Part II - The Spiritual Practice - Basics

Chapter 1. Hridaya Meditation - The Meditation for the Revelation of the Spiritual Heart

The fundamental meditation technique in the Yoga of the Spiritual Heart is the introspection method of Ramana Maharshi. He used to inquire "Who am I?" .

This self-interrogation is practiced in order to reveal our real essence, who we really are. Hatha yoga, asanas, pranayama and other techniques, used in working with the energies in our being, support this spiritual approach and combine in a synergistic way to create the adequate conditions for the revelation of the Spiritual Heart.

The “Inner Revolution" Occurs When the Discursive Mind Gives up its Role of “Supreme Ruler”

During our meditations for the revelation of the Spiritual Heart, we also expect to achieve mind clarity and purification. This is an effect of our increasingly profound intuitions regarding the essential divine reality of our being. Ultimately, there will be a point where the mind will understands that there is "Something" which cannot be thought, something ineffable which does not enter the scope of the dual relation “inquiring subject” -“object of knowledge”. Thus, the mind will understand its own limits.

When the mind, seen as a primary instrument of discursive knowledge of ourselves and of the surrounding world, gives up the role of the "supreme ruler" of our own existence, a genuine inner revolution occurs because we are no longer conditioned by any theory, dogma, philosophy or exterior pattern of understanding the Reality. In this respect, the meditation becomes an exceptional spiritual tool to enter the nature of the Reality, the "What There Is" or, in other words, a means of communion with God.

From Where Does the Joy of Meditation Radiates?

The meditation for the revelation of the Spiritual Heart creates the "space" where the Heart finds itself as absolute freedom and pure love. In these conditions, the consciousness goes back to its own source. The essence of this happiness is the Sacred Tremor, the spanda. This approach, based on Ramana Maharshii’s method, teaches us the joy of meditating.

Indeed, the real meditation brings happiness, because there is no struggle in it, no rejection of our thoughts, or our emotions, sensations, or of our body. There is only an acceptance, an openness which integrates the Totality.

This essential form of meditation is a permanent movement of the Heart towards Itself. Through this meditation, the Heart is starting to be for us, during every single moment of our life, our way, our intimate path, and in the same time the destination where our happiness lies.

Surrender of the Egotistic Consciousness

During our meditations for the revelation of the Spiritual Heart we endeavor to reach the ineffable moment when our aspiration to attain the revelation of our divine nature grows into the abandonment of the individual consciousness.

The Relationship between Trust and Surrender

The consciousness of oneness is the same as being one with the present moment, with the Pure Existence. This direct understanding is possible only by surrender; and the surrender is possible only if we have faith. Evidently, we do not have to have faith in someone or something external.

The true faith is without object, it is faith in the Heart, in the Self, in the Reality, in God.

The essence of this attitude lies in accepting or embracing who you are. This acceptance matures spontaneously through faith and yields the surrender.

Also, there is no need to accept anything external. We are the acceptance, the surrender. The Spiritual Heart is revealed in this attitude of total surrender.

On Vulnerability and Inner Strength

The current ordinary meaning of the concept of “surrender” may suggest giving up, passivity and lack of strength. People make efforts to maintain the outer appearance of power and thus they build up separating walls among themselves, just because they wish to hide their vulnerability. On the contrary, in the Yoga of the Spiritual Heart we foster the expression of what one is, rather then repressing weaknesses.
Those who are not afraid of their weaknesses achieve true inner strength.

Also, in the Yoga of the Spiritual Heart we do not suggest or foster the myths about achieving invulnerability or a perfect health of the body as a result of some practices which would supposedly be allowing the energy to be accumulated or absorbed from some “external sources”.
On the other hand, we believe in the eternity and the beauty that radiate from the spirit, from the Spiritual Heart.

In general, by virtue of cultural patterns and education, people have the tendency to “blame” weaknesses, and to not look for a way to improve, to get over them. Only by fostering an attitude of faith in the Spiritual Heart and of unconditional surrender without object (there is no person or specific thing to which we should surrender) can truly empower us.

At some point in life, most people have followed advice from external authority figures who have, more or less, imposed on them their artificial behaviors. In their turn, those behaviors rendered culpable their natural tendencies. These artificial behaviors become implicit justifications for engaging in repression of what is natural. And it is this very pattern that prevents us from becoming who we really are.

This is the reason why, in the Yoga of the Spiritual Heart we do not rely on any external authority, but on the “blossoming” of our own being through the real knowledge of the Heart, Jnana.

The Sacred Tremor of the Heart guides us to our own Freedom, to an authentic Spiritual autonomy.

Non-Reactivity Appears by Maintaining the Awareness of the Spiritual Heart

In his book, "Stillness speaks," Eckhart Tolle stated:
"When you perceive nature only through the mind, through thinking, you cannot sense its aliveness, its beingness. You see the form only and are unaware of the life within the form–the sacred mystery[…]”p.81 (Eckart Tolle, Stillness Speaks, Namaste Publishing, 2003, p 81)

“When you perceive nature, let there be spaces of no thought, no mind[…]”(ibid.p.81)

“The moment you look beyond mental labels, you feel that ineffable dimension of nature that cannot be understood by thought or perceived through the senses. It is a harmony, a sacredness that permeates not only the whole of nature but is also within you." (Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks, Namaste Publishing, 2003, p.82-83)

These attitudes express the Open Attention. In the Yoga of the Spiritual Heart, we encourage students to relate to their inner world in a way similar to the way in which they are advised to perceive the nature, the trees, the flowers, the mountains, the sunset: without thoughts, without the usual rational filters, while there is only silence in the mind. Thus, not during the meditation only, but during the performance of an asana as well, the body is not only a form, a mere body of matter, but it is a fountain of life, a rainbow of energies.

This occurs naturally, when we perceive with the “Heart”, not with the mind. Naturally, the mind will continue to function in many situations, but the identification with the mind disappears, just as the tendency to interpret the experiences based on our old pre-established patterns of mental filters. The ordinary students are reactive while the wise students are actively learning and applying the lessons, transfiguring, converting the energy in spirit, thus bringing the sacred in their life or existence.

Any and all reactivity is reflecting the subject-object relation. By reactivity, the ego has the tendency to defend a territory over which it (the ego) claims ownership. From this point of view, the life span is nothing else but a continuous sequence of conflicts and corresponding reactivity.

When the Witness Consciousness stops being oriented outwards and it is instead focused on our inner reactivity towards them and the subtle impulses which caused them, the mind immerses into stillness. That peace is no longer affected by the old patterns of reactivity.

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