What Does a Generous Heart Do?

Giving love is literally healthy for you

THE FORCES OF GOOD ARE VIGOROUS AND STRONG

Do you have an unconscious belief that the forces of evil are loud, vigorous, and strong, while good is quiet, gentle, and passive? Gather evidence that contradicts this irrational prejudice.

Are you secretly suspicious of joy because you think it's inevitably rooted in wishful thinking and a willful ignorance about the true nature of reality? Expose these suspicions as superstitions that aren't grounded in any objective data you can actually prove.

Do you fear that when you're in the presence of love and beauty you tend to become softheaded, whereas you're likely to feel smart and powerful when you're sneering at the ugliness around you?

As an antidote, for a given amount of time, say a week or a month or a year, act as if the following hypothesis were true: that you're more likely to grow smarter when you're in the presence of love and beauty.

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BREAKING OUR HEARTS OPEN

It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected: the heart cannot actually break, it can only break open.

When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world — together, at the same time — the heart breaks out of its shell. To live with an open heart is to experience life full-strength.

 —John Welwood

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“When the heart breaks open, it marks the beginning of a real love affair with this world. It is a broken-hearted love affair, rather than the conventional kind based on hope and expectation.

Only in this fearless love that can respond to life’s pain as well as its beauty can we be of real help to ourselves or anyone else in this difficult age. The broken-hearted warrior is an essential archetype for our time.”

 —John Welwood

The quotes above are from John Welwood’s book Love and Awakening: Discovering the Sacred Path of Intimate Relationship.

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WORLD KISS

All of creation is alive and conscious, and all of creation deserves our burning, churning, yearning love.

All of it. Not just the people and creatures and things that we personally find beautiful and helpful and interesting. But everything. All of creation.

If we want to become the gorgeous geniuses we were born to be, if we want to give back as many blessings as we are given, we've got to be in love with every single part of the Goddess's extravagant masterpiece.

So how could we possibly be mere heterosexuals? Why would we ever squeeze ourselves into the narrow constraints of homosexuality or bisexuality?

If we want to commune with the world the way the Goddess does, we've got to be Pantheosexuals — experts in the art of Polymorphous Perverse Omnidirectional Goddess zwizzling.

Anything less than that is an obscene limitation.

With this in mind, I invite you to perform the ritual of the World Kiss. To do the World Kiss, conjure up your most expansive feelings of tenderness—like what you might experience when you're infatuated with a lover or when you gaze into the eyes of your newborn baby for the first time—and then blow kisses to all of creation.

Blow kisses to the oak trees and sparrows and elephants and weeds. Blow kisses to the wind and rain and rocks and machines. Blow kisses to the gardens and jails, the cars and toys, the politicians and saints, the girls and the boys and every gender in between.

And with each World Kiss you bestow, keep uppermost in your emotions a mood of blasphemous reverence and orgiastic compassion.

And remember that it's not enough simply to perform the outer gesture; you've got to have a heart-on in each of your seven chakras.

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TO EXPERIENCE LIFE FULL-STRENGTH

John Welwood wrote all the words in this section.

“Loving another deeply helps us appreciate the power and beauty of being human: the grace of the body, the clarity of awareness, the subtlety of feeling, and the richness of presence available to us.

“Yet when we turn from this inner vision — of the essential goodness at the core of our nature — to outer reality — the ragged state of the world and our fellow beings — it breaks our heart right on the spot.

"Perhaps our first impulse is to turn away, close our eyes to the magnitude of suffering all around, and withdraw into our cocoon, turning to relationship as an island of refuge from a world gone mad. This is understandable. We feel overwhelmed.”

“But there is also another impulse, which we may have felt when we were young and our heart first registered the shock of human suffering: We would like to save the world. We would like to do something to make everything right, to clean up the environment, to overcome ignorance and injustice, or to help people tormented by poverty or despair.

“If we stay with this impulse for a moment, before dismissing it as hopelessly romantic or idealistic, we recognize it as the heart’s pure response to the pain of this world.

“Yet it soon becomes clear that we cannot readily save anyone, much less ourselves, from this pain. If we are to remain open to life and capable of engaging with our world rather than succumbing to depression or cynicism, we must learn how to live with a broken heart.

“It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected: The heart cannot actually break, it can only break open.

“What breaks when we are touched by life’s pain is the contraction around our heart that we have been carrying for so long. When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world- together, at the same time — the heart breaks out of this shell.

“Then the heart’s true character is revealed — as an openness, an acute sensitivity where we feel the world inside us and are not separate from it. This is like removing a bandage and exposing our flesh to the air.

“There is no way to avoid this rawness, except by living in a state of contraction. To live with a broken-open heart is to experience life full strength.

John Welwood: “To avoid going numb when encountering the pain of the world, we need access to the warrior within, the one who can ask: ‘What deeper resource is this adversity calling on me to bring forth?’

“In learning to make use of suffering to cultivate our capacities for strength, vision, love, faith, or humor, we forge the vessel of soul and begin to free ourselves from resentment or depression about the state of the world.

"And we may find that the earth in her plight is calling us to waken like this, and that as we do so, she awakens as well, through us. In this way, the broken-hearted warrior is able to keep on loving, in spite of every-thing.”

—John Welwood

These quotes above are from John Welwood’s book Love and Awakening: Discovering the Sacred Path of Intimate Relationship.

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BEGINNER’S HEART

To achieve what the Zen Buddhists call "beginner's mind," you dispense with all preconceptions and enter each situation as if seeing it for the first time.

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities," wrote Shunryu Suzuki in his book *Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind*, "but in the expert's there are few."

As much as I love beginner's mind, though, I advocate an additional discipline: cultivating a beginner's heart.

That means approaching every encounter imbued with a freshly invoked wave of love that is as pure as if you're feeling it for the first time.

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To be the best pronoiac explorer you can be, I suggest you adopt an outlook that combines the rigorous objectivity of a scientist, the "beginner's mind" of Zen Buddhism, the "beginner's heart" of pronoia, and the compassionate friendliness of the Dalai Lama.

Blend a scrupulously dispassionate curiosity with a skepticism driven by expansiveness, not spleen.

To pull this off, you'll have to be willing to regularly suspend your brilliant theories about the way the world works.

Accept with good humor the possibility that what you've learned in the past may not be a reliable guide to understanding the fresh phenomenon that's right in front of you.

Be suspicious of your biases, even the rational and benevolent ones.

Open your heart as you strip away the interpretations that your emotions might be inclined to impose.

"Before we can receive the unbiased truth about anything," wrote my teacher Ann Davies, "we have to be ready to ignore what we would like to be true."

At the same time, don't turn into a hard-ass, poker-faced robot.

Keep your feelings moist and receptive.

Remember your natural affection for all of creation.

Enjoy the power of tender sympathy as it drives you to probe for the unimaginable revelations of every new moment.

"Before we can receive the entire truth about anything," said Ann Davies, "we have to love it."

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FEELING-THINKING

In The Book of Embraces, Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano writes, "The fishermen of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, or 'feeling-thinking,' to define language that speaks the truth."

Describe a time when you pulled off the feat of thinking with your heart and feeling with your head.

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THE PATH WITH HEART

There's a three-mile stretch of Interstate 880 south of Oakland, California, that I call the Singing Highway.

For reasons I don't understand, it generates low humming melodies every time I drive over it, similar to the guttural chants of Tibetan monks. Sometimes I swear I can even hear lyrics.

Once, as I was driving to the airport on the Singing Highway, I swear I heard the same lyric repeating over and over again:

"a shortcut to the path with heart / a shortcut to the path with heart / a shortcut to the path with heart."

Where's the path with heart for you? What would it involve for you to take a shortcut to get on it?

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The quote is from a poem by Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly.

Art by MathijsVissers, https://tinyurl.com/bdz5ax9y

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THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF LIGHT

"Let us learn the secret language of light again. Also the letters of the dark.

