Sufism and the Heart Chakra

"A quote from the Sufi Message of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Volume IX, illuminates the Sufi purpose: "If anybody asks what Sufism is, what kind of religion is it, the answer is that Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind."Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that the Sufi Message was an "inner" Sufism — the mystical core found in all religions. He and Indries Shah emphasized that Sufism was not a religion or a sect bound by dogma or a practice using a regular place of worship, but that it was the heart of all who respected the sacred. Hazrat Khan said there were three ways of seeking God in the human heart.The first way is to recognize the divine in everyone and to be considerate towards every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action.The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feelings of someone who is not with one at the moment. One sympathizes with the trouble of someone who is with one at the moment, but it is more praiseworthy to sympathize with one who is far away.The third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one's own feeling the feeling of God, to realize every impulse of love that rises in one's heart as a direction from God, to realize that love is a divine spark in one's heart, to blow that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life."

http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/feb3/sufism.htm

In kundalini yoga, the heart chakra is associated with compassion, love, and spiritual transformation. Attachments, as in Buddhism, are noted as a shadowed heart chakra. A properly aligned heart chakra is able to love, feel compassion, recognize the divine within oneself and others. The last is key because when we don't recognize and feel the divine in others, we may seek control over them. Control goes along with attachment and is reflects a shadowed heart chakra. When we don't see the divine in ourselves, we may feel unworthy and we may seek control by promoting the attachment of others to us (dependencies).

Sufism emphasizes the heart chakra. It is said to be a religion of the heart. The heart chakra in kundalini yoga is the place of empowerment. The heart chakra is the gateway to the "masculine" or upper chakras. The lower or "feminine" chakras are about claiming our individuality and knowing ourselves. In the upper chakras we are challenged to experience our conncection with others and the Divine. We can't really adequately experience these connections without a grounding and alignment of our lower chakras. We have to individuate fully before we can become conscious contributers to the collective consciousness.

How does sufism define the individual so that he or she can better connect at the heart?

Some of you may enjoy this piece "The Spiritual Significance of Color and Sound"

http://www.sufimessage.com/music/spiritual-significance-color-sound.html