Dear Friends,

The video above is a brief description of the HEART MEDITATION OF ATISHA, the “Thrice Born” Tibetan monk from the 10th Century.

I don’t know about you, but right now it seems as if there is nothing but CHAOS and confusion, and it is hard to focus on anything. Time is distorted. I hear what isn’t being said, and don’t hear what IS being said.

DIVINE CHAOS, as Carolyn Myss describes it. Well, I don’t know how divine it is. It feels like dukie. And the only reason I am asserting this so assuredly is because I am hearing it over and over again from friends, clients, patients….enemies😊

I am copying and pasting a flyer from a Workshop on Atisha I gave in 2006. It isn’t being offered again (no Workshops are being offered right now), but it is informative:

Atisha’s Heart Meditation for Therapists and the People Who Love Them

“Formerly taught to licensed clinicians in sold-out settings, this workshop teaches a way of listening which gently utilizes the body, mind and spirit as an alchemical tool in compassionate listening.

Atisha was a Tibetan Monk, called the “Thrice Born”, because rumor had it that he was awakened three times in three different ways. He lived as a contemporary to the great Tibetan Saint Milarepa, in the 10th Century. Atisha remains an important figure in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for several reasons, but mainly because he refined, systematized, and compiled an innovative and thorough approach to bodhichitta known as "mind training".

Different from Tonglen Meditation, which uses a more active form of compassionate meditation and breath work to bless and absorb the apparent “other”, Atisha’s Heart Meditation teaches the practitioner to use the Buddhist technique of “Soft Eyes, Soft Belly” as he or she listens to what is being said and absorbs this into the Heart Chakra. It is then radiated back into the eyes of the person who is speaking. All of this is done in complete silence, and with practice, becomes a way of active listening in a daily life which may become startling in its newfound ability to awaken one to inner reserves of joy and intuition.”

I’m practicing this form of heart meditation and listening right now. What about you?


Love, Gopita