Grace
Resting in the heart
Grace. Grace is the state of being that is revealed when all tensions have come to an end. It is the space of the heart which remains when we are no longer trying to find, fix or figure things out. Grace is empty and yet simultaneously full of love. Grace is flow and synchronistic. It is awareness aware of the divine timing of all occurrences. It is not pressured. It does not force. It is peaceful and vitality alive.
Grace occurs or is, not by you giving up because you feel powerless or as a last stitch effort to try to impose your preference from a helpless state of being. Instead grace is known through the complete ownership of your power in such that the only thing left is full relinquishment of that power into something beyond it. Grace goes beyond the mind, beyond the person. There is still a person/form and yet the reference point for knowing yourself is not the person/form. Your reference point is something much more encompassing of which your mind-body is but a mere vehicle for.
Being in a state of grace is being rested in the heart. The heart is what is beyond the mind. The heart can know the mind, but the mind cannot know the heart. The mind can only respond to the felt effects of the heart. Before we are ready to fully relinquish ourselves we will continually try to think or figure out what the heart is. This is called thinking the heart, but the heart cannot be thought, it can only be experienced when we are ready to deeply surrender any and all resistance in which we have to it.
Why would we resist the heart? It seems contrary to what most of us think that our intentions are and yet ironically we live mostly in a state of perpetual resistance or disconnection from the heart. This is called living in our heads and being consumed by our thoughts. The most common reason for this, which underlies all other arising, is that we don’t feel worthy of love and we fear that we will be less than or insignificant if we fully surrender to the heart. Our logical minds will try and reason their way into or out of the heart which is of no benefit. You cannot prove your heart to your mind, you can only allow your mind to feel your heart.
Resolving all tensions
Preparing yourself for the complete consumption by love
What is it to be all consumed by love, to only know love and no longer be identified as a separate mind-body person? What does it take for this to be your everyday, every moment reality? It takes everything and nothing less than that. It takes all of you. It requires that every morsel of your beingness be on board, be intentional, be devotional and directional into this single focus above every other focus. You must want to be consumed by love more than you want anything else. The entire process, the entirety of this so called spiritual journey, is all about the discovery of where you are not wholly devoted to this single focus.
To prepare yourself for this final relinquishment of personal power and agenda into grace paradoxically takes all of your will. We often don’t realize that our will drives the ship into surrender and grace. Will and grace seem like opposite sides of the coin, but without your will and the realization that you can use your will, (which is self-empowerment0 you don’t have a chance.
The truth is that overtime everyone will naturally come to realize the state of grace and love, but it could take you eons and lifetimes rather than just this one lifetime if you don’t come to know your power and utilize your will. Why most people feel stuck or frustrated in terms of their personal growth is because they are not harnessing, utilizing and realizing the power of themselves. The ultimate self-empowerment ends in self-realization and self-realization is simply knowing the truth of who you are as love rather than as what you’ve learned yourself to be.
Preparation requires that we move forward and into tension, pushing ourselves beyond our perceived barriers of what we think is or what we know. With this generation of tension and simultaneous forward momentum the gap between where we are and where we want to be gets bridged. The tension/energy builds and builds and builds and builds until the only choice left is relinquishment into something bigger and beyond what we’ve known. We come to edge of our own perceived limited threshold, stretch past our known container of self, and we go beyond it. When we go beyond, all tensions discharge and we fall into the unknown, and here discover grace. We come to know what it is to be rested in love because some new container that was previously unknown to us arrives and we are suspended it. With deeper immersion and realization of self we merge and become one with this state of grace. This is the all consumption of love and realization of the truth of what we are.
Dr. Amanda Hessel, Chiropractor, Network Spinal Analysis & Somato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado