The Fire in the Sun, Moon, and Stars

I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows, I gleam in waters, and I burn in the sun, moon, and stars.

Hildegard of Bingen

God is a choice. In order to know God, you have to choose God. Many make a decision to join a church or sign up for some training in the hope to find God there. If you look outside of yourself, even if you find solace in community or excitement in the adventure of spiritual exploration, without going deeply enough within yourself, you will not know God. The heartfelt light and love that is your birthright, however, keeps urging you forward to find your way.

To succeed, you must bring the fire of will into your daily practice. Wanting to succeed without knowing how to succeed, gets you nowhere. There are always steps to take in order to be successful. If you choose God, God will automatically choose you, because God knows you are able to be contacted and used.

 If a young child is inspired to become a gold medal athlete and does indeed grow up and win a gold medal, he or she has been successful because a choice was made. At some point, the child felt the inspiration and then did whatever it took to bring about the fulfillment of the dream. My point is that when you choose God, God contacts you through inspiration. Whatever speaks to you, whatever inspires you, whenever you say, Oh, that is great, I love that, I have this great idea, that is God speaking to you and inspiring you. God wants for you, what you want for yourself. The deepest yearnings in your heart are seeded there by God. When you are in touch with these inspirations you become united with the fire that dwells within you.

Receiving the inspiration is half of the equation. The other half is what you choose to do with the inspiration. You have to act on the inspiration that was given to you. Acting on the inspiration is an active principle, not a passive one. You might be inspired to follow a spiritual practice, but without the will to practice, which is fire, your practice will go nowhere. Many spiritual traditions have a flame on the altar that never goes out. That perpetually lit candle is the signal to God that you are here and ready to be contacted. Then the doors are open, and the inspiration floods in, no matter what it is. It can be something very simple.  I need to paint my bedroom a different color. Painting your bedroom takes fire, right? You have to go out, get the paint, and move everything out of your bedroom, as well as put in the effort to paint and finish the job. You use spiritual will, or fire, to pull it through because you feel the pull and the inspiration to make the change. In essence, you have to say “yes” to the inspirations that come to you in life. Saying “yes” to life allows you to be contacted and inspired to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.

Once you choose God, because you have said “yes,” your journey to God begins. The journey is metaphorical because you are both the beginning and the end of the journey. There are different ways to make the journey. Sometimes you have a beautiful altar that you visit daily. When you go there, you call forth your guides, and understand that you are having spirit time, or time together with God. You open up your heart, give thanks, and make  prayers. And, there is always fire on the altar.  It is the light.

All the various spiritual traditions have different practices and ways of building the inner fire.  You have to build it, just like you would build a fire outside. You create a container consisting of a circle of rocks where you will build the fire. You must gather the right elements for the fire.  You need wood that is light and dry so it will burn quickly. You need some paper and smaller dry sticks and twigs that quickly ignite the larger pieces so you will have a good, strong fire.

The same process is used to build your inner fire. First, you have to begin to consciously breathe. The breath is the light, the light is the fire. When you are sitting and meditating, the breath is the beginning stage of gathering the simple, raw material to start the fire. As you continue to sit, the fire grows bigger, and you journey deeper within.  You enter tapas.  Tapas is the inner, alchemical transformation that takes place when you use witness consciousness. You may have thoughts in your head; you may be analyzing, making judgments, or drawing conclusions. All of these are like sticks that you add to the fire. Emotionally you might be distraught about what is happening in the world, or having a reaction to a friend or co-worker. These too become sticks for the fire. 

From the higher and deeper planes of witness consciousness, you see whatever is arising within you, all the thoughts and the feelings. Even though you are sitting, the conscious breath becomes the active principle. Focus on the breath. You are not talking about a problem, you are not acting out your frustration, you are just sitting and breathing.  The breath is now the spark that lights the fire to burn up the sticks. You are not suppressing anything and you are not trying to deny anything you feel. You are building an inner fire, and if your breath is strong and you build the fire well, it will generate the heat of transformation within you.