Learn the flight patterns of birds, the syllables of wolf howl and bird song, the moving pantomime of branch and leaf, valleys and peaks of whale calls, the long sentences of ants moving in unison, the combinations and recombinations of clouds, the codices of stars.

Let us, thus, reconstitute the world, sign by sign and melody by melody.

"Let us sing the world back into the very Heart of the Holy Name of God."

—Deena Metzger, Prayers for a Thousand Years

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TO BE WILD

In his book The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, Robert Bly says that to be wild is not to be crazy like a criminal or psychotic, but "mad as the mist and snow."

It has nothing to do with being childish or primitive, nor does it manifest as manic rebellion or self-damaging alienation.

The real marks of wildness, he asserts, are a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.

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WHOLEHEARTEDNESS. Having the capacity to give, on a moment's notice, your complete attention, empathy, and playful intelligence to any person or circumstance you choose.

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GIFTS OF LOVE TO YOU

Each of your heart's beats originates as a gift of love directly from the Goddess herself.

You understand that the laws of physics are fine-tuned to create a universe in which you can thrive.

You realize with visceral lucidity that everything you see is permeated with a single, unified conscious intelligence, of which you partake intimately.

This intelligence is immortal, and thus, so are you.

As you register the shocking joy of these truths imprinting themselves on your perfect body, every one of your cells purrs with luminous gratitude.

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My upcoming book is titled

Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as a Horoscope Columnist.

I’m offering sneak peeks to paid subscribers of my newsletter. This week I’m publishing the 14th installment.

Start here to read my first-ever astrology book: https://tinyurl.com/RealAstrology1

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning May 4

Copyright 2023 by Rob Brezsny

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I've selected a passage to serve as one of your prime themes during the rest of 2023. It comes from poet Jane Shore. She writes, "Now I feel I am learning how to grow into the space I was always meant to occupy, into a self I can know." Dear Taurus, you will have the opportunity to grow ever-more assured and self-possessed as you embody Shore's description in the coming months. Congratulations in advance on the progress you will make to more fully activate your soul's code.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Georges Rouault (1871-1958) was a Gemini painter who bequeathed the world over 3,000 works of art. There might have been even more. But years before he died, he burned 315 of his unfinished paintings. He felt they were imperfect, and he would never have time or be motivated to finish them. I think the coming weeks would be a good time for you to enjoy a comparable purge, Gemini. Are there things in your world that don't mean much to you anymore and are simply taking up space? Consider the possibility of freeing yourself from their stale energy.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Britain occupied India for almost 200 years. It was a ruthless and undemocratic exploitation that steadily drained India’s wealth and resources. Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t the only leader who fought British oppression, but he was among the most effective. In 1930, he led a 24-day, 240-mile march to protest the empire’s tyrannical salt tax. This action was instrumental in energizing the Indian independence movement that ultimately culminated in India’s freedom. I vote to make Gandhi one of your inspirational role models in the coming months. Are you ready to launch a liberation project? Stage a constructive rebellion? Marshal the collaborative energies of your people in a holy cause?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As crucial as it is to take responsibility, it is also essential to recognize where our responsibilities end and what should be left for others to do. For example, we usually shouldn’t do work for other people that they can just as easily do for themselves. We shouldn’t sacrifice doing the work that only we can do and get sidetracked doing work that many people can do. To be effective and to find fulfillment in life, it’s vital for us to discover what truly needs to be within our care and what should be outside of our care. I see the coming weeks as a favorable time for you to clarify the boundary between these two.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo-born Marie Laveau (1801–1881) was a powerful Voodoo priestess, herbalist, activist, and midwife in New Orleans. According to legend, she could walk on water, summon clairvoyant visions, safely suck the poison out of a snake's jowls, and cast spells to help her clients achieve their heart's desires. There is also a wealth of more tangible evidence that she was a community activist who healed the sick, volunteered as an advocate for prisoners, provided free teachings, and did rituals for needy people who couldn't pay her. I hereby assign her to be your inspirational role model for the coming weeks. I suspect you will have extra power to help people in both mysterious and practical ways.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): What are the best methods to exorcize our personal demons, ghosts, and goblins? Or at least subdue them and neutralize their ill effects? We all have such phantoms at work in our psyches, corroding our confidence and undermining our intentions. One approach I don't recommend is to get mad at yourself for having these interlopers. Never do that. The demons’ strategy, you see, is to manipulate you into being mean and cruel to yourself. To drive them away, I suggest you shower yourself with love and kindness. That seriously reduces their ability to trick you and hurt you—and may even put them into a deep sleep. Now is an excellent time to try this approach.

