Anahatta/ Heart Chakra

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Anahatta is the Heart chakra and is located behind the

breastbone on a line between the nipples. It is associated with the

heart and lungs, the thymus gland, cardio-pulmonary plexus and the

skin. It is said to be green in colour.

Its traditional symbols are: the blue hexagram of Vayu (Air/

Space Element) and the antelope or deer. Anahatta is said to control

the skin and sense of touch. Anahatta works through the balance of

heaven and earth (the mind and beyond-the-mind) and the dynamic of

love, giving and receiving, and dominion. The heart is an almost

universal symbol for love and compassion.

Anahatta is the central chakra, half way between muladhara and

sahasrara. It is the centre of the human being as human (rather than

animal). In this sense it is the new beginning of a different order of

being. It has been called the muladhara above the diaphragm. From

here we develop and grow as spiritual beings. And what is it that

differentiates the spiritual from the mundane, from the egotistical – it

is love. It is love that takes us personally beyond the prison of our

limited self; it is love that is the cause for us to reach beyond our

seemingly in-built selfishness, to embrace the world – to recognize and

help others in a genuine and skilful way. And in so doing, understand,

experience and know (gnosis) more of who we truly are – infinite,

eternal, divine.

Just as all the chakras have their apotheosis in muladhara, the

higher chakras have their basis and beginning, root and support in

anahatta. There is a great link between muladhara and anahatta – so

much so that anahatta is considered the ruler of muladhara. This gives

an extra clue as to how to both purify and clear problems from

muladhara and empower it. As one quick example of how to consider

this: remember that the main emotion of muladhara is fear,

particularly fear of death. Now, with the added perspective of

anahatta, we can see that there is no fear without love. We fear

because we love – we love our life. And conversely, in the relative

sense there is no love without fear – we fear losing love, or losing the

object of our love, or not being worthy of love and so on. Of course, we

can learn to love beyond fear – and this is the lesson of anahatta. The

teachings of anahatta release us from the fear of death, through love

and realizing emptiness.

Going beyond selfishness through the path of love and

compassion frees us from ego; from desire for ego-power; from

delusions of grandeur and arrogance; from delusions of insignificance.

Love, compassion, tolerance and understanding free all the

chakras from the ego. In that space of profound good humour all the
chakras come into a natural balance and vitality – they are empowered

and they evolve. This is why it is said that the best healing practice is

compassion practice, is to practise compassion. Can you see how this

is so?

The love and compassion of Anahatta is of course, in the relative

sense, the love of humans and gods. With this love, though, there is

still selfishness – the ego still has an agenda and a say. This love and

compassion is still good – it is the path we are walking and it holds the

aspiration to realize and manifest the unconditional love and universal

compassion of our true nature.

It is the unconditional love and universal compassion that are (or

can be) expressed in anahatta, which transform your very being – from

the most rarefied or subtle level of spirit to the very cells of your body.

In order to realize and bring forward unconditional, unlimited

love and compassion, we need to go beyond the relative mind, the

limited self, the fractured and distorted ego-I. We step from human

love to the love of the bodhisattvas and eventually to that of the

Buddhas.

It is no accident then that anahatta, the chakra of love and

compassion is also the chakra of Space. Here, the space is

spaciousness – which is awareness. The awareness, naturally beyond

the limited mind; the very nature from which the limited mind arises.

To realize this spaciousness at the level of anahatta is to realize ego-

lessness; it is to realize the emptiness (tongba/ shunya) of self and

phenomena. It is the peace that is vitalized and enriched by a cosy

warmth, which is the very nature of tongba-nyi. It is not the end of the

spiritual path by any means, yet it is a good indication that we’re on

the right track and it also gives us the ability to be naturally good

human beings – stable, good-hearted, and easy. It can be reached by

practising shamatha with a good motivation.

Just as it is said that our true nature is wisdom and love &

compassion, we learn in anahatta that the wisdom is spaciousness or

the wisdom-realizing-emptiness and the love & compassion is

unlimited because it is the energy or movement/ radiance of the

wisdom.

