Heart's Desire

What is our heart’s desire? How can we shift attention so we want what is already here? Might this give rise to a feeling of appreciation? Move us from dissatisfaction to satisfaction? What might it take to pause our endless movement towards the next desire and stay still with what we already have? In the same way, could a shift of our focus from the body to spirit (whatever that means for you) serve to make us happier? Shall we try and find out for ourselves?

Transcript

Let's begin this meditation with a gathering at the heart. And that might be something that feels physical like you want to put a hand on your heart or feel the back of the heart against what you're resting on. Where the heart chakra opens up through the back of the body like a flower. Might feel a sort of spreading around the back ribs. We could feel a similar opening or gathering around the front of the body, The centre of the chest. Or maybe the actual physical heart towards the left side underneath the rib cage. We might be able to feel a pulsing. Or we might feel the pulse somewhere else in the body. It's possible to feel a pulse at the wrist or at the neck. Heart at the back of the body, Heart at the front of the body, Heart inside the rib cage. Heart as pulse, As blood flow. And what else could we feel if we just went in at the word heart? What else? Flowers or blossoms or arises in the mind. Just letting the mind be quite free to associate. And trying not to be too quick to judge what shows up. To think of it as right or wrong or not welcome. That this association we're inviting is quite free. We might freely let our own thoughts and images, Memories, Words, Music, Let it all arise and take its place in the being. And what arises when I say music is the word corazón. Corazon, Whichever Spanish pronunciation it would come with, Which is the word for heart which shows up a lot in tango songs. Always talking about their heart and it's usually hurting. So what is our own association? What is ripe for us in that word now at this time? And we might know why it is so, Why it's emerging at this time and we might not and it doesn't matter. We don't need to figure it all out. But we might stay a while with whatever has shown up and let it drift and dance and nestle and be welcome. And the expression heart's desire comes up. And if I were to ask what is your heart's desire, I wonder what might show up. And desire seems to lean towards a sort of yearning, Something that is not yet achieved or present or with us. And I wonder how we might be able to desire what is already here, To want what we already have, Which might be called appreciation. And how that might shift us from a place of dissatisfaction to a place of satisfaction or a place of unfulfillment to a place of fulfilment. Making our heart's desire what we already have because maybe in a way that was once our heart's desire, If we moved towards it and wanted it enough to make it happen, We must have desired it. And then we kind of went on to desire something else, Which is, As we know, An endless, Endless movement. And what might it be to stand still, Sit still, Lie still, Be still with what we already have. And maybe that could include the body, The heart, The physical heart and the body around it. And I remember reading something recently that said something like, People who appreciate the body as a home for their spirit tend to look after it better. Maybe be less concerned about whether it's attractive or not or whether it's beautiful or not. But more concerned with whether it functions well as a home for the spirit and perhaps more concerned about whether the spirit is beautiful. Which seems an odd thing to say because surely the spirit is always beautiful. In this moment it feels easier to think that the spirit is beautiful. And so, Just like switching the attention from an unfulfilled desire to a fulfilled desire, Quietens the mind, Maybe switching the attention from the state of the body to the state of the spirit, Also might quieten the mind. But if we focus on the spirit, Whatever that means to you, It might be easier to be happy. You'll have to let me know if that's true. It feels to me like something that's out of my hands a little bit. And now it occurs to me that this practice of focusing on spirit in body, The embodied spirit is actually the practice of Tantra as practiced in the Buddhist tradition. And instead of focusing on the body, We focus on that which inhabits the body. And by this association, Everything that the body does becomes pure, Becomes wholly sacred, Because it is enacted by the spirit, Which is by nature sacred, Pure and holy. And in this way, We become holy beings. In this way, We become holy beings. And it seems like there might be no better place really to rest the heart. To rest the heart's desire, Than in this understanding of ourselves as holy beings, Embodied spirits. Maybe it was that spirit's desire to embody. Maybe that spirit took a body in order to appreciate life on earth in a human form. And that was that spirit's heart's desire. And maybe we forgot. And if that's true, And we forgot, If we remember, How might it change things? How we behave, How we see ourselves, How we see others, How we use our precious life. So for the last few minutes, Maybe we could rest in a sense of appreciation for the body we've been gifted, The heart we've been gifted. How about now? .