Spiritual seekers often travel to Ubud searching for answers to life's greatest philosophical questions concerning existence, love, god, and what is truth itself. Seeking often becomes a way of life that involves travelling along one path, then another and another. Without a guide, the spiritual journey can become a desperate longing for completeness. Yet the journey continues as if guided by an inner knowing that there is a greater truth that we can grasp and be.

If only we were born with a map to the heart.

Perhaps we would not get lost so often or forget the beauty of what we essentially are. If there were a map to the heart, what would it show? Perhaps there would be many paths that lead to the most sacred places for holy pilgrimages, such as Mt. Kailash, Bodhgaya, Mount Shasta, Jerusalem, Egypt,Varanasi, Machu Picchu, and even the holy temples in Bali. And the list of spiritual places can go on endlessly. Many Aboriginal tribes believe the whole earth is sacred. Must we travel the whole earth to know and see everything in order to find true happiness, inner peace and completeness?

Perhaps the map to the heart would not have any paths at all.

Perhaps the map would be in the form of a mirror.

You would look into the mirror and see yourself. You would connect to your self, look into your eyes and see a vision of infinite beauty and purity reflected back to you. Is that what you see? My revered teacher Swamiji reminds me how precious the heart connection truly is, so precious that without surrendering into the heart, we will lose the greatest and only purpose of human existence, which is to know and embody the truth that we are love itself, infinite, pure, full and complete. The mirror is the greatest map to the heart. It reflects back that we must look within and return to our own hearts. The heart connection begins by seeing yourself as love.

To the Balinese, life is about purity of heart. Through ritual purification, devotion, prayer and endless sacrifice, the Balinese believe they will remove all impurities, such as negative thoughts, fears, doubts, jealousies, and such, from their souls so they can have a better existence in the next life. Traditional Hinduism recalls the heart as the organ by which one comes in touch with the gods and grasps the truth of the Divine. The heart is a place of higher insight, infinite light, limitless happiness, pure consciousness, and the most important place to search for truth.

The heart connection is the most precious of gifts that humankind can ever behold within themselves and the greatest of gifts to ever share with the world.

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