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EXTRA SUPPORT AND KINDNESS

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Check out your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE at https://Realastrology.com

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If you think you might enjoy getting regular bursts of inspiration from me to illuminate your adventures, register and/or sign in at https://RealAstrology.com

Click on "Daily Sunbursts" in the left-hand panel.

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): As she matured, Scorpio poet Sylvia Plath wrote, "I am learning how to compromise the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities without such screaming pain." I believe you're ready to go even further than Plath was able to, dear Scorpio. In the coming weeks, you could not merely "compromise" the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities. You could synergize them and get them to collaborate in satisfying ways. Bonus: I bet you will accomplish this feat without screaming pain. In fact, you may generate surprising pleasures that delight you with their revelations.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Some primates use herbal and clay medicines to self-medicate. Great apes, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas ingest a variety of ingredients that fight against parasitic infection and help relieve various gastrointestinal disturbances. (More info: https://tinyurl.com/PrimatesSelfMedicate.) Our ancestors learned the same healing arts, though far more extensively. And many Indigenous people today still practice this kind of self-care. With these thoughts in mind, Sagittarius, I urge you to spend quality time in the coming weeks deepening your understanding of how to heal and nurture yourself. The kinds of “medicines” you might draw on could be herbs, and may also be music, stories, colors, scents, books, relationships, and adventures.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The mythic traditions of all cultures are replete with tales of clashes and combats. If we draw on these tales to deduce what activity humans enjoy more than any other, we might conclude that it’s fighting with each other. But I hope you will avoid this normal habit as much as possible during the next three weeks, Capricorn. I am encouraging you to actively repress all inclinations to tangle. Just for now, I believe you will cast a wildly benevolent magic spell on your mental and physical health if you avoid arguments and skirmishes. Here’s a helpful tip: In each situation you’re involved in, focus on sustaining a vision of the most graceful, positive outcome.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Is there a person who could serve as your Über Mother for a while? This would be a wise and tender maternal ally who gives you the extra nurturing you need, along with steady doses of warm, crisp advice on how to weave your way through your labyrinthine decisions. Your temporary Über Mother could be any gender, really. They would love and accept you for exactly who you are, even as they stoke your confidence to pursue your sweet dreams about the future. Supportive and inspirational. Reassuring and invigorating. Championing you and consecrating you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Congratulations on acquiring the Big New Riddle! I trust it will inspire you to grow wiser and kinder and wilder over the coming months. I've compiled some clues to help you unravel and ultimately solve this challenging and fascinating mystery. 1. Refrain from calling on any strength that's stingy or pinched. Ally yourself solely with generous power. 2. Avoid putting your faith in trivial and irrelevant "benefits." Hold out for the most soulful assistance. 3. The answer to key questions may often be, "Make new connections and enhance existing connections."

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Before forming the band called The Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney performed under various other names: the Quarrymen, Japage 3, and Johnny and the Moondogs. I suspect you are currently at your own equivalent of the Johnny and the Moondogs phase. You’re building momentum. You’re gathering the tools and resources you need. But you have not yet found the exact title, descriptor, or definition for your enterprise. I suggest you be extra alert for its arrival in the coming weeks.

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Homework: Name three wonderful things you want to be experiencing one year from today. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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