Life’s journey – the way of the heart…

There is a force within us that inspires us to seek. We set forth on this journey of life to achieve something, to improve ourselves, to unfold our potential, to become better people, to seek the source of our heart. This force is both courageous and inspiring; and because of it, our lives are tremendously dynamic and filled with myriad possibilities and experiences. After having traveled through many phases of life, perhaps our journey brings us to the door of inner reflection. When this time comes, a special magic opens in our life because we embark on a finer thread – a more lucid pathway. Where largely we were unaware of many things occurring in and around us, now small signals become significant, subtle movements and energies tell us whole stories. As we investigate the subtle consciousness within ourselves, our lives begin to change profoundly. We start realizing how important our actions are, how important our words are, and how important our intent is in each and everything we do. For this reason, because all of our actions come from within, we begin to pay great attention to our inner mechanism, our heartspace, how it functions and why is it that we do the things we do.

In the process of our inner study, we begin to question how free we are as beings moving in the world. We question what is our potential, what we desire from life, what is happiness and where are we going. We take a deep look within ourselves and ask – ‘Am I satisfied with my current state of awareness and manifestation’? If not, why is that? What is missing or what is lacking? Perhaps the desire to understand the subtle nature within ourselves becomes even more acute as we attempt to the bridge the gap between the obvious reality of the manifest world, and this inner world of consciousness, awareness and life in its pure, unseen form.

As we begin to take initiative and become purer inside - we begin to realize that our heart underlies and permeates all of our action. We realize that our outer manifestation and what we create in this world is a direct mirror of our inner space of consciousness. It becomes apparent that if our inner understanding of ourselves is clear and strong, then so shall our outer manifestation follow, and so shall our lives flow in accord easily and effortlessly, and with great awareness will we be able to love and be loved. Then how important it is to ensure that our inner understanding of ourselves is topnotch! How we accomplish this is accordant with our inner vision. We will naturally be drawn to different practices, teachings and philosophies based on our various constitutions and natures. How perfect this is! And hence, the wide variety of approaches to the way of the heart.

The way of the heart includes not only developing compassion within us. It encompasses developing a practical and skillful discrimination. We realize that in order to be true to ourselves we must know when to invoke, for example, the role of the tiger that stands strong and does not back down and run in the time of difficulty, while at other times we must know when to carry the spirit of the gazelle that is light and agile on its feet and can leap beyond obstacles and obstructions. After some study, we see that to accomplish this feat we must first look inward to find out from where our power comes, and as the nature of this power becomes tangible, we find ourselves very naturally employing that power in the field with heart and discrimination. From this point, we can check the degree of strength, the character of wisdom, the quality of heart that we have acquired along the way and refine our journey as necessary.

Our time here on earth is very precious. If our journey has brought us to the point where we recognize the importance of cultivating our inner subtle awareness, then we must be true to ourselves and continue this journey. It is our duty to expand this channel and aid others on their journey and offer support and inspiration where it can be given. We are living in a time when many ideas can be shared without persecution and there is a great openness and unity of philosophy and practice amongst people on the path of awareness. This paves a way for great potential for transformation and opening of the heart.

I wish everyone success on his/her journey!

August 2001