Andreas Gruber - The Power of Being

Why would this interest you? I think the Indian chakra system gives a pretty good insight as to how we may function on a subtle level. There is a life force flowing through our bodies when it is there we are alive when it goes missing our life ends. This life force not only supplies the vital organs with energy, but also with subtle information, or maybe it's even more correct to say it activates information within us.

Depending on how this energy flows our wellbeing and state of mind will be influenced. In this system, that dates back more than 2,000 years in India; the heart represents deeply spiritual and human qualities. The three most prominent qualities that concern this book are compassion, courage, and interconnectedness. These three result in honesty, integrity, etc., and these again result in actual motivation, inspiration, meaning, and purpose. And who doesn't need or want that? Many of the leaders I know would be among the first to strive for these qualities.

Personally, when I heard about the heart, it seemed far too esoteric for me. I couldn't relate to it. Now my physical heart forced me to pay attention, and I wish to translate to you whatever I learned and understood from my journeys. And hopefully, we speak the same language.

An energetically disturbed heart easily goes into a stuck or cramped state. It can stay undetected for a long time until somebody touches it energetically. This often results in a feeling similar to a cramp just above the solar plexus region.

Healers or spiritual teachers may help you to get in touch with that particular feeling within. However, you should not expect that they can resolve your problem. That's your job because ultimately your heart is one of the most sacred parts of your being.

Difficulties in speaking about emotional matters, taboos or subtle perceptions, could be indicators that the spiritual heart is out of balance. The classic sign is a disturbed love relationship. Although rather caring on the physical plane, I was ultimately unable to connect on a heart level in my relationships. They were more a matter of the mind than of the heart, more about mutual interest than about common feelings. I was unable to speak about emotional issues in a civilized manner, and bad at receiving advice. Instead, I would seek an excuse or discretely run away.

The Guatemalan view is that the heart is connected to speech. They say that if you don't speak your truth, it gets stuck in your heart. Thinking about it will not suffice, but you have to speak it out clearly. They say you have to share the wisdom and perceptions of your heart.

To my understanding, the three primary modes of sharing a part of you, are to either speak your mind, speak out of your emotions or from your heart. I found the third, the most direct approach to healing my heart energetically. We are usually skilled at sharing our thoughts from the mind and quite used to sharing our emotions, but what do we know about sharing from the heart.

So what does the heart have to share? I found that it is all about what we profoundly care about, and what moves and touches us. It’s also about what connects us to others, what we burn for and spiritually long for. Longing should not be mixed up with physical or material desire because these aspects have more to do with our mind's attachment to things.

The heart can express itself in any way, ranging from tenderly to fiercely. The fierce part may take some practice, and yet it is a natural part of it. It serves us to learn the difference between a fierce heart and anger coming from our emotions. The heart is not only about expressing unconditional love or compassion, but it's also about so much more. Another way of understanding it could be that our view of compassion is rather limited, and actually, the full range of compassion covers most of the areas mentioned before. It may serve you to see the heart in a much wider perspective, and then you are likely to start using it. As a by-product, you may heal your own heart and do well to other people.

I'm sure you have met people who talk without activating their brains first. It may seem quite odd and stupid, but it also indicates a gift. Speaking out of the heart in that mind-free state might become rather interesting in a positive sense.

To be with what matters to us

It is very productive to hold something that matters in your heart. Hold a notion about something that matters to you, in your heart and consciously let it sit there while you are doing nothing, just staying with it. If you would be able to do that for only one minute, ten times per day, it will start opening some important doors within. Just make sure to keep your awareness inward and do nothing but observe, because there is nothing else to do. Just be with that.

Once our hearts are emotionally hurt, we tend to keep them closed to protect ourselves, as we would protect a wound on our arm. After a certain time, once the wound on our arm has healed, we remove the Band-Aid. Why don't we do the same with our heart? First of all the heart heals differently. Time is not the primary factor for healing the heart energetically. To explain it simply, I would say that the heart knows two kinds of pain, one of them energetically or emotionally induced, the other much more physical. And this is the tricky part where you need a cardiologist to help you understand the difference, especially if you have a medical heart condition.

The emotionally induced pain indicates that there is something that needs to be looked at, maybe in the way that is described above, about "being with what matters to us." But this time, you may want to hold that pain, and do nothing but observe. If you would want it to go away, you would only get involved in a tug of war or a fight that you can never win. The only way to succeed is just to be with it. Some call it embracing, some talk about accepting, and I prefer to see it as just being with it. What it means, just to observe, will be dealt with on several occasions throughout this book.

Further factors to heal the heart energetically will be addressed later on. If you feel the urge to know it all right now, think about it. These first steps should not be overlooked if your heart matters to you because it wants to be approached gently. The mind wants to rush, but the heart works best at half speed.

The mind likes to rush. Asians often refer to our mind as the monkey mind. The monkey that is jumping from branch to branch. The mind needs to stay active, to move, always. Although our facial expressions and our body language indicate a little bit about our minds, luckily one cannot see externally how our mind jumps about.

We have talked about the constant stream of thoughts, about how we often identify with them, but we have only touched the possibility of resting the mind. To stop the stream of thoughts is an undertaking that would require quite a lot of practice and it would fall into the realm of meditation. That is not the scope of this book. This book is about making the best use of your mind and heart in the midst of a hectic corporate life. It touches most of the essential principles and suggests minimalistic exercises. They are minimalistic only in terms of time and effort but have a catalytic effect on the mind and heart. Catalytic means a tiny aspect or missing piece that can initiate a potent process within.

I'd say that we usually let the mind race, and often for nothing in particular, and when we need it, chances are that we may be too exhausted to do a proper job. On one of my visits to Scotland, I learned that when you are nosing several whiskeys at a degustation, your nose quickly gets dull and is no longer able to distinguish the nuances. The Scotts recommend you to nose some clear water in between. Ideally pure water from a mountain well. Ladies know this particular phenomenon from trying out the scents of new perfumes. Here the neutralizing cure is the aroma of roasted coffee beans. Imagine that the scent of pure water regenerates your olfactory sensitivity and capacity. The other thing is that you don't have to nose the water for very long, for it to work. Two or three breaths will do perfectly fine. That is the kind of thing we are looking for, to clear and rest our mind.