The opening of one’s heart, involves an ongoing exercise in learning how to make matters of the heart a priority.  In our world which revolves around the wisdom of reason to sustain, there seems to be little room for the wisdom gained from the heart.  The heart is often relegated to the sidelines until it arrives on the scene whenever a major crisis forces itself upon us and grabs our attention.  In the case of the death of someone motivated by hatred, prejudice or just plain stupidity, our heart strings, as we call them, are pulled and we, for a moment, can “feel” the pain of the aggrieved parent.  Then, as usual, we tuck our heart back into our chest and “go on with life.”

To open our heart we must learn to see the heart’s way of relating.  Emanating from the inside, from our inner world, the heart moves us out to the world from a place of calm.  Rather than the rational approach which weighs the circumstances and the consequences of life, the heart-directed life begins with silence.  In this silence reflection is honored.  Not just a reflection attached to the mind trying to figure out what’s going on rather through the the heart’s way of breathing-in, taking-in of the atmosphere in which it finds itself.  By doing so the heart awakens us, sensing the truth that lies beneath the apparent rationale of logic and reason.  Here in the heart’s domain of sitting-with and feeling the presence of the air we breathe, we drop our mind’s dominance on reason in favor of the heart’s desire to just be.  This be-ing places a priority on the not-yet of knowing and waits with patience to see where one is.

Patience, a virtue so removed from our daily lives, is needed to redirect our priorities so paramount at this time.  With patience we step into the world of pausing, awaiting the response which our heart may offer.  Likewise with reason, this pausing with patience gives space to a mind rushing to have the answer, giving the heart a chance to weigh in.  As Teresa of Avila reminds us: With patience, we attain all that we strive for.  In other words, we gain a relationship to our entire being that is calm and prepared to take on the consequences of our immersion into the world of the heart.  We may be sad.  We may be joyful.  We may be enraged.  In all of this, patience asks us to simply continue to wait until a response makes itself known.

And when a response comes, it arrives from a different place within us.  No longer just relying on our heads we embrace the one place in us where God is heard most directly.  Yes, God can speak to us in any of the events of our lives, in any of the emotions that arise, but it is in the silence of patience that we arrive at a place where it all began, the emptiness of nothingness—the empty space of not-knowing.  We wait to be open to the infusion of Love’s softening.  As we soften in pausing, we begin to see the breath of love pouring through us and we are able to hear when otherwise we might be too overwhelmed by the immediate stimuli and needing-to-know.

As we practice the art of opening our heart, we establish other ways of responding to life.  No longer caught by any one way, we are open to the myriad of feeling responses buried under the freneticism of our life.  These feelings may scare us at first simply because like a child we may have little ability to sort out overwhelming emotions.  As we grow accustomed to relating to both our inner and outer world with our hearts open, we come to know the love of God developing an atmosphere in which love grows.  An atmosphere of pure acceptance of who we are and, maybe more importantly, the acceptance of others as they come to us.  Outright rejection of another is tabled in favor of this pausing, knowing that experience teaches us the value of waiting-upon our heart’s response.

If God-in-love is a state of our being it follows that the separation from God is lessened.  As we know ourselves as beings-in-love manifesting God-love, then we know through experience what it feels like for God to be in love with His own nature, which is love.

When we fall in love with someone, the oceanic feeling which fills us up, convinces us we are meant for each other.  Our individual separation seems to fall away.  We can feel each other.  Finish each other’s thoughts.  The sense of being one is real.

I am reminded that the oceanic feeling doesn’t last and its disappearance is the cause of many a breakup.  I agree but it is this state of ecstasy which gives us a pin-hole view of what it means to be absorbed in Love-as-God.  We need to remind ourselves of this gift.

As we walk the earth we know we must live within the ordinariness of life.  At the same time we are called to step into our Divine nature allowing love to be present.  When we do, God is in love with His manifestation through us.  He cannot, not be in love with love!  His nature is love and anywhere it is found, there He is.  By coming through us, love helps us to feel as if the separation has been bridged and possibly eliminated for the time being.

