Meditations to Open the Heart
A remarkable opportunity is available to us through the a meditation method that embraces learning how to open the heart. While we are meditating, we are learning to be non-resistant to the various thoughts, images and feelings that come up, to simply be there and experience whatever is going on within. This non-resistance, this inner lack of censorship, allows the deeper feelings to rise to the surface. Often, these feelings are ones that we have rarely, if ever, acknowledged, and some of them may be quite potent.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that addicts do so well when they participate in a regular meditation practice. One cannot practice denial when they’re practicing a non-resistant meditation method. The feelings that may arise, the inner perceptiveness that will naturally open up, creates a natural consciousness of the truth within us. As a matter of fact, the difficulty that some people have with meditation could probably be traced to the fact that they are immediately faced with ideas and feelings that they expend a lot of effort in avoiding during “normal” consciousness.
If we are willing to continue the meditative practice even in the face of this phenomenon, very deep healings can take place. We all have “stuff” that we use to protect ourselves from emotional pain. In meditation it isn’t necessary to bring in these defenses, since there’s no one there to defend against. Therefore, if an unpleasant thought or feeling arises, we need do nothing. I repeat, we need do *nothing.* All that has to happen is that we permit ourselves to just exist with that thought or feeling, let it run its course or simply be there with it. Inevitably, the energy from it will drain away if we are not adding energy to it by our resistence. Frankly, the outcome is a new level of personal sanity. The mind is no longer “bent” in the direction of or the direction away from that thought or feeling.
As we get comfortable and accustomed to our emotions being safe to experience, our heart will naturally open. This is simply a case of familiarity. As we get used to feeling our feelings and thinking our thoughts without inhibitions, we learn that this isn’t such a dangerous method to incorporate into our meditating afer all. The special nature of meditation is that the more we do it, the more that we get out of it, so it just gets better and better. Using meditations to open the heart not only aids in healing our emotional pain, but it also brings opportunity to experience peace of mind.
