Level 4: Awakened Heart

To be selfless is to be more concerned with the needs and wishes of others than our own. Typically, we put ourselves first, doing all we can to ensure our own happiness and fulfillment before helping others. But with awareness, we see that this hasn’t been working. The real secret to our well-being lies in ensuring the well-being of others.

Selfless love means to love someone (or everyone) despite what they may have to offer us in return. Typically, we offer our love only to those we are close to, or only to those who reciprocate in some way. But when we develop the insight of wisdom, we realize that all beings everywhere are worthy of our selfless compassion.

In Buddhism, the heart-mind is often described as one thing, not as two separate entities. The heart-mind connection is rooted in the understanding that to be wise is to be kind, and vice-versa. When we join our awareness and compassion practice together, we see first-hand how the mind and heart support each other.

Tonglen meditation is a powerful technique for opening the heart and enhancing compassion for both ourselves and all others. In tonglen, we practice both sending and receiving selfless compassion, opening the heart to love but also deepening our awareness of the interconnectedness of all beings.