Talk: Different Routes To The Heart

Learning to connect to and openening the heart can become a supportive and central way to connect to how we are doing and releasing states of mind and heart that are obstructing us from connecting to peace and happiness. But for some of us connecting to the heart might still feel unclear or vague, or purely aspirational. Often we don't realize that there are many entry ways in various emotions like friendliness, compassion, gratitude, rejoicing, that can connect the us to the heart, many we already know.

Transcript

Welcome to this sharing about meditation practice. This sharing I intend to give some ideas of how to connect to the heart. It's quite nice because there are actually many different ways, Many different emotions, Emotional states that we can connect to, That connect us to the heart. But first I might talk for a bit about connecting to the heart, Because it might sound vague or unclear. Or different people might mean different things with that. When I talk about connecting to the heart, I guess there can be two aspects to it. One is that to have an increased awareness of how the heart feels. This can be in a way as simple as being aware of how the area around the physical heart feels. For many of us it might be that if we try to be aware of that, There might not be so much that we feel. But it's already a first step. So we might be aware of neutral feeling around the chest area. And then what we want to do is we want to have a certain awareness of how that area feels, How the heart feels. And then we want to start making some experiments with, In a way, Opening the heart. Again, Another term that sounds maybe fake to people. What does it mean to open the heart? But I think that many of us have had experiences of the heart opening moments or periods. It is in many ways a very normal human experience. Although some of us might, Over time, Find it harder and harder to connect to that too. Connect to the heart and feel an opening of the heart. But the idea also behind this sharing is to share some very relatable experiences that can connect us to a sense of the heart opening. Just to increase our understanding and increase our ability to connect to the heart. But this can also be used as a basis for deeper formal meditation practice as well. So let's just talk about some examples. Often we can be quite familiar with certain hard qualities, Maybe the experience of unconditional love, Compassion. A sense of rejoicing in other people's goodness, Equanimity. These are often used as a set of four complementary and very supportive to each other as well, Different wholesome, Skillful emotions. But some of them might also be harder for us to connect to in a natural way. We might have certain experiences of love or friendliness. And I think that's already a good one as well, To consider unconditional love in a milder form is friendliness. The feeling when somebody helps you or you help somebody, Especially when it's a stranger, There might not be such a deep relational component to it. You might not know them very well. But that can be a moment where we can feel an opening of the heart when somebody helps us in that way, Even a very simple way. And other experiences that we might have. For example, When there's a sense of gratitude about something. Maybe just spontaneously, Especially when we've had maybe a difficult time, When maybe we've been sick, And then there can be very naturally a sense of gratitude when we feel better again. It's somehow that contrast that helps us to remember and be aware of how good it is, The thing that we are experiencing now. Another experience that we sometimes might have is a sense of forgiveness, Even though for many of us that's also not always easy to access. Maybe when there's a. . . An experience of forgiveness from a person to us or from us to another person. Even if it is just a small moment. What is interesting is that, In a way, These are quite different emotional experiences, But they share a lot in common as well. And the most important aspect that they share in common is that there can be a sense of an opening of the heart we can feel. Can the whole heart area relax and open up? It's subtle at first, Maybe, But we can also become more attuned to that feeling of the heart opening. So when that happens, We might also be more aware of. . . Emotions in general might be more sensitive to people, So it can also be challenging in some ways when the heart opens. But also it can give us access to very profound emotional states. So when we used. . . Emotions that we can connect to, Maybe just very simple friendliness or a degree of gratitude or forgiveness. We can start to use that experience to understand better and connect more intuitively to what it means for the heart to open. That we can also experience with, Can I find my way to compassion? Compassion can be there when we see somebody suffer and we would wish for them not to suffer. Especially if it's somebody where we can relate to well. Maybe they have some difficulty that we faced, That we have overcome. And so in this way, With different emotions, We can slowly start to train in a way. Although if training sounds too heavy, You don't need to think of it in that way. I guess to a degree there can be that kind of training aspect, Like the aspect of intentionality, To make some time for it and to reflect in a certain way and experiment and find some enjoyment, Interest in that, Playfulness almost, I would say. Being able to connect to more of these wholesome and skillful emotions and maybe you connect to it for a moment but the more we can dwell in it we can also remain in that energy and we can interact with people from more warmth, More openness, And more compassion. So that's just. In a way, The basic principle I wanted to share that. . . Yeah, Actually all these different emotions, We can explore them and we can see that they have something in common, An experience where the heart opens, Where the heart softens. And we can get more and more attuned to that feeling and that sense in the heart and also in our day-to-day activities. We can use that and come back to that and see when the heart is closing, When we don't have warmth or softness. And be skillful about that. So I want to offer this for your reflection and also practice, Seeing what ways you can take this with you in the day, Maybe setting some time apart every day to connect to one of these emotions or maybe one or two of them. The end of the day reflect on things you're grateful for. Try to forgive people when you notice that the mind is not forgiving at this time. And then also value the. . . The habit or the experience of being able to connect more to your heart and keep the heart more open. And keep exploring these wholesome emotions and how they can support you in your life and in your practice. I will leave that for your reflection and hereby we come to the end of this session. All the best.