An Excerpt from Silence of the Heart    

Silence is the essence of the heart. You cannot be in the heart unless you are in forgiveness of  yourself and others. You cannot be in the heart if you are worried or angry. You cannot be in the heart if your breathing is shallow or labored.

When the breath is shallow, thinking is superficial. If you want to live a spiritual life, bring your  awareness to your breath. Become aware of the times when you are breathing in a shallow way and bring your awareness to your thoughts. You will see that your mind is chattering. None of these thoughts has depth or significance. If you relax and breathe deeply, these thoughts will fly away like startled birds. And then you will abide in the heart

When the breath is labored, thinking is driven by fear and anxiety. Become aware when your breathing is labored. Notice what you are thinking and feeling. Your mindstates will be rooted in the past or future. You will be focused on what other people are doing and how you can  accommodate them or protect yourself from their actions. You are building a fortress of thought around your heart. Take a deep breath and relax. Now take another one. Breathe and return to the heart. Breathe and return to your essential Self.                                                         
Unless you return to the heart, you cannot see with compassion. And one who does not see with  compassion does not see accurately. All that is perceived is a fabrication, a hyperbole. It simply feeds your boredom or anxiety.

Breathing is the key to living a spiritual life in physical embodiment. When the body dies, the  breath leaves the body. Where does it go? 

Most of you think that the body is the creator of the breath. Actually, it is the other way around.  The breath is the begetter of the body. When the breath goes, the body ceases to function. It disintegrates into nothing because, without the breath of spirit, the body is nothing.

If you want to lead a spiritual life breathe deeply and slowly. Take the air deep down into your abdomen and release it fully. The more air you bring into your body, the lighter it will feel, and the easier it will be for you to accomplish your responsibilities. One who breathes is not afraid or  overwhelmed by what life presents because he or she has the energy to meet all circumstances. Only one whose breathing is shallow or labored and irregular is de-energized and easily intimidated by the challenges of life.

Unless you breathe deeply and calmly, you cannot be in your heart. If you do not know what I am  talking about, put this book down and begin to breathe into your abdomen, counting to five on the inhalation and counting again to five on the exhalation. Breathe in this way for five minutes, gradually extending your count to seven, or eight, or nine. Do not force. Just expand gradually, as your lungs comfortably allow.

Now you are in your heart. Notice that you are deeply relaxed, yet surprisingly alert. Your  consciousness extends to all the cells of your body. You are content where you are. You fully inhabit your body in the present moment. You feel warm and energetic. You feel safe and secure. Your thoughts have slowed down and become more integral. You are no longer focusing on the "shoulds" and "what ifs" of your life. Tension and anxiety are absent. Past and future have receded from your awareness. Your thinking is centered and dignified. You can stay with your thoughts because they are fewer and further between. Now bring your awareness to your heart,  as you continue to breathe gently but deeply into your abdomen.

Can you feel the presence of understanding and compassion in your heart center?  Can you see that you hold yourself and others in gentle acceptance?  Can you feel the love that dwells in your heart and freely extends to others?

Now you are in your heart. Now you are in the silence from which all sound comes. Like a boat on the ocean you feel the waves swell beneath you. And you move with the waves, yet you know you are not the waves. Thoughts come and go, yet you know you are not the thoughts. Some  thoughts propel you further out than others, yet still you can return to your center. Like a large wave, a particular thought may be charged with emotion, yet if you remain where you are, the  emotion will subside. Now you know you can abide the ebb and flow of the tide, moving out and moving in, feeling the contraction and expansion of thought.

Beneath the thinking mind is a pure, non-judgmental awareness. As soon as you discover that  awareness, the heart opens, and giving and receiving are effortless.

Observing silence, and breathing deeply and gently is the easiest way to open the heart. You can also open it through sacred dancing and movements which incorporate the breath and encourage gratitude and presence in the moment. The method you use to fall into the heart is just a tool.  Do not make it important. What is important is that you find a way to access the deeper aspect of your being which is at peace.

There is no human being who is incapable of reaching this state of open awareness and  compassion. However, very few people know that this capacity for peace exists in them. Most human beings live a fast pace life in which they struggle to make ends meet. Their minds are consumed with thinking, planning, and worrying. Their bodies are constantly in fight or flight, weakening the immune system and creating the conditions in which dis-ease can take hold.

Few human beings take direct responsibility for their physical and emotional well-being. It is no  wonder that they lack a spiritual perspective on life. When people do not care for themselves, they blame others for their problems. They feel like victims. They feel trapped in their jobs, their relationships, their physical location, their roles and responsibilities. They appear to live inside a pressure cooker. Either they stay in their external situation and feel victimized and resentful. Or they leave that situation inappropriately before it is healed, leaving a wake of broken hearts.

