Purification is required on the spiritual path. The soul does not need
to be purified; the soul is completely pure. The purpose
of purification is to purify the obscurations. The obstacles that stand in the
way of the soul come about through karmic accumulation, the result of your thoughts, words, deeds and actions over
many, many lifetimes, including this one. All of our thoughts, words, deeds and
actions have a cumulative effect which is very powerful and which comes back to
us tenfold.
Because we
have so little time to be meticulous in our attention to everything we are
thinking, feeling, and saying, we want to keep ourselves deeply absorbed in
prayer, meditation, sacred movement, and in chanting the Name. Always keep
something pure in your mind: a pure sound, a pure chant, a prayer that you wake
up with in the morning and carry with you all day long, no matter what you are
doing, no matter where you are, and no matter who you are with. Keep it with
you always so you have something to return to. It could be the sound of Om, it
could be the sound of Hum, it could be the sound of AH, it could be the name of
Jesus, it could be the name of Mary or Ram; it could be a longer chant or one
of the holy prayers such as the 23rd
Psalm. It can be anything to help you purify your thoughts and the quality
of your mind, and to free yourself from perpetual, cyclical, habitual,
unconscious, repetitious actions and patterns.
For the most
part, you do not even know what these patterns are. They are unconscious within
you. And if you do know, it does not mean that you change. Any light that is
shed on your patterns is no good unless you do something to form new habits and
patterns that disassemble and burn through and purify and transform the old
pattern It is the only way; there isn't any other way. This purification can
only be generated from your own heart's desire to do no harm, to be kind, to be
simple, and to develop Bodhicitta,
the pure heart of the Buddha. Bodhicitta
is developed through purification so that the heart naturally wants to help, it
naturally is engaged, and it naturally does what needs to be done for the best
of all. Purification is constant and it is continuous; there are no breaks.
When one loves God, one will do anything for that light.
(March 2014)
Maresha's next blog will be published December 16, 2014.
Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com
Messages of Light is published by the Sanctuary of Universal Light on Snow Dragon Mountain in Meredith, New Hampshire. www.snowdragonsanctuary.com