At a recent Qoya retreat, I had the opportunity to practice seeing with my “heart eye,” an energetic tool from the Inka tradition taught by Elizabeth B. Jenkins. You can read more about Elizabeth and the practices in her book, The Fourth Level, at elizabethbjenkins.com.
My understanding of seeing with the heart eye is that it allows one to move out of the energy of judgement and into the energy of compassion. Compassion. Doesn’t that feel so essential right now?
At the retreat, looking through my heart eye into the heart of a dear friend was both spectacularly beautiful and easy. But what about looking through my heart eye in my real life? How about the larger world with all its heartbreak past and present—how do I see that through my heart eye? And if I do, am I condoning hate and injustice and being just plain naïve?
With these questions on my mind, I hiked into the forest. (Yes, I’m that crazy lady who asks questions of the trees). And here are some answers I received: 1) It is possible to hold two ideas at once. For example, outrage and compassion, grief and joy, love and forgiveness. 2) Do what you can, even if it feels like only a tiny thing. 3) There is almost always a bigger picture, and often we can’t see it. Trust is essential.
The issues we wrestle with feel so overwhelming at times. And often it seems like we need to open every eye we’ve got! Perhaps so. But naïve or not, I’m going to keep practicing looking at the world through my heart eye, the lens of compassion. How about you?