The question today has to do with how one can use the heart chakra, the opening of the heart chakra, as a springboard to the acceptance of self that is a process usually found or engaged in the indigo-ray center. How can one, by learning more compassion and understanding, begin to accept the self in a way in which the self has previously not been accepted?

(Carla channeling)

I am Hatonn. Greetings to each of you in the love and light of the infinite Creator. We are extremely pleased to be able to be called to this group today to be able to share our opinions with you, and at the same time to learn so much from each of you as you receive our opinions and work with them in that way of choices which is the purpose of your density. The drama of your work and the choices at this time is quite apparent to us, as the vibration in which we work has far less drama and far more precise work in refining those dramatic choices which face each of you. We would like to thank this instrument for allowing the one known as Hannibal to rest in this group during this experience. It was quite suitable that this instrument announced this entity which otherwise would be unknown. This is an entity which does not speak and does not teach but has it’s own place in the Confederation, and we are pleased to find this group open to these who come in the name of the Christ.

You wish us to speak about the opportunities offered to the seeker by the open heart with regard to developing an inner strength of consciousness which is equal to the task you set before yourselves. Perhaps our best approach to this question is to discuss the way of the unopened heart, for it is that way which most among your peoples have used and continue to use in your density, in order to do work in consciousness.

We must pause while this instrument gets a drink of water.

[Pause]

I am Hatonn, and I am again with this instrument greeting you in love and light. In speaking of the subject, we wish you to be aware that we are using the system of the energy centers, the root energy center of survival, the orange ray of dealing with the self and dealing with individuals other than the self, the yellow ray of social or group dealings, the green ray of the heart, the blue ray of communication, the indigo ray of inner work, or work in consciousness, and the violet ray which is, shall we say, the readout of the balance of all those dynamics that are in an integrated individual entity within the life experience.

In the case of most seekers and the case of most entities whatsoever upon the planet, whom you may not call seekers, and who may not call themselves seekers, but who do indeed seek to make more skillful choices, the heart is not allowed to open, because there is judgment of the self. Consequently, no matter how extremely good the intention and how determined the attitude, there is the entire life which is filled with the process of failing, and holding that in the heart. It is thought by these who do this that they are quite correct in assessing their faults as well as their virtues. Perhaps it would be expressed that it is the feeling that it is not humble to ignore one’s failures, although each entity identifies a slightly different field as that of failure. Almost without exception those upon your plane judge themselves, and this judgment is remembered in the heart.

One of your poets has called the heart “a rag and bone shop.” This is precisely the nature of the unopened heart. It is far less common to see people hating others or disliking them than to find the self holding in the heart judgment against the self. Consequently, the learning over a period of most of an incarnation is the repeated experience of failing in a way important to an entity, until finally the mind becomes weary of thinking, puzzling, musing and analyzing in relation to the various failures. This process is excellent. It is safe to say that in most if not in all incarnations which entities have chosen upon this planet which you enjoy, there will be life enough, which you would call time enough, for you to work as a seeker through the unopened heart and by the end of the incarnation to be able to forgive the self rationally and to allow compassion to flow to the self.

The difficulty in doing this remains not just equally in these who follow an orthodox religious practice. It is even more marked among those with a specifically orthodox religious practice. Even though these practices teach that the Creator forgives and redeems, there is also the fear of judgment. There is the sense that there will be an unfair test which the seeker will not be able to pass because he has failed, and that imagined voice of the Creator becomes the voice of the self, judging and condemning without mercy. That is the way of justice among your peoples.

It is not the way of balance or truth. Now, you may see each in your own life patterns that you do indeed have enough time to experience failing to the point where you shall become tired of judging, of thinking, of reasoning about the imperfect self. You may see it in your older entities who become mellow and tolerant and charitable, for they have seen that not only they, but all seem to themselves to be extraordinarily imperfect and much in need of fixing. Were you to be able to live the lifetime your physical vehicle was originally created for, this process would be nearly fail-safe. Indeed, you leave your incarnations while the spiritual search which you have begun within this incarnation is only just underway.

Yet, still you may harvest in this manner an increase in compassion, as you become old enough and experience enough to see that there is nothing unusual or fatal about failure, and that all failures eventually become part of a healing. We say all this to preface speaking about the open heart and work in consciousness, or indigo-ray work. As each in this group is already aware, the process of opening the heart is a process of letting go of those things in the lower chakras which are clouding, blocking or overstimulating those centers. Therefore we will not go into this in detail, but simply say that keeping the heart open is simply a matter of noticing and paying respect and attention to these times in which a blockage, an overstimulation or a distortion is noticed in a particular area of life corresponding to a particular energy center.

