I believe everyone’s heart is continually trying to develop its richness and make its greatness known. The heart tries to communicate to us its innate wisdom, for which it doesn’t have words. What the heart does have is an enormous magnetism by which it can attract people and situations into our lives to teach us what it knows. But people don’t like to be taught, and even less to surrender, preferring the way they know to the way they grow.
My prayer has been to be able to consciously assist the progress of my heart’s development. I want to develop that sweetness, kindness and generosity my father has finally come to, before my heart needs to resort to grief to get my attention. I want to grow and change quickly enough that I will have time to be of some use to others. I also want my heart’s healing so that its creativity and courage can emerge in my life. This is my work, and I hope this book helps others do the same.

Puran

I see several factors converging to give the heart preeminence in our time:
• Rumi, the poet of the heart, has become the largest selling poet in America. Many are drawn to the path of the heart through his writings, especially as translated by Coleman Barks;
• The medical discoveries about the heart show us that the heart has a crucial role in the endocrine and nervous systems of the body, not just the circulation system. It has a kind of intelligence of its own;
• The exclusive claims of each religion are no longer tolerated in an educated and diverse culture. People are looking for that sacredness that unites humanity, not which divides it. The answer is the heart. All of religion can be expressed in terms of the heart, and then it becomes clear that religion is one;
• Relationships are more romantic than ever. Popular music has merged the relationship with a lover and with God so that love songs could also be hymns. (As in the movie, “Sister Act.”)
• The demands of efficiency and high performance have never been higher, both in our work and in our private lives. In order to achieve excellence we have to use the resource of our heart; the mind alone is not enough. We need to be creative, courageous, compelling and committed — all heart qualities — to achieve the great goal that we now aspire to: fulfillment;

These are some of the reasons why I think that meditation on the heart, and specifically Heart Rhythm Meditation, is the method of our time.

Puran

How well do you know the dimensions of the heart?

Take our dimensions quiz. In the following statements, what dimension (or dimensions) of the heart are present, or are weak?

“I feel hopeful about next year’s election.”

“What’s going on in Darfur makes me feel physically ill.”

“If we work together, we can do this!”

“I know I can do this.”

“Sometimes I like to take a minute and get some perspective before making a big decision.”

“He’s afraid of loving you because he’s been hurt in the past.”

“I can’t stand it when people talk down to me, especially when they are repetitive and pedantic.”

Want more? Check out our Heart Index, which gives you a score for each dimension of the heart, to see what dimension needs development, and which are strong.

Puran & Susanna

Here’s an interesting excerpt from the book “Why Marriages Succeed and Fail” (1994) by John Gottman and Nan Silver.

Gottman talks about the “Four Horsemen”, referring to four kinds of emotional interactions between couples that his research indicates are most closely correlated with divorce; these are: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Gottman distinguishes criticism from honest complaint, which he says is vital for a relationship. Criticism focuses on the negative, and locates the fault in your partner. Contempt is a lack of respect for your partner, as seen in insults, hostility, mockery, and body language which is dismissive. Defensiveness is a state of victimization, where you feel wronged by the other and feel the need to deny, invalidate, and otherwise push away what your partner is saying. And lastly, stonewalling is a refusal to give any of the verbal or physical cues that indicate honest listening, instead being silent.

This is interesting to us because these are essentially the same as the emotional states which close the doors to the heart: contempt, blame, indifference, and pessimism.
The solution is to open the heart, the most joyful and terrifying action you can take, which will heal and transform every part of your life.

Puran & Susanna

Time Magazine recently featured an article on Mother Teresa, which included excerpts from a new book of her letters, which showed an astonishing 50-year drought in her experience of communion with God.

We admire Mother Teresa’s enormous contributions to humanity; she lived her faith and helped thousands of people with their most urgent need. It saddens us to learn that she did this for most of her life without the direct mystical experience of God that often motivates such selfless acts of beauty. It points to the need for a method of inner reflection that makes such experiences more reliable, which we have found in Heart Rhythm Meditation.

Puran & Susanna

Are your courses designed with religous people in mind? Is it possible to follow the course as a religious person without any relation to an existing church or community?thanks,

Renee

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A wonderful story has been making the rounds of the blogosphere (and mainstream media) over the last week, a story about Dr. Randy Pausch, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon. The university has a program where professors imagine that they are giving the last lecture of their lives — what would you say?

For Dr. Pausch, the question is salient indeed, for Dr. Pausch, 46, is dying of pancreatic cancer. His final lecture is inspirational, and really reveals the height of the heart. He speaks of the importance of having fun, saying “I’m having fun everyday, and I’m dying!”. And he poses the question, do you want to be a Tigger (optimist) or an Eyore (pessimist)?