Achariya Fritz Kramer
Speaks on "Bless Your Heart"
Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 11:00am
As we approach the middle of winter, our coldest weeks, may we contemplate the source of warmth within. The congregation will join together this week to spend some time with our hearts. They are the first organs to form inside our bodies. After only 21 days, the heart begins to pump, creating the circulation necessary to build and power the brain and nervous system. This pumping will continue unceasingly until the day we depart this plane of existence. Yet, this physical role is but a part of the heart's divine duty. From time immemorial, man has asked God to bless our hearts, to sanctify and purify our center of feeling, allowing us ever greater alignment to and perception of Love and Truth. Let us do just that this coming Sunday.
—Acharya Fritz
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
"Love is the inherent quality of the human heart. We, as yet, may not have developed the perfect intellect to understand metaphysical truths; our physical strength may not be adequate to allow us to work and serve; we may be mentally deficient, or physically weak, but the unending flow of the fountain of love is in every one of us."
—Swami Premananda, "The Magnetic Power of Love (Bhakti Yoga)"
All righteous self-expressions and actions are inspired by love that is enshrined within the heart. Abiding peace is the ultimate goal of life. Happiness is the realization of joy within our hearts. It is the exaltation of spirit within our inner being.
—Shyamacharan Lahiri
"Think of a space in your heart, and think that in the midst of that space is a flame burning. Think of that flame as your own soul. Inside that flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon that in your heart."
—Swami Vivekananda, "Lectures on Raja Yoga"
Noble Thoughts: ("Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all sides." —Rigveda)
"In Chinese, there is no discrete concept for mind nor is there a discrete concept for heart. One single concept, Xin (pronounced 'shin'), embraces both...The conditioning of life and all it's traumas causes us to believe that the brain and mind are the directors of life, but when the thinking self is allowed to become integrated with the feeling self in the HeartMind, everything changes...When this integration occurs, Yin-Yang/body-spirit come into balance...Your being radiates. When the HeartMind is clear your Shen, or Spirit, is revealed."
—Roger Jahnke, "The Healing Promise of Qi"
"Anahata is the great Cakra in the heart of all beings. The Maha-svacchandra—Tantra says:
'The great ones declare that Thy blissful form, O Queen, manifests in Anahata, and is experienced by the mind inward-turned of the Blessed Ones, whose hairs stand on end and whose eyes weep with joy.'"
—Arthur Avalon, "The Serpent Power"
"From the blossoming lotus of devotion, at the center of my heart,
Rise up, O compassionate master, my only refuge."
—Jikme Lingpa in "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche