Heart of Being Courses

Heart of Being - CYCLE OF LIFE - FIRE PHASE

Fire relates to the Golden Light of the Heaven. Our heart is our very own sun that emanates the Qi/Energy of spirit which like sunlight is golden. Connecting to the golden essence of our heart fills us with love and en-lightened conscious perception. During the course as we go further and further into this golden state our heart will open to contain more and more of spirit's love and awareness.

In the Oriental tradition the heart is described as the Sovereign and Master. This is the principal quality of Shen/Spirit, which is the supreme presence and power within. Amongst the five phases, Fire represents the ruler of our being and of all other phases. This is because spirit is itself connected to and guided by Tien/Heaven which has created the Earth and Humankind.

Heaven is the reality and expression of absolute Yang (as in Yin-Yang) and spirit is its expression. Yang means The Creative and implies that all generative and creative forces of life are Heavenly. Both spirit and Heaven are accessed through the heart centre. By opening our heart we connect to our spirit and through it to the Creative principle and its attributes. If we surrender to spirit it becomes the Lord and Master of our personal self. Then all that is true, all that was conceived and created by Heaven is represented in us by Spirit within the core of our heart.

Shen in Chinese can mean spirit, consciousness or mind, denoting that they are interrelated. Essentially spirit is heavenly consciousness. Whenever we merge with that the pure consciousness of Shen our thinking mind/ Yi translates this experience as enlightened awareness or Buddha-mind. Hence the notion of 'empty mind' is at the heart of Buddhist and Daoist spiritual traditions. This is a state where the Yi/thinking mind has been emptied of mental turmoil and rumination. From a usual restless, worried state our mind is transformed into tranquil, clear awareness.

Our Xin/Heart is our spiritual core, hence the French word for heart, coeur! Described also as the Sacred Heart our Coeur/Core is the gateway to our heavenly reality. The feeling of the presence of the 'Beloved' within our sacred heart is the experience of sublime, unconditional, perfect love. Heaven is the source of the unitive principle we know and feel as love. Hence why the saying 'God is Love'.

One can see why Fire is so important and central to our being; for it represents all that we have come to understand as transcendent and spiritual. The term Heaven/Tien alludes to the same great mystery as The Divine, Beloved, Creator, Great Spirit, Supreme Being, Heavenly Being, Higher Self, Dao, Nirvana, God and so on do. Fire is the aspect within us that can commune with all that Heaven/Tien implies and evokes.

An attribute of Fire is joy. This joy ranges from simple well-being to excitement to infinite bliss. Blissful joy has a sense of the sacred as well as a deep contentment that floods the system as a golden fluid. This essence flows within our entire being including our cells, so it is felt as a very real, almost substantial presence. Hence it revives us and makes us want to celebrate life and so 'dance with joy'. We all long for this state but don't know where to find it. Like all profound realities, to access it is actually straightforward. All we need to do, in this case, is to open our hearts to the source of joy and love, the Beloved within our core.

The purpose of connecting to spirit is to unify our independent personal consciousness with interconnected transpersonal consciousness. This increasing union progressively transforms our egoic identity into spiritual beingness. It is an evolutionary leap from being driven predominantly by egoic impulses to being guided by spiritual inspiration. Instead of relying exclusively upon our individual traits, we learn to rely upon the interrelationship and intimate connection with our heavenly being.

A fundamental quality Fire connects us with is Ling, which translates as grace, blessing or more precisely 'heavenly benevolent influences'. These are bestowed to us from above like heavenly rain which we are meant to receive with open mouths and hearts so they can enter deep inside. By taking in this nourishing liquid essence we can absorb it and make it part of our own essence. For this to happen we need to become receptive to the Heaven Being so it can annoint us with love and spiritual consciousness.

With Fire, the usual delineation between a spirituality and psychology is blurred as the two are indistinct. During this summer course we focus on its predominant spiritual nature as well as touch on its psychological aspects. This is in fitting with the nature of Fire to connect, merge and unify through love and awareness. We shall work to open ourselves to the reality and blessing of Heaven with the aim to become intimately connected with our heart, spirit and Heavenly Being.