Chakra Meditations #2

Heart Plexus. Healing. It is an artform. The lazy tongue can render a thousand lashes in the course of a single conversation, without hesitation, and with brutal force. Like physical entropy, hurtful words and actions are the dissipated cosmic energies whose only result may indeed be the unravelling of the universe. And like entropy, the single most recognizable trait of doing harm is the chaos and disorder that ensues.

It is plainly easy for things to fall apart; one look at my compost heap can testify to that. But to transform such degradation and disarray into something useful, practical, powerful and nourishing -- this is what we do -- this is what it means to Live. Each day we are bombarded with suffering; past hurts; newly formed pains; sorrows of those we love and care about; sorrows of our own. It leaves us de-energized, exhausted and for the most unfortunate of us all, hopeless. So where is there room for healing?

When embittered with rage, it becomes dangerously easy to feed into the cyclic ruptures of harm-full action. The sarcasm flows relentlessly and then thoughtlessness forms into a destructively debilitating habit. Even more dangerous is the ever-present voice of anger and disgust, pointed toward self, considerably magnified, unduly doled.

Compassion is not a unidirectional vector of love. It is not pity. It is being touched by another creature's presence, and at the same time reaching deep within to find that very same presence, that very same core of emotion, of understanding, of acknowledgement. And so it becomes that when I home in on another's pain, and can acknowledge that I intimately know this pain, a process of healing can begin. It is not a limited sort of healing, like taking an antibiotic directed at a target bacterium, but in effect, it's more like a communicable healing. It may begin with the other person, or it may begin with me, but it knows no boundaries and spreads contentment through the Ahimsa (non-harm) actions that ultimately result.

Yam. Namaskar.