If there is a failure of direct communication, for instance, between yourself and another entity, opening the heart involves not only speaking with that person to the full extent of one’s capacity to communicate, but also forgiving the other self, yourself and the situation which arose betwixt the two which did not partake of the open heart. The blockages of each lower chakra are fairly easy to pinpoint, since as the energy is blocked there is also a feeling tone within one, an uneasiness, which speaks as loudly as any words, and certainly far better than any rationalization of behavior or thinking.

The work of opening the heart is the work of letting go, of surrendering, of realizing the true importance of the details of any blockage, that is to say, of realizing that what is important about a situation which has caused a blockage is the forgiveness and the healing which may now be evoked by the learned skill of paying attention and respect to the incarnational experience that is going on.

When one first attempts to open the heart one may feel that it is impossible to forgive the self enough times to keep that heart open. That is not the heart speaking, that is still the mind. And the mind complex suffers from the either/or of your illusion. There is no “either/or” in an open heart. The open heart is “an/and,” an “a/a” unity. To the open heart all things deserve compassion, all things deserve food, physical and spiritual, all things deserve love. And to refrain from opening the heart to the self is not something that occurs to the heart’s wisdom. However it makes no sense, it is important to realize that the way of the open heart may begin in clearing the way to the open heart, but it ends in accepting that the open heart is all-compassionate, all-loving, all-giving. There are no second thoughts to an open heart. There are no true thoughts in the open heart, but only the endless and impersonal compassion, but one who stands not on sense, not on things known, but on the thin and unpredictable air of the abyss of the unknown.

As we said, most among your people attempt to preserve a balance in that abyss of the unknown, [inaudible] attempt to think their way through this blockage. This is slow work but it is a perfectly good path. The way of the open heart is simply a shortcut, a more direct route to the ability to do work in consciousness.

How is the heart kept open in such a way that the experience of the open heart will be the steady state? We would, in looking at this aspect of this question, remind each again that the offering of praise to the Creator, and the offering of thanksgiving for blessings received, constitute a continual touching into divinity, a constant song heard by all that there is. The steady state of open heart is a state in which each flower, each blade of grass, each thing that is beautiful that is seen says to you, not only, “This is pretty, this is lovely, this is beautiful,” but also “I praise the Creator for this beauty.” It is a way of claiming that mystery which is the Creator, a way of relating to the Creator which is unseen, invisible, unheard, unknown, for we are aware that the Creator is not obvious to all, nor is His will seen to be very beneficent in many cases. Yet, if there is the faith to continue to praise the Creator and to bless the Creator when your experience blesses you, the relationship with that which is holy becomes more and more real by habit and replication of sincere praise and thanksgiving.

Now let us look at the advantage of working with an open heart when doing work in consciousness. In the previous way of working, energy is constricted in the heart and the work is slow and hard, for not only is the heart short of power, but it further reduces the power which moves into the communication energy which an entity needs to speak with itself, just as much as it needs it to speak with others. Often, if the green ray is constricted the blue ray would also be constricted, and each entity must judge for itself whether or not it has things said in the heart that have not been said to those who should hear them, so by the time the energy is received by the indigo ray, it is not only much reduced, but it is hampered by a lack of skill and energy in communication with itself.

Communication moves higher and higher into the surface mind, becomes bogged down in speculations, rationalizations and considerations of details that do more to obscure than to illumine a particular thing about the self that one is doing inner work upon. Contrariwise, if the heart chakra be open, then it is likely that there will be more honest communication, because absolute love is something which fear cannot touch or bias. So that the fear that entities have in communicating, either with themselves or with others, is reduced to the extent that the heart is truly opened.

The truly opened heart often appears childlike because it is blindingly honest, speaking that which it thinks without judgment in an attempt to understand the self as well as other selves. In this configuration, the communication is at its most effective, given that there are those which can accept and communicate in return while hearing those blunt truths that may not be as pleasant as the euphemisms, rationalizations and clichés that surround most timid and tentative communication.

An entity with an open heart is likely to speak the truth in a desire to express the compassion of one who does not care whether or not this speaking will gain any advantage, but cares only to offer the entity with which the difficulty is experienced the chance for the healing that is possible only through sincere honesty and fearless communication. The open heart is the ultimate optimist. That is the wisdom of the heart. The heart does not lose hope, even if the end is not in sight and not known. The open heart gives every entity in every situation the benefit of all possible ways of gazing in compassion at that entity, be it the self or the other self. The open heart is not a compromiser, for it does not try to get anything for itself. It is ready to move into adaptation, it is ready to change if that seems wise. It is ready for anything, and since anything often happens, it is the skillful heart that is the open heart.

