In Buddhism, they believe that there are 8 knots that need to be undone around the heart before we can feel the fullness of love again. These knots rest around our “psychic being”, our center, our soul, and distribute life force energy through the right and left energetic channels of the body. What rests between these knots is referred to as the “indestructible drop” which is where the masculine and the feminine essences within us unite and the space which the soul incarnates into the body.
Many of us, as an automatic reflex to painful experiences, shut our hearts down a little bit more; making these knots tighten around the expression of our soul. This is a protective mechanism we have developed as a fear response that makes it so that we will feel less as we experience the world through the lens of the small “i”, our ego self. But, in order to feel more love, we must also feel more pain – we must feel everything.
This is the state of the open untied heart – one that is completely open to receive All.
Yet, the true self lies between these feelings of bliss and pain. The psychic being (which rests between these knots) is our infinite self — the eternal witness. It does not shut itself off from any feeling but flows with them all fully; never attaching nor identifying itself with any state, and always keeping its centeredness.
The true self understands the fundamental nature of reality which includes a dualistic illusion of life and death and it’s attachment and suffering. It knows the nature of reality completely because it has seen it a billion times before — it has cycled through time infinitely and know this play between opposites is merely the essence of being, so it goes through these cycles willingly, beautifully, feeling it all and yet not attaching itself to any of it.
This peaceful supreme state of being, rested in the self, is not a cold detached state like some meditators may mistake it for; emotionless, desireless, unaffected; that (to me) seems like a bypass of the fundamental beauty of immersing oneself in life.
This true self looks like the soul experiencing all dimensions of life fully while still keeping a connection to something beyond this life.
Only when we fully open our hearts to the sufferings of the world does it undo these knots on our heart and can our true self step forward in its fullness as a witness.
Only when we are able to feel everything in this world can we become transducers of higher wisdom beyond it; bringing into this world greater compassion, empathy, and joy – and most importantly, true unconditional love felt from a wide open heart.
