The physics of grace

The sword and the heart are two of the most important tools of the spiritual practitioner.

Wisdom is the sword that cuts through self-delusion. It slices away fantasy and idealism, and exposes the places we avoid intimacy with the actual circumstance of our life. The function of the sword is to skillfully remove the layers of conditioning that have clouded our Original Nature. Many seekers avoid the sword because they think the truth has to hurt; a common excuse for avoidance. However, the sword of wisdom removes only the clothing of accumulated erroneous views. It never touches the skin. Its function is to sever all self-protecting identifications, to free us of what we are not. What’s left is the naked essence of what we truly are. Unburdened. Without a scratch. Radiant and whole, from the beginning.

Love is the flaming heart that lights up the world. It is a warm embrace of all that is. The heart has no interest in changing the world. The heart is constant and unwavering acceptance. It does not expand or contract with the changing circumstances. The heart maintains continuous luminosity, like a shining sun in the cosmic sky. All appearances are warmed and nourished by the heart.

By the sword of wisdom, we empty out. By the heart's radiant light, we are filled up.

The spiritual path is primarily a process of unlearning. Emptying. It is what we lose through spiritual practice that eventually severs the knot of self-contraction. When we are naked and empty, sincerely reduced to “I don’t know,” love spontaneously fills us to overflowing. When we are not longer invested in the constant game of defending a fictitious self-image, we fall into the loving embrace of the heart.

Such are the physics of grace.