To: K-list
Recieved: 2004/03/11 10:46
Subject: FW: Re: [K-list] grieving
From: Rene Quintus
On 2004/03/11 10:46, Rene Quintus posted thus to the K-list:
Robert
I came across a text about opening of the heart chakra, might relate to your
experience...
Regards,
René
The Open Heart
by El Collie
In many spiritual traditions, it's considered the greatest blessing when the
heart chakra awakens. Many regard this the most important energy center of
the human psyche. The heart -- or fourth -- chakra is located at the center
of the chest. When this chakra begins to awaken, a variety of sensations and
physical symptoms can arise. Often there is a pronounced pressure or
heaviness in the chest. This can sometimes interfere with breathing. All
kinds of discomfort can riddle this area. The milder disturbances may take
the form of fleeting, shooting pains; muscle tensions or the feeling of
having wrenched a muscle in the front or back of the chest; dull aching;
chest congestion; stabbing pains; vibrating sensations; heart palpitations;
irregular or rapid heartbeat and so forth. There can also be more severe
pain: a feeling of being impaled by a stake through the center of the chest;
a sense of the heart area being ripped open; or even symptoms that
convincingly mimic a heart attack. Often there is heat focused in this area
when the chakra is awakening. This may feel like a warm, glowing sensation
or a feeling of incandescence, with the chest blazing hot as a furnace.
After my heart chakra awakened, I discovered that whenever I was in the
presence of anyone who felt sad, I would feel a dark weight on my chest. And
when I was with anyone who was directing love toward me, my chest would
become very warm. Alan Arkin noticed this same heat in his chest when
reading inspirational literature or poetry (Halfway Through The Door: An
Actor's Journey Toward the Self). As the heart awakens, profound emotional
changes frequently occur. The heart seems to both literally and figuratively
break, releasing torrents of sadness and grief. For about six months prior
to my acute "illness," I was having periodic bouts of labored breathing (my
chest felt very constricted). During this same period, I was often overcome
with intense compassion for people. I would be easily moved to tears upon
hearing of any adversity in my friends' lives. This was not maudlin pity,
but a deep sadness at the spiritual opaqueness of the world. Everyone evoked
sweet-sad, deeply affectionate and reverent feelings in me; I felt such
innocence and beauty in them all. There are many transcendent states that
can accompany the heart awakening. Numinous beings of love and light may
appear. Deep feelings of gratitude, joy and bliss may arise. A sense of the
incredible beauty of all creation can be staggering. Tears of rapture can
flow as easily and uncontrollably as tears of sorrow. Realization of unity
with the divine and/or with all existing beings is dramatic at this time.
Tremendous feelings of appreciation and compassion arise. Every sentient
being is felt as precious. Often, the suffering of all living beings can be
acutely felt. At this stage, people may find that they cannot eat meat or
even pick a flower, so exquisite is their awareness of the suffering of
other living things. Along with this heightened empathy is often an
obsessive desire to do something to raise the consciousness of others and to
bring about healing for all. At this point, many people become ardently
involved in causes or other concrete actions to benefit others. Much good
can come of this. But in the early stages, the compelling urge to help can
become evangelical zeal: instead of offering assistance to others, we may
try to force our aid and insights upon them. Even with the best intentions,
this tactic is counterproductive. As perilous and urgent as the situation
seems, it's not within our capacity or our responsibility to save the world
(or anyone in it) single-handedly. In The Ultimate Transforma- tion, Dr.
R.P. Kaushik says that those who are ready to receive what we have to give
(or to teach) will be magnetically drawn to us when the time is right. "So
never be in a hurry to uplift other people," he advises. Of course, when one
is aflame in a proselytizing frenzy, such wisdom falls on deaf ears.
Usually, we have to knock ourselves out (and suffer many head-on collisions)
before we learn to detach from the compulsion to do good. In my own
experience, and that of others who have spoken to me about this, the heart
doesn't remain in this heightened condition for the duration of the
transformational process. Rather, it seems to move through cycles of
recognizable peaks and plateaus. To those who have experienced the super
sensitivity of the wide open heart, these plateaus may seem regressive. Sri
Chinmoy compares the chakras to windows which may open for awhile, then shut
down. "Sometimes," he says, "[the heart] opens for a few seconds, a few
minutes, or a few days; then it may close again." (Kundalini: The
Mother-Power) Although the chakras may open suddenly, they generally take a
long time to be fully activated. This gradual processs allows us to
acclimate to these extraordinary energies. What appears to be periods of
relapse or regression are more likely periods of refinement and harmonizing.
As powerful and "saintly" as the newly awakened heart consciousness can be,
it is simply too overwhelming for most of us to sustain this heightened
state indefinitely. We need to assimilate these experiences, and to be able
to move from them back into our ordinary human concerns again. To me, it
seems that the entire transformational process is not merely an elevator
that delivers us to a "higher" level of awareness. Evolution is a continuum,
though we rarely progress in a linear fashion. Even if we seem to be at a
standstill or moving backwards, in actuality, it's a long, intricate process
of expansion and balance.
>
>At 07:29 PM 03/03/2004, robert hoffman wrote:
>>I have felt a near constant upsurge of grief these last weeks that I
>>cannot attribute particularly. I have bceome immensely sensitive to the
>>interconnectedness of all things, the aliveness, oneness, and dear
>>intimacy of all things. But each morning as I pray I end up sobbing over
>>I do not know what, and sometimes I am laid naked for the day, so
>>fragile I can barely hold my composure. Friends familiar with K say it
>>is natural healing as deep awareness of the truth of being breaks down
>>all notions that I might hold or had held that conflict with such truth.
>>But I sense it also is empathy for how lost so many seem to be, and for
>>how lost I had been. I see so much waste and pain, so much lunacy, and I
>>do not know what to do so I just cry because it is so very sad to see.
>
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