Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Liberation Through Crucifixion


Christ manifested the consciousness of love and surrender on earth; he was an embodiment of the Light of God. His surrender was his agreement to be crucified. In the Gnostic, mystical teachings of Christ, it is understood that the crucifixion is the death of personal will, or the ego.

Christ offered his life as an example for humanity to find the path of liberation. Through crucifixion (relinquishing the ego) we ascend into union and communion with the Divine.

Contemplate surrender and the relinquishment of the ego. The spiritual path is one-on-one; it is between you and the Divine power. Give yourself to love. The spiritual path is a one-way street. You may be caught in a karmic roundabout, but your release is a choice you can make to realize unity with all.

(February 2014)
 

Maresha's next blog will be published May 6, 2014. 

Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com. 

 

 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Keeping the Commitment

I am working in a nursing home with many elders; how can I keep from seeing and judging their shortcomings?

As you continue to progress on your path, you will gain the strength to see the dark side of people and not judge them. A holy person builds the strength to witness the fears, doubts and shortcomings of others without judgment.
 
You are seeing that you are judging. Be careful not to judge the judge within you. Seeing your own judgment through self-reflection is part of the process of spiritual growth. You are on your way. You are willing to become whole and holy.
 
You work everyday with people who have a wide variety of needs. This work demands a great deal of your attention and energy. Learn to balance the time you spend in the world of work with the time you spend with spirit.
 
Make sure that at the very least you have fifteen minutes in the morning that are dedicated to just you and spirit. Carry that with you all day long, and maybe for five minutes on lunch break, you are chanting inside, I am full of grace, I am full of grace—whatever you need to be chanting to put you in the consciousness that will carry you through those challenges. The time you spend each day with God in meditation, prayer, self-reflection and sacred movement builds an inner foundation of strength and a reserve of light which can then be drawn upon in whatever life asks of you.
 
Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. This is the wholeness of who you are. You are a body, heart, mind and soul. Each of these bodies must be nourished equally. Spiritual practices nourish the inner recesses of your heart and soul. If you abandon any one of these bodies, you abandon yourself. If you abandon yourself, the weight of the world becomes too heavy. You will go under into the spin of fear, judgment, doubt, and greed. Once you are there, you will feel that it is real.

Make a commitment to your inner self. It is up to you to make the time for prayer and meditation. This is your time with God. This is the time to get all that you need. This is the time to fill your inner reservoir with light. Keep the scales of your outer life balanced with the scales of your inner life. This balance will help you to release fears, judgments and doubts because you are spending time everyday with God, and the consciousness of God holds only light.

(January 2007)

Maresha's next blog will be published April 29, 2014. 


Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com. 

 

 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

In the Fire of the Desire to be Beautiful and Peaceful


Today is Palm Sunday, a very holy time. This is the day that marks the beginning of Holy Week when Jesus fulfilled the prophecy and was received as the Master that he was. When he entered the city of Jerusalem, the people rejoiced and took palm fronds from the trees to lay a path for Him. As a spiritual community, we are observant right now of Christ consciousness. Christ consciousness comes to us on this day and during this Holy Week when Jesus was celebrated, forsaken and crucified, and then resurrected on Easter Sunday. 
 
We hold the consciousness of Christ, not according to any particular dogma or religion, but in the consciousness of His consciousness. Christ allowed himself to die, physically and in all other respects, in order to be reborn in the consciousness of God, in the consciousness of the pure light. We reflect on this Master consciousness within ourselves in order to become peaceful and beautiful. We strive to lay down all conflict and let it go so we may realize unity, love, beauty and peace. This week, keep your inner fire going: the fire of the desire to be peaceful and beautiful.  This desire is what generates the willingness to pray, to meditate, to learn and to self-reflect. This desire gives birth to the soft, permeable willingness within.

