The blocks that make us whole

"As our development of self grows and our heart becomes less entangled, we begin to discover a deeper truth about the self: We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.  When our heart is free from the contractions of fear, anger, grasping, and confusion, the spiritual qualities we have tried to cultivate manifest in us naturally.  They are our true nature, and they spontaneously shine in our consciousness whenever we let go of the rigid structures of our identity."
  -- Jack Kornfield,  A Path With Heart

I find this passage -- and Kornfield's absolute conviction that the True Self that lies beneath is a beautiful, whole and godly thing -- enormously reassuring.  So when this image jumped out at me today, I decided that that tree that loops across the foreground and blocks your view of the stream represents "what blocks our heart."

But what interests me is that, although that foreground tree (and the little wounded spot on its trunk) keeps the picture from a conventional prettiness, it also adds artistic value of its own to the image, and pulls us into the picture in the very act of blocking our vision.

Which tells me that even though I've found some brief respite by stepping back into A Path With Heart, the messages I've been gathering in earlier posts this week about loving opposites, and about attraction and aversion, are still floating around in my consciousness.  So you have to ask: just how is it that we let go of what blocks our hearts?  And again, I think the answer lies in learning to love all the parts of ourselves and our circumstances -- and most especially those things that block us, and in the blocking force us to look beyond to what lies beneath.

Because the blocks -- however irritating they may be -- could be exactly what defines us, what gives us depth and life and originality.  I suspect it may be true that it is only when we can learn to see the gifts in those blocks that we can fully realize the joyous spirits we were born to be; the True Self and all its unique blessings.