The Hologram of Choice
I choose the one thing
That one thing that my heart can enter into fully
That can fully enter into my heart
I choose the one thing
That one thing that my heart can enter into fully
That can fully enter into my heart
That one thing, fully chosen
Unlocking the whole
All of creation, within a moment
Within me
Me within all
Throwing away scope and size and scale
Emptying myself of ‘lesser and greater’
Unlocking the hologram hidden in each atom
Overwhelmed into simple richness
Choosing the kindness of ‘just this’
‘Just enough’
‘Just right’
What a deep teaching Goldilocks gave the world
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
If Only For a Moment
Slow Down
Soften
Let Your Heart Break
Just a Little Bit
Slow down
Soften
Let your heart break
just a little bit
Become intimate with your life
if only for a moment
And you will find
the whole world
inside of you
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
Willing to Risk
You have to be willing to risk having nothing to say
You have to be willing to risk not measuring up
You have to be willing to risk having nothing to say,
willing to risk not measuring up
or making your mark
You must risk things going nowhere
and never arriving
You have to be willing to risk impressing no one
and letting us all down
utterly
To live what you truly are
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
Loving Another
To love another
is to consent
to being changed
Surrendered
to being broken
into a greater fullness
of heart & being
To love another
is to consent
to being changed
Surrendered
to being broken
into a greater fullness
of heart & humanity
Loving another
brings you face-to-face
with everything
you are not
You will fail again & again
in your quest to love well
And so should it be
Loving another lays bare
your closely guarded
empty arrogances,
and insults your unconscious clinging
to personal poverty
Love awakens a kind of pain
that is startling
and poignant
and sweet
that brings you home
to what you truly are
Loving another demands
a nakedness
It initiates a journey
into the heart of things
Swift and true like an arrow,
it flies unwaveringly
seeking out whatever is not yet fully loved within you
We call this ‘meeting your shadow’
and ‘ego death’
and ‘true life’
To love another
is to plunge into the raw humanity at the center of your being
a celestial-somatic quasar
containing your true connection to
everyone & everything
Shining in the vast space of being
love yearns to experience
a shared realness
That you are going through the same thing as me
the same living & dying
the same longing & losing
the same
basic
human
heart
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
The Me I Don’t Yet Know
You long for something more, something different.
You long for what you don’t yet have and don’t yet know.
You long for something more, something different.
You long for what you don’t yet have and don’t yet know.
So you begin seeking.
Seems like an obvious next step...
Go get ‘em, tiger. Manifest your destiny. Wild blue yonder and all that.
And so, subtly and without knowing it, the trap is laid.
The trap of chasing something you don’t know.
How could you know? ‘Knowing’ is experience. This is still only ‘thinking’.
And so the mistake is quietly made of confusing ‘thinking’ for ‘knowing’…
‘idea’ for ‘experience’.
And though with good intentions you try to arrive somewhere truly new–
putting your best foot forward–
you instead find yourself cycling through the same patterns,
revisiting the same scenarios,
ending at the same conclusions.
‘This looks & feels familiar’ you say suspiciously.
‘I’ve already been here!’ you exclaim confused.
Where is ‘not here’? Where is the me I don’t yet know?
The more you seek, the more the seeking.
The more you seek, the more elusive the finding.
‘That’s not how it’s supposed to work!’ you say in discouraged frustration.
But surely giving up isn’t the answer either...
that’s apathy, complacency, inertia.
You ain’t falling for that again.
You think back...
’when in the past did I stumble upon something truly new,
something spontaneous and fresh and unexpected?’
And then it hits you:
'when I was present and available,
simply for the sake of the experience,
without truly knowing–or needing to know–where it would take me.'
Effort is a Chinese finger trap.
Effort is a shadow, an echo, a facsimile of real availability,
of a real encounter with the uncontrived you.
So why not give up the pretension that you know what ‘more’ or ‘better’ actually is anyway.
Risk staying at the trembling edge of your own precious heart,
softened with the reverent stillness of happening upon an unexpected animal in the holy wild.
To your deep delight and surprise,
you will discover that life has many more love stories it has not yet told you.
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
You Are Home
I want to reveal to you
a most profound secret about yourself.
I want to whisper something
to the inner listening of your heart.
I want to reveal to you
a most profound secret about yourself.
I want to whisper something
to the inner listening of your heart.
I want to tell you something you knew but misplaced
when someone pulled the fire alarm.
I want to speak, to share
but I struggle to find words tender enough
and fierce enough.
Obvious enough
Sublime enough
You are home.
There. My best effort, humbly offered.
Once more for good measure:
You are home.
Please,
be patient with me and forgiving
if these words don’t move you.
Don’t drop like a shooting star into your hidden depths.
Don’t startle the wild animal of your soma into sharp wakefulness.
As I said, it is a struggle to find words that touch this innermost secret.
You are home.
Turns out it was true all along.
This worn,
weathered,
slightly-off-level home,
where the windows don’t seal quite right and let in a draft when the wind blows...
this place that you took for a short-term rental
and so didn’t unpack your nicer things.
The deed was always in your name, already paid in full.
You are home.
In all your wandering and scheming and posturing and uncertainty.
It’s over.
I am so heartbroken
and so ecstatic to tell you the news.
It’s over.
You are home.
The great saga has ended.
The sacred pilgrimage is complete.
The 100,000 recitations are fulfilled.
You are good enough.