If any of this sounds familiar, then you know only too well how easy it is to get caught in the  struggle of existence. Your life has speeded up-you are busier than ever before-but to what avail? Your money and possessions cannot buy you peace. Your name, fame and status in society cannot bring you happiness. Be honest with yourself. Do you feel good about yourself and the people closest to you?  Are you optimistic about life? Do you look forward to each day?   If not, you are  living a life empty of spiritual nourishment, a life that has lost its rootedness in the breath, the body and the earth.

Speeding up life does not make it better. Traveling across the planet in cars and planes does not  create closer relationships. Many of you feel that your lives are speeding up, but you do not realize that you are the one pouring the gas in the tank. I suppose it is easier for you to believe in the destruction of the planet through earthquakes and floods than to take responsibility for your desecration of the planet through your own anxiety, boredom, and carelessness.

Don't you see that the earth is simply reflecting back to you the quality of your own  consciousness? Its pollution is none other than the pollution of your own heart-mind. The more you turn away from yourself, the more you abuse the earth and each other. The more you forget  to breathe, the unhealthier the air gets, and the more interpersonal conflicts arise.

If you keep forgetting to breathe, the planet is doomed. "Well, " you say, "I can handle that."  But  it may not be as easy as you think. Try it for a while. Breathe deeply for one day and see what happens. If you are committed to this practice, all that is artificial in your life will begin to  fall away. And you may be surprised how much of your life begins to unpeel. 

Consider this. Is your job safe? Not if you go to work out of sacrifice. What about your marriage?  Are you with your partner out of duty or love?  What about your values and religious beliefs...are they safe? Or have they been fashioned out of guilt and fear?  If so, they will not stand the ebb and flow as the breath comes down into the belly and out through the mouth, the nose, and the skin.

Do you really want to de-toxify? Do you really want to slow down? Are you ready to let the excess stimulation go? 

"But," you ask, "can't I still read my paper and watch the news on TV? "

"Yes," I will tell you,  "but only if you can keep breathing deeply and gently."

Most of you will find that this is impossible. To seek your peace means for the moment that you  must forgo false stimulation in your life. Anything that is trivial or overly labored takes you away from the essence of who you are.

Don't ask me to spell everything out. I'm not going to give you a new set of commandments. Use your common sense. See what brings you peace and what disturbs your peace. Take responsibility for what you consume, who you are with, what you do. You have choices in life. One set of  choices brings you struggle and pain. The other brings you quietude and healing.

Can you live without overstimulation?  Can you slow down, breathe and live in the moment?  It  may not be as difficult as you think. Since you can only begin now, not in the past or future, it is a simple challenge. Try it now. Be in the present and breathe for a few minutes. The more you do it, the easier it will become. This practice will gather momentum, like a stream coming down from a mountain, taking with it all the blocks that stand in its way.

When you commit to the practice of silence, your relationship to the entire universe changes.  Your communication deepens and extends. Those who know you understand without your telling them. Your meaning is carried by the breath and by the wind. There is no more difference  between inner and outer. Earth and heaven meet where your heart and mind join in silent bliss.

Only your fear keeps you in resistance to life. Move through the fear by breathing and the resistance dissolves. Now you are flowing with the current of life. Do you need to get a job, be married, have children, write books, give talks, feed the hungry, save the disenfranchised and  disheartened?  Not unless they join you in the river. And if they do, you can be sure it is not you working, marrying, procreating, writing, talking, feeding or saving. It is the river doing it  through you. And so you remain cheerful and at ease whatever you are doing. Nothing keeps you from breathing, because breathing is your only responsibility.

So I'll give you a very simple yardstick: "If you can't breathe, don't do it. And if you try to do it  anyway, remember to breathe!"

For many years you have been moving too fast for the river to catch up to you. No wonder you don't feel supported by the universe!  But, take heart, every indigenous people who have lived on the planet have known and practiced what I am teaching to you. And somewhere, deep in your heart, you know and remember it too. For once, before your ego tried to take charge of the journey, you were the patient captain of your own ship, moving without oars or sails to a  destination intuited but unknown. And it is  the same now, even though you think you must work at being in charge.

Breathe and in time the river of life will find you and adopt you. And then you will be its  spokesman and its confidant. The one who listens and the one who tells the truth. The one who serves without saving. And loves without asking in return.

All this is your destiny. To be the creator and the created, all in one. To be the male in the female and female in male. To be active and receptive. To go beyond duality on the wings of paradox.

All this you will do, because the Messiah has come and the Messiah is you. You are the one who learns to breathe the body and lift yourself out of the pain of self-created conflicts. You are the one, dear brother or sister. Only you.

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