Stay soft and open, neutral to the sensation. Do not judge anything. Now, the fire is burning. How long does it take? However long it takes. If there is nothing actively bothering you, continue to breathe and stay focused on the breath.  If something is actively churning within you, continue to breathe and stay focused on the breath. It is the same action. Be in the witness consciousness. Witness consciousness is your inner furnace, your ring of stones that contains the fire, as you actively breathe into what is. It is, it arises, and it dissolves.

Build a strong fire every day. In the morning, breathe in the golden light of the rising sun as your fire. Breathe it into your throat, your heart, and your solar plexus. Do the same thing at noon with the noon day sun. At the end of the day, when the sun sets, breathe the golden light of the setting sun into your throat, heart and solar plexus once again.

So God is a choice, and you have to open to God to meet God. Give God a signal that you are open, want to be contacted, and then through inspiration, through a sense of knowingness, and sometimes through dreaming or actually hearing, you enter into a deeper relationship. The quality of your fire is held within the seed of your choice, and the quality of your fire to know God is everything. If you know God is there, but you do not make any effort, then your relationship with God will be whatever you bring into it. It might be damp, or disjointed, or it may not be as palpable as you would like. Maybe you have a rational response to your inspiration, and you think, “Well, right now I can’t really do that . . . maybe later.” Or perhaps emotionally you feel resistance for some reason—“I’m not smart enough or spiritual enough.” These reactions and responses are like pouring water on the fire.

Remember the metaphor of the effort it takes to build an outside fire. Remember to ignite  your inner fire and get it burning really well so you build up a strong bank of embers. The embers are the key to the continuum of a steadily burning fire. As you reflect upon the steps you are taking in life, think of it as a beauty road. It is not an effort; it is beauty, and you are choosing God. How beautiful is that?

And by the golden light of the sun, moon and stars, as one, and it is done. Amen.

The Endless Circle of Grace

The divine flow is waiting for you to merge with its essence. The divine flow is waiting for you to discover yourself as soul. As you discover yourself as soul, you realize you are the divine flow. 

This is a great mystery that reveals the amazing desire of the soul, which longs to give freely because its natural state of consciousness is to give. As you merge with the divine essence and begin to give and to love, you unlock the door to the cycle of grace. All is received and all is given in an endless circle of blessing.

What are your demands or challenges right now? Reoccurring demands and challenges can be particularly frustrating. Everyone knows what it feels like to go two steps forward and one step back. Your frustrations are actually the key to finding inner freedom. Each one requires surrender and acceptance. Each one is a stepping stone, a jewel that is the fuel for the fire of transformation.

Surrender and acceptance are gateways to the state of grace. Wherever you have to surrender, whatever you have to accept, is how you realize grace. You may think of grace as something outside of yourself, which is mysteriously bestowed upon you. You may think it is good luck, or an unexpected bounty. You feel good. But somehow there is a sense that it happens to you, from the outside in.

Gracefulness (being full of grace) is the result of how adaptable and flexible you allow yourself to be as you rise to any situation without resistance. In order to live in a state of grace, you must accept everything, because grace is born from the places that are the most challenging and the most difficult.

You have the power to choose the consciousness which gives birth to the flow of grace. By sustaining the inner practices of surrender and acceptance, you open the door of your heart. As you open the door of your heart, you will find that grace has been living within you all along. Grace is the natural result of living life in the spirit of acceptance with an open heart.

As you cultivate living a life full of grace, accept everything just as it is.

Once you have done this, every encounter and every interaction becomes the fuel for deeper spiritual awareness. Every moment becomes the potential for clear insight and pure awareness.

Before that choice is made, you may face your challenges with resistance, negativism, martyrdom, victimization, or, at the very least, disdain. This choice is so important because it requires you to take responsibility for yourself and everything about your life. When you do not take responsibility, your reactions are held inside, allowing an internal struggle to set up camp in your body and mind.  Your mind may engage in ongoing chatter as you defend, justify, and project your thoughts onto a situation or person. Each thought is designed to entrench yourself in righteousness concerning your own feelings.

