Tuesday, March 31, 2015

They Changed the World with their Love



They Changed the World with their Love

How does this work translate into living in a democracy where we need to be active so that our democracy will work? If I go to the State House and stand vigil to show my support for something that will help others, is that being fearful?

That is not necessarily fearful, but if you want to fight something or someone else, that is fearful. Look to Martin Luther King and to civil disobedience. Look to speaking the truth in one’s heart and then being absolutely nonviolent about it, and even being willing to take a beating or be killed for it. Look there, and you will have your answer.

Martin Luther King was able to mobilize a huge leap in consciousness for humanity through love. He was fearless, and he taught, “Do not fight back.” Gandhi taught, “Do not fight back.” Those are your role models. Transformation does not happen by making the opposite side wrong by fighting them.
Are you willing to stand in fearlessness and be guided by your heart? Your spiritual role models were not fighters. They were fearless, and they changed the world with their love; they upheld this consciousness so absolutely that nothing could pierce it.

Even though Gandhi and Martin Luther King were both assassinated, their consciousness was not assassinated; the consciousness they carried and gave words to, is stronger than ever. People like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ bring new levels of consciousness to humanity; they do not stop the perpetration overall, but it does change, and it does transform. This is the world of illusion and samsara; it just is. So these illusions exist here and will get played out until souls, one at a time, decide not to play them out anymore and become beautiful.

When you are fearless and your heart is open, you catch the river, the love stream. That is when you merge with the stream of love that has been carrying you all along. That is when you surrender and let that stream take you where it wants to. In that letting go, you experience freedom; something opens up because you are not closing down somewhere or trying to make things shift somehow. You are going with the flow.

I’m wondering how you define violence. Is it, plain and simple, separation from God, or is it some sort of perpetration of that separation on others?

Violence is a perpetration. It is using one’s energy to overpower in some way, shape, or form, someone else or other people. I have always said that in the Great Circle of Life, we have all been perpetrated upon, and we have all been perpetrators. The season of Lent commemorates, with spiritual awareness, the forty days that Christ spent in the desert and faced the temptations of the devil. When he came out, he began his public ministry and moved toward the culmination of his teaching and his eventual death. Christ’s teaching is all about forgive them, for they know not what they do. You see, Christ consciousness understood that his perpetrators were unconscious and did not know what they were doing. He understood that. Christ consciousness, that expanded, fearless, open heart, transcended personal suffering, and in those moments of crucifixion, forgave everyone who had perpetrated upon him and was causing him pain. How much harder does it get than being whipped and pierced and nailed to a cross and hung up to die? There are no exceptions to the Christ consciousness of forgiveness for the perpetrators.  


Maresha's next blog will be published April 7, 2015.

Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. A snail mail edition is available bi-monthly, free of charge. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com
 


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Fearlessness is Born of an Open Heart



Fearlessness is born of an open heart. When your heart is open, you are not afraid of anything. I’m not talking about lions and tigers and bears; I’m talking about the things in life that you meet everyday. It’s the stuff inside ourselves that we are thinking about during the day. It could be something from home, something at work, or just about anything, but when you get afraid, it is the same thing as going on shutdown.

How do you open your heart? You open your heart by doing something as simple as breathing consciously. When you do this, become conscious of your posture so that the spine is straight, the spiritual channel is open, the crown is open, and therefore there is openness in the body and in the chest. Breathe into your heart, and, if you need to, put your hand on your heart while you are breathing. If you are afraid, it is because somewhere your heart has  shut down, been ordered off, hardened, or compartmentalized; you know you are afraid because you feel tight and edgy. So breathe into the heart to soften and return to courage and fearlessness. 

How is the heart made hard? The heart is made hard as a result of the armor you wear, which in turn is a result of the thoughts you think and the programs you hold. Energy follows thought form. Thoughts happen first, a separation is made on the mental plane, and then the heart hardens and closes down. Any one single thought that is limiting will have a closing effect on your heart. Any of the thought forms—there’s not enough for me—or any form of separation, complaint, or judgment hardens the heart. Walking on a spiritual path requires fearlessness. You cannot walk on a spiritual path and be afraid because then you become like the hungry ghosts that are perpetually fearful, eating and drinking constantly but never getting enough. On the spiritual path, you have to strive to open and to follow your commitment to your own heart in order to be fearless. 

Fearlessness cultivates an enlightened state. When you are afraid, let go of your fear. Transformation happens in the letting go. Whatever your fears are, they are not real. Your fears are just your defense mechanism reacting to something in the outer world or to something in your unconscious inner world. Unfortunately, most of our fears are generated in our unconscious awareness. But we do not have to go into a deep psychological process to analyze the fear; just recognize it and realize, “I’m afraid, I’m feeling fear.” In that fear will be some barrier, some border, some edginess, some hardness, some judgment, whereby you are cutting yourself off and separating yourself from your own heart and from your own light.

When you recognize that fear, go within. That is where the inner work takes place. The practice happens within. I’m feeling afraid, I’m feeling tight, I’m feeling edgy—so breathe, get your posture open, do a standing yoga mudra where the arms are just back and clasped together and lifted up so that the heart has to burst open. Then soften with your consciousness. If you are soft as you breathe, and if you soften your shoulders, legs, and belly, then prana comes and helps you to open and move and heal.

Go to your physical place of meditation. Perhaps you have an altar. Bring your open heart there. When you sit down, elongate your spine, press your crown up, and open your heart. Make sure your altar is clear and clean. Many of you have been practicing for a long time, and anything that has any duration, starts to get stuck and old. Anything. Even your spiritual practice can get stuck and old unless you infuse it and keep it alive and dusted off and clean. Do not get too rote and lazy in your approach to your own consciousness because in the long run, people get tracked, and only you can keep yourself out of the track. Only you can keep yourself enlivened, light-filled, and on the path. Keep your altar beautiful, your practice beautiful, and the energies clear so that the light can come in. Have you ever seen layers of dust in sunlight? The light does not get through the dust; the debris blocks it. So we clean and scrub away the dust; we shine and buff our practice so the light can illuminate and penetrate everything.

I have been reflecting on crucifixion, and I think it’s all about what happens in those little, split seconds that you talk about. I’m getting better at it, but those old patterns are really strong.

Do not worry about how strong the pattern is. Flip it over in your consciousness so that your spiritual warriorship is stronger. Your commitment to yourself to be beautiful is stronger than the need to be edgy, sarcastic, reactive, or fighting. You do not have to worry about what you are afraid of, or that you are afraid; just keep your heart open. An open heart takes care of it naturally and automatically. You see, we do not have to go up into our heads and analyze the reasons for our fear. You are afraid, so breathe into the heart, put your hand on your heart, and soften with your intention. It is very, very simple. 


Maresha's next blog will be published March 31, 2015.

Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. A snail mail edition is available bi-monthly, free of charge. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com
 


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Greeting to Reader



March-April 2015


 Dear Reader,
   
Contraction in your body, mind, and emotions, happens as you unconsciously defend yourself against any kind of change in your life. Contraction holds us back. The basis of contraction is fear. In its lesser form, it comes to us in worry.

There is no need to process worry or fear. Simply and profoundly, learn how to consciously breathe. Expansion and opening in the body, mind, and emotions is a natural and effortless result of conscious breathing. Conscious breathing is the bridge to inner relaxation and freedom. This is a simple truth.



Blessings and love,
Maresha