From a bio-energetic perspective, hands are extensions of the heart. When a heart senses a need, it sends its impulse of caring down the arms and into the hands, our emissaries of action. It is our hands that accomplish the physical work of the attentive heart.
Before any endeavor, then, it is good to practice opening the heart. As the chakra (energy center) that co-mingles the stuff of heaven from above and the stuff of earth from below, the heart center has two important functions: it houses divine awareness and empowers right action.
Right action, while a Buddhist precept, is a trans-religious spiritual imperative. We see it echoed in Judeo-Christian scripture. This excerpt from Deuteronomy makes the connection between the heart, the hands, and right responsiveness to need:
You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. (Deuteronomy 15:7-8, italics mine)
For spiritual entrepreneurs, it is important to maintain the practice of opening the heart as a foundation for service. It is our work to listen with the heart and allow its natural response to flow down our arms and out our hands, into the world, in the form called for by the needs around us.
By tuning into the heart, right action flows of its own accord.
0 comments:
Post a Comment