While the mind is busily engaged in self-terrorism (and terrorizing others as well, for our thought forms affect the objects of our focus), the body is also under fire. The intensity of reaction can result in muscle tension, a stomach ache, a tight chest, or a lump in the throat. The longer we engage in suppression, the more serious are the physical problems that manifest. Without the ability, or CHOICE, to let go into the light of consciousness, you are in the full ravages of suppression. Repeatedly indulging in karmic reactions to life causes great pain physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and yet, most people continue to do so.

The commitment to spiritual growth and to bringing more consciousness and awareness into your life, can purify and transform your reactions into a more subtle response, which allows your energies to continue flowing in your body and allows the mind to retain an emptiness—or space, if you will—for awareness without judgment. It is like turning the ugly duckling into a swan. From the compost of challenge emerges the fertile soil of awareness, communion, and growth. It is the stuff in the deepest part of yourself that you yearn for. You want to see and feel the beauty all around you. You want to shine your light in joy.

In conscious awareness you witness or watch everything. You witness your emotions rolling through the body. You witness your thoughts streaming through the mind. From the place of witness you experience everything while practicing becoming nothing.  When there is no holding of an emotion or thought, it is free to flow through.  Paradoxically, you see and feel everything, but hold nothing. Through this ever-deepening practice to allow life to move through you, all of the holding of the past slowly starts to melt and release, making room for more awareness to meet every moment more fully.

Surrender is the practice of allowing spirit to do its will through you. A peaceful grace is the result of the willingness to engage in surrender. Practice this by surrendering to the situation, surrendering to the thoughts and feelings, and surrendering to the moment. While you may feel the charge of reaction and anger, you can simultaneously allow yourself to witness and not hold.  This practice becomes the fire which burns through your suppressions and holdings and purifies your being with its heat.

With commitment and practice, the seeds of allowance, acceptance, and peace begin to grow within your heart and mind. As you realize that the everyday irritations and challenges are the fuel for transformation, a natural willingness emerges to accept, look forward to, and be thankful for every single moment of every single day. Surrendering to what is, allows spirit’s light to shine upon you. This infusion of light penetrates the depths of your open heart. Your open heart is the gateway for grace. This is how you live a life full of grace and realize the circle of continued blessing. May you be full of grace.

Tending the Fire of Spiritual Will

Let no one miss his daily appointment with God. The mind may suggest the movies or some other distraction; but when the time comes for God each day, keep that holy engagement. (Paramahansa Yogananda)

Are you experiencing a lag in your spiritual life? Have you been practicing for a long time and consider yourself a spiritual veteran, but are lacking in enthusiasm? Are you new to meditation, but can’t seem to commit to a regular practice? The intention to have a daily spiritual practice is a good first step, but it is not enough. Your intention has to be combined with the will to practice. And how do you cultivate will? If you want to succeed at something but do not know how, then your intention is useless. Intention and will must marry if you want to be successful in spiritual transformation.

Will is defined as the mental power to control and direct your thoughts and actions, or a determination to do something, despite the difficulties and opposition that may stand in the way; challenges, obstacles, and distractions do not take you off course. Your time together with God is a sacred commitment.

The part of you that calls you to conscious practice is your soul. The soul asks you to enter into communion with spirit. The soul provides the spark that ignites your spiritual will and repeatedly calls you to spend time together with God. Knowing the difference between investing in the self and investing in the soul is a key to spiritual fulfillment.

Qualities of the Self

At a gross level, the self is very obvious or noticeable; it is a material being, and it vibrates at lower frequencies.

The head guides the self. It is rational and analytical; it draws conclusions and “makes sense.”

The self is composed of personality, a combination of characteristics, actions, and qualities that are presented to be perceived and received by others.

The self is resistant. The personality/ego wants to have its own way, and if it does not get its way, it rails against or is resistant to “what is.”

The self makes every effort to exert control over circumstances, using its power to direct outcomes or manipulate authority.

The self is attached to its personal expectations of how things should look or be.

Qualities of the Soul

The soul exists at a subtle level. It is difficult to perceive or understand from without. It lives in the world of spirit, and it vibrates at higher frequencies.