Do not judge the challenging places that arise and create discomfort and suffering in you. These places are the fuel for the spiritual fire for transformation. During this time, because Christ consciousness affected the collective and all of humanity, reflect upon the mirrors you create in your life because what you see outside of you is a reflection of what is inside of you. When you have a reaction to someone or something that is challenging or difficult, it is not about the external circumstance that you may think it is; it is about you. 
 
When we are in reaction, it feels very real. It feels like the other person or the outside circumstance is the cause of your suffering. Use the spiritual fire and inner willingness to meet the wall of the self—your own inner hardness—to melt and soften what separates you from the other. Allow your inner willingness to own your reaction. Put it in the fire of the desire to be harmless. As soon as you own your reaction, inner transformation is happening. This inner fire is light. It is the very essence of consciousness. As Christ teaches, the kingdom of heaven is within.

I’m struggling with a situation with my neighbor who shares a house with me; it really got blown up last night. She’s doing crazy things.

The real issue is: How do I meet this challenge? All of the events and pieces that are making up the drama, are just the pieces that are making up the drama. As soon as you want to make someone wrong and yourself right, you are not doing the practice. I do not care what the situation is. That is not to say that there is not a right action for you to find through your guidance. What I am saying is, it is exactly at such times that we feel most justified in our righteousness. It is exactly this kind of thing that makes us want to tear our hair out because we wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” That person is crazy, right? She’s off her rocker.

Throw it into the light of the fire of the desire to be peaceful and beautiful. Understand that this is not a mistake; it is for you to find a way through this to come out being peaceful and beautiful. Whatever it is that arises in you, is what is coming up for healing, and that is what you put into the fire.

I don’t trust her; I don’t feel safe.

I am not saying I know what you will decide to do ultimately; you might decide not to live there, for instance. However, if you make that decision, make it with being peaceful and beautiful. Make it with the understanding that you take full responsibility for the circumstances you find yourself in.

Be vigilant this week and do not get lost in the story details whenever you talk to anyone about this. During this Holy Week, try not to find somebody to talk to so that you can go into complaining and breaking it down piece by piece to show how crazy or how unbalanced she is. Try to hold it in the sacred consciousness of putting it in the fire of the desire to be peaceful and beautiful.  You could certainly say to someone, “Yes, I’m having a challenge right now,” but then really, really put it into the fire. If you don’t put it into the fire, what will you do? You will be putting out your violence everywhere. And what will you get back? The same thing.

I’m hoping to talk to her directly today.

Do not have an expectation that she is going to somehow be transformed by your transformation. We do not have any power to change anyone. Your power is what you do with it inside, how you take it, how you look at it, how you work with it, and ultimately, in letting it go. 

The release of karma is the outcome of the burning in the fire. Your position and your opinion stop. You meet the challenge fully, with full acceptance. That is the only way karma gets transformed. If you do not do that, you will have a whole series of re-created events in life that will happen with different people in different places, but in the big picture and in the long run, it will all feel the same.

So what can I do to prepare myself?

Do not fight her fear. Let her fully express what she needs to express, and when she is done, then respond. In having her full expression, she will not be coming up against anything to push harder against in order to feel safe or heard.

Your shared house is a responsibility. Step up to respond because you said you would. Be fully present with this person. Meet this situation. If you get into a relationship of any kind, be responsible and conscious.

I love knowing I have the power to hold the light to be a peaceful and beautiful person. I dearly love it, I cherish it, I honor and respect it, and I have a deep desire to share it. It is such an opportunity for you to be, and to create yourself to be, peaceful and beautiful. I cannot think of anything more important for this world and this dimension than this. I really cannot. We are reflecting on consciousness, love, self-responsibility, and empowerment, all of the things that allow us to feel fully alive and fully inspired to be who we are as we go through life. It is such a full, deep, and abiding place that each person can grow—you can grow it! Do not expect to arrive at an absolute place. The willingness to return and return again is all you need to feed the fire of the desire to be peaceful and beautiful. 

