"Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces."
- Rumi
“So your first job is to work on yourself. The greatest thing you can do for another human being is to get your own house in order and find your true spiritual heart.”
- Ram Dass
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
- Rumi
...
Hello friends :) This past week, we read chapter 6 of The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. Last week, chapter 5, "Infinite Energy", explored our inner energy and how many of us have created a belief that we have a finite amount of energy, when our energy is really a reflection of how open we are... how open our hearts are. This post, "The Secrets of the Spiritual Heart", expands on this concept, by explaining why and how our hearts close.
Below are some notes from the chapter, as well as a journal prompt for further exploration.
Chapter 6: The Secrets of the Spiritual Heart
Few people understand the heart. The heart in reference here not being the organ pumping blood, but that place within you that feels... our emotions. The heart does its work unattended... its behavior governs the course of our lives, yet it is not understood.
If you don't think that your feelings govern your life, think again. Every choice you've ever made was based on an emotion. Even if you don't consider yourself and emotional person, you still experience them. We make our decisions, usually based off of fear... which can manifest as sadness, anger, greed, jealously, insecurity... and we are not usually conscious that we do this, but trace the meaning of your actions to the source, and you'll find that they are all based in an emotion. Ideally, we would base our actions out of love... out of joy, connection, generosity, service, devotion, loyalty, peace, and the greater good... but this requires us to act from the higher mind, as opposed to the survival reptilian brain.
Anyways... here's an opening passage from the chapter: If at any given point in time the heart happens to open, we fall in love. If at any given point in time the heart happens to close, the love stops. If the heart happens to hurt, we get angry, and if we stop feeling it all together, we get empty. All of these different things happen because the heart goes through changes. These energy shifts and variations that take place in the heart run your life. You are so identified with them that you use the words "I" and "me" when you refer to what's going on in your heart. But in truth you are not your heart. You are the experiencer of your heart.
The heart is simple to understand. It is an energy center. You experience this when your heart fills with love, inspiration, or excitement. The heart allows life force energy to flow into you... we feel this flow strongly when the heart is open... and we feel it weakly when the heart is closed. It's like a valve, either allowing or restricting energy flow. We experience this happening, sometimes quite suddenly, such as when we are with someone, feeling love for them, and suddenly they say something we don't like and we close.
So... what causes the heart to close? To live a full and joyous life, we want the heart to be open... and to stay open. We aren't protecting ourselves by closing, we are only hurting ourselves by cutting ourselves off from life.
The heart closes because it becomes blocked by stored, unfinished energy patterns from your past. In yoga, these are called Samskaras. As we move through life, much of the sensory input flows right through us... but some experiences, we either cling to or push away; this creates a Samskara.
The book provides an example of a man who is driving, all of the trees and cars and buildings passing by unbothered... and then suddenly a light blue mustang catches his eye. Why? Because it's the same car his girlfriend drives. And it looks like 2 people are hugging in the front seat. Obviously, this creates a hurtful Samskara. He never brings it up to her, it may not have even been her, but the impression is still there. Many years later, and they've long since gone their separate ways, the man drives with his family having a lovely day, and then, there it is, a light blue mustang. Instantly, that Samskara is triggered, his heart closes, and the man went from having a beautiful drive with his family to being in a bad mood because he was triggered by the past.
Although some of those past traumas or delights are valid, at some point we recognize that they aren't making us happy - they are holding us back from living a loving and purposeful life. They are cutting us off and blocking us from life as it's happening right now... because we are so preoccupied with consciously or unconsciously reacting to and avoiding our triggers.
As we bring these triggers and patterns into the light of our awareness, each time, they begin to lose their power over us. We don't need to go searching for all of our triggers, but as they arise, we can recognize what is happening and choose to release their hold on us, instead of feeding into them. Maybe we can't do this every single time, and that's okay! This is an endless journey of recognizing and letting go... and the result is a more free and joyful life... an open heart... autonomy and control over our lives instead of passively allowing our triggers to control us.
According to yogic philosophy, this process causes the samskaras to become increasingly weaker, we react less to them when they're triggered, until at some point the Samskara becomes dormant, and we aren't triggered by it at all.
Let's end with a potent passage from the book: You are either trying to push energies away because they bother you, or you are trying to keep energies close because you like them. In both cases, you are not letting them pass, and you are wasting precious energy by blocking the flow through resisting and clinging. The alternative is to enjoy life instead of clinging to it or pushing it away. If you can live like that, each moment will change you. If you are willing to experience the gift of life instead of fighting with it, you will be moved to the depth of your being. When you reach this state, you will begin to see the secrets of the heart. The heart is the place through which energy flows to sustain you. This energy inspires you and raises you. It is the strength that carries you through life. It is the beautiful experience of love that pours through your whole being. This is meant to be going on inside you at all times. The highest state you have ever experienced is simply the result of how open you were. If you don't close, it can be like that all the time. Don't sell yourself short. This can go on all the time-unending inspiration, unending love, and unending openness. That is the natural state of a healthy heart. To achieve this state, simply allow the experiences of life to come in and pass through your being. If old energies come back up because you were unable to process them before, let go of them now. It's that easy. When that light blue Mustang drives by and you feel fear or jealousy, just smile. Be happy that this Samskara, which has been stored down there for all this time, has the opportunity to make it through you. Just open, relax your heart, forgive, laugh, or do anything you want. Just don't push it back down. Of course it hurts when it comes up. It was stored with pain; it's going to release with pain. You have to decide if you want to continue to walk around with stored pain blocking your heart and limiting your life. The alternative is to be willing to let it go when it gets stimulated. It only hurts for a minute and then it's over.
So, you have a choice: Do you want to try to change the world so it doesn't disturb your Samskaras, or are you willing to go through this process of purification?
Journal Prompt:
What are your current top 3 samskaras? What are the experiences that trigger you the most? Write them down to make them conscious. Recognize how much they affect you. Maybe even write down how they affect you... and the freedom you'd experience if you weren't affected by them. Finally, make the decision to start now. Release their power over you, even if it feels miniscule. And each time they arise, it will become a little easier and a little easier to let go more and more.
next week: chapter 7, transcending the tendency to close
dream extreme!
♡ kat
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