So for today's heart practice meditation,
We'll be focusing on something we might call the spiritual heart.
You might think of the spiritual heart as somehow different from the emotional heart.
Emotional heart is a part of us that is very personal,
Connects to our emotions.
It might open or close depending on circumstances.
The spiritual heart we might consider as something that's always open,
Always radiating love,
Kindness,
Compassion.
So our practice today will be an experience of cultivating that spiritual heart and awareness of it.
This practice will seem to start not by being so much about a heart practice,
But rather an awareness practice,
But we'll transform it into a heart practice from there.
I invite you to go ahead and find yourself in a comfortable meditative position.
I invite you to begin by tuning into your breathing,
Remembering that you are breathing,
Tuning into the felt sense of your body,
And as you're tuning into the felt experiences of your body,
The various pressures and textures and temperatures,
Both internally and externally,
You might sense a kind of interplay or stream of experience,
One sensation and another and another,
Almost like a field of sensation,
Letting there be a kind of resting in the dance of all these varied sensations of the body.
And then you might tune into the awareness that registers these sensations.
So the sensations are there,
And there's awareness that knows the sensations,
That watches the sensations come and go.
See if you can tune a little more fully into the awareness that knows the sensations.
Awareness of awareness itself has a slightly different feel to it than simply awareness of sensation.
You might tune in for a few moments into the field of sound,
Noticing the variety of sounds here in the room,
And then tuning into the awareness that knows the sound.
The sound is there and something witnesses the sound,
Registers the sound.
What happens when I tune attention to the awareness itself?
The sound is there and something witnesses the sound.
And now turning your attention to the felt sense of emotion deep within your body.
You might notice different sensations of emotion.
Maybe there's naming though that's not so important here.
And then tuning in as best you can to the awareness that knows the sensations of emotion.
Something that registers,
Witnesses.
The sound is there and something witnesses the sound.
And then beginning to become aware of thoughts,
Thoughts as events in the mind without getting so caught up in the content.
Noticing each thought as it arises either fully or partially formed.
And then once again,
Noticing the awareness that knows the thoughts.
You might even sense that awareness is always present and that the thoughts come in and out of the awareness.
You can tune more to the awareness than to the thoughts.
And then letting yourself become aware of awareness of all of these experiences.
There's body sensations and sounds and emotions and thought.
And there's the awareness that knows them all.
Gradually letting yourself tune into the experience of the awareness that witnesses,
Registers,
Knows all of these experiences.
So awareness itself is colorless,
Shapeless,
Formless.
Awareness of awareness has an effect.
You might simply notice what is the effect of bringing awareness to awareness itself.
You might explore some of the qualities of awareness.
How much space does it take up?
What are its qualities?
How old is it?
How many people are there?
How many people are there?
How many people are there?
And now I'll invite you to bring this sense of awareness into your body,
Especially at the level of the torso.
Inviting awareness to take the form of what we might call the spiritual heart.
As we said before,
This spiritual heart is always open,
Always radiating.
Much like the sun is always radiating light.
The emotional heart is receiving much like the earth.
Sometimes the earth is clouded or turned away.
It's still receiving.
Taking the next few minutes,
I'll invite you in whatever form this takes,
Where the spiritual heart envelops or nurtures the emotional heart.
Allowing this open loving kindness to reach,
Touch your emotional heart.
Thank you.
You you you you you you Injustice to the sun radiates in all directions.
A fraction of its light reaching the earth.
So to the spiritual heart can radiate in all directions.
Some portion of that love that light reaching your emotional heart and the rest of it.
Shining out in all directions.
Without condition.
You might experiment with what that might be like.
Inviting a radiant spiritual heart.
To offer loving kindness and care and compassion in all directions.
Not so much it's yours,
But rather it comes through you.
You you Letting the radiance of this spiritual heart fall wherever it may.
Without condition.
Without expectation.
Without condition.
You.
Hafiz writes,
After all these years,
The sun never says to the earth,
You owe me.
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights up the whole sky.
You.
You.
You.
You.
You.
You.
You.
A few moments of you ringing the bell to end the meditation.
Before you open your eyes.
I'll invite you to form an intention.
To carry with you into your open eyed experience.
Some sense of the spiritual heart,
However,
It has shown up for you.
So that as you continue to move through your day,
Through our experiences here on retreat.
That somewhere at least in the background.
This sense of always open radiation of loving kindness.
Might be available.
And part of your consciousness.
