The Light's Return in an Opened Heart

Season's Greetings my friends!

I love this time of the year. What I really love about this time of the year is this sense of the Holy. It seems that as the nights become longer, and the sun is low in the day, there is a tangible sense that the veil is a bit thinner- that we have more access to life's great mysteries. During the Solstice, we can feel that the Universe is here to help us on our journey. Maybe that is why so many of the Native cultures honored and did ceremony during this time of the year. They knew that the mystery of Life comes closer, and they did what they could to make contact. Maybe this is why I tend to spend longer times in Silence, so that my being can feel connected in a way that the Universe is asking.

I recently returned from seeing Amma in California, and it was a wonderful time. I had been struggling with an aspect of integration, and just a few days prior to visiting her, there was an opening from Grace, and a new way of bringing the mind home was revealed. When I went for Darshan with Amma, she validated that what I was experiencing was a potent way to incorporate the mind into the awakened heart.

Never in my life have I been more aware of the importance of the Opened Heart. The heart’s opening is such an essential part of our Being’s evolution, yet it doesn’t get mentioned much in spiritual circles. and if it does, there can be a great misunderstanding of what an opened heart is. When I talk about an Opened Heart, I don’t mean that someone walks around being all open and lovey-dovey to everyone. This is not how an Opened Heart is. An Opened Heart is a Heart that is completely unguarded- and consequently extremely powerful at dispelling illusion. It is the throne of the Divine within our Being.

And while I remain diligent about the importance of bringing the mind back into the heart, I am also aware of how the heart wants to continually open. It is it’s nature to do so. When we protect the heart, (which is done through the ego), we cut ourselves off from all the Light that is within us. We cut ourselves off from the flow of prana as well, and we begin to wither and die. It is our heart that is the source of all Life. Our most fundamental nature resides in the heart- either in a dormant state, or alive and awakened to Itself. And to bring attention to the heart, and to find ways to nurture its opening, is to cultivate the dormant capacities that lie within. For me, to recognize how essential the opened heart is, in order to really live from a True Perspective, is worth all these years of surrender.

There are many ways we can tend to this open heart. It is vital that we begin. I can give satsangs about the ego, and what is true, and how we keep ourselves from living this truth, but until this heart is wide open, we will still have beliefs that tie us to this illusory world. And no amount of awakenings and understandings are going to free us from it. I know this very well. The heart was made to absorb all fears. A wide open heart will swallow the world- as the mind sees it. A well-tended heart is a place where we can let go of all of our doubts, and know what real love and faith is. This is what we can aim for. And our own heart will be there waiting for us. For our own heart is the same as everyone else's. So to know true connection, we dive in to our own heart, and find what is deep within.