Staffing "Awakend Heart" (Part 1)

This weekend I am volunteering to staff 'Level IV' at the NYC Shambhala Center. It will be an opportunity to meditate and to allow others to meditate as well. I especially like Level IV: Awakened Heart, because when I first did it, it really did allow me to feel my heart more closely, and feel its fragility and warmth. It was very special for me, and I am happy to be there for the program to allow others to explore their own experience and maybe feel their heart throbbing inside their body too. :-)

From the Website's Program info:

In Shambhala Training Level IV, we learn how to awaken and open our hearts so that we can communicate fully with the world.

“Basic goodness is very closely connected to the idea of bodhicitta in the Buddhist tradition. Bodhi means ‘awake’ or ‘wakeful’ and citta means ‘heart,’ so bodhicitta is ‘awakened heart.’ Such awakened heart comes from being willing to face your state of mind. That may seem like a great demand, but it is necessary. The sitting practice of meditation is the means to rediscover basic goodness, and beyond that, it is the means to awaken this genuine heart within yourself.”
— Chögyam Trungpa