How can one go about developing a "Pure Heart"? (Self-inquiry/Philosophy)

Tonight's meeting is on the topic of the possibility of developing a pure heart. Tonight's meeting is inspired by the reader commentary section from the Tat forum page this December: Forum - .

The quote is from Anima Pundeer: "If I had one wish granted, I would wish for anyone who seeks Truth with a pure heart to find it".

The emphasis of Anima's wish here rests upon the requirement of having a "pure heart" when in the pursuit of Truth. But what is a pure heart? The image that I conjure up when trying to perceive a pure heart, coming from a Catholic background, is that of the sacred heart of Jesus and Mary. I sense a certain kind of fealty and reverence to that ideal of purity. Why do images of Mary's heart show swords and daggers piercing it? Is pain/suffering a necessary ingredient of a pure heart? Is how we deal with pain the difference between why one person develops a truer heart than someone who can't manage pain healthily? Why was Mary meritorious of her pure heart? These may sound like ignorant questions, but I'm trying to get at the quality of her suffering, her capacity for suffering, toleration of pain, without driving her into fear, hatred and despair like the vast majority of human kind, myself included? How can we suffer more like Mary?

Richard Rose claimed that "transmission" comes from the deepest rooted mind, transmission to me meaning a kind of power that can project from someone's mind that is on a spectrum of greater and lesser empirically developed knowledge. In the writings on Zen I have read about the transmission that occurs between the master and the student. Does love transmit from the deepest rooted heart? Does love transmit from the deepest rooted mind also or is mind more sterile of feeling and more related to clear "seeing" of a more mental nature? How do you view transmission, have you encountered this phenomenon before, what is it?

Does a pure heart develop in tandem with acquiring a pure mind? Are they interdependent components of the same path or are they two separate aspects, not really connected? What is your impression?

As always be great to hear what ideas you have and what questions you have on this very central topic of what a true spiritual path is all about. Join this meeting as we try to delve deeper and open up new avenues of thought and practice that we can try to incorporate into our everyday lives to see if this can trigger progress in our spiritual paths. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Thanks to Wiki Commons for the event image.

Check out the "What we are about" section in the groups' main page for some guidelines we work to adhere to. Meetings are run on the popular Zoom platform. Please contemplate the topic in advance of the meeting to get the best out of it and bring your views and convictions to the meeting, if possible have a pen and paper close by to record anything useful that may come up that you resonate with on the night, little things you may want to contemplate further.