How can a person with strong mental conditioning connect to their heart? Through the example of loving someone, John shows the questioner how to be in his heart and, despite shyness and embarrassment, let it come into his face, filling his body and changing his thinking.
This questioner had an awakening which he hoped his Buddhist spiritual practice would open further. He feels stuck and wants to know how he can move forward. John explains that his awakening caused a shift in orientation that does not yet match the self that he has, the result being an ache felt deeply in his heart. John shows him the shift that is needed: a surrender beyond his understanding to the knowing in his heart.
Listen to this talk to find out what grace and devotion really are; where they come from, what they’re for, and how to live for what you belong to.
In this dialogue, John explains that the increased tension the questioner feels in his life has to do with his created sense of identity through a belief in fairness, giving him an illusory sense of personal entitlement. John goes on to explain how a belief in fairness naturally requires you to be on the lookout for unfairness, causing a closing of your heart and creating a source of tension in your life.
How can we find joy in life? Isn’t that what life is all about? In this dialogue, John explains that when you believe the noise in your self, you’re fundamentally unhappy because you’re not being what you really are. Joy is actually the beingness of the real you, and the manifestation of that is as simple as falling asleep.
The questioner speaks of comparing herself to others and the pain, depression and inability to move forward that this causes. John explains the way to go beyond comparison, and into clarity and freedom.
“I dread going to work: Should I leave my job?” This questioner is wondering how to deal with a difficult boss. John shows how, when there isn’t a tightening within, an unpleasant experience can actually open deeper love, making it possible to flourish even in difficulty.
How does one deal with the emotional trauma of sexual abuse? What is the value of our past and its memories? In this deep and intricate dialogue, John shows us how opening in the present can heal the past, reconfiguring our body and our self.
Many of us love responding to and being in our hearts; and yet we find it challenging to sustain a love filled heart in in your daily life, in the midst of circumstances, in the midst of feelings and emotions in our selves. In this dialogue, John speaks of and explains how to sweep the self out of the heart, develop a deeper and a higher self, and live in love and empathy instead of fear.
“My sole purpose is to be, in life, what we are after we’ve died. Through openness and softness of heart and core-splitting honesty at any personal cost, I live as that while actualizing the same in others I meet. I am available as a resource for anyone who recognizes and values this way of being.”
– John de Ruiter