When the heart is open, it is well first for the seeker to work upon communication. This is the primary and strong means by which your people may offer the most love, the most inspiration, the most clarity. Those who communicate well, those who communicate in love and without fear may find themselves often told that they are wrong in some way, but this will in no way disturb one with an open heart, for the compassion of the open heart is as much for the other self as it is for the self, and there is no fear that one is right, or not right, or definitely wrong, for whether one is right, or not right, or definitely wrong, the heart has compassion and all is well.

As one becomes able to communicate honestly and skillfully it becomes less important to communicate skillfully because it has become natural. There is no fear of reprisal, for the reprisal is coming from an entity that is loved with compassion of the open heart. Consequently, there are no entities to be feared; there are no failures to be feared. Part of the blue-ray opening is the development of a sense of humor, so one finds ways to say things in a light way, in a gentle way, in a way which shows a spaciousness of prospect, and for the purpose of this discussion, most importantly in ways in which the entity is enabled in its inner work, for if full living light is able to move into the indigo chakra, that chakra will have the maximum opportunity to do work in consciousness. The open heart regards the personality. It enables the blue-ray chakra to communicate from the level of the heart, that is the place of wisdom, to the self that is attempting to effect changes in consciousness by faith and will.

When the tongue of judgment is quieted, the tongue of joy and peace is loosened, and one may speak to the self while working on the personality, attempting to understand it and see the balances that are desired. In words of comfort and support from the self to the self, the open heart creates the opportunity for the entity to fall in love with itself, to love it dearly, not simply as a perfect expression of the perfect Creator. That is relatively irrelevant to the experiences of choices made. It falls in love with itself with all self-perceived imperfections thriving gloriously. It sees the self in all its rambunctious childishness, and nods happily, saying, “Yes, that is humanness, I recognize it and I embrace it.”

The heart is no longer, then, the “rag and bone shop,” the place where sad memories are wrapped in tissues only to be opened again, that the scent of failure may be relished. The open heart has itself a yard sale, and sells off all of its rags and bones to the universe, to the Mother that is your Earth, to the deep healing essence of your planetary caretaker, the Earth itself. It is often well when one is attempting to achieve the open heart to take all the judgments and name them, and take a stone for each one and name the stone and name the judgment, and bury these stones and the judgments that they carry in the breast of the Mother, the earth of your planet. And then hold the hands on high, and say, “Mother, take this for I know not how to heal it, and I know you do.”

Let these failures become impersonal, let compassion roll in, experimentally, put aside your disbelief in your own lowliness for a little while each day and feel the love rolling in. Feel the freedom, the space, the joy of simply suspending your disbelief in your own failures and imperfections. As you offer praise and thanksgiving, as you communicate, often in difficult ways at first, to open up that great primary communication chakra, the inner work begins to do itself, for, dear entities, you are entities of habit, the habits you begin eventually become automatic.

If you have the habit of praising each beauty that you see, there is no effort to continuing to praise those things which you see. If you have the habit of gazing at a challenge which you might also call a difficulty or a trouble with an eye to the most positive action or thought which is an available choice, then when difficulty overtakes you unawares, that habit will move as instinct or muscles do in reflex, and some of your work will be done before your mind can make sense.

The eventual priority of compassion over intellectual acceptance is a key process, for many choices are made instinctively. When you open the heart, when you clear the communication energies and when you can rest in the work in consciousness which simply requires one to gaze without judgment at the self, you have achieved a configuration which will greatly accelerate both your process of spiritual evolution, and your effectiveness as a being of light and an agent of the Creator to those whose lives you touch. Most of what entities see of the Creator is seen in your faces and in your outstretched hands and in the compassion with which you listen and communicate with entities about those things which trouble them. The simple listening with an open heart is in…

[Side one of tape ends.]

I am Hatonn. You act, then, as the Creator, not as your imperfect self, for as you forgive completely the imperfection of your self and toss those considerations aside in order to have more time for praise and thanksgiving, so you cleanse yourself of the need to deal intellectually with these difficulties of others which do not make sense but which are causing difficulty, whereas you listen and allow the love to flow through you to the other person in an accepting and loving way. The work is being done through you. It does not tire or weary you. And this is true whether the work is upon the behalf of another or upon the behalf of the self.

