Living From the Heart

Description: In this talk, Zach explains how we all interpret reality through different lenses. Although our culture tells us to see the world through the eyes of capitalism, materialism, the ego, and science, our spiritual path is one of seeing through the lens of love. When we finally do see with the eyes of our heart, the sense of separation dissolves and we feel a connection with all that is. Intro Poem: Correspondence, part of the Drinking Roses on Sunday collection, click here to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Roses-Sunday-words-heart/dp/1497489148/ You wouldn't believe what once or twice I have seen. I'll just tell you this: only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one. - Mary Oliver Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed... - Thomas Merton The art form is to stay wide open and vulnerable in life, and sit with the mystery, and with the awe, and with the pain...sit with it all. What the human condition is at the moment, has in it greed, it has lust, it has fear, it has anger, it has violence, it has all of that stuff; and it also has beauty, tenderness, care, joy, play. I'll tell you, if you think you can be happy by denying the pain and sadness in the world, I'll tell you that isn't true happiness. The cost of armoring your heart against what is, is more costly than you may appreciate. - Ram Dass Learn more at  www.zachbeach.com

In this talk, Zach discusses the long spiritual journey of eighteen inches: from the head to the heart. We have all been brought up to live in our minds and believe everything we think, including the belief of our ego as a separate entity. But once we tame the mind and drop into the nature of the heart, and undeniable love and joy naturally arises. We are able to feel both into our divine nature, and stay embodied in our physical lives. There is a place in the heart where everything meets. Go there if you want to find me. Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there. Are you there? Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart. Give yourself to it with total abandon…. Once you know the way The nature of attention will call you To return, again and again,  And be saturated with knowing, “I belong here, I am at home here.” -Lorin Roche, Translation of The Radiance Sutras Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/n6qc4FD8htQ Learn more at  www.zachbeach.com

In this talk, Zach goes through our evolutionary history that wired us to empathize and connect with our fellow human beings. He then looks are how much of the ails of modern society reflect a disconnect in our love. If we are to heal ourselves, heal each other, and heal the planet, we must focus on healing our love. Learn more at www.zachbeach.com Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/qn_c56dQ64s Everyone you see, you say to them, Love me. Of course you do not do this out loud; Otherwise, Someone would call the cops. Still though, think about this, This great pull in us To connect. Why not become the one Who lives with a full moon in each eye That is always saying, With that sweet moon language, What every other eye in this world Is dying to Hear. By: Hafiz

In this talk, Zach describes how the world is a reflection of us, just as much as we are a reflection of the world. By cultivating an awareness of our connection to all things, a natural love and compassion arises. We become more compassionate to ourselves when we discover our own common humanity, and more kind to others as we realize everyone is fighting a hard battle. Learn more at www.zachbeach.com Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. -Kindness,  Naomi Shihab Nye

In this talk, Zach talks about the importance of finding balance in all areas of our life, and what it truly means to live in harmony. He discusses the importance of cultivating a strong back, a fierce heart, a discipline practice. Along with this we need to cultivate an openness to the unfolding moment, with a willingness to let go of our defenses and be changed by what appears around the bend. Learn more at www.zachbeach.com

In this talk, Zach explores all the ways we are disconnected in the modern world, including from ourselves, nature, and each other. By taking time to cultivate connection, we bring more love into the world and feel a sense of aliveness. Quotes shared in the talk: The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small. — Mother Teresa The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substances of our bodies, making them glide and sing. - John Muir Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for— to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world— to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant— but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these— the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean's shine, the prayers that are made out of grass? -Mary Oliver A gentle world begins in the way you touch your heart. Be soft with the light inside you. caress your body with this breath. God is nothing else but the place where the sun comes up in your chest. You're the glimmering destination. You're the golden honey daubed on the bread of the ordinary. Whatever is perfect, whatever is heavenly begins here. -Alfred Lamotte, Gentle "I breathe in the soft, saturated exhalations of cedar trees and salmonberry bushes, fireweed and wood fern, marsh hawks and meadow voles, marten and harbor seal and blacktail deer. I breathe in the same particles of air that made songs in the throats of hermit thrushes and gave voices to humpback whales, the same particles of air that lifted the wings of bald eagles and buzzed in the flight of hummingbirds, the same particles of air that rushed over the sea in storms, whirled in high mountain snows, whistled across the poles, and whispered through lush equatorial gardens  . . . air that has passed continually through life on earth. I breathe it in, pass it on, share it in equal measure with billions of other living things, endlessly, infinitely."  - Richard Nelson

In this talk Zach talks about the importance of choosing love, and what so often gets in the way. By setting an intention to love, we must recognize that love is a skills meant to be developed, not an out of control emotion that only results from finding the right person. To choose love we must understand how our limbic system hijacks our prefrontal cortex, and practice responding from a place of love rather than reacting from a place of anger. Learn more at www.zachbeach.com

"The mind makes us powerful, but the heart makes us human," Zach says in the first Living From the Heart Session. In this talk, Zach explores the importance of living from the heart, how we as a society have a lopsided development of the mind, and we have to live from our deepest value and what truly matters. Zach also explores the two wings of spiritual awakening, a statement from Holocaust survivors, and the paradox of loneliness. Learn more at zachbeach.com