The Door of the Heart
A student reported to me recently that a closed door had appeared on his heart chakra, and he wondered what it meant. My response was, “How beautiful to have the door to the heart show up!”
If we perceive an inner portal, God’s message is: Here. Open this door. We could interpret this opening in two ways. The first is that we can open the door to let ourselves out, so that our consciousness is free to fly and expand into the sky of Consciousness. The second is that we can open the door and let God in. Of course, God is already within us, but we can open and be willing to receive a deeper knowledge that might appear to be descending into us.
Both approaches imply an expansion from our limited, contracted self. Because that individuation is really God’s expression of Himself in limited form, we can expand beyond our capacities of experience, knowledge, and awareness and become immersed in our Source, which is infinite Awareness. Whichever way we think about opening the door of the heart, the message is the same: the only way out is deeper in. And if we move beyond the dualistic interpretation of “I have to let God out” or “I have to let God in,” we perceive that both are happening at the same time.
Our Choice
When that door is presented to us, we each must make the choice to open it, to let God in and let ourselves move back into the Consciousness from which we were birthed. It is only our attachment to perceiving ourselves as separate from God that causes us to resist.
Leonard Cohen sang, “There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” The crack in the heart is what lets the light in. And, conversely, I have seen a stunning sculpture of a woman that shows cracks in her body, with light emitting out — a beautiful image of what happens when the door of our heart opens and the light of Śiva shines forth, no longer encased by limitation.
So if you sense the door of your heart, sit and just be still with it. Be very simple, clear, and grateful, and see if there is a revelation that is emerging from inside you or a light shining down on you, dispelling the darkness. You can even visualize the door and see if it opens out or opens in — or it might even be a revolving door, since that’s really what’s happening. God is coming in and your limited self is going out. In truth, there is no inner or outer except in our own misunderstanding of the nature of unity.
Everyday Tests
Our ability to maintain an open heart is tested by our daily experiences, and particularly in our relationships with others. How we deal with our tensions is up to us. I learned this lesson myself, years ago. At the time I was living and working with a woman, and being together nearly 24/7, there were moments when we got on each other’s nerves. During a particularly intense, escalating argument, I suddenly heard a voice inside that said, “Share the love and skip the rest.” That message resonated deeply in me, and I share it whenever I officiate at a wedding. No matter what difficulty, misunderstanding, or disagreement arises — whether in married life or in any other type of relationship — we must remember to fall back into our open heart. The need to control, or to be right goes away if we just share love.
The light of Consciousness is pure love. The challenge for us is that that love is not a human experience or human emotion; it is the very fragrance of the bliss of existence. But what we can know in our own experience is that the abundance of love has the capacity to dissolve every tension and pattern within us. We must always get very still inside, surrender deeply, and allow that surrender to defuse all the mental and psychological energies that are surging through us, and then allow them to be consumed back into stillness. There is an alchemical fire that transforms limited experience and understanding into God’s unlimited experience, understanding, and love. Stop in the middle of the fight and just open.
Love is a state of unconditionality. Intend to live in that unconditionality and you will know what divine love is. We are perpetually trying to understand God’s experience through the filter of our own, but that is inherently impossible. It is the merging of our limited capacity with God’s higher capacity that is the true essence of our Sādhana.
The first time I sat with my teacher Rudi, my heart exploded. I saw myself as everything and thought, “What is happening to me?” That explosion fifty years ago continues today, and I remain profoundly grateful for that opening. I describe my experience with Rudi as the explosion of the heart that I did not know I had.
Most people move through this life — and through lifetimes — without even knowing they have a heart. They remain trapped in their individual perspective, dominated by their tensions and patterns. When you see a door in your heart, understand that it is a portal to divine love. On the highest level, there is only one light, one heart, and one love. Those three aspects are united on the field of Unity. Open out or in and allow God’s fullness to express itself in all aspects of your life.