Opening Our Heart
Opening Our Heart
Podcast Transcript 29.05.2016
Speaker: Rohan
There is a word used a lot in spiritual circles. Spiritual circles that actually are looking for the truth, rather than an improvement of the person, which is the wrong direction.
Not adding anything to themselves, that we have to take away later, doubling their work, perhaps even more. There is nothing to add, we were perfect all along.
The word is surrender.
Every true master, who’s not in silence uses this word, or, another representation of this word, allowing, let go, give up, be silent, drop it. The reason, this word, or the series of this word that are used, is because they work. The teachers or masters were taught this, or they work it out themselves, as being a doorway. The doorway is seeing the truth, the truth, of what we are. No matter what we think; but, if we live as a thinker, this will be hidden from us. Surrender, let go, and allowing, are very simple words, that are not simple to do, for most people. It’s a practice. And as we begin this practice, we fail many, many times. And we once again, simply surrender to that failing. And failing is a funny word, it’s a process, and the mind has its habits, so it’s natural that it is not going to automatically happen, so even failing is not a correct word, it’s just how it is.
There might be the extremely rare person that without practicing, it just happens, but they have done the work in the past. So, for the rest of us, for the rest of us, it’s a practice. And the beautiful thing is, if you practice long enough, eventually, it becomes the norm, or normal to be this way.
A master violinist didn’t become a master violinist by looking at his violin and thinking about it; they practiced. They made countless mistakes along the way, but they kept practicing. For every one master violinist there is a thousand or ten thousand… a lot, that didn’t become a master. Sure, the more a bit of natural inclination for the violin master, but the fact that you are even reading these words now, and got this far through, which will be extremely dull to people who are not interested in such things, shows you have an inclination. Now, it’s practice. Yet surrender is a not doing. It is like the opening of a clenched fist. But if you hold your fist shut, and hold it for 30 seconds, it wants to open, YOU want to open, whether you realise it or not. This is nature, open is truth, closure, is false.
So, practice trust that for thousands of years, the ones that know, have been saying the same thing, at the core of their teaching. So practice, don’t get distracted. Practice the simplest simple. Usually, the mind wants to complicate the process, thinking it’s over the hill, or over the mountain metaphorically, it’s not. It’s already here, inside. It always was, and always will be.
There’s an old Zen parable along this these lines, where, to cut a very long story short; if you lost your keys in the house, why would you look for them in the street? The keys are in the house. Look in the house, they are inside you. Never outside, ever. Be still. Let go. Touch your hand on your heart. Feel where it is, put your attention where your hand was when you remove it, and open, open, open, open.
If you lose it, put your hand back, and feel that space again, where your hands touched your body, and remove your hands and open your heart, open, open, open.