Heartstone 007

​Continued from Heartstone 006

An on-going conversation with cooperative networks of conscious particles through the focal point of Heartstone.

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(Revised and expanded from 006)
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H. - Traditions, techniques, systems, philosophies, all have limitations. There is a way that gives humans direct access to experiential connection with the Whole Net and is without limit.

G. - Rather than, 'We (you and we) have found a way that gives humans direct access to experiential connection with the Whole Net and is without limit,' which is what we wrote earlier.

H. - .... it is extraordinary that humanity has reached a crossroads which can take it to that blissful state, or to prolonged suffering. Either way will be balanced by the Whole in the end, but for humans there is a choice for a smoother ride.

G - In this I see mission mentality, mentioned below. Also, 'blissful state' is for the writer still a concept as it has not been experienced.

H. - Not every expectation is a hindrance to experience living fully from Being or in a felt connection with the Nets. Expectations which lead to contraction hinder the experience and impede the flow....

G. - Expectations contract and also take the person out of the present moment. Since putting some focus on expectation, I have started seeing it in myself throughout the day. Worry is an expectation of things going 'wrong,' and every time I have the slightest resistance, it is because an expectation is not met. Control is making effort to change 'what is' to what meets an expectation. Feeling Being is effortless.

I have found it easier and more effective to let go of expectation in the moment than to pretend I can let go of primal emotions such as fear. I can be with fear until it dissipates, but cannot so easily let it go in the moment.

Also, returning to the breath gives an opportunity to check in on my state in the moment. I become aware of whether my breathing is shallow and constricted or if I breath into my belly in a smooth and open rhythm. I can take a moment to focus on the four pillars of Heart Breathing and bring myself into a more relaxed and expanded state.

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Rod MacKinnon
'I'm reading, allowing your conversations to resonate within me, without intellectualizing... absorbing the essence of meaning...  '
 
Gary R Smith
Thank you, Rod. You and Kati are great friends to help me see my tendency to write from a mental perspective. I am feeling to cool down the writing for a time and focus again on living it.

R. - Oops!!! That last comment got away before I'd completed my two-cents worth.... Your sharing has, for me, been deeply insightful and there's an immense amount of knowledge and wisdom to assimilate..., I can understand the necessity to allow yourself periods for reflection and integration... Nevertheless... In my opinion... We have to have faith in our path.... It isn't ever supposed to look like someone else's.  I have faith in yours and am grateful for your sharing of it...  I hope you'd trust your own instincts and intuitions before anything else Gary.... 

G. - Your comment that got away was perfect as it was, coming at the same time that Kati and I talked about the Heartstone conversations. Her input, which I heard deeply, rings true. The conversations after 001 started having a more mental quality to them and in 006 some self-importance and mission mentality showed up. 

Having faith in each other's path is so in alignment with how I feel. There is a balance between having faith in one's path while remaining open to hear the wisdom of others, and making adjustments to the path according to one's intuitive feeling.

R. - Hi Gary... If I may, I'd like to share a recent experience during meditation....
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I began as usual sitting, breathing, allowing my focus to find itself within my body... my intention open to the unknown....as my awareness settled I experienced a gentle "knowing" without words.... difficult, if not impossible to express...The nearest I can come to describing it in words is....All I am is it...It is all I am.... nothing to seek .... it was simultaneously an 'ordinary' and yet profound experience...

Interestingly, the 'knowledge(?)" remains with me days afterward....I feel it, sense it .... a stillness within ... The usual mental chatter still shows up but has  little if any power to distract  for any length of time....when it occurs to me that I am distracted,... I return to the stillness....  

G. - So beautiful. So elegant in its simplicity and truth. There is nothing to seek. So beneficial to return to the stillness when one can do it. For me, this would be beyond returning to the breath. The breath is a physical way to return to the present moment. When I can feel the stillness, sense it, that is touching a deeper essence. There is nothing to seek, and no questions to ask, as I conceive it (saying that I haven't yet experienced this depth of feeling.)

I use 'knowing' as intuitive or inherent and 'knowledge' as mental. What I 'know' and cannot fully express is usually more intrinsic to my deeper truth than when I write words other than knowing and it becomes mental knowledge. Knowing aligns with experience while mental knowledge stays in the head. Sometimes mental knowledge or abstract conceptualizing gets ahead of knowing, and then it is well to give more attention to integrating as you wrote.

When I experienced life as it happened yesterday morning while carrying the compost buckets, and could sense the atoms and molecules as a harmonious whole, it was perhaps a variation of feeling the stillness. Both are examples of expanded awareness which bring richness to the quality of life. With my two cents worth and Kati's added to yours, now we have more than a nickel! Thank you.

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NEXT - HEARTSTONE 008

HEART BREATHING - CONTENTS