NEW ARRIVAL Heartcentre's inspiring teachings are now available on CD or in MP3 format. They each begin with a guided meditation and continue with the theme, questions or affirmations, and finish with a blessing.

$15 each plus $5 postage and handling. Phone or email to order.

* The Drama of Life
* Empowering your Choices
* The Voice of Guidance Within
* A Multi-Dimensional Perspective
* Stepping into Your Strength and True Power
* Repetition as a Positive Influence in your Life
* Concentration and Contemplation
* Being Resourceful and Present to your Well-Being
* The Philosophy of Love and Unity
* Dying before Death ~ A Way of Life
* Gratitude ~ An Honouring of Your Life
* Valueing the Beauty and Stillness of Silence
* Intesifying your Heart Energy
*The Expression of Natural and Spiritual Happiness

And many more!


INTRODUCING OUR FRIEND IN SPIRIT

After studying the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan for fourteen years and practising deep meditation daily, in 1988 whilst meditating, Susan became aware of a radiant presence illuminating her consciousness.

The light of this presence continued to shine upon Susan in her meditation and flooded her mind and heart with a sense of peace and clarity. Over many months it became clear that this presence of light was a particular spiritual teacher, and a process of trust and surrender began as Susan attuned more deeply to this specific vibration.

Upon reflection we realised that throughout time the Unseen has offered a stream of guidance and support to assist those who are seeking a deeper understanding of life and also in response to the cry of humanity. This inspiration has come in many forms known and unknown. It became clear that the pure wisdom of this teacher was in complete harmony with our universal Sufi education, and it was revealed that she had been a student of Hazrat Inayat Khan – and later a teacher in her own right. Although it was difficult at the time to open our minds to the gift and blessing of this experience, the beauty of Presence was so unconditionally loving that we were both able to release the limitation of our thinking and open to the inspiration being offered so generously.

This beautiful and sacred connection with our unseen teacher has nurtured and inspired our hearts and lives now for over twenty years, and continues to be a profound source of guidance, learning and wisdom for all those who visit Heartcentre. In keeping with the formlessness of her message, she invited us to see her simply as a friend on the path – thus the name Our Friend in Spirit.

This is one of over a hundred teachings received by Susan through conscious meditation. Our Friend in Spirit is a teacher of essential truth and shares her infinite wisdom and love through her presence and words, guiding us to the living treasure within our hearts affirming the sacred thread that connects us all.

Our Friend's universal language is free of dogma, gender inclusive, and is imbued with the sweet fragrance of love. Her examples make these simple and practical teachings accessible and relevant no matter whether you are already committed to a particular tradition, or if you have no affiliation. Her words of wisdom and guidance help to awaken that divine spark within; help to strengthen the path that you are on; inspire you to see the essential equality of all human beings and religions; and help you to deepen your understanding of love - inviting you to integrate love it into every aspect of your life.

* LETTING GO WITH LOVE
A Teaching from Heartcentre

So much has been said so wisely about the process of letting go with love.  One thing which particularly needs emphasising is the importance of making this a regular practice of clearing, of making space for your true self to not only support you in that letting go process, but also to make space for your true self to express itself more in your daily life through you, and through thoughts and actions of love and compassion in this world.

When you do set aside the time for inner reflection it is helpful to have a checklist.  Is the area that you are needing to let go of something to do with the physical world, some attachment to something happening around you, or is it within your body?  Or is the area that you are needing to address in your mind – an attitude or repetitive pattern of thought?  Or is it at the emotional level where the attachment is causing you suffering, distress, fear, worry?

Once you identify the area that needs the blessing of release, of letting go, then you can attend to that.  You can bring the presence of your loving Spirit, enfolding you in its wisdom and love, while you embark on the process of identifying and releasing.

The more conscious you are, the more aware you are of the level which needs the care. Often you might begin by thinking that you are just dealing with an attitude.  Perhaps it might be a judgmental attitude you are wanting to transform or an attitude of a lack of trust.  You start with the attitude and then you realise that it has its roots in an emotion, fear perhaps, or insecurity.  Then that will lead you more deeply into your healing process.

WHAT IS IT YOU MIGHT BE AFRAID OF?

If you are not quite sure what might be behind what you are experiencing as an obstacle then ask yourself:  What is it that you might be afraid of?  Are you afraid of taking responsibility?  Are you afraid of success?  Are you afraid of failure?  Are you afraid of being yourself because of the implications of that?