We realize that we have spoken overlong. We are sorry. This instrument seems unaware of time, and we usually depend on the instrument to let us know when the time is sufficient. However, it does now tell us that it is time for us to leave. There is more upon this topic, however, we are satisfied that we have done a good deal of what those of the density of love and compassion may do in regards to this question, which is, in many ways, a question answerable only by those of fourth density, yet in other ways, far better answerable by those of fifth density, for there is a balance in true love which is achieved when compassion is balanced with wisdom. However, both portions—that is, love and compassion and wisdom and compassion—need to be addressed separately, and that is why we were called to your group.

We very much enjoy being here with you. We thank this instrument both for accepting one who comes in good faith, and for being fastidious about the challenging process. We would close by saying that because of the work each of you does in consciousness, each of you is far more prone to the influence of psychic reading or enhanced registering of any negative thought or emotion than those who are moving more slowly along the path of evolution.

Remember always to respect what this instrument calls loyal opposition, and when one is greeted in some way, we ask each to remember to take time to dwell in love, to take the hand of the one who comes in psychic greeting to create fear, or dislike or despair, take that tortured entity’s hand and sit with it in love, and when it has received all the love that it can—and that is not overmuch—it will have to depart. But meanwhile there is a service in acknowledging the presence of what is called evil, and acknowledging the agents of that path with respect and love and compassion. You cannot get rid of negative entities by loving them so that you can be rid of them. You must love them truly and have compassion upon their pain and their misunderstanding. Realize that these entities are taking the long and slow road, and that they must pass through much more than you who are on the positive path.

Never be afraid. These entities may seem large and bullying as they enter your thoughts and your dreams, but, my friends, they are sad souls and fully worthy of compassion. Can you cleanse the lepers sores, can you nurse the afflicted of your generations’ leprosy which is AIDS? Can you gaze upon a dying child and gently sweep the flies from the sickened and closing eyes? There is passive evil, and there is the Christ. When you gaze upon the rude address of negativity, think of the sick child and reach out your hand in compassion and take cool water, and comfort that negativity with compassion and great feeling of brotherhood. You are that negativity just as you are positive, and to heal negativity is to take it into the open heart and love it. All that is not love will fall away.

In terms of negative greetings, the entity will indeed run away quickly, for this type of love is as fire to them, painful and deadly. So, my friend, stop making sense; allow the heart to open to the self. And when each impropriety occurs, judged by the self, take it not into the mind but into the heart first, that the wound may be healed quickly and the scar may be small. Only after compassion is achieved is it at all sensible or effective for the seeker to analyze the imperfection. Let your heart speak first.

As always, we remind each that we come as brothers and sisters, not to preach but to share our opinions with you, for we are seekers on your same path, and though we may have more experience, we have no more authority than any other seeker. We ask you to discriminate among those things which we have said, choosing those truths which are yours, and neglecting the rest. We are humbly grateful for allowing us to share our opinions. We would close through another instrument. We are those of Hatonn, and we transfer now.

(Jim channeling)

I am Hatonn, and greet each again in love and light through this instrument. We would ask if we could address any queries at this time which would add to your understanding. Is there a query upon any mind that we may speak to at this time?

Is Hannibal the traveler a single entity, such as the one we have [inaudible]?

I am Hatonn. The entity Hannibal which greeted this group at the beginning of your session, is indeed an individualized single entity which has found its way to your group because of the nature of your seeking. The identity of the entity is not one which is known in your history but is an identity which has found its full flowering in the concept of compassion, and moves to those areas where compassion is helpful in healing wounds which have long been untended, shall we say, by the conscious mind of those suffering the wounds.

Is there a further query?

Yes. Does this entity wish to be of service by being with those who are attempting to [inaudible]?

I am Hatonn. The one known as Hannibal is desirous of sharing the compassion that it possesses and sharing the compassion that this group possesses, much the same way that the traveler shares company with those that it finds in faraway places around the friendly campfire.

Is there a further query, my sister?

No. I would just like to thank Hannibal for [inaudible].

I am Hatonn. And this entity is grateful for this opportunity and accepts your good wishes with joy, and returns them as well. Is there another query?

[Pause]

I am Hatonn. We again thank each for the great opportunity that you have afforded us by seeking information which is within our provenance. We are always glad to speak to this group, for we have long cherished this group. We are with each upon request to aid in the deepening of your meditations. We shall take our leave of this group at this time. I am Hatonn. We leave you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. Adonai, my friends.