"Changing the Karmic Blueprint" & "The Breath"

Maresha, how do I change my karmic blueprint?

You change your karmic blueprint by doing your spiritual practice so that you’re meditating, you’re praying, you’re chanting, and you’re really engaging the witness consciousness, watching yourself from your higher self so that when you want to go on automatic, you don’t go on automatic. When we feel ourselves wanting to respond or react in the same old way, we just breathe. We just breathe. And the breath gives us a moment to bring in a completely different energy rather than the repetitious, relentless reaction that we regularly have. So the witness consciousness allows us to reflect and just take a moment to breathe and redirect our repetitious, habitual unconscious pattern of what it is that we’re going to say or think or do.  So that one long breath in and that one long breath out will change everything. And when you’re breathing, you’re focusing on nothing except the sound and sensation of that breath, knowing that that is your tool that you’re using in this moment of consciousness to transform yourself.

It’s the same process through the years. It’s the lifelong ebb and flow of following Her, and that’s how we transform ourselves. There is nothing new and there is nothing esoteric about any of this; it is the simple, transformational, contemplative practice that we apply all day long every day to the best of our ability. And then we give ourselves concentrated times like those we have on retreat to just help us anchor what it feels like to be spending more time in meditation, more time in chanting, more time in self-reflection. In those times we can really feel the difference, and then we desire very strongly to bring that into our everyday lives so that we’re never away from it. That desire is the desire to be melded with the Absolute.

When you are in real, true conscious awareness, it never looks like a façade; it’s not a spiritual façade that you wear like a sweater or a hairdo. What it does do is bring you to your real self, and then you don’t have to think about it, you don’t have to process it, it’s just there. It’s like our kitties, George and Peaches; they’re as natural as natural can be. Should I play with the curtain? Or should I eat the rose? They don’t have to think about it, they just do what they do. 

So we use our spiritual tools to change, to transform our consciousness. And as a result of that transformation, as a result of that conscious awareness, we become real. And then we don’t have to think about things anymore. Then we’re not doing all that funny stuff that we do; we’re not reacting out of an individual, karmic place. We’re not stuck in the karmic groove. We are free, and that freedom looks like kitties at play. 

(October 2013)



When I breathe, I can feel everything expand. Is that because the breath brings us to God?

The breath is God. The breath is the prana, and prana is the energy and consciousness of God. Without breath, there is no life. We have to breathe. Almost everybody breathes unconsciously all day long. If you’re alive and you’re walking around, you’re breathing. But breathing consciously is a different matter; breathing consciously allows you to change your consciousness. So when you’re breathing in the breath, it’s the breath of God, it’s the prana of that universal intelligence.

With practice, it can feel very expansive and very relaxing, and it can change our consciousness in a moment, transforming the places that plague us: our worries, our fears, our frustrations, and our angers. You can change your consciousness by focusing on the breath for just for a few minutes. It’s the breath of the Goddess, it’s prana, it’s the golden life force.

Of all the spiritual practices, the breath is the most powerful. The breath is the great transformer. In the beginning it may feel awkward and a little mechanical, but if you stay with the breath long enough, you really start to dissolve. You really start to soften. When you exhale, you let go and relax, and when you inhale, you fill yourself up and you renew yourself. So five minutes of pranayama, of breathing consciously, can be even more powerful than an hour of yoga. That’s why it’s good to remember to breathe.

In the morning, instead of saying to my husband, “Have a nice day, Honey,” I say, “Remember to breathe.” He’s so busy, and there’s so much input. So in fielding all that energy, the breath helps us to bring everything back to the present moment and balance everything. When you’re going too fast, the breath pulls you in, and when you’re going too slow, it lifts you up. It makes the perfect adjustment without your having to know what the intelligence of the prana is going to do. The prana is divine intelligence. It regulates us without our having to do anything except the most natural thing, which is to breathe. It’s the first thing we do when we’re born. When we’re born, we breathe in and it’s an inhale, and when we die, we breathe out and it’s an exhale. So life is one long breath.

    (November 2013)

Maresha's next blog will be published March 4, 2014. 

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