The soul knows that the self is not the initiator, and it surrenders to what is. It yields or acquiesces to a higher authority.

The soul accepts and consents to receive circumstances just as they are, without any manipulation, resistance, or control.

The soul is characterized by radical faith and the willingness to risk. It is not attached to how things should look or be, but has complete trust and confidence in the guiding power of spirit.

The feeling center is a vibrational organ in the etheric constitution which emanates from the soul and informs the intuitive self, guiding and directing one’s action and non-action in the world.

The initiate is one who, by choice, abdicates personal fulfillment and submits to the guidance of the soul in order to serve something greater than oneself.

Choosing to align with an aspect of yourself that is already connected with spiritual will, or to the soul, is like sailing on smooth waters. Spiritual momentum carries you on the current, and there is effortless effort.

The small self is governed by ego. The ego is driven by patterns, programs, and behaviors that exist in our unconsciousness. To even contemplate the existence of the soul becomes very powerful because, as you self reflect, there is an opening to consciousness. This is how you begin the inner journey from darkness to light, from unconsciousness to consciousness.

As you nurture the qualities of the soul, the spiritual will grows within you and you are no longer seduced by distractions. Distractions are like water being poured onto fire. Embody the qualities of the soul: intuition, surrender, faith, acceptance, and non-attachment. Each one is like a seasoned piece of wood that feeds the fire. The fire burns up all resistance. Without resistance, you live in the flow of light. All you have to do is let the light in.

By stopping regularly to look within and become aware, you stay connected to the source of your actions and thoughts and can therefore guide them with intention. This nurtures the spiritual will, a steadily burning fire within you that provides light, warmth, and transformation. Something extraordinary begins to happen as you kindle and feed the fire of will through your intention. Your spiritual will brings you ever closer to the divine current.  As you experience the divine current, you merge with divine will. Divine will is experienced as effortless effort, as love loving through us. It is here, in the merging of your individual spiritual will with divine will, that true transformation happens.

As you realize the divine current, your soul understands what “Thy will be done, not mine,” really means. You experience the ecstatic flow of love and support that holds you all the time. You understand that it has always been, is, and always will be there. In the past, when you did not feel it, it was because you left it; it did not leave you. Now, because you have tended the fire of spiritual will and created the experience of union, you will be sustained at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. Blessed Be.

Unbinding Ourselves

In my last blog (September 12), I wrote about the consciousness that nothing, no-thing, binds you, except you yourself. Our struggles with circumstances and relationships are all about us, not the outer situation or the other person. To unbind ourselves, we must engage in self-reflection so that we can identify and let go of the feelings and the fight within us. Over the years, students have asked many questions about this process.

Is this the same as choosing how to respond to anything that comes my way?

It’s almost the same, but not quite. We do get to choose how to respond, but  what I am talking about is the understanding that the totality of what we feel is about us. It’s not about the other person or the situation at all. It goes deeper here. 

Our struggles are self-created. You have lived long enough to know that when you leave one situation—poof, that’s gone, got rid of that!—it just reappears in a new situation because you have not changed your consciousness. You leave a relationship or job, but with the next situation, the same struggles come back because you have not realized the real place that you are bound by, which is yourself. 

Sometimes when I power struggle, I am able to see what I’m doing and see that it is me, but I can’t always let go completely.

It’s just you struggling with you. When you notice you are having a fight inside your head with the other person, stop the conversation. Go to the heart of the self, and there you will witness what it is that you are doing that creates the struggle. Then, let go of the struggle. 

When my husband and I sought permission to build the Sanctuary on Snow Dragon Mountain, neighbors opposed our plans, and we were even sued twice. But when we saw ourselves becoming unhappy, we made a choice to be peaceful. We said, “We’re stopping.  Right now, we’re stopping this.” And when we stopped it, we unbound ourselves from the struggle. Then, as we went forward, we took full responsibility. We agreed, “Peace is what we choose. Our plans may or may not come to fruition, but that is okay because we choose peace above all.” The struggle stopped, we returned to our freedom, and went back into the Golden Center. We made that choice while it felt like everything was at stake. But there it is—that’s the illusion! That’s what it feels like:  We have so much at stake.