These questions will lead you more deeply into identifying, and therefore clearing the basis of this obstruction to love.  Once fear is brought into the light of love, understanding, compassion and trust, it loses its power – or you disempower it.

It is always worthwhile, too, to remember your intention.  What is your intention in your inner work, in your spiritual practice, in your personal awareness?  What is your intention?  If your intention is to lift your consciousness, if your intention is to raise the level of vibration of your being so you are holding a higher attunement to love, then you will need to make it a regular practice to be clearing your energetic system.

You could say it is like giving yourself a spring clean, but it is more like the washing-up.  It really is the endless washing-up which you do two or three times a day at a minimum.  This is not a seasonal activity, this needs to be done many times a day.  Otherwise what happens is that you do need to do the spring clean which then takes days and days and feels like a major chore; and sometimes that does need to be done.

WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF YOUR HEART?

If It is wiser to begin your day, have some time in the middle of your day and the end of the day to notice the condition of your heart.  That will tell you if there is something you need to let go into love.  What is the condition of your heart?  You need to regularly ask yourself that.  Is there a little withholding about something?  Notice the withholding.  Notice where you could be giving more love and you don't, you could be giving of yourself and you don't - even if it is just a smile.

KEEP DIGGING

You may need to be giving to others, you may need to give something to yourself.  You may need to be bringing more activity into your life, more generosity, more stillness, more peace.  Only you will know and you will only know if you take the time with that heart-felt intention to notice.

As the process of letting go can apply to all the levels of your being simultaneously, it is wise to not expect an instant result, particularly if you are releasing something deep, for example a death or a relationship, as these things are woven into many different levels and layers.  You may feel that you keep going around the same circle but by the time you have worked through the same issue at different levels, it may feel repetitive but when you start again it is different.  How can I explain that better?

It is like when you are at the beach and you are quite near the shore and you dig a hole in the sand.  At first it is a mixture of sand and water and it looks cloudy.  After a while it settles.  Then you dig a bit deeper, but instead of it being deeper clear water you get another level of stirred up water.  Then it takes time for that level to settle and then you can dig deeper again.

Each time you think it is finally clear but to go to the next depth it has to go unclear again, and it is all a mess.  However it won't be long before you will be digging more deeply and it will again be clear – unless a wave comes – I think that is the end of the metaphor!

LETTING GO LEADS TO PEACE

Sometimes you don't get a sense of reward, you don't get a direct sense of progress to the letting go work you are doing.  Sometimes you will get a sense of freedom, how it leads to peace and how the peace leads you into a deeper state of surrender, and how that surrender leads you into a deeper attunement to your spiritual being.

Sometimes you can do so much inner work and expect that life will respond to you in a particular way.  For example, you may put a lot of energy into healing thoughts and healing practices but a particular symptom or external set of circumstances don't change.  There is a tendency at that point to believe that what you are doing is not good enough, not right.  It is deeply challenging at those times to stay with your faith.  It is your faith which is one of your most sacred inner resources.  Whatever the external circumstances might be, whatever the result may be, your faith will be strengthened through your commitment to this process of enlightenment, the process of letting go of your attachment to so many different things and ultimately to yourself.  So that ultimately you are free, totally free of your identity being who you think you are or what you feel.  Then your true identity will be your spiritual truth which will then be able to use what you think and feel as its means of expression.

That process of transformation can take the guise of failure, of loss or annihilation.  So if you have your sense of self tied up with how things appear to be, then it will continue to be undermined by life's circumstances.

LETTING GO LEADS TO PEACE

Sometimes you don't get a sense of reward, you don't get a direct sense of progress to the letting go work you are doing.  Sometimes you will get a sense of freedom, how it leads to peace and how the peace leads you into a deeper state of surrender, and how that surrender leads you into a deeper attunement to your spiritual being.

AWAKENING TO THE INNER LIFE

Then there are all the things which are outside your sphere of influence.  You would have to say that Heartcentre is one of these.  You have here an absolutely beautiful place, you have beautiful people, you have beautiful teachings, you have beautiful work supported with wisdom - but you don't have great numbers or financial success.  How do you judge that situation?  Is this success?  Is this failure?  What do you need to release in this situation?

You need to release your judgement and go beyond the good and the bad, the success and the failure, into asking:  Is this the expression of Spirit?  Is this what Spirit is asking of me?  And if your answer is yes, well then the way is clear for you.  Some things in this world take time for people to recognise their value.  Just as it takes time for each of you to realise the value of your own spirit. 