When I say “peaceful and beautiful,” do not assume that to be peaceful and beautiful means that you never experience fire and never raise your voice in life. You do! But it means that you know the difference between being an angry person, perpetrating energies on others that are violent, versus being in a fiery, inspired moment of clarity. There is a difference, and we must be honest with that. One can be excited and happy and still be peaceful. One can be sad and compassionate and still be peaceful.

Today, on this day that marks the beginning of Holy Week, each of you will be given a palm frond to take home and keep on your altar all week in remembrance of Holiness. Do not get caught up in Christianity versus this or that; just let it be a symbol of Holiness, a symbol of spiritual community, and a symbol of spiritual path work. Feed your fire by your desire to be peaceful and beautiful. 

(April 2007)
 

Maresha's next blog will be published April 22, 2014. 

Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com. 

 

 

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The Basic Goodness in Everyone


At the bottom of every disagreement, we meet the same place within ourselves, over and over. That same place has the potential to destroy our harmony and peace. What is that place? It is the wall of the self. The wall of the self is armored with resistance and hardness. Its original design was to protect us from imagined offenders and perpetrators. Living with this armor is painful. It is unforgiving and creates separation. This pain eventually makes us so uncomfortable, that all we want to do is to find a way to shed its heaviness and restriction. As this happens, we begin to prepare ourselves to meet the wall of the self. It is possible to dissolve this wall because the power of love can hold everything.

The power of love can hold us when the courtroom of the mind starts again to analyze, review and ruminate as it determines who is right and who is wrong. The power of love can hold us when we think again, “I am right.” The power of love can hold us when we sink again into separation. Through self-reflection and the desire to shed the armor, a softer, more permeable willingness emerges from within. This willingness wants to help us meet the wall of the self and begin to dissolve it in the power of love. The heart wants to merge into unity and oneness. Unity and oneness are the very nature of love. This willingness is the basic goodness in everyone. This willingness is the seed of love that learns how not to judge others, but first, how not to judge ourselves as we are divesting ourselves of inner constraints.
When consciousness becomes permeable, it naturally allows any negative energy coming our way to pass through and dissolve. Permeability is neutral. The inner judge that was analyzing and ruminating and weighing goes away because there is nothing to judge anymore. The negative energies no longer have armor and mesh to adhere and hold on to. Instead, these energies meet a soft, light, permeable field and have nothing to attach to. All defense, position, and opinion are dissolved. All offenders and perpetrators are lovingly released and forgiven. Soon, we come to understand that there is no blaming others and no shaming ourselves. In this light, the wall of the self can be dissolved.
This is not a one-time event. Our willingness and basic goodness is called upon again and again, through self-reflection, meditation, conscious use of the breath, and through prayer to merge and unify with the power of love. In this way, we see our flaws with love and become willing to bring them into the light.
Gurudev Shri Amritiji explains it like this: The Path is so difficult because . . .
That which I am searching for is me.
That which acts as an enemy is me, and that which is attempting to get rid of the self-destructive me is also me.
I am the obstruction and I am the way.
That which obstructs is my own creation in unconsciousness.
The ‘I’ that is the light of consciousness that removes the darkness of unconsciousness and ignorance is hiding behind unconsciousness.
That which I am searching for is hidden behind all the false images I hold of myself.
That which remains and cannot be removed after getting rid of all that I have acquired, is the real me.
(March 2014)
 
 
Maresha's next blog will be published April 15, 2014. 

Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com. 
 
 

 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Maresha's April Greeting

 Dear Reader,

     As we move and breathe through each day, cultivate the willingness to be kind to yourself.  Self-reflection is a powerful tool. It reveals all aspects of the self and the Self. When a flaw is unveiled, make no judgment. Do not slip down into shame.  Be willing to meet your shortcomings in the spirit of fearlessness and remember that this willingness to transform comes from a place of goodness within you. When a flaw is unveiled in another, make no judgment. Do not slip down into blame. In the same spirit of fearlessness, be compassionate.  We all have shortcomings, and we are all good.

                        

Blessings and love,  
                                                            Maresha
 

Maresha's next blog will be published April 8, 2014. 


Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com.