The practice is coming into the consciousness that whatever you are struggling with is not about “the other,” and bringing it back to where you are fighting, you are positioning, you are pushing, you are pulling, and where you are manipulating people and circumstances. Then, you choose freedom. You free yourself when you are able to reflect on how you are doing it instead of saying, “Well, this person is coming at me trying to take this away,” or “This feels too risky.”

To arrive at the place where you want to release what binds you is a milestone in the evolution of your lifetimes and reincarnations. You first have to admit that you want to fight, and you want to be right. If you can admit this to yourself, then you are starting to get somewhere. Acknowledging the fight, brings light to it. This is the practice, and you are now doing the inner work.

I have so many goals to meet. I always feel like I have to get it right, right away, and that frustrates me. I think if I can get there, I’ll be happier and more peaceful; I’ll be better—a better woman, a better sister, a better caretaker.

You are describing one of the ways in which you bind yourself. You are obsessed with a thought form. Leave out the “get it right” part, and just be in the process. That thought hurts you. Replace that thought with one that creates strength for you in the moment: I am a good care-taker, I am a good woman, a good sister.

Use the positive thought. When you see the limiting thought arise, release it. Dwell in your basic goodness, in the moment, and then you are practicing. It is okay if you find another binding thought right behind the first one. Unbind that one as well. This is the practice. You can also release the binding and limiting thoughts by going back to the awareness of the breath.

How long do we go on?  I have been feeling angry for so long.

You go on until you choose peace over anger. The practice is a repetitive process that transforms unconsciousness into consciousness. Perhaps you have had an experience—maybe you got drunk and woke up with a hangover—where you said, “I’m never doing that again because it hurt me too much.”  It’s the same thing. Sometime you will arrive at the place that says, “This is tearing me apart,” and then you will commit to the inner work.  The practice is meeting what is there, moment by moment.

The key is to be willing to meet what you feel when you feel it and know it is about you. When you yearn for non-binding love and liberation, you will let go of the inner fight.

I see my father’s control and my mother’s fear in me all the time; I see how a lot of the things I do, I learned from them.

We chose our parents to learn exactly what they taught us, so we have to leave Mom and Dad out of it completely. It’s not about them anymore, it’s about us. Be grateful for all you learned from them. Be grateful for the struggles they gave you because those struggles are your path to freedom. They are teaching you to let go because they create pain. Therefore, they are perfect.

Feel the binding. How can you release that which you do not acknowledge? Acknowledge the binds are there, and feel them. This is the practice. Remember this core teaching, and strive to remember the difference between thinking about practice and actually doing the practice because it will make all the difference in the world for you. 

Maresha Publishes New Book!

  

          The discourses in this book interpret the sacred mysteries and esoteric principles of spiritual understanding. Maresha provides the tools to deal with the difficulties that obstruct the flow of love. The chapters are a selection of talks distilled from discourses delivered by Maresha to students who came to be in sanctuary. The book also explores the themes of personal practice in consciousness and how one can find the keys to inner peace.

             Composed in a state of meditative awareness and with lucid clarity, Maresha explores the intersection of what is universally sacred and how to find within oneself this wellspring of love and peace. This book is designed to help the reader successfully reveal the peace that dwells within one’s own heart. This body of teaching transcends religion by extracting the essential, wisdom teachings that are the foundational guide to the power of personal transformation.

The book is available for purchase at:

amazon.com OR balboapress.com
(hardcover, paperback, ebook)

Nothing Can Bind You, But You

Spiritual conversations often focus on ways to stay connected to divine consciousness and how to open our hearts by giving and lending a helping hand. The same hand that extends outward to be kind, thoughtful, and loving has another side. That other side is the inner place, the consciousness that nothing, no-thing, binds you, except you yourself.

The Buddhists call this consciousness, practicing the dharma. I call it being on the path of love and practicing. As you reflect upon the places that you struggle against that feel like boundaries, understand that those boundaries are not real. This understanding is liberation. If nothing outside of me binds me, and I know this and hold this consciousness at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, then I am liberated. I am empowered all of the time to do the practice, to do the work, and to bring myself to a place of acceptance, understanding, and non-suffering.

All of the situations that seem to bind you are cosmic set-ups created by you and for you so that you may gain understanding and be able to know that these set-ups are not real. The outer adversaries that you think you are dueling with are not real. You are really dueling with your own consciousness, your own heart, and your own mind. There are no exceptions.

Take just a moment and think of some place that feels like a struggle; it could be another person, something at work, some karma with someone you love, or even an obsession with a thought-form. Whatever it is, it cannot bind you because the universal laws that govern your being are infinite and vast, far beyond the limiting concepts and beliefs of the profane world. 

Freedom is a matter of consciousness, not a matter of outer circumstance. You could be in jail and still be free. You could be living a life that seemingly has everything, and still be bound and in jail. There is nothing that can bind you, except you yourself.

If you know this intellectually but do not apply it, then you are thinking about the practice, but you are not practicing. You are still giving power to the places you feel bound by. So when you are practicing, go right to the place of, Wait a minute, this is not about anything or anyone else. This is about me! Then the conversations that you have with the other person or situation, stop. The justifications and the ways that we position ourselves against the other, stop.  Then we are practicing.

Some years ago, we were delivering a statue of Kwan Yin to the Sanctuary on Cape Breton. She was wrapped in cardboard fastened with metal straps. As we drove up the highway, she would fling off one strap and then, a little while later, she would fling off another.  She was flinging them off all the way up the highway, one by one, and by the time we got to Cape Breton, the cardboard was in tatters.

There is great freedom in knowing that if we bind ourselves, we can unbind ourselves. Remember Kwan Yin, and do the work that will unbind you, step by step. Be willing to meet what you feel when you feel it and know that it is all about you. That is the practice. When you have had enough—when you have really had enough--it will be done. When you yearn for non-binding love and that feeling of liberation above all else, you will let go.

Do Not Make Yourself Comfortable

Most people hope to achieve comfort and security in this life. To be comfortable and to feel safe are considered desirable. People work hard to make money in order to try to secure a time when they can either take a vacation or, in later years, retire “comfortably.” It is assumed that comfort is a worthy goal.  

It is exactly the opposite for the spiritual warrior. The warrior knows that comfort and complacency are disguised demons that lure and seduce one away from the flow of love that is the energized momentum of the soul. This flow may or may not be comfortable. This flow does not designate one way over the other; it does not distinguish one way as better than another. The spiritual flow is realized by acceptance of everything. Comfort or discomfort are accepted equally. The key is for the soul to learn how to accept everything just as it is, without wanting anything in particular and without resisting any challenge that may arise.

When the personality chooses comfort and complacency as a fixed or desirable state of being, the flow is interrupted and stagnation sets in. This state looks like one thing, but it is really another. From the outer perspective, comfort looks so desirable and fulfilling. From the inner perspective, however, when anything becomes fixed, it becomes an obstacle that stops the flow of love from streaming forth. As soon as one wants to hold onto anything—comfort, money, position, etc.—the energy gets backed up and the flow ceases.

Money is a good example of this. People work hard to make money and then work hard to keep it. The truth is that money is simply an energy. It is one of the many, infinite resources that, if allowed to flow—with acceptance as it flows in, and with gratitude and letting go as it flows out—becomes a natural, stress-free cycle of grace. If one fixates on money too much, it festers and turns into greed. Greed is a feeling that says, This is all there is, or, Someone may take this away from me, so I have to hold onto as much of it as I can. It might also say, The more money I have, the more power and control I will have.

Each person chooses, according to his or her own karmic blueprint, which way to go. The paradox is that if you never want to be without, then let go and give without strings attached. If you want to be safe and secure, then take risks and live outside your comfort zone. The key to spiritual flow is exquisitely expressed in the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

And where there is sadness joy.

