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Nondual Highlights: Issue #2885, Saturday, July 28, 2007, Editor: Mark
There is a channel between voice and presence,
a way where information flows.
In disciplined silence the channel opens.
With wandering talk, it closes.
- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, Unseen Rain, posted to
Sunlight
Silence is the sea,
and speech is like the river.
The sea is seeking you:
don't seek the river.
Don't turn your head away from
the signs offered by the sea.
- Rumi, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, from Rumi:
Jewels of Remembrance, posted to AlongTheWay
"...this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be
filled with God. There is only room for one."
Surrender is the process of gradually emptying out the self
identity so there is more and more room for God.
- Xan, responding to a quote from Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan on
SufiMystic
When we are empty of ego we, too, can carry on in calm acceptance
of life's varying events.
When we cease making prejudicial distinctions - gentle or harsh,
beautiful or ugly, good or bad - a peaceful stillness will
permeate our mind. If there is no ego, there is no agitation.
- Master Han Shan, posted to DailyDharma
Joseph wrote:
Bill, I feel a bit clearer now on what I want to ask. I would
like you to share with me some practical examples of what you are
talking about. What you wrote does make sense to me on an
intellectual level yet I think that knowing what you applied and
what the resultant changes were would be most helpful for me to
gain a real understanding of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes Joseph, and first though, something very important I want to
say to you.
Are you aware of the very heartful vulnerability with which you
have been sharing here today?
Are you aware that there is nothing...NOTHING... that takes
greater courgage?
And what greater gift can one give to others than that?
I suggest that to be heartfully vulnerable before others is the
greatest gift that anyone can give.
It is love.
So you are already doing it.
---------------------------------------------
Now, as I turn to your request I would like to tell you first a
bit about my experience with the "path with heart" just
to give you an idea why that *is* enough, why it is absolutely
huge.
I work in a residential treatment center for young adults that
have just been released from a hospitalization for a mental
health crisis. I work the night shift and only have a few hours
of contact with the clients on any day I work. And yet in 20
minutes here, 10 minutes there, I see miracles of transformation.
The amount of time I am engaged with any one of them is tiny. Yet
I see miracles. How can this be?
As I see it I am speaking to them in a simple, direct, heartful
manner. I have become very deeply grounded that way and am able
to speak to them with a complete openness and clarity. I do get
caught up in the emotions really, but am able to see through
their "veils", to see *them* in a direct, authentic way
that mostly they have not experienced much of. It is very simple
really. I don't come up with much in the way of fancy answers
(though there are insights that I do share with them). The magic
comes from the fact that THEY FEEL SEEN. And it is riveting for
them. A profound connection establishes between us... as if both
are transported into a timeless place... and the communication
that happens in that place is, so much of it, a speaking of
silence... of deep waves of knowingness in which both are
touched, in which both find communion.
As I see it, in that interaction what is happening is that as I
come so fundamentally from my truth they, like a resonating
tuning fork, come into alignment with theirs. It is not
"me" really, that is connecting to them, it is Truth
within me connecting with Truth in them.
So as I see it, in becoming authentically who I am, in really and
wholly investing my life in that one thing, which means, as
Jani's favorite (and mine too) quote says, to thine own self be
true... in losing myself into that one complete commitment to
honesty, to finding and being authentically who I am... I become
one with Truth.
What could be more powerful than that?
What could be more transformative than that?
What greater love could there be than that?
That, at least, is my way, my path, the only one I know.
--------------------------------------------------------
This next piece charts the path. Consider it a big picture
outline.
The Path with Heart
1. We can live by the mind or we can live from the heart. We must
choose. We cannot serve two masters.
2. Living from the heart starts with abiding in the heart. There
is no greater way to love oneself than to abide in the heart.
3. We typically have a lot of wounds in our heart. By abiding in
the heart these wounds come up and we can begin to heal. This is
an arduous process, but it is what we must do to heal. It is
having compassion for ourself to do this.
4. As our heart becomes less covered with pain and we continue to
abide in the heart we become more and more able to live in the
Now and to enjoy the sweetness of Now.
5. Continuing to abide in the heart and living in Now our heart
opens up and Love begins to flow through us. As Love flows
through us we begin to see with the Eyes of Love. When we see
with the Eyes of Love, there is no judgement. We see the Divine
in everyone.
The "leap of faith" is to live from one's heart. It is
the path of transformation. In so doing everything changes. How
we see, how we feel, how we be, it all changes.