Let us embrace the beauty of falling in love with someone or with Nature.  The oceanic feeling gives us a glimpse into the sense of diving deeply into the feeling of being-a-part of something greater than our individual self.  This sense of belonging transforms our individual self into the expanse of the ocean of pure love.  A love available to us all, not just to the mystic or the one who “studies” the mystical way.  As ordinary as love can be, it is available to us each moment of each day, for it is love which finds a home within the open heart.  To notice our divine self in the presence of love touching upon us in this here and now.  It is pure and simple loving from the inside out.  From the heart centered self to our world out there.  From the heart centered self to the deepest part of our divine nature.  From the heart centered self to the magnificence of a world-in-love with itself.

God-in-love is not a play on words.  God-in-love tells us how we know God, that is by being-in the love which He is.  If we are in-love, we are in-God.  As I understand it, it is a state of being whereby love pours out of us without effort.  When love is activated, any reaching-out on our part flows from this state of being-inside-of-love.  As we are filled with love’s desire we are possessed by love’s very nature to flow through us.

An example is that of a mother with her newborn child.  The mother does not need to summon up love in order to respond to her child’s need.  The act of co-creating, that is birthing a child, is an act of love.  When co-creating is carried forth into the world we can understand on a deep level the nature of love, the very nature of God’s outpouring.  Being within the experience of God-in-love, we are no longer self-conscious in our response.  For it is God activated within us which now pours out of us.  By being-in ourselves, the Divine is visible.

In order to be aware of ourselves as manifesting God-in-love, we must change our way of relating to God.  We move beyond “performing,” in hopes of gaining special attention by no longer applying the work ethic and trying to demonstrate that we deserve a place in His heart.  To remain in that kind of childish position with God only keeps us further away from knowing God as love.  The child we need to be is one of curiosity, one of play, simply letting the days go by filled with joyful love.

The adult who can allow the child to simply be, prepares the ground for discovery.  Allowing not-knowing, discovery is possible, awakening us to who we are.  The sense of having all the answers to our faith relationship with God is slowly replaced with a humility which sees our place in the scheme of life.  In other words, with the awareness that we don’t have it all-together leads us into a position to ask for help, guidance, support, often with a renewed openness to discovery.

If we are caught by the responsibility of trying so hard, we might not notice the effortless love pouring out of our being.  No amount of work, no amount of searching will get us there.  A there that is not a place special to God’s favor but a there which is a presence soaking up the love of God.  It is never by our effort to succeed, our effort to impress.  It is by our commitment to be quiet and shift the tone we live by.  Neither agitated nor demanding answers—just the sense that we are sinking into the softness of His Being.  And we come to that softness as we stop trying to win over love.

Love by its very definition is self-giving.  Love pours out of itself like a waterfall or spring which is eternal.  Rather than love being an attempt on our part to secure by “good works” our place in another’s heart, it is by relaxing all effort, love finds its way into to every interest we are drawn.  In relationships we find this particularly true with one’s ability to step out of the way and allow one’s heart to just give of itself.  When this occurs it melts another because the love is genuine.  Any aid will naturally come from being-inside who we are.  We will not have to think about what to do in order to show our love.  It will simply become the air “we” breathe.

In an environment of love acting on its own accord, all demands and expectations are relegated to second place.  Instead of placing demands on the love we receive, we open up to love as it shows itself.  Likewise in our relating with God we put aside our  expectations of how we are to act in order to let the flow of His love permeate our being.  We accept ourselves as being full of love because we know we are in-love.  In-love not as an infatuation but as immersion into a state of being whereby we allow the love to pass through us.  And what comes through this love is an energy that heals the deepest wounds, of despair, cynicism, judgment, betrayal, inertia, and most powerfully apathy.  Love’s power is self evident with no need to proclaim it.  It simply acts out of itself, softening the ground on which it lands.

The opening of the heart becomes the avenue to love pouring out.  But what exactly do we mean by this often repeated command: Open your heart?

God-in-Love (Part II) will address this question.