The heart is not a thing. Purpose is not a thing. Nor is compassion, awareness, peace, union, or wholeness. The words just typed are concepts about heart, purpose, peace, and so forth. But when (if) we experience these states of Being, they are more than or simpler than the words, concepts, and things that we thought the experience would be.
The Intermediate level of The Practice of Living Awareness mirrors and then matures the Entry practice. Our focus has been the heart and the subtle system as the manifestation of its reverberations. The life force and life thread is anchored in the heart. This means that heart and purpose are intimately connected, probably an inseparable two. Yet, as one settles in meditation one experiences the qualities of heart without them being mentioned. One experiences peace, presence, wholeness, and one discovers that these qualities – just like the heart – are not things. Furthermore, these experiences and states were already present. Meditation trained the mind and tamed the emotions enough so that their hindrance and obscuring of the already present state was undone.
May your meditation practice be serving you well.