The Eyes of the Heart and the Ears of the Heart That Will Radiate the Light of the Heart
Author: Jacob Ereste
Freelance Journalist
The term “eyes of the heart” generally means seeing everything with the heart, like the moon with the other five senses. Likewise, the term “listening with the heart” means concentrating on what is heard with the ears of the heart. Therefore, in spiritual terms, it is often said to think with the heart, not with the brain. Or, in an old, almost outdated term, like the saying, “thinking is the lamp of the heart.” This means that whatever a person thinks—and then possibly acts—the thought process must truly serve the heart. Because even the most brilliant thinking still doesn’t guarantee good thinking for good things. Thinking solely for something is very likely to give birth to bad things.
In reality, this is the spiritual perspective, which places the heart as the center of consciousness for producing wisdom. The mind cannot be dominant, because decisions, including sentencing a defendant, must be made with the heart. Legal norms cannot be fully relied on to convict a guilty person.
Thus, the human conscience plays a significant role, and the emergence of envy and jealousy can lead to disasters whose consequences and impact are difficult to predict for both the individual and the target of the envious attitude and behavior. The outcome will clearly be detrimental to both parties. This is because such attitudes, behaviors, and envy will not bring any benefit, except for the losses suffered by the perpetrator and, potentially, the target of the envy and jealousy.
Envy and jealousy are indeed products of the heart, uncontrolled by a weak brain. In the spiritual realm, the heart, or qalb, is the center of feelings, the lever of intention, and the driving force behind inner tendencies to move and act, like an ambush to paralyze the enemy, or to wage moral resistance that must never yield, even if ultimately defeated. However, the struggle and passion for resistance must consistently persist, as part of the faith of religious and self-respecting humans.
Typically, attitudes and traits of envy and jealousy arise from the darkness of the heart, deprived of the light to make clearer and cleaner choices, free from a speck of dust. And when these attitudes and traits of envy and jealousy emerge, it is clearly when the heart is not pure from envy, due to worldly love and the desire to be more than others, and not wanting to be rivaled or surpassed by others. Maja, the heart as the source of emotional turmoil, will intensify when the brain is in a position that provokes the emergence of these attitudes and traits of envy and jealousy, which have nothing to do with what we should do for ourselves, so that we can produce something better and more beneficial for ourselves and others.
Overcoming these attitudes and traits of envy and jealousy is clearly closely linked to spiritual practices that must be able to awaken true spiritual awareness and understanding to purify the heart—tazkiyatun nafs—as the key. Because taming a wild and violent mind isn’t enough; it’s also crucial to manage our inner turmoil so we can be sincere and open-minded, filled with gratitude for whatever others have achieved.
And the heart—as the center of spiritual and moral awareness—should be able to overcome the rationality of the brain. The vibrations of the heart truly have the ability to resist the dominance of logical thinking that falls far below diligently honed spiritual intelligence, or is not dulled by being intoxicated by worldly desires of greed and gluttony.
Ultimately, it can be said that a mind without a heart is blind—because it will lose its direction, and good values will be destroyed and wasted.
The essence of the heart’s eyes and ears is the key to understanding reality through the depth of one’s feelings, not merely data or logic that misleads opinions to justify useless and utterly pointless envy and jealousy.*
Banten, August 9, 2025
—
