Focusing On The Heart To Find Peace

An aspirant recently reached out to me with the following question…

Do you have many experiences with focusing on the heart as a place for finding peace?

Here was my response…

Thank you for blessing me with your beautiful question.

The practice you speak of (i.e., focusing on the heart as a place for finding peace…) most closely resembles what I know to be called ‘tonglen’. Tonglen is a Buddhist practice of breathing in the miseries of the world (in whatever form they may take), cleansing the miseries through your heart, and breathing out joy, peace, and love. In this short video, the noted Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron, speaks of the tonglen practice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwqlurCvXuM). The Dalai Lama and other Buddhist masters speak of, and practice, tonglen.

The tonglen practice, or the practice as you describe John Selby sharing it, is encouraged in other spiritual teachings. There are many teachings that speak of breathing into the heart of compassion…which is what the tonglen practice is at its core, its essence.

As for my personal experiences…when I began studying spiritual teachings, other students/teachers shared and emphasized their practice of breathwork through their heart. I can remember trying this practice and experienced much peace. As I have journeyed on with my spiritual study and practice, I recognize the human heart is merely symbolic of love and compassion. It is a bodily organ that we humans have imbued with some significance. I have allowed myself the awareness that the entire body can equally be that vessel for love and compassion. No one part of my body is home for love and compassion. My entire body is home to love and compassion. So…if I feel the need to bring peace to a situation, I will breathe in with all my body, and breathe out with all my body. It is the breathe that is the ‘life force,’ as Taoism teaches.

Thank you for your blessed outreach. And thank you for being YOU!

Shanti,

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.