The framework
The Six Heart Virtues
My approach rests on a simple belief: aligning your behavior with the virtues of the heart, and practicing interpersonal alchemy in how you relate to others, is what expands awareness. These six practices also shape how energy moves in your life, including money, which is just another form of energy.
1
Appreciation
Always appreciate what you do have.
At one of my lowest points I was sleeping on a futon in a shared recording studio and showering at a gym. I climbed out by starting small: appreciating warm blankets, wonderful friends, and creative nights in the studio. Find something real that you genuinely appreciate, focus on it a bit, and then express that appreciation to the whole of reality through your heart.
2
Compassion
Start with yourself, then extend it to others.
It's so easy to be hard on yourself in a time of struggle. We may blame circumstances or other people, and that could even be true, but often a part of us is quietly blaming ourselves. That conflict, one part of us against another, is poison. Work on having compassion for yourself, and of course for other people.
3
Forgiveness
Of yourself, and of those who've transgressed your free will.
Some of the biggest shifts in my life came after I forgave certain people. One practice I share: write a letter that forgives them, then bury it in the earth, ideally on a hill or a mountain. Even if you don't mean it yet, do it, and keep doing it if you need to. Eventually the forgiveness becomes real.
4
Humility
We're all equals on the ascending spiral.
Life can bring you low, especially in the dark nights of the soul. Remember: we are these tiny beautiful flames of consciousness flickering in an inconceivable void. We're all spiritual equals, just standing at different points on the ascending spiral that is the development of consciousness.
5
Understanding
No one can know the totality of another.
We often blame other people for where we are. The fact is, we have no idea what is going on inside anyone's individual reality tunnel. There's no way to know the totality of another, so we can't really blame them. And so we must apply understanding in order to develop compassion for both the self and the other self.
6
Valor
The bravery to keep going, one small step a day.
I was called lazy my whole life. After awakening I saw it was really conservation of energy, and when it's time to move, I move decisively. When you're in the darkness you have to keep walking, and to do that you call on the innate bravery of the heart. It's a light that may constrict, but it never collapses.