Dear friends,

Puran and I now have profiles on BeliefNet.com!

Mine is: community.beliefnet.com/susanna

Puran’s is: community.beliefnet.com/puran

We have also created a discussion group for Energize Your Heart: community.beliefnet.com/energize

Those of you who are on BeliefNet, we hope to see you there!

love,

Susanna

I found Heart Rhythm Meditation after overwhelming and disassociative experiences with so-called kundalini awakening from hatha yoga and meditative/contemplative practice in the early spring of this past year. the heart-based way was found both intuitively, on my own, and strongly reinforced by my serendipitous discovery of the IAM website. After many months i have come to a place where i have a much better sense of where my energy should go, and how to respond if it becomes imbalanced.
yet the other night, i foolishly allowed myself to become entranced in a sort of upward/inward flow (more…)

Hello,
I recently started a daily practice of Heart Rhythm Meditation, with two 20-minute sessions, working my way through the steps outline in Living from the Heart. However, I now have a terrible head cold and find the breathing patterns really difficult to maintain for more than a few minutes. How does one practice HRM when sick? Is there an easier practice to follow? I was doing so well so I find this current setback frustrating. Thanks for your help.
Robyn

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Bright Blessings to all!
I recently attended an IAM lecture in Bloomington, Indiana. I would first of all love to express my appreciate for the opportunity to attend. I was very glad that I went, as I feel I got a lot of really good information from it which I believe has already helped me with my meditations. A lot of what Susanna and Puran talked about was in very close harmony with what I have been doing myself as far as focusing on the spirit of oneness and the love in my heart which connects us all together.
I am very curious about something that was said that night. Puran was talking about working to learn to find your pulse somewhere in your body. I was very surprised, because as long as I can remember, I have felt my pulse coursing through my whole body with every heartbeat. I asked my therapist today if he feels that same thing, as he has studied and taught yoga and practiced meditation for much of his life, but he said that he didn’t. Although I have been extremely interested in meditation since I was very young, and feel that I have been given a wonderful gift of being able to meditate fairly easily, I am definitely not what I would consider to be a seasoned meditator. Does it seem odd that I can feel this pulse in my whole body? Can you advise me as to what this might possibly mean for me as far as my spiritual growth and learning to practice Heart Rhythm Meditation? I told my therapist that it really didn’t seem to mean much to me, as I don’t know how it may affect a person who practices HRM. I do know that I have been very interested lately in heart meditation, even before I learned about this institute and heard the lecture by Puran & Susanna. I prefer to focus on my heart and the spirit of love that connects every one of us together. I also have a very deep desire to help others in my life, as I am an adult abuse survivor and I know how badly abuse can damage your innate ability to trust and connect with others on many different levels if the survivor doesn’t have the tools that he/she needs.
Thank you so very much for reading my question(s), and I look forward to any/all responses and ideas that might be offered.
Take care & be well, all!
Sharon Brown

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Do you know if Heart Rhythm Meditation is possible for someone with Multiple Sclerosis, given this disease’s negative effect on muscle control and thus the possible impact on diaphragmatic breathing? Has anyone had direct experience with adapting HRM to this special health challenge?

Lynn M.

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I signed up for the Webcourse 101 and I’m excited to begin. I have a couple of questions. How is this non-profit and why are there so many references to Jesus Christ? I have no problem with non-profit (economic) or Jesus Christ (religious), but I would like to understand the true significance.

Paul

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Dear friends,

We’re excited to share with you our next retreat, February 17-22, 2008, in Santa Barbara, CA. This is a wonderful opportunity to deepen the work of the heart. We’ll share meditation, movement, and time together in a beautiful setting. This retreat is all about building and deepening relationships. The path of the heart is the path of love, and part of the purpose of our lives is to learn how to love each other deeply and fully, abandoning all fears and doubts as the flow of love comes through us.

The closest and finest relationship in life is with one who understands, and this is only experienced by love.”
~Hazrat Inayat Khan

You have noticed, surely, that there are different types of hearts in the world, and that your heart is different from others. The type of heart you have determines the life you have.

• Some hearts are broad, some are deep.
• Some hearts soar into heights of joy while others dive into the inner depth.
• Some hearts have great power; others have a beautiful harmony.
• Some hearts can accommodate whatever environment they’re in,
• While other hearts can change the environment as they like.
• There is a full heart, and an empty heart,
• A heart that has all it can hold, and a heart that longs for something beyond.

I hope you can join us!

love,

Susanna

I have recently completed the 101 Webcourse, which I found really helpful. I have continued to meditate twice a day and feel that I am getting more rhythm in my life generally. Since completing the course, I have been going back over each of the stages of the practice and I am currently focusing on the Touching the Heart practice which I particularly like. I know that to do the practice “properly”, I have to combine imagining touching the heart with the full or swinging breath. However, when I’ve had enough of the full/swinging breath and feel that I need a gentler experience, I have been doing the Rhythmic Breath and combining imagining touching the heart. Is this ok to do this as a “rest” from the full/swinging breath? I like it as I find it subtler but very powerful.
Love,Delia

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I came across your web site back in Feb. I had a heart attack then and while recovering I was looking for information about how to heal my heart and found this site. Since the heart attack I have had panic attacks and been in and out of the hospital, thinking I was having another attack.The doctors put me on lots of medication including Xanax. My drinking increased and I started eating the pills like candy. By July the dam busted. My mind and heart seemed to explode. I was awake for several days, as I could not sleep. It was if I had been poisoned. I began to hallucinate. I immediately quit the pills and the drinking but this state of mind continued for several weeks. It was very frightening for a couple of weeks. I thought I was losing my mind.

Things have calmed down. There are still some residual effects, like my ears ring all the time. It is almost as is I had been struck by lightning or electrocuted and I am feeling the after-effects. (more…)

Dear Puran,
I read with great interest your posting and agree totally with your integration of the heart rhythm as the key to a more complete spiritual awakening. However, I have a dilemma, I am presenting a class this Saturday on The Soul’s Journey by Hazrat Inayat Khan.
The first half will go into the incoming soul and and is similar to re-birthing, I am quite comfortable with what I have to work with in that regard having worked with Murshida Vera Corda for over 25 years. The second half is on the outgoing soul. In my opinion, one of the important offerings we have, is to ameliorate our western cultures fear of death. It has been said often by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan that meditation is a rehearsal for death, and I was planning on structuring the meditation on the samadhi practice and thereby demonstrating that one doesn’t need the body to experience life. You seem to have strayed away from this method and I was wondering if you have any thoughts on the process of overcoming the fear of death in relation to the meditative process you have described in your posting.

“Live lives and death dies” — HIK

“The process of dying is so serious that the dying person is beyond the reach of the living person, so it is better to leave them to their own higher thoughts, what they are feeling at the moment.” — HIK

Baiss (more…)