Vulnerability is the capacity or susceptibility to being hurt. The word vulnerable is also synonymous with the words openness and exposure. When a person is truly vulnerable there is an unobstructed entrance or view to the persons heart, being and soul. In the strongest or most enlightened person there is no protecting or concealing cover because the person needs none. Such people carry themselves in full view of others because they are not afraid of being hurt, because they are not afraid to suffer.

The most important key to finding love
is found in our willingness
and ability to be vulnerable.

Our ego (separate self) is that very edifice that we have fabricated to protect our hearts. It is the wall that all beings create on this planet to protect themselves from being hurt. We have incarnated onto this planet where all beings have suffered the pain of separation but we are promised salvation. Pain and suffering are Gods way of telling us we are doing something wrong with our life, something inexact with our consciousness. Pain and suffering have a purpose and when we can get in touch with that purpose our path in life tends to straighten itself out. Or at least we can eventually learn which way to go to begin our journey that one day will take us back to the full light of happiness.

One way out of suffering
is to see that it has been given to us
by life's greatest teacher.

Hurt is something our beings naturally feel. Hurt is the appropriate response of the human heart when attacked or misunderstood. When we betray the innocent and vulnerable nature of the pure heart we cause hurt. When we are born we have a great capacity to be hurt. Babies and young children are totally at the mercy of their environment, they are totally vulnerable, but slowly loose this after years of being repeatedly hurt and misunderstood. We slowly loose the vulnerability of being as we erect our ego or mental separate self. When Christ said that we needed to be born again he was referring to the reversing of this process.

When we betray the innocent and vulnerable
nature of the pure heart we cause hurt.
The separate mind is the betrayer of the
universe of heart and true being.

When we are vulnerable we put away the fancy airs we put on and drop our self-image, which is always hoping to look a little better than we actually feel. Any kind of spiritual self-image automatically blocks our vulnerability thus cutting off the heart and blocking us from the very thing that we want - love. When we do expose ourselves we become psychologically naked. This only happens when our defenses are down, when we are not worried that others will attack or judge us. Then we can be just who we are. But this is difficult because that is exactly what happens when we just are. People want us to be or feel or think something different. The paradox of vulnerability is that, though we can only be vulnerable when we are not worried that others will judge us, being vulnerable means openness to such an attack. In human relations no situation is completely safe when it comes to our vulnerabilities. In the beginning, when we first learn to open ourselves, it is prudent to pick the most gentle and caring people we can find to open our hearts with.

Christ's instructions for being born again were clear.
What he was talking about was that childlike quality of pure vulnerability.
This is the space of pure being.

That is why it takes courage and strength to be our naked vulnerable self. The path of vulnerability is for the strongest and it is for the most humble; those who remain closest to the ground because they are not secretly hoping to look a little better than they are. Humble vulnerable people do not walk around with a self image to protect, they feel what they feel and they share what they feel without shame. As we become more and more practiced in our vulnerability, our hearts expand and grow. The heart can grow so large and strong that eventually it cannot be hurt too badly. That is the strongest person, totally open to whatever comes. This is actually the ego less space, having no expectations and laying no demands on the universe. We open ourselves without fear and take whatever comes.

"To treasure vulnerable love is the first law of a pure heart."--Christopher Hills

After many years or incarnations of being closed in the heart, being vulnerable to other human beings can be terrifying. When we fall in love the first thing we do is open our heart, exposing our sensitivities, vulnerabilities; giving power to someone to wound or reject us with their insensitivity's or selfishness. This is why so many people are afraid to fall in love. In any situation, until the heart is used to being open, vulnerability initially feels like our heart is going to come right up through our throats.

When we first open the heart a river of feelings is released which swamps the mind and it's habitual defenses. We feel overwhelmed because our usual cool control is lost. The coolness of the separate personality is swept away as familiar ground moves from under our feet. Though most fear this moment, it is such a release, such a lightening of our load. Our real self is freed from the iron grip our ego normally holds over heart consciousness. Most egos are so rooted in their separateness that nothing short of the full fires of romance will due to reduce oneself to the vulnerable self. And then we usually make ourselves vulnerable to the one and only person who we have dared to fall in love with still excluding others; this thus makes our vulnerability slightly incomplete.

The head never really allows the heart to love.
Our fear of pain is stronger than our love of love.

We cannot begin to flow towards another person or towards our own higher or inner being until the psychic skin covering the heart is removed. The risk is great when we open because once we enter that vulnerable space, our head and it's games disappear. We lose our ego's protection, that hateful sense of separation is released and we feel that good feeling flowing. We crave that feeling of aliveness that comes from opening up. We feel safe once we are in this space. A welling up feeling fills our insides, a warmth and sense of caring or being cared for.

The pure in heart treasure vulnerability above all vibrations. A person tuned to love cherishes this space because he or she knows intuitively that this is what is most needed in human relations.

The purest heart has no mind.
The pure in heart is all heart.

The gift of vulnerable love far transcends the mental sharing of spiritual concepts and stories, no matter how profound they are. The head normally can't wait to advise. The heart, when listening to the inner world of another, listens, listens more, asks questions that draw a person out further, and thus shows a loving interest in the inner world of the other. Such a heart actually has the ability to get into the inner world of another because the heart feels and experiences no separation. When listening perfectly to the being of another, our being has the capacity to commune, to be at-one-with that other. The reunion of beings beyond the normal separate space of ego consciousness is a very beautiful thing when it happens.

My tears flow.
My being opens totally.

Vulnerability should not be confused with mental openness. It is very possible that someone could share the most intimate details of their life and still not be vulnerable. The difference lies in the vibration. Often in the beginning of relationships, people find it easier to be vulnerable about hurts and pains from the past, when in fact their real vulnerability has something more to do with feelings being generated in the moment. Expressing love or sexual attractions is often the most vulnerable issue at hand. Expressing these feelings leaves us exposed to others. When we share these feelings our relationships are quickly taken to deep and often intimate levels. And in these spaces, though we may suffer, we grow.

The purpose of our life here on this earth is to contact our being,
expand and grow our being by coming into a direct relationship with
the essence of our heart's true nature. And what is this true nature?
The heart is the vulnerability of being.

The most fascinating aspect of the Internet and digital communication is that people feel a lot more free to be vulnerable. They let their hair down and are more willing to be who and what they are or want to be. People are more willing to open up their dark secrets and confide in complete strangers. Though in fact few people are using their Internet connection as a spiritual tool for open hearted sharing, a growing network of therapists are beginning a great work of helping people heal from mental and emotional traumas that are so prevalent in human existence. They are finding it an incredible tool in assisting people open up and share what they are really thinking and feeling. This is something most people have an incredible difficulty with in open society and even with our friends communication is rarely taken onto the vulnerable level.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD : an American living in Brazil, a doctor of Oriental and Biogenic medicine, a revolutionary and radical psychologist, as well as a body worker. Visit his site World Psychology which opens up a vast new framework with which to view ourselves, our lives, lovers, friends, children, work, education, medicine, ecology, sexuality - taking us in a modern way to the roots of our existence.