Heart Depth vs Surface Appearances.

Deep Cavern Below

Deep Space Above, Beyond, and Every Direction

The way to the depths is the way to the heart, which results in true selfhood and aliveness. To connect with the heart, tend it, explore it, mend it, and live from it is a spiritual psychology of depth. To make this clear, I will reflect on and amplify the metaphorical meaning of the word “depth.” The word “deep” is literal when it applies to sensory perception in a dimension physical space. We might say “the well is deep,” and it is literally, physically, spatially, true. When we apply this same world metaphorically, it opens up the inner depths beyond surface beliefs and attitudes, exposing mysteries, truths, and the intricacies of anything in the the soul and cosmos. The metaphor of depth, can express the nature of Being, of reality, of truth. Depth is a great symbol for spiritual qualities. In my work with clients and students, one of my first actions is to give helpful information about “heart –living” versus “head-living,” a difference between surface living and living in depth. I also give them practical tools so that they have a way into these depths, and of working with them.

We experience the depths as something opposite to the shallow. We say that suffering is not height, but depth. We say that truth is deep and not shallow. We say the darkness of suffering is deep. We also may say that something inexhaustibly intricate is deep. We can speak of the human depths, out of which we desire, dream, worship and pray, and we can speak of the ultimate depths, that towards whom we worship, pray, and from whom we receive vision and inner guidance.

Whether we speak of outer sensory perception (e.g. eye-sight), or inner perception, there is always the surface perceptions, and we may seek to penetrate or break beyond these perceptual surface limitations with eye glasses (increase depth perception) telescopes, microscopes, and beyond our surface inner perceptions with psychoanalytic, contemplative, or shamanic tools of perception. Have you noticed that there can be perception of depth in every direction: the seven directions of the Amerindian Medicine Wheel, for example, suggests this. In any direction within or without we can remain with surface appearances, or push beyond them. We should not make what I call the Hillman-fallacy of identifying depth only with the downward direction, the mythological underworld. Hillman’s insights are rich, but not profound enough, in this case. Associating depth with only the downward special direction leads to a cutting off of the depths in every other direction, except for downward.

Surface is the side of reality which first appears to us. When we act according to how things seem to be, on the surface, eventually we are disappointed. We may ask for the truth because we are disappointed with the surfaces. We are aided if we have a well functioning “bull-shit detector” to help us navigate, or sort out appearance from reality, lies from truth. So we try to penetrate the surface appearances and move into the depths to see things as they really are.

It seems the scientists, philosophers, psychoanalysts seek to “see” beyond the surfaces, often asking for the basis of our long-held assumptions, and disturbing the peace as they do. Shamans, psychoanalysts, and other wise people have long asked how much our life takes place beneath the surfaces. Great wise people, like Rumi, Eckhart, and more recent figures like C.G. Jung, and Joseph Campbell have spoken hard won truths profound and deep, and yet with dull repetition on the internet media, how quickly their words become shallow, dulled by the speed of repetition and photo-shopped images, as glittery as the myriad advertisements passing down the news feeds. At least the words of the wise ancestors offer a possibility of clarity, a portal to depth in a world that is virtual and filled with surface appearances, that at first seem bedazzling, but quickly become benumbing because of dull repetition, and because, as Paul Tillich said, there is no truth or depth, with out “the way” to truth and depth.

But it is not dull repetition that keeps us from voyaging into the depths. It is our fear of the depths, and this is because it is comfortable to live on the surface of life, be part of the consensus reality, fit in, as long as the surface remains unshaken. But it is disturbing and painful to break away from our addiction to the surface and descend or fall into unknown realms of depth.

