Depression and Accepting or Resisting Futility

[Sacred Fool]

speaking from personal experience, the more open my heart has become, the more sorrow I have felt. not even "more" sorrow, necessarily, however its no longer a dull feeling like it used to be. the experience of sorrow for me has become much more acute as my heart has opened. ive taken to calling it "divine sadness". i often  feel i am providing a service when i allow myself to feel this so..... I do wonder some times.

 
I understand your feelings there.  For me, the heart is a much more complex level of consciousness than those which precede it.  The different parts are not connected in a linear fashion.  They come on line in different ways and can lead to different places.

One aspect of this can be a keener feeling for things (or a keener awareness of your existing feelings) in general, and if sorrow has been something you've been collecting, then your collection will become more vivid to you.

In addition to the general matter of emotions becoming deeper, there's another place in that heartscape where the general sense of self is felt as a glowing thing, not yet inflected by human foibles and complexities.  It is very easy to forgive and accept self there.

There's also a sort of place where one can hold and accept the full range of feeling one is heir to, such as Latwii mentioned.  But where we often do our seeking (at lower levels of consciousness), these places are unavailable. 

To return to your example, when feeling deep heart-felt sorrow, we often don't remain at the level of heart consciousness.  The more one can maintain the seeking at the level of green ray consciousness, the more opportunities there are to find spiritual resources to work with.  But we often take things personally and begin focusing on difficult social or personal aspects of sorrow. 

So, if you feel sorrow in your heart, talk to it, ask it what is so sad?  This may lead you to another thing and then another.  If you can maintain the search there in your heart, you will likely begin to find spiritual resources which can aid you in your seeking.

How can one tune into the part of self which knows its own perfection when one is not seeking on that level?

That's one way of answering the question I posed above.  Don't let the level of seeking drop into the lower levels of consciousness before you find your spiritual, heart-domain resources.

Do not forget it (the illusion) has but one purpose, to teach that you are whole, and perfect, acceptable, and loved.