S E V E N G A T E S T O W A R D S T H E U N I V E R S E F O U R T H G A T E: A N A H A T A C H A K R A-PART 2

S E V E N   G A T E S   T O W A R D S   T H E   U N I V E R S E
F O U R T H   G A T E:   A N A H A T A   C H A K R A

PART 2
IT IS YOU I WANT, ONLY YOU
Other great mystics reveal to us their experiences:

"But God where is? It is in missing Him. Where there is nothing but consuming love. In the very point in which love burns and is not consumed. This is where the "sight" of God is. And in this space, all in flames, occurs the mysterious meeting beyond mind, between the beloved God and a soul in love with Him. In the heart."

Saint Simon tells us about this encounter:
"I am speechless at the sight of His beauty and kindness and when I see how the Creator opens up His arms and comes upon me and reveals His infinite Glory to me.

Thinking how fast can someone reach to His heights, I immediately find Him splendid and shining radiantly from my heart. His light appears from outside and all of a sudden we find Him inside of us, from which He springs forcefully like a burning fire."

One of the most elevating Christian spiritual practices is the isihast prayer, the prayer of the heart, which implies that the practitioner repeats Jesus' name constantly and without stopping.

The repetition of the prayer "Lord, Jesus Christ have mercy on me!" leads to experiences impossible to describe, an announcement on earth of the happiness awaiting us in the other world. Such bliss is saved for those who seek God in the simplicity of their loving heart.

"I felt that the prayer was now getting down from lips to my heart; it seemed to me that my heart was repeating the words of the prayer with every pulsation, with every beat, all by itself.

I no longer repeated the words with my lips. All I did now was to listen carefully to the sound of my heart. It seemed that my eyes were sinking inside my heart. Then I felt a slight pain and an overwhelming love.

This love was for Jesus Christ. I felt that if I only saw Him, I would fall at His feet I would hold them in my arms and I would kiss them thousands of times.

I would thank Him for the gift of love He has given me. Then I felt in my chest such a beneficial warmth that one could not possibly tell or describe."

"With my eyes closed, focusing all the forces of my imagination, I would look upon my spiritual heart. In the beginning I felt I was getting confused, but after a while I began to realize my heart and its movements and through my breath I was able to insert in it and then to take out of it the prayer of Jesus, as the saints teach us.

Inhaling, I would look with my spirit in my heart saying: "Lord Jesus Christ" and exhaling the air I would say: "have mercy on me". I began with one hour of prayer per day, then gradually I increased the number of hours to several hours and finally to the whole day.

It took me about three weeks until I felt some pain in my heart and then a very pleasant warmth and an unimaginable joy. This joy gives me the desire to continue to pray.

I felt a burning and overwhelming love for Jesus and for all of God's creatures. My eyes were in tears. My weak thoughts were clear now and my mind seemed to see things clearly. My soul was praising the Lord ceaselessly and my heart was lost in a sea of joy."

Rumi: "Love is the only constant in this universe. Love comes from the infinite and is eternal."

The deepest and most uplifting feeling a person can experience is love. Love is ours, and yet it does not belong to us. It comes from God without ever having left Him. It is eternal and eternally creative.

What do we understand through love? What do we experience through love? Each of us sees and understands according to the awakening of their souls.

There is no tenderer path leading to God than love. Silent and tumultuous, passionate and candid, bright and invisible, uttered and unspoken, yet always in bloom, love is what keeps us alive.

Tomorrow when you wake up, look at the things around, the trees, the stones, the animals, the people and see this love everywhere. Wake up 30 minutes earlier tomorrow. Wash up and come back to your room.

Sit in a meditation pose and relax the whole body. For seven minutes, focus on the Yantra of the Great Cosmic Power Bhuwaneshwari and perceive the expansion of the heart chakra, Anahata Chakra.

Close your eyes and focus on Anahata Chakra, breathe deeply 21 times and direct the energy into the heart center. You will gradually perceive the activation of Anahata Chakra.

Now open your eyes and look at the world as if you were in Anahata Chakra. You may even imagine that you have a gigantic eye in Anahata Chakra, looking at the world through it. You will feel you soul opened and happy that it can comprise the whole world.

You will also perceive a gigantic sphere of force, filled with love and radiating love in Anahata Chakra. Close you eyes again and stay like this for a while.

Become aware of the fundament of all things in the universe: love. Come back gradually, open your eyes and go to your daily routine, remembering to look at the world through your heart.