Open The Heart Meditation

The Heart is the foundation for all spiritual knowledge. So opening and connecting with our own Heart is of fundamental importance. When we learn to do this and begin living from our Heart, we begin healing on a foundational level and the way also opens to begin accessing the higher spiritual abilities.

Transcript

Well hello and welcome.

Today's meditation we're going to be looking at opening the heart.

Now many of us know,

Maybe some of us unfamiliar,

What's new.

The heart is a very important aspect of our soul.

So we have a body,

We have a mind and we have a soul.

I like to think of the soul as the heart,

Spirit and the true mind,

Which is different to the rational analytical mind.

So we go further into that with other meditations.

It's extremely important to connect and know what our heart is and how to be with our heart and live from our heart.

So this kind of meditation is almost like a foundation for our spiritual life and our progress forwards,

As it were,

On the spiritual path.

So when we operate as many of us do from the rational analytical mind or the common mind in daily affairs,

We can very easily go astray and we never really know who we are and what we are.

We're kind of almost always lost in confusion.

The rational analytical mind is not part of the soul.

It's very good for making lists and making things practical,

But it's not very good for connecting with our identity as a universal being.

The rational analytical mind is part of the physical being on the physical plane,

The social person,

With a name and a personal history and so on.

So we're going to get comfortable.

You don't have to sit cross-legged or anything.

You can sit in a chair.

It is important that the back is straight.

The spine needs to be straight,

But not in a forced way.

So we just want the chest to be lifted a little bit and I want you to be comfortable and just relax for a few moments.

It's a very good thing to take a few breaths to settle us in to this meditation.

So we'll just take a few nice deep,

Full,

But comfortable breaths in.

Mouth or nose doesn't really matter.

It is better through the nose,

But no issue.

It's also good just to hold the breath for a moment or two after you've breathed in,

Just to feel that everything stops really.

So the primary duality that we feel in our body is the breath,

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

And our heartbeat in the same area in the chest,

Pumping in and out,

Diastole,

Systole.

Let's take another deep breath,

Full breath,

Feel,

Put attention into the chest area.

No forcing,

Comfortable and easy.

And one more.

And feel that almost a sense of slight release and relaxation that comes in the nervous system,

Physical body sensation,

After we've taken a few just nice deep,

Full,

Comfortable breaths.

Breathe normally.

And I want us to feel the physical body in space.

I want us to feel the skin all over the body.

Try to relax the face as much as you can.

Get that feeling,

That sense of innocence back into the eyes.

It's a subtle feeling.

Open,

Relaxed,

Innocent eyes.

Give yourself a little bit of a smile,

An inner smile.

It's more softening of the tension in the face,

Relaxing the eyes and the jaw,

Relaxing the tongue.

If you need to,

You can certainly breathe some more.

Remember it is the exhalations to emphasize a little bit more,

The exhalations to release tension in the body.

Never force,

Try not to be contrived.

Just natural,

Easy,

Comfortable.

And let us be as present-minded as possible.

Be in this moment.

When we are using our attention this way,

To feel,

To notice the sensations,

In this case of the physical body,

The skin,

The feeling of the body.

When we use our attention this way,

It's very important to understand that we are taking our attention away from the rational analytical mind and we're focusing our attention into feeling.

And of course,

Feeling is the language of the heart.

So the first step to opening the heart is to connect with our attention into our feeling.

So feeling also arises from different sources.

We have lots of conditioned feelings,

So we need to be aware,

We need to be aware,

Recognize,

We have sensation or touch,

The physical body,

The skin,

Breathing.

This is a different category of feeling.

It's all good just to begin taking away our attention from the rational analytical mind.

We should do this every day for some time,

So we become more familiar in this present-minded state.

To not dwell in the past or the future,

At least for the time of this meditation.

To breathe quietly,

Naturally,

Easily and comfortably.

And to recognize and know that we are doing something specific with our attention and of course our awareness underneath our attention.

Observing is very important,

So I observe my feelings.

I am aware that I'm aware,

Awareness of awareness.

I know that I'm paying attention in a different way.

To do this,

We must be observing.

I feel my physical body,

I feel the sensations,

I feel the rise and fall of the breath.

If you're sensitive,

You can feel the heartbeat.

You may even be able to hear the heartbeat.

We need to be moving towards quietness,

Balance,

Centeredness,

Stillness and eventually emptiness and silence.

This is where the deeper heart becomes visible,

Becomes available,

As we have moved our attention further away from the busy analytical rational mind that is trying to work out everything,

Sometimes getting in a muddle.

So to open the heart and find clarity and sobriety,

Peace,

Balance,

Is to move our attention deeply into quietness,

Silence and emptiness,

Stillness.

Move into the observing mode,

Not to be caught up,

Immersed and therefore identifying with everything that's going on around us,

Which comes and goes anyway.

Nor to be caught up and immersed and therefore identified into our own emotional states,

Our own inner realm of internal dialogue,

Circling thoughts.

To find quietness,

Observing,

Silence and emptiness and stillness,

We move in to the domain of the heart.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the heart is what is known as direct knowing or silent knowledge.

This is true mind,

An aspect of our soul.

So it is only via our heart that we can come into direct knowing.

So this is intuition,

But it is a lot more than the common intuitions that all of us have.

This is moving into our true identity,

Away from heavy identification with our false identity.

The physical body comes and goes,

Our social person with our name and our job description and all the issues and things in our lives come and go.

This is a false identity.

It can be useful,

It can be enjoyable,

Functional,

Practical,

But it is not our true identity as an eternal living soul.

We only find this in the heart and there's no coincidence that the lungs and the breathing are right where in the body with the physical heart.

So our spirit and our heart work very closely together and our true mind is the mind of direct knowledge,

Direct knowing without analytical rational thought.

This is only found in quietness,

Silence and emptiness.

It is only found as we become more and more familiar with moving into the observer mode.

When we lose observer mode we fall asleep.

We fall asleep into deep identification with whatever is happening around us in the outside world or perhaps in a strong emotional inner state or a swirling ball of internal dialogue and thoughts so we can recognize the states that we're in.

And this is the value of practicing regularly this way,

Sitting quietly,

Feeling,

Relaxing,

Present-minded,

Coming into observer mode,

Moving towards quietness,

Silence and emptiness as we reach towards home.

The saying,

Home is where the heart is,

Is very true.

Home is our original being,

Our original pure state of awareness,

Attention and consciousness.

We'll sit quietly for another minute or two and then close off this opening the heart meditation.

So I wish you all well,

In peace,

Health and balance and joy,

Fulfillment and contentment as we move forward with this practice,

Reconnecting with our heart spirit and true mind,

Our soul.

Namaste.

Reviews

Many thanks for this wonderful, quiet and peaceful meditation and reflections on observing the differences between our rational-analytical mind and our soul. Namaste 🤓🙏🏻