So as a culture and as a race it takes time to realise and value the inner life.  Heartcentre is devoted to the understanding and the awakening of the inner life.  Look how difficult it is for people who want to develop their inner life to really make it a priority to set aside the time.  Then you have that being mirrored in this place.  As it mirrors the difficulty in that awakening to the inner life, so it also mirrors the importance of that awakening back to those who are seeking.  It becomes a reminder, even for those who are not here, that there is such a thing as HEARTCENTRE and that it is a journey worth making to the heart centre within.

One never regrets embarking on a journey of awakening.  No matter what you may find in your inner search, it is always worth the suffering because of the gratitude of your spirit that you are taking these steps to meet your beloved and to be the whole manifested being that your spirit is asking you to be. 

Q:  You were saying that sometimes we don't get the reward or the change, so how do we know when we have finished letting go when we can keep going deeper and deeper?

By asking your heart, asking yourself.  Is it finished?  If your first answer is 'Yes, it is complete', then you don't need to keep worrying at it.

It is an important question you have asked because there are a lot of things which it is possible to let go of much more efficiently.  Things that really do need to be in the past, that belong in the past, are meant to be left in the past – with a fond farewell.

However, you do not need to keep going back to say goodbye when you have already said goodbye.  It is like when you throw streamers onto a boat and it starts to head off.  Then you want one more farewell and the boat needs to drop the anchor again, and you throw more streamers.  It is time to let go.  You just have a sense that it is time.  Then you know that you are not really meant to be revisiting the farewell, throwing more streamers, more tears.  It is enough, the boat has left.  It is on its journey.  The people who were on the shore have gone home.  Night has settled.  It is over!

There does need to be a sense of completion.  For example, if you are wanting to let go of something or someone, then what I have just said applies.  If you are doing work with letting go of an illness but you still have a symptom, then, in that situation, you need to accept that you have done everything as best you can, and you embrace it with love and patience.  Then you are not just letting go, you are applying a different spiritual quality – bringing the vibration of surrender, or trust that you still have this symptom which is giving you the opportunity to develop more patience and self-love, you bring in a different strategy.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR PERSONALITY

It also helps to understand the particular personality that you have.  There are some personalities which tend to be more matter of fact 'Well, that's that, that's done.  Next!'  There are other personalities which want to look over every grain of sand.  If you have a 'grain of sand' style of personality, then you need to apply some discipline, use more loving detachment.

If you have the kind of personality that tends to be indifferent, not as willing to explore the depths of an issue, then you need to bring your discipline to creating more time for introspection and contemplation and self-awareness and perhaps using writing to help you reflect.

You do need to understand your particular nature and then work creatively with that because either of those extremes can be obstructive to the evolution of the healing process, the letting go, transformative process.

For some people it is difficult for them to take their own pain seriously and that in itself is missing an opportunity to give compassion to yourself, to receive support and compassion from others, to soften.  Pain is a great softener.  But, then again, in a different personality pain can soften you to a point where it weakens you.  It is important to know yourself.

Q:  I think I need to forgive in order to be able to let go of a particular reaction whether that is distant past or recent past.

One of the purposes of letting go is so that you can move on.  There are certain situations where it is appropriate to be moving on without turning over every stone.  I think what you are saying is that: 'Until you have forgiven this, that or the other, that person or yourself, then you cannot let go of your reactiveness; and until you've let go of your reactiveness you cannot get on with your life'.
This is really not so much an issue of needing to forgive yourself. 

This is an issue of procrastination, of not embracing the power you have within you to move on.  So this is not a time to sit and reflect deeply on what you need to forgive.  This is a time for you to do that in a minimal way – just enough for your to be able to mobilise your life force and your energy so you can get back into the mainstream of life, that is where you will learn how to forgive efficiently because there is something very inefficient in how you are approaching your inner journey at the moment – something muddy.  I think it is because you are looking back, not being centred in your spirit and moving forward with that with grace and with love and with the presence of your spirit guiding you forward.
You are in a little billabong and you need to get back into the mainstream of life.  Then you will find that because you have more energy flowing through you, you will be able to forgive and let go of reactions because life will be flowing for you.  But when you are working with a slightly stagnant energy, then you look at the issue you need to forgive and it is like quicksand.  You are not getting to the bottom of it, you are getting stuck.  You will know when you are doing clear work because you are getting to the bottom of something and moving on from there.

