Here is a selection from Meditation 24/7.


<a href="http://radiance-sutras.bandcamp.com/track/heart-warming">Heart Warming by The Radiance Sutras</a>

In the course of a day, when do you have time to feel the emotional impact of your life? When do you have a chance to acknowledge your happiness, your loneliness, your bewilderment, grief, joy, bittersweet longing, homesickness for your country of birth, or just your need for a vacation?

A heart meditation is a time to dwell with all that is in your heart. We all need a way to enter the world of feeling and warm ourselves at the inner fire. This is a good practice to do toward the end of the day. After the sun goes down in the outer world, we can tune in to the warmth and radiance within.

The physical heart is continually pulsating as it orchestrates the flow of blood throughout your body. The heart loves circulation, flow, rhythm, warmth, and oxygenation.

In addition to the physical heart, there is another dimension of the heart, a center of pure feeling. We talk about this function all the time in everyday language:

"He has a big heart"
"You are in my heart"
"Take heart."
"She's coldhearted."
“My heart sings at the thought of it.”
"I have a broken heart."
“In your heart you know it’s true.”

The feeling heart is an organ of energy and perception. It keeps track of your relationship to the world. This heart vibrates, it sings, and there is a note for each of your major relationships.

Having "an open heart" means being available for the flow of life and love. It means being able to both give and receive, and to be changed by the presence of another. Every one of us is designed to love, and to let our heart’s energy flow inside ourselves and to others.

Nature created us to thrive in love, and as social beings, we are meant to communicate and share. When life energy is circulating freely, we experience health, enthusiasm, courage, and joy. When the flow is obstructed for some reason, we have symptoms of pain, illness, ennui, or depression; we are sick in body or soul. Often we have learned to hold back; we've been hurt, or shamed, or had to freeze up our feelings in order to function. Icebergs are floating in the dark of the heart; occasionally a love boat hits one and sinks.

This meditation is about cultivating the sense of warmth and light in your heart, thus healing the cold and frozen places. You can do this meditation a hundred times and every time have a different experience.

Heartwarming Practice

When: Toward the end of the day.
Where: Be in a cozy place. Light a candle, or sit in front of a fire in your hearth.
Position: Sitting up or lying down.
Time: 10 to 20 minutes.

Click here to listen to Heartwarming.