Where’s Your Heart?
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.”
One Indian was presented an alarm clock. The clock ran for a while and then stopped. The Indian took off the hands of the clock and went to the watchmaker, saying: “These hands have stopped moving, fix them.” The watchmaker was surprised and explained to him that in order to repair his watch he did not need to repair the hands, but that he should inspect and fix the internal mechanism and then the hands and the clock would go on.
Such cases, however, do not happen to Indians alone.
Here is a man in a good position in society. He feels, however, that his life is not going the way he would like. Even more: it does not seem to flow, but has already stopped.
Then he begins to take corrective measures: he changes his place of residence, the distribution of his time, etc. Sometimes even such people leave cities and families and retire to deserts and monasteries. But alas! the desired correction fails. Why? Because these are all the same arrows, and the inner being – the heart – remains in the same uncorrected position, as a result of which life cannot be improved either.
This mistake is made not only by individuals, but also by entire social movements. There are many outstanding personalities who think to improve the life of all mankind by drawing up programs, forming parties, various external reforms, etc. But in essence, these are all arrows and they forget about the main thing, about the internal mechanism, about the human heart. Until a correction is made there, external change will not eradicate evil.
First of all, the human heart must be corrected.
What is a heart?
In the physical (bodily) sense, it is the main organ of human circulation. In the psychological (spiritual) sense, the heart means the totality of feelings in a person, a container of feelings or an organ that produces feelings in a person.
Various conditions of the heart
The physical heart can be in different states known in medicine as: expansion, weakening, obesity, defect, etc. The spiritual heart can also be in different states.
The spiritual heart can change its place
The physical heart is always located in one place. The spiritual heart can move, as the God himself says: “where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.” This means that the location of the spiritual heart depends on the location of its treasure, and according to the meaning of Christ’s words, this determines the qualities of the heart itself.
Here we have to remember that the properties of many living organisms depend on the conditions in which they are found. If the plants are in the cold among the ice, then they acquire the character of mosses, if in darkness, then their character is different; if in a sultry desert it is different from others, in a pleasant warm climate the character is lush and abundant.
We must say the same with regard to the spiritual heart of man.
Two areas where the human heart can be.
The God indicates these areas: 1) heaven and 2) earth.
The first area, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not undermine and steal,” is the area of eternal spiritual blessings, there is the area of true spiritual life. The second is the area where moths and rust destroy and thieves steal and undermine, the area of material interests.
The first is the area of faith, the second is the area of vision, unbelief.
In France, the physical heart of a famous person who died many years ago is preserved in alcohol or a special liquid. Outside of this solution, this heart would have decomposed long ago.
If a person’s spiritual heart lives in the area of faith, then it will be preserved forever. If it is in the area of unbelief, then it decays, and it takes on ugly forms.