Most of our lives, it seems, continue to move along the surfaces, driven as we are by external, internal and unconscious forces. We get stuck in defensive compliance, and playing it safe, staying with the bottom line, trying to get ahead, and afraid to unfold our wings. In this time the speed of living, boosted by technology and virtual world of internetted social networking are accelerating our pace. We are too busy too, distracted and too afraid look beyond the surface appearances above, below, and all around us. We are in constant motion, seeking to have rather than be. We accept ourselves as we appear to ourselves, and do not look to see how we are really faring. We can be like hit and run drivers, oblivious to the bleeding soul we leave behind. We fear the pain and the work necessary to live an authentic and creative life in and from our depths. C. G. Jung wrote:

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

But then it may happen that a crisis comes, a great earthquake that shakes the very foundations of our lives, disrupting surface appearances, and plunging us into the unfamiliar depths. “Crisis,” the I Ching says, also is “opportunity.” The shamanic “Call” often comes with a crisis, physically or mentally, and spiritually. The heart opens and the adventure of exploring ourselves in depth begins. We may then discover what lies in the shadows that we had not faced, or what wonderful mysteries support us, beyond the surface doubts. We may take a personal inventory and discover traits of character and dynamic forces and truths that contradict everything we thought we knew about ourselves. A new motivation may arise to begin the process of inner work needed to tend and care for what needs healing, to clean out what is obstructing life, and we may achieve an alignment with our true self and the deep ground plan of our life. We may have to rebuild our life on a true foundation, and not on the surface appearances we had previously taken for granted. This is a process of initiatory proportions; the initiation into a true life.

If we find ourselves in a situation of crisis, it is good to have friends or seek professional help. The shaman, the poet, the psychoanalyst, and the artist may all be able to assist us as we move from our surface self-knowledge into our depths, where things are recorded of which we knew little while dwelling on the surface.

Increasingly in our fast paced virtual world we need something like a “deep shamanism,” a “medicine of the heart,” a spiritual psychotherapy that facilitates a breaking away from the comfortable surface appearances with its props of intellect, rationalizing defensiveness, and the denial of bodily felt truth. We need a healing relationship wherein there is a paring away of all that stands between our authentic self, those masks, roles, props, beliefs (lies), and projections, and our bleeding ,yet beautiful souls. We need a therapeutic ritual womb, a space of depth in the darkness where the truth of our deepest wounds, desires, and potential destiny is exposed, brought into the light of awareness. Only in such a deep ritualized space, can our deepest desires and predilections for life reveal themselves, and only in such a space of depth, can we come to see that patterns and forces that have been blocking our living a true life. In this space, and only in this kind of space, can we recover our true life. As we do so, our life will be transformed in and through the surface appearances, and we will become radiantly alive. Work in this space requires opening the heart wide enough to embrace all with compassion and non-judgment, and with care. It is not easy work. It is risky. It takes courage and repeated effort, implementation of  insights, and efforts to bring what you recover back into the social life. As you do so, you will begin to change the world. **

-To be continued … 🙂

Notes:

1. For further reading, see my blog: SIGNS OF HEART HEALTH AND HEART SICKNESS.

2. MORE AMPLIFICATION ON THE WORD DEPTH:

Amplification of Depth

Consider some of the rich associations to the word depth taken from experiences of nature. The abyss, void, chasm, crevice, yawning pit, plunging into ocean depths, up-wellings from the bottomless, the womb, unfathomable, ground, Belly of the Whale, bowels of the earth, subterranean, gut-level, deep rooted, as are the metaphoric associations with the sonorous bass, the dark, inner-most recesses of soul, the chambers of the heart, and feeling deep-down. There are mystical associations with the infinite, the numinous, the Ground of Being, and there are associations with wisdom, erudition, complexity. Using the capacity to feel (felt-sense) into how it is going down there, inside, and connecting dots in the background of experience (behind the surface appearances of the foreground. There is the experience of attending to the out-of-phase feel of a situation, beyond the obvious appearances). There is what is called, in optics, “depth perception.” You can look straight ahead into the fog and try to discern an oncoming car, or a tree somewhere in the depths of the fog. On a clear night you can look up into the night sky, into “deep space.” This highlights the fact that depth can be found beyond the surface appearances in any direction outwardly, and inwardly.