In very simple terms we can explain as follows: by now you know

how you feel at the end of your shamatha session. Sometimes there is

a special kind of feeling – everything has just settled and you are very

awake. You feel almost like you are sparkling; you feel very alive.

Everything looks wonderful and even the people and situations that

might usually bring you down or cause you to react negatively – even

they are seen in a new light – it’s not so bad, not so serious, not so

stuck – not so real.

This state of shamatha is, you could say, a spark of the energy of

anahatta. Your heart centre has opened and energized a little more

and in there you find a wonderful warmth for yourself and for everyone
and everything you bring your mind to. And it is easy and spacious and

quite stable and firm – without being stuck or dead in any way. This is

showing us what emptiness is, and how quite naturally, love and

compassion arise out of it. More particularly it shows us that these

qualities are already present and that stilling the ego-chatter through

the skilful method of shamatha with the motivation of bodhicitta is all

that is needed for the qualities to shine out.

“Unstruck sound” is a reference to the lack of inherent nature –

emptiness of self and phenomena and also to the energy (sound) of

that which is the warmth of love and compassion. Why is it ‘unstruck’?

Because there is no one there to strike it! In other words, you don’t

have to force or manipulate anything (in fact, you can’t anyway) – all

you need is to relax.

The transition from manipura to anahatta is the transmutation of

passion, power and lust into compassion and love. This does not mean

that we become sickly-sweet and passion-less like some kind of wilted

flower or vegetable! This image of love and compassion is completely

fake and is based in ego manipulation. People displaying this sort of

sugar-coated ‘sympathy’ are being manipulated by their ego and are

trying to manipulate you! Never fall for this fakery.

No – the transmutation of the qualities of manipura into those of

anahatta vitalizes them and releases them from ego’s thrall. Passion,

the fire of the soul burns brighter and with greater enthusiasm –
released from the contraction of ego’s horns-of-dilemma, from ego’s

negativity.

Please note that no spiritual path is anti-passion. Lots of western

students of Buddhism would do well to learn this. Even bodhisattvas

are very passionate – about compassion! It is only ego’s version of

passion, which is more truly about attachment control and neuroticism

that is ever a problem.

So here we learn generosity. To give – and also to receive.

Generosity is the attitude of generosity and includes all beings

including ourselves. It is this attitude of generosity that empowers

anahatta and raises the vibration of the lower chakras. The greatest

expression of this generosity is the bodhisattva motivation:

For the sake of others longing to attain complete

enlightenment.

This allows the energy of Heaven and Earth to meet. The heart is the

bridge between our love and cosmic wisdom, universal love. Our heart

is the bridge from the relative mind to beyond the relative mind. As

such both compassion and devotion as spiritual paths are found here.

We can also say that anahatta is the first of the transpersonal

chakras. This follows from apprehending emptiness and going beyond

ego – which is saying the same as going beyond a centralized I-

consciousness, and independent fixed ‘I’ persisting in time. Thus, the

more fully one opens the heart and the heart centre, the more fully

one can communicate with those around. Communication and

understanding happen through the heart centre. By opening more fully

to the nature of the heart, we open to the greater in us, the greater-

than-us which is the greater-of-us. It is through this capacity of being

greater than the ‘I’ that we really see what is there to be seen, really

hear what is there to be heard, and so on. The communication here

can also be telepathy or empathy. Diagnosis in tradition medicine

systems takes place through the heart.

So can you see that without love and compassion no real

communication is possible? No real contact with the actual world is

possible. Without heart, the world and all the people in it are no more

than extensions of your ego. You never really see, hear or touch

anything or anyone. And you, in turn, are never really seen, heard or

touched. While the heart is imprisoned within the fortress of ego you

have a seeming invulnerability – but also you are not actually

participating in life. You see, as from the window of a tower, while life

goes on beyond the walls of the fortress. Maybe you feel a sort of

‘safety’, but you also feel cheated – like you and your life are

inauthentic; like you are missing something, or missing everything.

So you open your heart, to love and to real communication. And

in this you also feel vulnerable – and you are: vulnerable to your
weaknesses and also vulnerable to your strengths. You are vulnerable

to life and to the magic and wonder of being alive!