Mindful Hearts Home
We do not meditate to become great meditators. We meditate to become great human beings, serving and inspiring our communities and our world!
–Bonnie Colby
What Is Mindfulness Meditation?
Bonnie draws upon the teaching of Shinzen Young to define the components of mindfulness meditation, and she is grateful to have been doing regular retreats with him since the mid-1990s. See more at basicmindfullness.org.
Mindfulness meditation develops sensory clarity and concentration power, which increases our baseline level of equanimity. Heart-centered mindfulness develops our concentration power and sensory clarity through precise moment-by-moment focus on the sensations of the heartbeat and of the breath.
Heart-centered mindfulness is a superb tool for building equanimity as we learn to be fully present to the rhythm of heartbeat and of inhaling and exhaling. These sensations are continuously available to us as a focal point for meditative practice throughout our entire lifetime. These ordinary sensations become reminders to meet life circumstances with an open matter-of-factness. As we build our baseline level of equanimity through meditative practice, choices and behaviors can arise from fresh insight rather than old reactive patterns.
With practice, we learn to maintain equanimity through focus on heartbeat and breath under all life circumstances, on behalf of ourselves and for others who are in need of presence and assistance. We radiate coherent waves of peace as we move through an ordinary day, and also in the midst of crisis and challenge. The atmosphere of peace we convey is a subtle but valuable form of service to those we encounter and to the world.
Meditative Traditions Focused on Heartbeat and Breath
Meditation that focuses upon breath and heartbeat has been practiced for millennia, dating back to early Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.
Among early eastern Christian mystics, this practice was known as the Prayer of the Heart and is described in the old Russian classic The Way of the Pilgrim.
Meditative focus upon the heartbeat is found in Burmese Vipassana and also in Sufi meditative traditions, particularly as brought to Europe and North America in the early 1900s by the renowned musician and meditation teacher Hazrat Inayat Kahn.
Many world wisdom traditions include practices that synchronize breath and heartbeat. Native cultures around the world have used the drum for millennia to entrain the rhythm of people’s heartbeats during ceremonies and community gatherings.
Meditative focus on heartbeat and breath has roots that are venerable, deep and widespread across cultures and human history.
Can I Learn to Feel My Heartbeat?
This is one of the valuable life skills taught in heart-centered mindfulness classes. Yes, you CAN learn to reliably sense your heartbeat and to move your breath into coherent rhythm with your heartbeat and pulse. It is like learning to ride a bicycle. It takes focus and effort to achieve mastery and balance. Once learned, this skill can be called upon at will, even in very stressful circumstances where it is of immense benefit.
Web-Based Resources for Exploring Meditations That Use Heartbeat as a Focus
For further background on various forms of meditation that focus upon synchronizing heartbeat and breath see:
For a website that one can explore for many months, plumbing the depths of the world’s wisdom traditions as expressions of the One Heart (and a site which offers all freely, nothing for sale) go to www.wahiduddin.net or click HERE.
