Inspiration
As a new breath enters your being, draw in the energies of acceptance and transparency.
Expiration
As you exhale, release the breath outward and offer life the qualities of grace and wisdom.
Feel the flow and movement of these forces through your being. Merge with their essence.
“Every natural action is graceful.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being gracious is revealed through one’s ability to blend and nurture the qualities of wisdom and compassion into action. When we are able to see clearly through situations that arise, allowing the vision of wisdom to flourish as we accept circumstances with ease and compassion, the blossoms of grace are born.
There is a natural order and flow to life. In yoga we call this rita. As we attune to the rita of life and the flow of the universe, we enter a state of grace. This attunement requires that we accept what is and manage situations accordingly. Without struggling or fighting against that which confronts us we become transparent. The gift of transparency is total acceptance. To be seen, and to see, with clarity and total honesty is a natural state of being. This innate and natural participation in life is the experience of being gracious. A bird does not complain when its nest is destroyed by a wind fallen tree, but rather it naturally begins to assess a new location as it gathers the materials necessary to restructure and rebuild…
As we recognize where we are mentally and what we are giving out (energetically), we begin to identify how we are affecting others, and thus, we recognize how they reflect back our inner nature. It is a subtle dance and with
willingness and awareness we become more and more accountable for what we put out and what we then receive back. Judgment, blame, and irritation become battles we have with ourselves as we refrain from projecting outward.
Every pair of eyes we meet is an opportunity to gaze into the sacred mirror of our soul – our memory and our mind. The more gentle we are to our neighbors, friends, families and lovers, the greater the gift toward expanding our awareness.
There is no enemy except unto thy self. Befriend your nightmare and your dreams will transform.
“That is fundamentally the only courage which is demanded of us: to be brave in the face of the strangest, most singular and most explicable things that can befall us.”
“For it is not only indolence which causes human relationships to repeat themselves with such unspeakable monotony, unrenewed from one occasion to another, it is the shyness of any new incalculable experience which we do not feel ourselves equal to facing.”
~Rilke
Much of our time is spent seeking to understand our purpose. As we cycle through the process of achieving inner peace, we strive to meet, accommodate, capture, and revel in moments of balance. The sun and the earth share a similar dynamic. The vernal equinox is a moment of harmony between the two planets and, since we are always in harmony with the forces of the universe, the equinox is also an opportunity to find balance within ourselves, at the center of our beings. It is a moment for being still, a moment between light and dark. It is an entry point into greater understanding and greater awareness. Creativity is born in this place. The winter months are a time to cultivate new ideas and develop objectives. Spring is a time to nurture their growth. If we listen, our purpose is unveiled, as life, continues to reveal itself.
“Music fills the infinite between two souls.” Tagore
Singing our heart’s song is being harmonious with life.
As we attune to the subtle, yet simple, call of duty we open to self-expression and enter harmony of being. When we do what we do naturally, with ease, we innately expand. The tendency to strive for more or less activates a desirous quality. This potentiality triggers proclivities. At that moment, we are given the opportunity to peer into the mind and gain insights into how it’s motivated.
Observe the tendency to nurture an idea that has a rhythm out of tune with your hearts song. Return to your inner harmony and develop the intricacies for a more precise and vital melody. In harmony, flow forward with vision and with wisdom honor where you’ve come from.
Sing into life and allow life to sing into you.
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” ~ Carl Jung
“What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Bénigne Bossuel
“Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” ~ French Proverb
In a meditative pose, attune yourself to a beautiful object or place. As the vision forms, hold your full attention and awareness to the image until you become completely immersed in it. Allow the feeling of beauty the object or place has evoked to fill you completely, penetrating your entire being. Stay attuned and absorbed in this energy as long as you’d like, sinking ever more deeply into the essence of beauty. Gently return to the outer world bringing forth this feeling with you.
The heart has been used as a symbol through time in many religious and mythological teachings to describe the center of being and to signify a state of illumination. It is no mistake that the heart symbol is often depicted in relation to both Christ and Buddha, two (of many) enlightened souls who have embodied and sustained a balanced state of heart-conscious awareness.
Being heart-centered is recognizing our dualist tendencies and being willing to overcome the proclivities that propel us toward a feeling of separation and disconnection. That which is divided, always returns home into the heart. In the Taoist tradition, there is a saying “You can only go so far into the forest before nature draws you back out again.” It is a law of nature. It is innate cyclical patterning. Karmic proclivities draw us away from our center (outward) causing a feeling of imbalance and disconnection. As we naturally work to balance this state, we move back to our center (inward). We move back to the heart of our being
Being heart-centered is honoring the radiance that is always with us, like the Sun itself. In this way, the Sun and the Heart are likened to one another. In yoga, the sun center is located at the ajna chakra, and within the sun center is a hidden center, so the mystics say. They refer to the second center as the moon.
The goal of hatha yoga is to join the sun (ha) and the moon (tha). The sun is symbolic of the sacred masculine and is active, while the moon is symbolic of the sacred feminine and is passive. Unifying these two opposing forces of nature brings about a state of illumination – balanced at the heart of being.
When our tendency is weighted — either too passive or too active — we move away from the heart. Taoism (meaning the way) dedicates its teachings to the art of being actively passive. And, as humans, we naturally seek a state of balance. Maintaining that state, however, is our practice.
Always remember, that from the heart of being beauty and abundance flows perpetually — without accumulating a thing.
Ask yourself. . .
What areas of my life am I being too active or too passive?
How can I bring more heart-centered awareness into my being?
What draws me away from my heart-centered being?
What’s your Motivation?
“Guard your thoughts and before imparting them to others, cover them will honey… You just never know when you might have to eat them. Understand that a word only has power if the mind-thought is behind it.”
Goswami Kriyananda
Always attempt to understand what motivates your outward projection. Try to see and understand the energy (force) behind the words you speak and come to know where your thoughts originate.
We are all very sensitive beings and we tend to become entangled in our emotions, often losing sight that others may have done the same. Be kind and gentle to yourself and your neighbor – remain always neutral. Do not get easily upset by the words of others and do not upset yourself when others are offended by yours.
“Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” ~ Hermann Hesse
“Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
Through return to simple living Comes control of desires. In control of desires Stillness is attained. In stillness the world is restored.” ~ Lao Tzu
“One’s action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be mere rushing on.” ~ D.H. Lawrence
“I am glad that so much movement happens in this stillness.” ~ Richard Land
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