Awakening Love: A Return to the Heart
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” –Rumi
What is the Love we seek? It is the quiet blessing of Life itself—the fragrance of a flower opening to the morning sun, the fire that makes the stars shine, the pulse that moves the tide of the Cosmos toward beauty, awareness, and meaning.
Love is the very cradle of existence, the silent intimacy that calls us into the depths of meditation, the flame that burns away all our limitations.
And yet, it seems that we live in a time when the Heart is often forgotten—traded for comfort, security, and fleeting successes. The world rushes to distraction, chasing things that cannot nourish the soul, building structures that will crumble under the weight of their own emptiness.
5-Day Silent Retreat: Awakening Love Within
This March, we’re launching a new offering—a 5-day retreat devoted to awakening Love. It is an invitation to rediscover this powerful force beyond the realm of emotions, as the very essence of our being.
Through Hridaya Meditation, Self-Inquiry, Hatha Yoga, Sacred Silence, and other transformative practices, we will marvel at how Love gradually and naturally unveils itself. Love cannot be learned, only revealed, since its nature is Grace. Love is not about attachment and possessing—it is the art of dissolving completely in the arms of the Infinite Beloved.
This is an invitation to soften, to live with an open heart, to embody kindness, generosity, and compassion—to trust Life and surrender to the sacred rhythm of Love itself.
What You Will Experience
Over these five days, we will journey through seven stages of awakening to Love:
· Awareness: Recognizing the landscape of your soul.
· Awakening to Love: Diving inward to the supreme source of Love itself.
· Understanding Limitations: Seeing through the veils of conditioning.
· Sublimating Fear, Pride, Attachment, and Doubt: Transforming barriers into bridges to Light.
· Surrendering to the Heart’s Pure Intention (Iccha): Trusting the sacred tremor within.
· Living from the Heart: Embodying Love as a natural state.
· Integration into Life: Bringing Love into every breath, every step.
Who Is This Retreat For?
This retreat is for lovers of Truth, for those who have felt the ache of separation and long to return to Oneness, Devotion, and Compassion. It is for those who seek to embody Love—not just as an emotion, but as a way of being.
No prior meditation or yoga experience is needed—only a heart willing to open and listen.
Why Join?
Because the world does not need more division and alienation, it needs more empathy, awareness, and compassion.
Because even now, deep down, our souls long for authenticity and openness. This retreat simply offers us the inspiration and silence in which the soul can finally blossom.
Cœur de Lion
The world needs hearts unafraid to burn for Truth, hearts that can stand unwavering and face the tide of fear and materialism.
At Hridaya, we are devoted to cultivating the Cœur de Lion, the Lion’s Heart, which does not seek power but is power itself. This is not a moralistic call to arms but to Presence; it is an invocation of inner strength, courage, beauty, and devotion.
Through this retreat, we will learn to embody compassion in our daily lives, to see the world through the eyes of Love, and to meet life’s challenges with the Witnessing Attitude—which means maintaining the awareness of the vast, unshakable Heart.
One day devoted to the pursuit of Beauty, Compassion, and Love is worth more than a century of power built on fear.
Love is waiting.
Not just for others, not in tomorrow, but here in You. Now. It is spanda, the quiet tremor of your own heart.
Let Love speak for itself—in you, through you.
Be ready to listen and surrender until only Love remains.
A Simple Practice to Expand Your Heart
Sit quietly, close your eyes, relax, and bring the awareness to the middle of the chest, one finger-width to the right. Take a deep breath, allowing yourself to settle into stillness.
Now, recall someone you love deeply. Notice how your heart responds—perhaps with warmth, openness, or a gentle sense of expansion. Dive into this feeling for at least a minute, allowing Love to unfold naturally.
Next, bring to mind someone you struggle with—someone who challenges you or with whom you feel tension. Observe your heart’s response. You may notice contraction, discomfort, or resistance. Simply acknowledge this reaction without judgment for one minute.
Once again, return to the image of the person you love. With even more clarity, feel the shift that happens—how your heart opens effortlessly in this evocation. Stay with this sensation. Then, while holding this openness, gently recall the person you struggle with. This time, remain aware of any tendencies to contract, but do not follow them. Instead, invite your heart to stay as vast and unshaken as it was before.
This is the subtle training of the heart—learning to stay open and embrace Life without conditions, without withdrawing.
Now, holding both people in your heart, contemplate their joys, their struggles, their longing for peace and love. Softly, within yourself, with the same attitude for both, offer them these simple blessings:
“May you be free.”
“May you be at peace.”
“May you be held in Love.”
Then, turn these words inward. Offer them to yourself with the same sincerity:
“May I be free.”
“May I be at peace.”
“May I be held in Love.”
Loving is the path to freedom. Compassion is the recognition that we were never separate.
Try this practice for a few minutes today. Who will you send Love to?
With Love,
Odete Daniel