3/23/14 Rev. David McArthur
The Heart’s Path to Freedom: 3. Understanding
On our journey to be free the first step is Embrace your feelings, especially the ones not in harmony, identified by that reactive pain. When they come up, there is healing to do. Then turn on the power of the heart by Breathing Love. Today step three, Spiritual Understanding. It’s divine objectivity. It’s in the heart because love is there, God is there, and there is intelligence and light.
I found myself filled with anxiety and a very strong feeling to get away from a conference that I really wanted to attend. Feelings are something we experience, but are not our nature. It was time I healed my feelings. So I took time to be alone. I turned on the power of my heart and spent five beautiful minutes breathing love. Then I asked for understanding. Within that love is the wisdom to truly see. When we look at ourselves through the head it is judgmental. The brain loves right and wrong. We feel guilt, fear, blame. That’s why we don’t like to look at ourselves. But I was in my heart, breathing love, opening to Spirit, to the heart’s deep understanding. It is enlightening, compassionate. Wholeness is it’s nature because Divine Presence is wholeness.
We know a secret: God is good all the time —even when it doesn’t feel like it. There are those who are healed just by the spiritual power when they open to compassion. A young missionary found she was increasingly unhappy, even depressed. She didn’t know she could just go in and turn on the power by breathing love. But she prayed, asking for help, a beautiful expression of self love. She opened to that until she could the feel love. She asked for understanding. She then understood it wasn’t her dream, but her parents’. She needed to go home and attend to her own needs. She was freed of her unhappiness.
The medicine wheel is a wonderful part of the Native American teaching. One of its four directions is Eagle. This young lady had the experience of Eagle, seeing from above. Emily Cady put it this way: “Understanding is a spiritual birth, a revelation of God within the heart of man.” It’s a greater vision from God through the power of the heart. The Taoist, Lau Tsu, said, “The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision…His heart is open as the sky.”
Affirm Breathing love, I open to understanding. In a quiet moment in your day, ask, “Were there recent times when pain or emotions not in harmony came up?” Then Breathe Love. That openness is the opening to the beautiful, powerful individual you are. It brings understanding to everything in our lives!