being, radiating from within the depth of their heart.

• http://AlexanderBell.org

“Develop the strength of your heart”

Read my new book: “HOW TO LIVE IN LOVE”
Now free to download >> http://LiveinLove.eu/

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“We are but children, longing to find our way back to
the world of innocence, joy and freedom we once knew..”