In the buoyancy of the magnanimous heart, we recognize that everything that occurs is an expression of life. This perspective allows us to stop assessing, measuring and comparing. We neither add to nor subtract from the present moment experience. If we are not fixated on or stuck in concepts of better and worse, we find that our capacity to respond with greater wisdom and compassion kicks in naturally.
In returning again and again to the simplicity of being, seeing, breathing, sensing, feeling, and just experiencing, we experience a fundamental interconnectedness. We know this interconnectedness because of allowing the bare experience of life itself to take precedence over concepts and descriptions of life. This shift is the movement from “my life” to life itself. Life itself is just what it is. It’s not a problem. Life may be extremely painful at times, but this is the nature of life, to be both pleasant and painful. It is when we think of life as mine that life is problematic.
Of course, there is loss; there is great loss in this life.
Yet magnanimous heart holds all experiences, including loss, with immeasurable spaciousness. In the recognition of a magnanimous heart, we recognize our fundamental goodness. Our engagement and participation in the world begin to shift from viewing this world as a field of consumption to experiencing this world as a field of appreciation.
And we can’t help but bow down in gratitude.
Excerpted from Narayan’s book, The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation.