A Valentine's Day message;
"How to open your heart"

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love."--Sophocles

My beloved teacher of meditation Hilda Charlton believed that the easiest path to liberation was by following the path of the heart (bhakti).  To her love was the most powerful force in the universe and that love was the answer to the question how.  She would bang at us, her students incessantly, "open your heart, if you want to come into your power, you must open your heart."  In spiritual practice we often hear those words but what do they really mean and how do you go about doing it? Now you yoga buffs know that the fourth chakra in the chest is the yogic heart chakra.  It is described as an energy vortex that's the receptacle of compassion, service and unconditional love.  When a yogi or any spiritual adept raises their conscious awareness to the fourth chakra, they have evolved beyond their little ego self and have arrived in the domain of the sacred.  In the 1960's Dr. Richard Alpert, a.k.a. Ram Dass inspired so many of us on our spiritual journeys with his best selling spiritual cookbook, Be Here Now.  In regard to the spiritual leap of consciousness from the lower, self absorbed ego centered chakra's to the fourth, Ram Dass wrote,  "If you had crossed the first great barrier (between the third and fourth charkas) so completely that all your energy was localized in the fourth chakra, then you would experience only the compassionate feelings of the brotherhood of the Spirit with all other beings.  Whether in a sexual embrace or in a business or social contact, the only feeling towards the other person would be of "us-ness.  Since you would no longer have any investment in yourself as a lower separate ego entity, all of your actions would be in perfect harmony with all the forces acting in the field at that moment.  You would be living in the Tao."

So we know when your heart is open it's not about you anymore.  You feel connected to the spirit, a love and kinship with all living things. And when you consciously take a deep heartfelt breathe a smile comes to your lips and your eyes blaze with an inner fire.  Your life becomes about service, about unconditional love.  You no longer see yourself as a victim, only a vehicle for teaching, for healing, for uplifting and serving those you come into contact with. You are about your fathers work; it's no longer a personal issue or about your personal success.  It's your ego, your smaller self that takes things personally. Your higher self can never play victim. In a Sunday sermon, Dr. Martin Luther King repeated the biblical reference, "He that would be first among you shall be your servant," and continued by saying, "The thing I like about it..., by giving that definition of greatness...it means, that everybody can be great...because everybody can serve."  So this Valentines Day, to begin the process of opening your heart, think outward.  Wherever you go, believe you are sent. Don't go to get something, go to share something.  Remember the secret of friendship is being a friend.  The secret of love is to give love and the secret of healing is to do healing.  You've heard me say many times that the Prime Directive on this planet, the reason you are here is to Grow in Everyway Possible and then to Serve, Uplift and Inspire wherever you may go.  Simply stated, the purpose of life is to Grow and Serve! Happy Valentine's Day.
  
Remember, "He who is not busy being born, is busy dying." Bob Dylan
 
In Memoriam: CT Tucker, the front man and lead singer of one of my all time very favorite bands the Blue Sparks, recently passed away. Tucker was an amazing individual who along with his band mates sincerely improved the quality of our lives. We love you Tucker, save us a good seat on the other side.