Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Living Life As a Prayer



 Ancestors, I make a prayer of thanks this morning  for this beautiful day and for my life with my husband, my mother, and our four-leggeds. Spirits of this mountain and Sanctuary, I give great thanks. I make a prayer of promise to be in readiness at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. Ancestors, I am ready. I pray for all of the mothers, the fathers, the children, the grandfathers, the grandmothers, the aunts, and the uncles; I open my heart, and I surround the world. Bring the whole world in, Ancestors, to this light. I am ready. This is the prayer in my heart. It is a prayer of readiness. Please hear me this morning. Amen, Amen, Amen.

Open your heart everyday and pray to be present and to be beautiful on this day, in this moment. Ask to be shown how to walk the path of beauty, step by step.  Live your life as a prayer, so your thoughts will not terrorize and consume you. Your prayers will always lift you up. They will always purify you, and they will always bring you into the resonance of the divine will and divine consciousness. It does not matter if your prayers are your own prayers from your heart, which are spoken with your love and your spiritual intention, or whether you recite a holy prayer with a holy resonance, to bring you there. 

Praying from the Heart

When we close our eyes in meditation, we listen to the breath. It is the breath of God; we listen through our senses of feeling, inner wisdom, and knowing, as God  talks to us. When we pray, we talk to the Gods and Goddesses. You cannot pray from your head; drop your consciousness down into your heart, and speak as a human being, from one being to another. Even if you feel disconnected to begin with, even if you feel you are not sure what your prayer is, even if you do not know how to pray, simply open your heart and begin. I encourage you to open and let the sound of your words come out of your mouth. Extend your prayers out from your own needs to the needs of the people and out into the needs of the world.

When you make prayers, lift your energy up and give it out, and let the prayer come through you so there is energy behind it. Saying it out loud creates three times the effect as when we pray silently.  Energy and enthusiasm will lift this prayer up. Speak it out so that the ancestors will clearly hear you. 
If you find that you are hesitating and thinking about what to say next, end your prayer.  Make a short, strong prayer. Then, if you want to pray again in a moment because you forgot something, just add it. Oh, there’s something else, Ancestors, something else I have here . . . Then, the energy behind your prayer will be registered. How you put your prayer out and the degree to which it is registered, is the degree to which your prayer is realized and answered.

This sequence is real. When your prayer is really clear and really strong, and very, very focused, your prayer gets answered instantaneously. If your prayer is wavering and uncertain, what comes back to you will be wavering and uncertain.  Focus your mental and emotional energy when you are praying.  Bring your prayer into your feeling center. Feel it and speak it out from there even if you are tired, even if it is early morning or late at night.

Pray as if your life depended on it. It does, and so does everybody else’s. Shine this light to the world, and help.  We are supposed to be serving the universe, and so we give thanks for every single blessing. Pray to be of help. We put these prayers out, and we walk these prayers into the earth. We send the word of light out to the universe. We open our hearts and surround the world. 


What’s the difference between prayer and intention?

There is not a lot of difference.  If you make intention sacred, that is prayer.  If your intention is not connected to your sacredness and the purpose of your spirit, then it becomes an intention of the mind and personality. If is connected to your whole being and to your spirit, and if you send it to God, you make it sacred.  That is the only difference between prayer and intention.

What about if you write your prayer down on paper? Is that as powerful as when you speak it out?

You can write it down, you can be very concise, and you can say it over and over again.  If you are focusing and your intention is clear, that is good. It is particularly good if you have a core prayer or intention that is deeply meaningful to you. I have done that very successfully when I wanted to instill a core remembrance in my consciousness. I made that my prayer, I wrote it down, I learned it, and I said it all the time. That’s a little different from when you connect with your heart and give thanks, and then you make your prayer. It is still very good, but it’s more like an affirmation when we write it down and say it over and over again. 


Shining Your Container with Light

Step into the present moment and feel how absolutely and intensely beautiful everything you touch is, and how beautiful you are, and how you bring your beauty everywhere and to everything. From this time on, do your very best to fill the container of your life - your home, your place of work, the grocery store - with your light. Shine your container with light, so everything you touch, you touch sacredly, and every thought you think, you bring to a place of prayer and/or gratitude. Do your very best to hold this consciousness for as long as you can and as often as you can. Be praying all of the time so you can be giving thanks, which is a prayer in and of itself. You can recite a well known holy prayer, or you may pray your own prayer from your heart.

When you find you are spacing out, as you will, bring your consciousness back, just as you do in meditation. Say inside, Ancestors, help me keep my consciousness with you during this time, this is my prayer, my consciousness is with you . . . , and say your prayer. When you go out, come back, and next time you will come back more quickly, and then you will have times when you are living in that consciousness.

Go to bed with a prayer. When you wake up in the morning, before you put your feet on the floor, make a prayer right then and there. Ancestors, Grandfathers and Grandmothers, I give thanks for my life today. When you rise and put your feet on the ground, acknowledge that it is Holy Ground you are walking on, and every step you take is on sacred ground.  Your hands are filled with light, your feet are filled with light, your eyes are filled with light, your heart is filled with light, your feelings are filled with light, and your thoughts are filled with light. Be mindful; be gentle and slow in your movements, soft and relaxed in your energy.
Does this mean nothing of a negative nature will arise? An unkind thought? A worry? Some envy?  Whatever it is, it arises, it is, and it dissolves; that is the practice of the witness consciousness. Keep working the prayer, keep weaving the threads of light.

The sacred words and the sacred names that are repeated and done repetitiously, occupy your consciousness with light. They refine and develop your higher consciousness so that your mind becomes trained to focus in beauty, and then you begin to truly realize what it is to live life as a prayer.  You have the power to do this, you have the heart to do this. When you wake up in the morning before you put your feet on the ground, give thanks for your life, focus your heart on your prayer and intention for your life this day. During the day when you are busy and working and challenged in many ways, keep a prayer that speaks to your heart with you, like a really good friend.  Keep it close and go back to it often, and it will nourish and bring light into you all day long. And before you go to bed at night, the last thing you should do is to give thanks and to find a prayer in your heart to bring into the dream time. Allow yourself to exercise your spiritual muscles and your spiritual will to become more beautiful, to be more peaceful, and to really anchor and stabilize the light that you are. 

(Spring Retreat 2007)

Maresha's next blog will be published December 2, 2014.


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



Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Maresha's Greeting



November-December 2014

Dear Reader,
    
During the days between now and the winter Solstice, we are naturally gifted the energy of going very, very deep. The energy begins to descend, and as the energy begins to descend, our consciousness is brought deeper within. And as our consciousness is brought deeper within, we can feel and find and know what is within us. And if what is within us is allowed to come forth, it can save our lives. So this time can feel challenging, but it is the very, very best time for revealing to ourselves, our selves. It is the very best time to feel and know our union and communion with the great Mystery.

The time between now and the Solstice, is such an opportunity. I encourage you to not be comfortable. I encourage you to not do everything the same way all of the time. I encourage you to give more, I encourage you to open more, I encourage you to feel more. I encourage you to embody a true beginner’s mind, realizing that you know nothing about anything. And therefore, infinite possibilities are available to you from the infinite source of abundance and love.  As your mind is empty and you know that you know nothing, all is given because there is space for it to be received. True humility is your best friend. As you go deep, shed your self-image, shed your preferences, shed your opinions, shed your likes and your dislikes.  Be fluid in the stream of Her love.

Blessings and love,
Maresha

Maresha's next blog will be published November 18, 2014.

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