If you are going deeper and deeper into an issue and it is like quicksand then that is another clue that you are in the wrong hole.  You are digging around in something that is no longer productive.  You need to extricate yourself from that.  Then the forgiveness will flow and will naturally lead to a deeper letting go.  That is when forgiveness and letting go work harmoniously.

Q:  You mentioned two types of personalities - the one which looks and delves and the one which thinks it better get on with things and doesn't dig.  I am the latter type and wonder if writing in a reflective way is a good idea.  Is that practical?

Writing gives you the opportunity to stop and look at yourself separately from family and circumstances around you.  You need to reclaim your relationship with your tender being.  How is that practical?  To your personality that won't look practical at all.  So practical is not the right question because practical is not the ideal.  The ideal is wholeness.

Whether you take a practical path or an impractical or irrational way to the realisation of your ideal really does not matter.  What matters is that you recognise your own living ideal from your heart.  To ask yourself about the state of your heart will help you by-pass some of the emphasis on the practical.

This is important for you.  Whereas for somebody else who is always looking at what is going on in their emotions and so on, it is wise to by-pass that sometimes. For you it is wise to take the time to care for your body, to care for what you are feeling, to care for your spirit, because there are areas of neglect within.  That balance needs to be found and made a priority.

Another way of looking at this is that there are certain personalities which have a natural predisposition to be an outflow of energy.  There are other personalities which have a natural predisposition to be an inflow of energy.  If you know that you are primarily an outward flowing energy then you know that you need to be balancing that with times of receptivity. You can do this through meditation, through music, receiving the beauty of nature.  Balance the doing with the being.  Balance the outward flow with the inward flow, and the experience of balance will appeal to that part of you which wants to be practical.  Balance is practical and it is also a spiritual path to unity.

When you are really balanced in your being there is an expansiveness within which allows the opening.  When your heart is open this is the source of your deepest joy.  When your heart is open and awakened to your spiritual presence and to the presence of the All-That-Is, this is the fulfilment of your being.  That is not practical.  It is ethereal, but it is your deepest joy nevertheless.

Q:  You have spoken about the little things that we let go of emotionally, mentally and physically.  Will you say something about the need to let go of our identification with the human personality – ways we can affirm our identity with our spiritual presence?

One way is in meditation when you allow your mind to be spacious, as clear and empty as possible.  You do that not by focussing on your mind but by focussing on your heart.  Or you may want to focus on the atmosphere of your spirit. The presence of your spirit is a magnetic force in itself which is constantly trying to get your attention so that you will shift your identity from what you think and feel to your inner being.

You can do this by recognising that you are a being of light, by recognising that you have an abstract presence, and by recognising that when you are in your heart and letting that vibration of love be real, then you are letting that spiritual vibration be who you are – in truth.  This helps you release the illusion of who you are.  Then when you really embrace who you truly are – that you are a being of love, a being of light, then when you come back into those levels of your personality you can bring that vibration of love into what you think, what you feel and what you say.

REMEMBRANCE – WHO AM I?

So, one way is through meditation.  Another is through remembrance, through being aware as you move through the day.  Ask yourself: 'Who am I?  Who am I being?  Who in me is expressing itself now?'

If you are not coming from a place of unconditional love then you know that you are coming from your personality self.  Then that is an alert to breathe into your true self, to bring that into a stronger presence. Bring the life-force more strongly into your inner being so that it is directing you in your day-to-day decisions and attitudes.

This process of expanding your consciousness of who you truly are is a life-time spiritual process.  At first you are fading the intensity of the personality self until it is like a shadow that responds to the light of your spirit.  Not a life in itself creating its own shadow, but your own spirit is the source of light and your human self is its obedient shadow, or its vehicle.

Every spiritual practice, every meditation that may come through any of the wise traditions has, as part of its purpose, that shift from identifying with your personality self to identifying with your true self – being born again, awakening, illumination – all the different ways.  Ultimately, that is what the inner journey is about.  It is the journey back to your true self and that recognition of your true self is the awakening.  That is when you are awake.

In the mystical tradition you are asleep when you are only awake to your personality self. The beauty of that awakening is because of the joy that it brings but also the capacity for service, for giving love.  When that is flowing it is deeply fulfilling to your being.
Be attentive and be diligent and be gentle in your inner work as you bring yourself more strongly into the truth of who you are and into the attunement to the vibration of love, the sacred vibration of love. 

BLESSING

May your work be blessed
By a consciousness of the presence of Love and Spirit with you,
Supporting you in every moment
As you take each step on this path of Love