As a path of human conscious development, Andean mysticism’s focus is on becoming a fully developed human being, meaning a fully enlightened person. We are already perfected because we are Drops of the Mystery of the cosmos of living energy and our enlightened self is held within each of us as a potential in the Inka Seed. However, we do not live that potential—yet!

Here is an exercise, adapted from the left-side lloq’e work of don Melchor Desa (as taught to me by my primary teacher Juan Nuñez del Prado), for nurturing this potential within. It is an exercise to energetically connect your Inka Seed and sonqo, or heart. Both are generators of munay, which is love under your will. Love has to start with the self, but how many of us genuinely and unabashedly love ourselves? Truly, deeply, wildly love ourselves? My guess is not many of us. . . This exericise can foster that process within.

In addition, one of your primary goals as a paqo is to integrate your three human powers. They are, from the highest to the lowest in the estimation of the Andean masters:

• Munay, which as I said is the choice for love. It is agape, or a love that arises from the self but from beyond the needs of the self. We might call it unconditional love. It is also involved with the ability to live from feelings (joy, kindness, compassion—the “higher” human attributes) rather than from emotions (the “lower” human attributes).
• Llank’ay, the ability to perform in the world, to take action, to make an effort, to put intention into practice
• Yachay, the ability to think, reason, and use your intellect.

We want to integrate our three human powers, even as we understand that culturally we are trained to valorize one over the others. Juan says that Westerns tend to be doers and thinkers. We are what we do. We are skilled at abstract thinking. We value knowledge, and see it as the solution to so many of our problems.

In contrast, he says, the Andeans are the masters of feelings, and so of munay. Munay, he says, is the “treasure” of the Andes. Andeans, thus, can teach us to harness our feelings rather than our emotions, which are transitory. You can feel joy in the midst of tragedy if you live from feelings, because joy is a state of being. In contrast, happiness is transitory because it is subject to the whims of fickle moods and changing circumstances. One minute you love me, the next you don’t. The training of the Andes helps us to develop our capacity for living from feelings, which are situated energetically in the heart, rather than from emotions, which are situated energetically in the qosqo, or belly. For the Andean mystics, living more fully from feelings will help us solve our problems.

The Inka Seed and heart are both about munay. But just what is the Inka Seed? It is an energetic structure that holds as a potential within our likeness to God. It encodes our unique mission in human form, our purpose and the gifts and talents that will help us fulfill our human purpose.

The qori chunpi—the belt at the heart—is free of hucha. So are the Inka Seed and heart. There is never any need to “clean” them, as they are pure sami. Still, we have to work consciously to activate our Inka Seed and to connect our Inka Seed and heart into an integrated system in order to stimulate our development and fuel our evolution. Integration is the purpose of this modified exercise. And it is a way to not only connect these two most important energetic structures within, but to generate copious amounts of munay in the process. As you feel that munay spread through the self, you receive a taste of the purity and power of self-love.

Integrating the Inka Seed and Heart

To do this exercise, you need to know where your Inka Seed is located. It is positioned within your body at the level of the sternum (where your ribs curve up and together just below the breast area) and halfway between the front and back of your body (in the middle of your body).

•  Sit quietly and touch in energetically with yourself, with your beingness, both physical and energetic.

•  Begin a saminchakuy to cleanse your poq’po, your energy bubble: Using intention, open your bubble at the area of the top of your head and intend to draw in the light living energy (sami). Feel the empowering flow of sami through you. Then bring your attention to the base of your spine and send a seqe—and energetic cord—deep down into Mother Earth. Intend to send any heavy energy (hucha) that is on the surface of your poq’po (energy body/bubble) flowing down this cord to the earth. Allow these two flows to continue for several minutes, doing a cleansing and empowerment of your bubble. After a few minutes, stop the downward flow of hucha and retract the seqe from the earth. Keep the flow of sami down through the top of your poq’po going.

•  Using your intention, direct the flow of sami like a laser down through the top of your poq’po and body until it touches your Inka Seed. Feed your Inka Seed with sami until you feel it “pop” or open. As it does, munay will flow from it. Try to perceive the feeling of munay as it wafts like perfume through you—your heart area (the qori chunpi), your poq’po, your body, your entire being. Feel the sweetness! Feel the love!

•  After a few minutes, bring your attention back to your chest area and the Inka Seed. Using your intention, allow sami to flow down and once again fill your Inka Seed. Then intend that a cord of living energy extend out from your Inka Seed and extend over to connect with your heart, flowing sami through your Inka Seed and into your heart. Your Inka Seed and heart will become connected, integrated, inextricably linked energetically. Feel the increased munay, which is now flowing from both your Inka Seed and heart. Fill the chest area of your body, and then feel the munay wafting out to fill your entire poq’po, body, and beingness. Sit in the glow of this munay.

•  Soften your focus, loosen your intention, and end the session.

You can do this exercises many times as you need to so that you can actually perceive the flow of munay within and throughout the self. When you experience this sweetness, you will finally understand the metaphor of the paqo as exuding a nectar that draws the hummingbird. The hummingbird is the totem of the upper world, the hanaqpacha, and of God. When the hummingbird feeds on your nectar, you are deeply connected with God.

Are you generating the nectar of munay? If not, use this exercise to learn.  Doing so will help you discover “who you really are.” As author Amaka Imani Nkosazana writes, “Nothing is sweeter than being unapologetically you.” That “you” is both human and divine. Munay is the bridge between the two.