As we continue the “Wisdom Within” series, this week we tap into Heart Chakra wisdom and look at life through the lens of Relationship. Consciously or unconsciously, we are in relationship with everyone and everything around us all the time. Our experience, awareness, and understanding of relationship evolves as we climb the ladder, metaphorically speaking, of the chakras, and as we look and experience life through the seven “lenses” of perception we are exploring in this series.
In the Root Chakra, we looked through the lens of Common Ground, acknowledging that every person, situation, or event is happening on this same common ground that we stand on. Everything that happens, no matter how close or far away, touches our lives in some way.
That awareness then opened the door to the Sacral Chakra where we looked through the lens of Connection. We paid particular attention to the people and situations we are instinctively drawn closer to, and the ones we back away from. When we are curious about those instinctive reactions, we understand more about what is really going on and perhaps learn something more about our patterns of engagement with others.
Then in the Solar Plexus Chakra, we looked through the lens of Integrity, exploring what it means to be in integrity with the people and situations we encounter as well as with ourselves.
While navigating the complexities and uncertainties of today’s systemic challenges, circumstances, and interconnected structures—all elements of Solar Plexus consciousness—it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed. However, when we enter Heart Chakra wisdom, something within us opens; we find space to breathe.
The Heart Chakra is right in the center of the chest. Place your hands there and take a deep and full breath. Imagine that you are breathing in and out through the Heart Chakra, breathing all the way into the bottom of your body. Then take another breath, giving yourself a chance to rest into the spaciousness of the heart.
The Heart Chakra stretches our awareness beyond the three-dimensional, physical, “seen” world into the non-physical “unseen” world. It takes us beyond the “doing” of life into the “being” of life. It’s where being and doing, presence and action, come together, and we begin to tap into the wholeness of ourselves in relationship to the wholeness of life.
Ancient wisdom teachings from many traditions spoke of the alchemical nature of the heart. The early mystics described the Solar Plexus as the “fire in the belly” underneath the “healing cauldron” of the Heart. They taught that whatever worry or concern you put into the cauldron of the heart would be alchemically healed or made whole. They recognized that through the healing alchemy process, the cauldron of the heart breaks open, releasing love, compassion, clarity, and understanding. Through that opening, we begin to sense our next steps.
A Gracefully Supple Field of Energy
Although the ancient mystics spoke of the heart as a cauldron, more and more I experience it as a gracefully supple field of energy. Just as the heart muscle expands and contracts to pump blood and oxygen through the body, Heart Chakra awareness expands out into the energy field of whatever is happening, gathers information, and then contracts, pulling that information back into the human energy system to be analyzed, processed, and integrated into our larger intuitive mind.
In this way, the Heart Chakra is constantly reading the signals and messages of the moment and guiding us forward. While the Solar Plexus is the analyzer, “figuring out” what to do next, the Heart is the navigator, sensing the presence and action needed in each next step. The Heart partners with what is happening, working with everything that shows up rather than pushing against what it doesn’t want or like. This pro-active leadership, informed by the Heart’s enormous awareness, allows the analytical mind to take a breath and follow the Heart’s intuitive guidance. Because most of us have been conditioned to trust intellect above intuition, we have to practice learning to trust this highly intuitive Heart guidance and allow it to take the lead.
The Heart Chakra is the center of unconditional love—moving beyond judgment, accepting “what is”, and working with it. The Heart’s capacity for love knows no bounds. Which means its capacity for connection on deeper, richer, and more multi-faceted levels is also boundless. Which takes us to the lens of Relationship.
The Relationship Space—the Space in Between
Through the Japanese culture, we learn about the concept of Ma, which literally translates to mean “empty space.” In traditional Japanese paintings, Ma is the empty space between the objects on the canvas. In music, it’s the silence between the notes. I also think of it as the space between the objects and the observer, or between the notes and the listener.
However, that space is only “empty” by appearance. There is a quality of energy in that space or silence, and that quality of energy shapes the relationship that is present between the objects or the notes and the observer. The Ma space is the relationship space—the space in between.
