“In difficult times, keep something beautiful in your heart.” ~J. O’Donohue
I am currently creating an online course called “Radiant Heart“. It is, at the core, a group exploration of a number of Classical Buddhist texts that provide the philosophical foundation for the practices of yoga and meditation that we have available to us now. On a practice level, the course offers very accessible techniques for making meditation a part of daily life. On an energetic level, facilitating this course is requiring me to re-think the heart as a seat of intelligence. Asking what my heart wants has always seemed a little frivilous, but the more that I read these texts and the more that I consider what is at risk if I don’t open the lines of communication with my heart, I see that it is of great importance that I both ask and listen.
In one of the textbooks for the course, A Little Book of Love by Moh Hardin, we find this quote from “The Buddha” (no reference for source is provided):
“It is in this way that we must train ourselves: by liberation of the self through love. We will develop love, we will practice it, we will make it both a way and a basis, take our stand upon it, store it up, and thoroughly set it going.”
Today, Earth Day, I am also thinking of a quote from Tagore, “Trees are the Earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” When the spring trees blossom and there is that lush bright hopeful green splashed across the still empty branches, it’s like the trees are reaching out to heaven with a display of their hearts. The movement of water through their veins and the warming light of the sun mixing to support this magnificent and clear communication of life and beauty. I think that if I learn to ask my heart it’s desire, wait for the answer and act on it that I will be like these trees. The beauty will show in my actions, my appearance and in my life narrative.
If you are interested in reading these Buddhist texts and the breathing, movement and meditation techniques that are designed to enter into deep communication with the heart, there is still time to register for the course. Yoga teachers can earn 15 CEU credits for maintaining registration with Yoga Alliance. DETAILS, SYLLABUS & REGISTRATION HERE