----------------------------
And now a detailed guide on how to carry out an "abiding in
the heart":
Abiding in the Heart
For abiding in the heart, I do not recommend concentrating on the
physical heart, nor on any sense of heart "chakra"
either.
I can tell you what has worked for me. Perhaps it will be
effective for you.
My approach to the heart is to pay attention to my feelings. By
feelings I mean something different than emotions, though
emotions are related.
Have you ever walked into a store or restaurant and gotten a
weird creepy feeling about the place? Many people tend to ignore
such feelings but one can develop a sensitivity to one's feelings
and learn to honor them. This is also called "listening to
one's gut".
So the first step is paying attention to and becoming very
sensitive to one's feelings. Some will find such awareness and
sensitivity to feeling automatic and natural. For others it will
not be. In any case, awareness and sensitivity to feeling is
essential to "abiding in the heart".
The next step in learning to abide in the heart is paying
attention to and becoming very sensitive to the feelings *within
oneself*. These are feelings that arise more from within than in
response to the environment. They can be feelings of
apprehension, an ache in the heart, longing, etc. These feelings
can be generally categorized as "deep feelings". In my
case such feelings would typically be located in the chest area.
What I am emphasizing here are feelings that have the quality of
a *physical sensation*. There will typically be an emotional
content aspect, such as "apprehension", but also a
physical sensation, which will typically be in the chest area.
When these "inner feelings" arise, my practice has been
to become very aware of the feelings. If possible get away from
distracting external stimuli so one can devote one's attention to
the feelings that are coming up. Begin to "zoom in" on
the feelings. Go into it more and more until what was once a tiny
bleep on the radar now virtually fills the awareness. Pay special
attention to the sensations connected with the feelings.
Sometimes these sensations might be like a subtle pin prick, or a
kind of dullness, or an ache. The kinds of sensation I am
referring to are subtle. I am not speaking here of gross muscular
tension. In my case they are typically felt in the chest, but can
also occur in other places such as the pit of the stomach, solar
plexus, etc. And the real key here is that such sensations have a
special *poignancy*. They are vague, amorphous, and generally
unexplainable. The mind will want to go elsewhere. But the
practice of abiding in the heart is to say "No" to the
mind and to *go into* the subtly poignant feelings one may find
arising within.
Looking at the emotions takes us off into the psychological
content. That isn't what we want. The emotional aspect is
important for identifying something we need to go into, but once
it is recognized that something is "up", from that
point it is the "sensations" of the feelings that are
important.
Emotions are just thought that springs from feeling. Such
"psychological content" can be endlessly spewed forth
and gone into with no avail. The *cause* of the emotions, i.e.
that from which the emotions spring forth, is the embedded
encodings of feeling.
As we "zoom in" on these feelings the sensations start
getting richer and more complex. As we continue to "go
in" the feelings start to change as a result of more
awareness, richer perspective, and insight.
It is as if we have "freeze-dried feeling" in our
heart, but by bringing awareness to it a softening, a dissolving,
and expanding begins to happen. With the expanding there is a
seeing, a knowing, a deep apprehension of the quality and nature
of the embedded feeling-stuff. As the embedded material is
softened, expanded, and gone into the dross is burned in the
light of awareness. We begin to feel lighter, more open, as a
burden we have been bearing is released.
Note that it is not the embedded feelings that are what is
important. It is as if there were a cave wherein you knew there
was great treasure, but the passageway was obstructed by rocks,
branches, and other debris. In this image, the cave is the heart,
the treasure is the purity of deep feeling one comes to know by
entering into the heart. The debris obstructing the entryway is
the embedded feeling-stuff that must gone through and cleared in
order to enter the wonder of the heart.
Through much deep practice with "inner feelings" there
develops a sense of the "feeling center" where the
inner feelings worked on tend to arise. We are now starting to
develop a sense of the heart as a location for the emergence of
feeling. At this stage we are truly "abiding in the
heart". As this practice matures, we become more and more
able to stay in our "feeling center" while engaged in
our daily activities. We become more and more able, simply and
always, to Abide in the Heart.
- Bill Rishel, posted to The_Now2
There is a thread from the heart to the lips
where the secret of life is woven.
Words tear the thread
but in silence
the secrets
speak.
- Rumi, translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi, from Rumi:
Hidden Music, posted to Sunlight