Everybody has some concept of who they are. Every time we awake in the morning, a mental commentary or internal dialogue begins. Perhaps our emotions are running wild because of a nightmare that we just woke up from.

We associate 'who we are' with the emotions that we are experiencing, or with the 'voice' behind the commentary that we are 'hearing' inside our heads. But the true self is elsewhere. It is hidden in the deep recesses of our hearts.

The concept that the 'true self' is not a reflection of the thoughts and feelings that we have, cannot be conceived of by the mind. Our true nature can only be discovered within our hearts.

Our lives are flooded with thoughts and feelings about ourselves, about others and about the world we live in. We have a concept of 'who we are' that is identified with these thoughts and emotions.

For many, life becomes a repetition of basically the same thoughts, activities and feelings.

The thoughts and feelings we have, and how we react to other people, are a product of our upbringing and our conditioning. We form opinions of what sort of people we are.

Those opinions that we adopt about ourselves are based on opinions that we agreed to at some point in the past.

In this manner from the earliest age, we actually begin to forget who we really are. We create a false self. And for many this false self becomes a 'lost self,' as we become more and more isolated due to the stress and traumas that life brings.

The world we live in is also a projection that we create. We conceptualize the world as a friendly place or perhaps we think of it as a dangerous place. In either case, the formation of the false self, when projected outwards creates an unreal world around us.

The emotions and judgments from our minds literally create the environment we live in.

They create a false world that is a projection or an interpretation of our minds. This self-limiting projection has very little to do with the true nature of ourselves. And the projection is also a distorted view of reality itself.

We exist as a self-limiting image of ourselves that is formed within our own minds. We in turn project the same limitations into what we call reality. That limited reality, for many, becomes a prison.

It is called 'The Heart of the Initiate' because heart is really what it's all about.

Expanding and opening your heart energy is the clearest, most direct way to take you where you want to go.

It's about the real world. Not the vapid tick-tock mind games that people call reality. You've had glimpses of the other world - the real world - you know already there is something more.

It's within your own heart and when you discover the magic of its power and it's simplicity, you will be astounded.

It's about learning how to stand up inside of yourself. You will understand who you really are.

It's about listening to your own heart - learning to form a powerful inner voice. A voice that you will trust implicitly to grant you extrasensory perception.

It's about letting go gradually and experiencing joy, and playfulness possibly for the first time in your life.

It's about understanding that you and only you have ultimate responsibility for everything in your world.

It's about learning that craving is always wasted energy - that you can have whatever it is you want, simply by learning not to yearn for it, and thus you make space for it to enter your reality.

It is about learning contentment; you become the one who decides you have everything you need.

It's about learning to create your own abundance - your gift to yourself.

"When one is completely emancipated from what he has built around himself, what is left is his pure nature. A person can then spontaneously release his pure energy in daily life, so that his very essence is connected with the entire universe. He is thus regarded as a person of truth."

- Lao Tzu, Hua Hu Ching