My Heart Hurts

Ram Dass often opened meditations with the words,

“Quiet the mind. Open the heart.”

Yesterday I listened to an old Ram Dass lecture.

About three minutes in, a voice came from the audience.

A man. Three words.

My heart hurts.

Just that. Out loud. Into the middle of someone else’s sentence.

The room went quiet.

He said what?

Out loud. In a room full of strangers.

When is the last time you said those words?

Sure, you have felt them. This year. Maybe this week. Maybe this morning.

But you said it in other words.

I’m tired.

It’s been a lot lately.

I’m fine.

That translation is automatic now.

There is never a right moment for the real truth, the pain.

You do not want to be the interruption like that man.

So the hurt comes everywhere with you.

It sits through the workday. It stands beside you at the party, nodding at the right times.

No one knows it is there. Some days even you forget.

But then there it is.

And you know the real reason you never say the three words?

It is not because we’re polite. It’s not because we don’t feel it. It’s the fear.

It’s the fear of the silence that might come next.

So how did Ram Dass do? How did he heal and transform this moment?