' The Reality of Suffering '...

“Yes, an open heart is a vulnerable heart. And there is a tremendous amount of suffering in this world.

The more open-hearted you are, the more you will be open to the suffering of all.

It goes with the territory.

However, to be deeply open to the suffering of the whole need not cause its own suffering.

We need to check to see if there is anything within us that resists the suffering of the whole, that recoils from it in the form of overwhelm.

The completely open heart is a heart of total embrace.

It even embraces the reality of suffering.

The completely open heart embraces life as it is, not what could or should be.

When we are completely open to life as it is, it can break your heart, but it breaks it further open.

It breaks it open beyond any resistance to the immensity of collective suffering. Then we are not overwhelmed by it.

We lovingly respond to it in whatever way the heart moves.”



~ Adyashanti,
The Philosophy of Enlightenment