heartflow2013

This is an oasis of peace in the heart of blogland. This is where I post what inspires me to align myself with the Heart. I write Heart with a capital ‘H’ to express the one reality that we all are.

My first experience with the Heart was in Sri Lanka in the late 80′s when I was returning from a stay in India. I was due back at  my job in Berlin where I lived then but my flight from Madras (now Chennai) to Colombo, Sri Lanka couldn’t land because Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi’s plane was given priority. Air India ended up paying my 1st class hotel including meals for a week as my next flight with Yugoslavia Air was a week later.

The day had been full of delays – by the time I reached the hotel I was tired and went to sleep early. I enjoyed the posh hotel room after having spent the last weeks in local village hotels or the room at the Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamai, Tamil Nadu. I had completed a ‘temple tour’ of several weeks to all the main Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu accompanied by my teacher’s nephew Rajeesh.

Shortly before leaving Chennai, his mother introduced me to the priestess of Pachiaamma (the Green Mother, a Shiva incarnation) and and initiated me into her mantra. When I arrived late at night in Colombo, knowing I had missed my Yugoslavia Air flight and that it flew only once a week, I was uncertain what to do. I had left all my excess dollars except for $50 with my teacher’s sister who had given me generous hospitality for quite a bit of my stay in South India. I opened up to the grace of Existence to show me what to do and spoke my newly acquired mantra to the Goddess a few times to be on the safe side.

People from many delayed and missed flights were milling around the main airport hall when I noticed a local man smiling at me from the other side of the hall, over the heads of a hundred or more people. He and I headed for each other like magnets and he greeted me warmly like a friend. Being a seasoned world traveler my mind was immediately on high alert, but my heart said: “Trust him”. Long story short, he made sure that Air India (technically it was their ‘fault’ that I missed my flight) booked me into the three star ‘European style’ hotel on the lagoon with meals and paid his taxi. I felt myself completely cradled by the benevolent universe.

Waking up the next morning to look out of the ninth story window onto the tropical lagoon I noticed a deep joy spreading out into the space. Here I was virtually penniless spending a week in a fine hotel more or less confined to my room as I had no money to go anywhere or do anything on the island while waiting for my flight. After spending quite a few of my remaining dollars calling my employer back in Berlin to tell them of my predicament so they wouldn’t fire me, I was free.

When I entered to elevator to go down to the restaurant for breakfast I was all of the sudden ‘in the Heart’. By this I mean that I distinctly felt the floor under me, the walls and all surroundings as being the Heart, or what Ramana calls the Self and others call the Divine Essence. This very visceral experience stayed with me for most of the week – I was in bliss, drinking deeply of the abundance that we all are.

In the 25 or so years since then I have been guided by the Heart through many learning experiences up to this point of July 20, 2012. Now I am opening to this form of sharing what the Heart is showing me. I encourage all those who might be drawn to read these words to add their own Heart essence, as this is the time for us all to inform the Heart field with our love and wisdom.