Heart Opening
The following story was sent to me by a Qi Gong practitioner, and with his permission I am sharing it as I feel it is a wonderful story to share. These are the sorts of ‘expansion’ experiences we will experience as we work on ourselves to evolve….
“I come from a background of martial arts (Kempo, Shaolin Chaun Fa, Tai Chi/Chi Gung) and meditation has always featured under the umbrella of my teachings, but never to a particularly high degree. Over the last 19 years I have trained in the physical and energetic areas of the martial arts to a high degree, but when I look back I realize my meditation training and experience would only account for about 5% of my training time. Something I currently work towards bringing into balance for the following reasons.
About 2 years ago I was prepping for some solo tai chi training by doing a quiet standing meditation, which was typical for me, and during the normal 15 min meditation which usually consists of relaxing the mind and breath, relaxing the body and aligning the posture- I had an urge from within to forgo the physical movement and continue with the meditation. I will often follow my intuition at times like this, so went with it. After a time I felt well relaxed and was literally adrift within the meditation when I noticed a gentle sensation of ‘oppression’ across my chest (sometimes I feel the words I use to describe the feelings or sensations I felt don’t quite fit, but are the closest words I know to describe the feeling) – something akin to a weight on my chest in but a standing up position.
"I am familiar with the spiritual depictions of energy points as lotus flowers but I never fully appreciated the image until now.
The opening was endless – it just continued like it was never going to stop for tens of minutes, an ever blossoming flower."
It was subtle at first but the more I focused on it the more obvious it became. (after listening to your discussion I now realize that what I did at the time was “acknowledge the feeling without judgment” which obviously really helped). Although I felt physically relaxed I was becoming increasingly aware that something other than my physical self was not relaxed. As I quietly pondered this new realization and mentally probed at the weighty feeling I focused on the concept of ‘song’ (Chinese for ‘relax and let go’). Within a short period of time the feeling slowly began to diminish and I felt an expanding of my Chi.
Physically I felt like I was inflating like a balloon, not so much by force expanding outward but more like I was always meant to feel like this but something that was preventing my energy from this lighter more expanded form had been overcome (not quite the right words but I’m sure you get the gist). With all my Tai Chi training (many years and a 2nd degree black belt in the art) I had never felt this good.
At some point my heart exploded and pure joy and love gushed outward in every direction, like an exploding star beaming bright light to the outer reaches of the universe.
I felt great for sometime afterwards and since then have become much more rehearsed at this practice.
More recently something much more profound happened …
About 6 months ago I was meditating pre dawn on the east coast (something I now do as often as poss.) and was again quietly adrift in my meditative state. I had been going for some time and was feeling light and relaxed. By now I usually feel the expanding of my chi from the ground up. Over time my legs relax and start to gently vibrate, my belly expands first, then my spine aligns and my chest releases and expands, all with a little effort – mostly patience and focus. If I continue for long enough it feels like the energy travels from the Earth up my body and fountains out of the top of my head (if you can imagine such a thing).
This time I noticed a similar feeling of oppression around my heart – which once again was extremely subtle at first but became quite obvious as time passed. As before I gently observed and mentally probed the sensation, while thinking of the concept of ‘song’. What happened next was this. As the feeling started to lift it felt like my heart was expanding but it was agonizingly subtle and slow. If I tried to apply any sort of mental force the feeling would quickly reverse and diminish. I was thinking gently to myself how I might encourage things along and I received a strong intuitive message that I am certain actually came from my heart. My heart told me quite clearly to relax and leave it alone – and it would all happen naturally.
I was stunned – but at the same time unfazed, which I remember seemed rather odd at the time. I followed my intuition and let it go completely – basically I took a mental step back and observed. Quite quickly my heart expanded, the expanding accelerated and then my heart started to open. (At least that’s what it felt like).
As I marveled at it without doubt my Heart spoke to me again. It simply said “it can be like this all the time.
I am familiar with the spiritual depictions of energy points as lotus flowers but I never fully appreciated the image until now.
The opening was endless – it just continued like it was never going to stop for tens of minutes, an ever blossoming flower. If I was previously stunned, what happened next was downright incredible.
At some point my heart exploded and pure joy and love gushed outward in every direction, like an exploding star beaming bright light to the outer reaches of the universe. It sounds a little dramatic now but the experience is still burned into my mind and doesn’t even come close to anything I have ever experienced before. It was extremely amazing, and I was extremely amazed. It went on for some time & I marveled at the feeling, I was totally engulfed in it and, as I marveled at it without doubt my Heart spoke to me again. It simply said “it can be like this all the time.
It can be like this all the time – The message filled my mind, and was so profound that it felt like every cell in my being spontaneously new this to be a universal truth. There was absolutely no doubt. It made quite an impression I must say”.
Craig, NZ
Originally published: January 19, 2012
