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THE AYURVEDA LIFESTYLE NETWORK
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The Perfect Vehicle for Sharing Love and Compassion by Bill Feeney Some years ago while walking around Ickwell Village with Dr Vasant Lad he said to me that I would be using Ayurveda and Yoga as a vehicle to fulfil my need to share the energy of the heart, the energy of love and compassion. When we are thinking in terms of love and compassion we are thinking about the very energies of the heart itself and the very powerful emotions that are released by the heart. I feel that all the great philosophers have been saying the same thing to us, in many different ways and at many different times, and that it is our inability to share at the level of the heart that creates so many problems for us on all other levels – physical, mental/emotional and even spiritual or on the level of our true Being. Suppress any energies, and love and emotions are energies, and they will crystallise into the connective tissues of the area linked to that particular emotion, i.e. grief and sadness into the chest, anger into the digestive system and liver, hate into the gall bladder, fear into the kidneys and anxiety into the colon. To continue to suppress these and we are limiting the body’s ability to perform self-healing. It is to the extent of our abilities to release these energies and emotions that governs the extent to which we can share that which is truly ours, the energies of the open heart, a doorway into the true and wonderful beings that we are. It is said that compassion is love in action. But this can only be true if that love is unconditional! Far to often our love for others and even towards ourselves is governed by the desire for reward, something in return for our sharing of love and compassion. I love "because" seems to be what we offer and what we need to hear. We place conditions on our love as if we can place a price on it and still expect it to last. This maybe why there is the accepted division between loving unconditionally and "being in love". Unconditional love endures because there are no expectations of reward, no judgment, no demands that it should last forever. Unconditional love is about being in the moment, no "baggage" from the past, no desires to know what the future holds for our love. For all the major philosophies have said throughout the ages that we need to cultivate the ability to be "here now", to make the best of this moment, this precious present. If our love is conditional any compassion that we hope to share will also carry conditions, limiting the healing effect that comes with true compassion, healing for both the giver and receiver. Unconditional love and therefore unconditional compassion comes from the heart and not from the ego, for the ego has no part to play in the sharing of the energies of the heart. Lama Surya Das, in his book Awakening to the Sacred, tells a story about a group of recently departed men and women who found themselves standing in the line before the proverbial pearly gates. Anticipating divine judgment about their lives, they all began to question themselves about their earthly behaviour. ‘Was I a good parent?’ ‘Did I accomplish something of value in my life?’ ‘Did I donate enough to the needy?’ When they finally reached the gate, all these souls were asked one question, ‘How well did you love?’ I would add to this another question, ‘How well do I serve those who are brought into my life by Yoga and Ayurveda, my chosen path?’ I have a choice. I can serve from the ego or the heart; conditionally or unconditionally. We need to remember always that Ayurveda and Yoga are holistic in nature but spiritual in context. We cannot remove them from their spiritual base and still expect the true healing to take place. The desire and the ability that Western society has to draw Yoga and Ayurveda into the commercial world, the world of profit, comes from the materialistic ego and not the heart. When profit becomes the motive for sharing then this will be conditional and the heart closes. In Ayurveda and Yoga we are working with the natural order of nature and the universe. A law that is not based on conditions, or the fulfilment of promises, as are the laws of mankind, laws which we need until we learn to live by the heart’s code and not that of the ego. It is said that we must avoid exploiting our heart by allowing the brain to misappropriate its miraculous energy for selfish purposes. We have to avoid depriving our heart by allowing our brain’s innate selfishness to distance us from the hearts of others. Also, don’t allow your brain to be so busily and reactively consumed with trying to stay alive that it forgets to allow time for your heart to reflect proactively on what purpose you chose this path, this vehicle called Ayurveda and Yoga. I go back to what Dr Lad said about Ayurveda and Yoga being the perfect vehicle for sharing love and compassion. Learning through these ancient philosophies, these sister sciences, to share, to serve, to give from the heart, for this is the prime function of the heart, to be the servant of the Soul. And finally to paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi – "If you love what you are doing unconditionally, then you never do another day’s work". Bill Feeney is a Remedial Yoga Teacher and Ayurvedic Lifestyle Guide Bibliography: The Heart’s Code. Paul Pearsall phD Awakening to the Sacred. Lama Surya Das © 2006 Bill Feeney
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