Awakening to being can be considered as the goal for the seeker however as we are living on a planet with billions of other people, awakening to heart can be considered a higher awakening that will enrich the lives of many. The path of the heart is one of giving and selflessness and is sometimes referred to as “The Beauty Way”.
Seeker: Why is it more of a gift to awaken to heart than it is to awaken to being?
Vishrant: It’s a good question. Awakening to being is so beautiful, and being it is what we are. What we are is so beautiful; everybody is pure being. Quite often when people awaken to being they become very precious about it and they exclude the world to some degree; they play a game of ‘me and them’ still. They become precious with trying to protect the space they’ve found. They become selfish with it and if the ego is still around the place strongly enough, they become selfish and arrogant with it and can actually hurt other people. One of the symptoms, if you like, of awakening to being is fearlessness. There is no fear any more. There’s a certain freedom, you could say that you’re free, but it’s nowhere near as user-friendly as Heart.
Heart has value because it’s the only thing of value on this planet. Money doesn’t really have value, beauty doesn’t have value, power doesn’t have value. These things are all comings and goings that don’t really bring contentment or happiness. What really has value is love, heart, and what facilitates heart is openness. A continual non- resistance to whatever is appearing inside.
Most people in our society are quite closed, even though they often appear to be open. We live in quite a defended society. Unfortunately people pretend to be open. You can even do body language courses to pretend to be open when you’re really not. Genuine openness is lovely when you find it but it’s a little rare. Jesus said love your enemy but he didn’t tell anyone how.
People find being and they can still remain at some level closed, because they defend a position. They defend what’s here and they can play holier-than-thou games and hurt people with it. Heart will never do that. Heart just loves; it doesn’t have conditions on whether you’re a friend or an enemy. It just loves.
Seeker: Heart is pure?
Vishrant: Very pure. Being is pure too, it’s just that when a person starts to find being, ego is still quite often around the place somewhere.It usually lays claim to the experience and becomes arrogant with it, whereas, heart doesn’t claim anything, ever. It isn’t really interested in self. It isn’t really interested in protecting itself, it just wants to give everything for you and nothing for me. It just loves.
Seeker: So if heart is present it’s a true death of the ‘I’?
Vishrant: The I can die in being as well, absolutely, the I can disappear completely. It’s just a dangerous way to go, especially in the market place where we’ve got family and partners, jobs, employees or employers to deal with. The thing that’s valuable out here is heart, not being. Everyone is being anyway. Everyone is always being in being, whether you’re aware of it or not. What has value here is love. If there’s no love in your life, in a way there’s a sort of a bankruptcy. You know, even if you’ve got all the money, all the power, all the beauty in the world, if you haven’t got love there’s a certain bankruptcy. We can do a lot of things in the world to get power and money, even beauty these days, we can do a lot of doing to get. We stay closed and aggressive and violent to get these things but with regards to love it’s the opposite. It’s about surrender, it’s about openness, it’s about giving, it’s about being vulnerable, a continual let go, no defence at all, and this facilitates heart to appear in this house. You could say an open mind facilitates heart, a closed mind does not. Defensiveness closes us off.
Most people in our society are quite closed, even though they often appear to be open. We live in quite a defended society. Unfortunately people pretend to be open. You can even do body language courses to pretend to be open when you’re really not, but genuine openness is lovely when you find it, but it’s a little rare. Jesus said love your enemy but he didn’t tell anyone how. The only way you can love your enemy is if you’re totally open, totally undefended, even to your enemy, all the time. In that openness love appears and love loves. It’s up to you, always. Okay the funny thing about love is we don’t have any control over it. We think we do, the ego thinks it does but love is separate, it appears separately from the ego. The best we can do to facilitate love is to get out of the way, because any form of control is a closure, any form of manipulation is a closure, and the mind really only knows manipulation. The best it can do is to learn to let go, the best it can do.
The idea of a spiritual seeker being a lone meditator in a cave or needing to join a monastery is challenged in this article. The best place for heart to open and flower is in the marketplace where opportunities to practice openness, surrender, selflessness and generosity are presented.
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