In life, the Ma is the space in between people, ideas, situations, beliefs, worldviews, actions, behaviors. In other words, “relationship” happens in the space in between people, things, or ideas. The lens of Relationship points our focus on the space in between. What’s happening in that space? What is the energy in the relationship space asking for? What is the Ma that will best serve the moment or the circumstance? What role is it asking you to play right now in whatever is happening? We’ll work with these questions in a moment.
The Heart often takes us beyond thoughts and words to sensing and feeling. Through the Heart Chakra, we sense the quality of energy in the space in between and therefore the quality of the relationships. Like the heart, the Ma or relationship space is also a gracefully subtle field of energy. It can quickly shift from one quality to another, and suddenly our relationship with the person or situation has transformed. Something else is now possible.
This is the power of the Heart. The lens of Relationship helps us see, sense, experience, and move with this gracefully subtle field of energy and find new ways of being that we may have never imagined before. We find our way into “right relationship” with the people, situations, and events of our lives.
Looking through the lens of Relationship
The lens of Relationship asks: What is the Ma in what is happening? How is it asking you to show up? What role is it asking you to play? And what would it mean to be in “right relationship” with the people and situation in front of you?
The two exercises below will help you look at and experience life through the lens of Relationship.
Exercise #1—Looking inward, and then out to the world
Place your hands once more over the Heart Chakra and take three deep and slow breaths. Allow your breath to help you settle into a deeper, quieter space. … Look inward through the lens of Relationship. What words best describe your relationship with yourself in recent days? … What about right now? … What would it mean to you to be in “right relationship” with yourself?
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Consider your family and intimate friends through the lens of Relationship. Notice who comes to your awareness first? What do you notice when you meet them through the lens of Relationship? What is the Ma—the energy of the space in between you? … What would it mean to be in “right relationship” with your family and intimate friends? … What feels important to pay attention to?
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Consider people and situations you encounter in your work or public life. Again, trust whoever or whatever shows up. Meet them through the lens of Relationship. What do you sense in the space in between? … What is it asking for from you? … What would it mean to be in “right relationship” with these people and situations? … What feels important to pay attention to?
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Consider people who might think or believe differently than you. Meet them through the lens of Relationship. What do you notice about the space in between? … What would it mean to be in “right relationship” with them?
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Consider people who are living in war or who are in crisis. Even though they may be far away from you, step back to the lens of Common Ground. Acknowledge that they are living on the same common ground as you are and that their situation is unfolding right now on that same common ground. Sense the magnitude of what is happening. … Then, staying connected to the lens of Common Ground, look through the lens of Relationship. What would it mean for you to be in “right relationship” with them and their situation?
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What are you discovering about yourself when you look through the lens of Relationship?
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When you are ready, move on to the second exercise.
Exercise #2—Looking at a specific situation that won’t let go of you
Perhaps there is a situation that will not let go of you right now. It might be deeply personal, or it might be national or global, or something in between. Step beyond judgments and opinions and be present with it through the lens of Relationship. What is the Ma? … What is the space in between asking for from you? What would it mean to be in “right relationship” with the situation and the people involved?
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In the coming days, practice looking at the world around you through the lens of Relationship. Pay attention to the Ma everyplace you are, every situation you encounter. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself, and at the same time, stay with it. Keep stepping past judgment and opinions and see what you discover. And next week, we’ll continue our “Wisdom Within” journey through the Throat Chakra and the lens of Truth.
Articles in the “Wisdom Within” series
Tapping Into the Wisdom Within
Standing on Common Ground
The Mystery of Connection
Living In Integrity
Being in Right Relationship
Fire in the Belly, Love in the Heart
The Truth of the Matter
The Power of Vision
Wisdom Greater than Our Own
Resources
Book Intuitive Living by Alan Seale, Chapter 12
Monday Meditations Recordings—In the Autumn 2023 free series of Monday Meditations titled “Wisdom in our Bones,” Alan focused on these seven lenses. The recordings of those 20-minute meditations are available to you as a free resource to deepen your experience in working with the lenses. Go to the Monday Meditations Recordings on the Center for Transformational Presence website to listen. The “Relationship” meditation was on November 6, 2023.