Now, relax into the soft fire of your own existence.
Of your 37 trillion cells.
Of your forever home.
You
Are
Home.
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
The Secret of Fulfillment
The secret of fulfillment
is in the choosing
not in the thing itself
Full-fill-ment is found in the ability to bring your whole heart
to the phenomena of your life
to fully be with
what is
The secret of fulfillment
is in the choosing
not in the thing itself
Full-fill-ment is found in the ability to bring your whole heart
to the phenomena of your life
to fully be with
what is
True richness is not when you get what you want
but when you choose yourself fully & completely
within what is happening
holding back no remainder
for what might be
or was
or should be
In fact
whenever you experienced fulfillment in the past
you were actually experiencing yourself wholeheartedly
In that moment
your commitment to life was the cause
the reason
of your fullness
eFullness is richness
fullness is prosperity
fullness is living in the wealth & joy
of your own existence
Fullness is freedom from regret
an alternative to addiction
an ending of dis-ease
Here
fellow seeker of secrets
listen closely
and take care:
Your capacity to open in fullness
to your difficulties & hardships
to breathe into them
and welcome them
opens the hidden aperture
to receive more fully
your peak moments
and all the ordinary moments between
Bit by bit
your persistent diving into fullness
reveals that you are not
the state of your circumstances
and never have been
and never will be
Then
pursuing & achieving your goals & dreams
ceases to be the point
and simply becomes the pleasure
which was its purpose all along
© 2022 Justin Sarno & HeartPath Enterprises
If you would like to share or reuse any portion of this, please first obtain permission by emailing Office@ChooseHeart.com
How to Suffer
At the center
of your suffering
is a seed of compassion
that is beautiful
and flawed
and human
At the center
of your suffering
is a seed of compassion
that is beautiful
and flawed
and human
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said
“if you know how to suffer,
you suffer less”
The word ‘suffering’ here
is pointing to that
deep-down
always-around
stress & distress
that we are perpetually
trying to solve or avoid
to no avail
But
when you know how to suffer
your suffering is transformed into
courage,
and compassion,
and humility
Suffering then becomes synonymous
with being,
with humanness,
with love
It becomes
living breath
for the world
Draw close with your suffering
unlocking your heart to the wholeness of life
Slowly
you will discover
that all other people and creatures
already abide within this seed
at the center
of your heart
Do whatever you can
to befriend your suffering
and awaken swiftly
your sleeping connection
with all beings
Suffer lovingly
such that your suffering becomes a vehicle
for the beauty & medicine
that you are
I know this proposition of opening to your suffering
may sound daunting
The fear of suffering itself
is a part of the suffering
and serves as our first step
into the hidden gift
within our humanity
Take your time with this fear
whenever it arises
Gently open to it
without force or demand
Let your fear of hurting
become your first reason
towards becoming true to yourself
You do not have to feel confident
in the face of such a fundamental, existential pain
You do not have to know what to do with it
or even how to find peace within it
Simply
open
your
heart
Be steadily and inevitably drawn
into the secret at its center
that overcomes all isolation, overwhelm, cynicism, & despair
Discover that your suffering
is the ancient meeting place
of all beings
in the sanctum
of love
The Law of Shadow
If you wish to live
In the radical natural freedom
Of being Human
Turn your heart towards
What you secretly run from
In yourself
If you wish to live
In the radical natural freedom
Of being human
Turn your heart towards
What you secretly run from
In yourself
Welcome your weaknesses
And discover the surprising strength
Born of ending self-avoidance
And undefendedly entering your life
Open to your fears
Finding room for the vulnerability
That kindles courage
Infused with tenderness
Invite your irritations & frustrations
Into the warm home of your heart
Enjoying the high drama
Of the tall tales
They tell you
Sweep the dust from your inner shrine
And prepare the seat of honor
For the rejection & refusal
That comes bearing the sacred gifts
Of self-acceptance & allowance
Eagerly inhabit your inhibitions & limitations
Revealing the unrestricted freedom
That you are
When you finally yield
To being all of you
If you wish to rest
In natural great love
Do not condemn
What you desire to change
In yourself, in another, or in the world
Do not evade
Contact with it
Do not avoid
Being truly touched by it
Inhabit it with the broken-open heart
That knows the secret names
Of living & dying
Draw near to what you wish to change
Such that in the end
It changes you
Be Empty
Be empty
You will survive
Having nothing to show for yourself
I promise
What you think you are worth
Has no value here anyway
Be empty
You will survive
Having nothing to show for yourself
I promise
What you think you are worth
Has no value here anyway
Be empty
Laugh & shake your head
At your ridiculous attempts
To improve upon
This shooting star
Passing through the night sky
Everything
Is already
Enough
Be empty
Trust fall
Into this now
Softening & smiling
On the way down
What you have always been
Beneath what you thought you were
Will catch you
Release the reigns
Even if just for a moment
Let this living happen
Lose your insistence
Of what must be
So life can fill you
With the pleasure of its passing
Relax your ambition
To capture the moment
To keep it as a specimen
Pressed under the glass
Of your clotted comprehension
Preserved yet dead
Call out
With unflinching love
Your secret demands
That life be no bigger
Than your understanding of it
And no smaller
And no different
Give them all up
In a fit of sanity
Be empty
The less you put between
Yourself and the Heart of the World
The better for us all
Take Heart
Take heart, my friend
Your life
This, your life
Is happening