About Open Your Heart

Open Your Heart is a spiritual organisation that is universally open to all beliefs and faiths, focusing on how to improve our well being and live a happy stress free life by following our spiritual heart. We promote Open Heart Meditation, which is a free to download guided meditation as an enjoyable way to let go of stress, forgive others and remove any negative emotions that make us unhappy.

Our website provides practical and useful information about our heart and has free downloadable meditations so that people can improve their own well being and experience their heart for themselves.

We also run open heart workshops, support public meditation groups and host online meditation at open-your-heart.net so people from around the world can freely meet and do Open Heart Meditation together.

Open Your Heart is a non-profit affiliated to the Heart Sanctuary Organization and is a division of Padmacahaya Foundation: the International Institute for Inner Studies which has branches in over 20 countries. The foundation was started by Irmansyah Effendi MSc in 1998, who is the author of Open Heart Meditation and also teaches spiritual workshops and retreats about the heart worldwide.

Contact Us

Local Contacts:

UK - Devon Paula Renshaw  Mob:  07940 305130
UK - London Jacqueline Gascoyne  Tel:  01494 481 334  
UK - London Luciana Buchanan
UK - London Esmée Rotmans

International Contacts:

Australia - - all other areas Australian Coordinators
Australia - Adelaide Padmacahaya Adelaide
Australia - Alice Springs Jo, Mel & Vanessa  Tel:  89534191    Mob:  0400252844
Australia - Australian Capital Territory mary  Mob:  0425298229
Australia - Hobart Kent
Australia - Launceston Keith Turnbull  Mob:  0408 246 747
Australia - Melbourne Steve Ray  Mob:  +61 419-005-386
Australia - Perth Christine Muljadi  Mob:  0413264386
Brazil - São Paulo Luciana
Canada - Toronto Bernadette Halloran  Tel:  905-686-9089  
China - Hong Kong Lutfi
Germany - Hamburg Katharina Wolf  Tel:  00494039906538    Mob:  00491708067966
Germany - Salzhausen Eka Mok  Tel:  +49-4172-961376    Mob:  +49-160-93256677
India - Mumbai Sujata  Tel:  +919987610022  
India - New Delhi Vic Madhub  Tel:  00 44 793 151 8752  
India - New Delhi kiran ohsan  Tel:  +91 931000 8437  
Indonesia - Pekanbaru Silvi
Ireland - Limerick Gerard Hayes  Mob:  00353-879399517
Ireland - Limerick Geraldine Tobin  Mob:  +353 87 4170764
Mauritius - Port Louis Vicky
New Zealand - Auckland Pauline Weeds  Tel:  +64 9 8207069  
New Zealand - Havelock North Julia Godfree  Tel:  06877 6252    Mob:  027 206 2738
New Zealand - Oamaru Francine Marsich  Tel:  +643 4341265    Mob:  021380088
New Zealand - Wairoa Jane Hughes  Tel:  06 837 3806    Mob:  0212407302
Panama - Panama City Jack Bracewell
Singapore - Singapore Yvonne Chia
UK - Devon Paula Renshaw  Mob:  07940 305130
UK - London Luciana Buchanan
UK - London Esmée Rotmans
UK - London Jacqueline Gascoyne  Tel:  01494 481 334  
USA - All Regions Deb LaFon

International Organisation

Padmacahaya Foundation holds spiritual workshops and retreats about Meditation, Master Yoga, the Heart and Inner Heart to help people to be spiritually closer to the Divine Source of Love and Light, our Divine Creator.

Currently, Padmacahaya Foundation along with Padmajaya Foundation has over 70,000 alumni from different cultures and religions with a growing number of branches all over the globe.

There are 44 branches in Indonesia, 28 branches in the United States in America, and branches in 25 other countries including New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Panama, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland and United Kingdom.

The Heart Sanctuary Organization (USA) is a non profit 501(C)3 created for the purpose of educating and supporting the public to realize and benefit from the experience that living a heart centered life is the key to a calm, peaceful, healthy, joyful and fulfilled life.

