I enjoy contemplating and studying teachings from many traditions. This little gem has captured my attention for years. As I reflect on this sutra, what is most compelling to me is the phrase “ocean of the heart.”

Way back in 1988 I made a decision to join a training group I had been invited to by Dick Olney to join his training group for therapists,. This was a big deal decision for me. I knew I wanted to study with Dick. I had one workshop with him, he was a master therapist. What I hadn’t quite counted on is what it would mean — leaving my young family to fly from Salt Lake to San Francisco once a month PLUS the $200 group fee, a FORTUNE to me.

Anna Lyn is an accomplished professional who loves her work. With plenty of friends and a satisfying career, she was nonetheless troubled by persistent and ruminative thoughts about being with a man. She described how she would rearrange her schedule if there was a possibility she might meet someone, abandoning her much needed time to herself on the whisper of a hope.

It’s one thing to accept and experience the truth of yourself in the privacy of your solitude ~ NOT interacting with others. It’s a whole different matter when you try to take that same humanity into relationship and bump up against someone’s grumpy mood or your own unmet expectations.

Most of us, most of the time, move through life bound to ideas of who we are and who we think we should be, old wounds and traumas, early decisions and so on. We think this is who we are. But is it?