THE PATH OF BEAUTY IS THE PATH OF THE HEART
THE PATH OF THE HEART IS THE PATH OF LOVE...
... To recognize this path, let alone walk it, requires a pure Heart awakened to truth and beauty. Yet true beauty cannot be revealed, unless the all-consuming power of love absolves the autonomy of our individuality into the heart of Being. This path transcends heaven and earth, as it at once takes us to the highest abode, and into the deepest cavern of life‘s mysteries. The Path of the Heart is not for the fainthearted – its power is sustained by that mighty offering kept alive through that Heart-to-Heart connection.
The Core ~ The Triadic Heart of Shiva
He, Shiva Himself, full of joy enhanced by the honey
of the three corners of his Heart, iccha, jnana and kriya,
raising up His face to gaze at His own splendor, is called Shakti.
~ Maharthamanjari
The core of this work is the Heart of the enlightened Master which encompasses everything. The Heart is the seat of Consciousness. The Heart is Love. The Heart is Ma, the Goddess. The Heart is the lotus garden of the union of Shiva and Shakti, Shiva as Shamboo. The Heart is Peace. The fragrance of Bliss, throbbing and vibrating as Sat-Chit-Ananda, as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. The Heart points into, penetrates and encompasses the mystery of life. The Heart is all there is. The Heart is the Self. The Heart of Shiva is the womb of Shakti. The womb of Shakti is the abode of Grace.
The Guru principle can only manifest in someone, who has been chosen by Grace itself to be the doorway into Light and the doorway for Light to pour through – for Shiva to manifest as Vishnu, the dharmic principle, the upholder of Beauty and Love. This inner, most sacred alchemical process can only be completed in someone, who died on the cross in the final sacrifice and has been birthed into eternity.
There is only One, as Shiva and Shakti. That indeed is the deepest mystery, and within this mystery, the dance unfolds, the Love flows. Within this mystery, the sweetness of life and the evolutionary power is experienced. Within this mystery everything is possible. That is the Teaching, from which everything else manifests. There is no Teaching whatsoever outside of my own Self.
The essence of this work, the very purpose and goal for the seeker, who is guided into the presence of Igor Vamadeva, is to realize the Self, to realize Oneness, to drown in the vast ocean of the Heart and stand firmly rooted in the ground of his and her radiant being as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
“This world, along with every perception that goes into its making, including every feeling, thought, sensation, laughter, and tear shed in joy or sorrow, no matter how profane or sacred—all are creative expressions of Shiva. Your breath and your heartbeat are the rhythmical measure of time from a blink of an eye to infinity.”
The transmission of Grace ~ Guru-Shishya-Parampara
Gururvã pãrameshvari anugrahikã shaktihi ~
The Guru is the grace-bestowing power of God.
~ Shiva Sutra Vimarshini
The real Teaching and ‘work’ on the Path of the Heart unfolds through the direct and intimate Heart-to-Heart connection between the Guru and his shishyas. This entire ‘work’ is based on this sacred Heart-to-Heart connection. This is the very foundation. The student’s evolution is being orchestrated by the power of Love in motion. By the transformative, sacred working of the Goddess. This happens beyond the mind, where She can birth herSelf and where nothing can be grasped or put into a dogma. The Shakti herself, bestowed upon the disciples through the transmission of the Guru’s Grace, will purify and sweep the abode of our hearts, until it turns into a beautiful temple for the Goddess to reside.
The relationship between the Guru and his shishya is the most intimate and profound relationship of all. This relationship forms the foundation from which all other relationships can spring forth. The relationship to the Guru is the relationship to our own beloved Self. Through the unfolding dynamics and the deeper bonding, everything that makes up the individual identity of the student is offered into the blazing light of the Self in form of the Guru. The individual fire is offered back into the universal, cosmic flame. The fire principle is kept alive through sincere and heartfelt offering, through pouring oneself into the flame and hence allowing Love to consume us. This is why the path of the Heart is the path of ‘becoming less’. The path of losing oneself in the ocean of Love. Until one merges with the eternal flame of one’s own Self. Until one realizes the Guru as one’s own precious Self.
For this greatest undertaking of our life to bear fruit, there must be a firm sankalpa, a deep intention on the level of the soul, a great desire to know one’s own dear Self, to know God in this lifetime, no matter what. This desire has to be like a burning flame.
The Path of Beauty
“And honoring the Shakti is honoring this world. This world! This world! This world! Even through the senses, because it is through the senses that the marvel of this experience is being brought fully back onto the Self for the Self to realize itself through the magnificence of its own Glory. So that it can partake in this reality through every being, through every embodiment as That. This is the spirituality that does not dismiss the world on the grounds of it not deciding whether it is real or unreal…”
“The path of the Heart is the path of Beauty...” And the path of Beauty is the path of beholding and worshiping all of life as the reflective power of our own awareness, as the Goddess herself. This means to partake in the lila of divine expression in its manifold forms, from the most terrifying to the most subtle and gentle manifestations of our own Consciousness. Therefore this path is ‘beautiful and it is terrifying,’ because beauty shatters us and takes us beyond the mind, into the tavern of the Heart, into a state of utter intoxication.
Beauty is the fragrance of Love. To behold Love, attention must be there. We are guided to be touched by the very power which reignites the touch of sense itself. This requires attention. We need to turn our attention to the energy that empowers every sense perception, to behold the glory of our own Self. In every experience, we find the freedom to create our reality through the way we choose to perceive. Until nothing disturbs or distorts our seeing. Until the seer and the seen fully merge and the mere act of seeing remains. Thus we extract the rasa, the subtle flavour of every experience ‒ as bliss is the matrix, out of which this universe is woven. Piercing the appearance of the form and perceiving the essence is to know one’s Self, is to realize that all of life is sacred. The rose-petals on the puja and one’s own excrement.
The sense perceptions on this path are not to be transcended or ignored, the senses are the most refined portals for the dance of life to take place, for the mystery to unfold. The senses are the immortals. We offer them the nectar of our experiences, so that the Gods can partake in the ecstasy of being embodied in human form.
Sadhakas learn to consciously integrate higher states of Consciousness into the physicality of the body and nervous system, to become the vessel for the nectar of the Self. Without the integration of the experience of “higher states”, they would simply fade as memories and not become a lived reality. This path is far from being an escape route into transcendence to leave this world behind, which in so many traditions is negated as maya, as illusion...
This Path of Beauty is the Path of the Heart, is the Path of Love, is the Path of Grace. One Path. Our eyes will be opened to perceive this very Earth as sacred ‒ as Shiva. Shiva!
This very moment is the doorway to the Beloved.
Jai Guru Dev ‒
Glory to the Guru, who reveals the Light of the Self!
~ Sundari Ma, July 2017