Founder & Author: Irmansyah Effendi

Mr. Irmansyah Effendi is the author of Open Heart Meditation, which he developed as an effective way for people from any religious background or culture to be able to open their heart to the True Source of Love and Light, our Divine Creator in the most simple and enjoyable way possible.

He lives in Perth Australia, is of Chinese/Indonesian descent and was born and raised in Indonesia. He completed his University studies in the United States of America and is fluent in English and Indonesian and also speaks some Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Mr. Effendi is the author of many spiritual books about the Spiritual Heart, Inner Heart, Reiki, Kundalini, Shing Chi, Reiki Tummo and other advanced spiritual topics as well as a series of illustrated children's books introducing the heart and love.

He is also a song writer for a musical album called 'Heart Songs' first published in Indonesian which is designed to help people who find meditation difficult to be able to relax and follow along with their heart.

He is the founder of Padmacahaya: The International Institute for Inner Studies where he has been teaching workshops and spiritual retreats about the heart all around the world since 1998 to thousands of people who have been able to experience and feel their hearts open. Irman, as he is known to his students, also trains and supervises Open Heart Workshop instructors worldwide to be able to effectively teach about the heart and how to do Open Heart Meditation properly.

His spiritual journey began at a young age where he practiced many kinds of meditation. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics degree at the age of 20 from California State University, USA, with Magna Cum Laude and Honours. He then obtained a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence degree at the age of 21 from the same university.

Next: by Irmansyah Effendi read a foreword article titled 'We are meant to be happy'

Foreword by Irmansyah Effendi, M.Sc.

We are meant to be happy

That has always been something we strive for in this life. In fact, if we look at the motivations behind our thoughts and actions-conscious and unconscious - they are all to get us closer to the feeling, or at least the idea, of happiness.

Some of us have long asked why we cannot hold on to happiness. For all of the scholarship and human insights across the centuries, nobody has found a complete and enduring answer. Perhaps because it has been too close to see..

The answer, the key, is our heart.

We have been told throughout our lives to 'follow your heart.' This has been written in countless holy texts as well, across virtually all religions, since the very beginning. This is because our heart - even without us realizing it - feels the Love that comes from True Source, who loves us completely, and always wants the very best for us.

In opening and using our heart, we are blessed with lasting peace and happiness that we can feel - actually and really feel - in our daily lives. Our daily life is actually a manifestation of how strongly we are connected to our Creator, the True Source. Thus, an open heart is also the real key to our spiritual advancement in getting closer to True Source, the Source of Eternal Peace and True Joy.

Why is our heart the main connection to True Source? Why is our heart the center of beautiful feelings? Why is our heart, not our brain or other parts of us, the key?

Our heart is the key because our true self is within our heart. Our true self that is within our heart will continue to live on even after this lifetime has been completed. While our physical body is only a temporary 'shell' - flesh and blood that will one day turn into dust - our relationship with True Source is eternal. We need True Source and True Source's Love not only when we are alive on this earth, but forever and always.

As we are still in our physical body, our heart (not the physical heart but the spiritual heart - the center of our feeling) is where and how we remain connected to True Source.

With this connection, our heart communicates with True Source and receives True Source's Blessings. In receiving True Source's Blessings, we can feel so many beautiful things within our heart, including the feeling of lightness, calmness, peace, happiness, and joy beyond all things we have ever felt from our worldly experiences.

Being calm and joyful at every moment of our life may sound fantastic, even impossible. Now recognize that it is your brain making this judgment, imposing this false limitation. In this regard, you may have quite a bit of work to do in getting out of your own way. Our brain is so strong - we have spent so much of our life within our head - that it can overtake our heart at the beginning. However, our heart knows that peace, calmness, and happiness await us once we begin opening and using our heart. It is only a matter of opening it up to let True Source's Blessing do the best for us.

How beautiful and exciting it is to consider that all these wonderful feelings are within us at all times. All we need to do is to open and use our heart to be able to feel and enjoy these wonderful Blessings.

May you open your heart to the Creator and use your heart to experience the peace, calmness, and happiness within.

~ Irmansyah Effendi, M.Sc. (Founder of Padmacahaya Foundation)