Grant that I might not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in the giving that we receive,

It is in the pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I Will Walk in Your Truth

Whether you are new to meditation and are just beginning to explore your inner, spiritual nature, or you are a seasoned spiritual practitioner, the biggest challenge to you is the same. In order for you to succeed in finding the peaceful path which lies within your soul, you must learn to focus your consciousness and to coalesce the energies into positive thought and concentration of energy.

It is almost easier to do this as a beginner. When you begin something new, there is an eagerness and enthusiasm that holds all possibility and so acts as a buoy to the practices. When one has been practicing for a longer time, the relentless challenges of growth can test and try the soul. Either way, the challenge to uphold light and remain positive in the face of trials is the real test.

Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and my mind. For your mercy is before my eyes so I will walk in your truth (Psalm 26:2-3). 

One-pointed consciousness is imperative on the path. You have always to remember, in every single moment, that you have a choice.  As you are tested and tried, you must repeatedly choose between love and fear. Love contains an unbounded, positive energy that sustains an uplifting current that affects all people and things in a positive way. But our vision is so narrow and our self-importance is so needy that our recognition of this truth is almost non-existent. You must expand your vision to the larger picture and release the constraints of self-importance so you can expand the boundaries of love in your life. Know that each test and trial holds within it the power to transform fear into love. Know that the path lies before us; our teachers and elders walk before us so it is easy for us to find our way: I will walk in your truth.

As the ability to stay focused in positive energy matures, it unfolds into deep gratitude. The positive energy begins to directly permeate and influence how you perceive everything. Positivism, or openness, perceives refined levels of awareness. The awareness of the present moment allows your being to be penetrated by the higher emotions of beauty, acceptance, depth of feeling, and gratitude for life. Even the most difficult challenges are understood to be the trying and the testing of the soul, and are perceived to be so because of the positive container in which they are held.

Attune daily to the breath in meditation. As you breathe, align with the neutral witness so the energies are  neither  expressed nor repressed. Hold nothing. Allow your body and your consciousness to be soft and fluid. Find a simple prayer or mantra to also use when you are engaging in daily activities. In these simple ways, you train your mind and emotions to coalesce the energies into positive thought and concentration of energy.

This positive stream of consciousness is the very nature of love.

Unmasking the True Self

One of the cornerstones of conscious awareness is Swadhyaya. Swadhyaya is self-observation and self-inquiry. We enter into this awareness through the vehicle of witness consciousness. Witness consciousness is a systematic way of disassociating from our self-image. The self-image is an entity that obscures our true Self. As the clouds move away, the light of the sun is revealed. When the mask of the self-image is removed, the light of the Self shines through.

The central focus of conscious awareness is meditative awareness, which is the most powerful tool you have to loosen the grip of the self-image as “me.” To be released from the unconsciousness that separates you from the True Self, you must step back from the distortions and filters imposed by the self-image. The most direct way to accomplish this is through Swadhyaya—self-observation and self-inquiry, using the vehicle of the inner witness. The witness creates an opening for you to let go of past conditioning and everything else holding you back.

In witness you are unbiased, clear, and objective. This helps to resolve problems and resolve conflicts. Impersonal reality is the source of all solutions. As you grow in witness, your biases grow weaker and your ability to tolerate reality grows stronger.

Swadhyaya is non-judgmental self-observation through the witness. As the witness starves the self-image, the Higher Self begins to reveal itself. Conscious awareness is a process of unmasking the Self. It is a journey of Self-discovery and Self-realization. 

Spiritual Alchemy

Alchemy is the physical transformation of lead into gold. On a physical level, we have the ability to bind one substance to another to create a whole new substance. This physical alchemy is a reflection of the vaster and more expansive spiritual possibilities that are created through transformation of the soul.

We take what is heavy—our fear, our anger, and our self-pity—and transform it into self-awareness and finally into love. Prayer, meditation, repetition of mantra, sacred movement, and the breath are powerful tools of consciousness. They are capable of taking us to a frequency that creates healing and light. The breath is the doorway that takes us to the domain of the higher realms of consciousness. When we experience heaviness, we can return to the power of the breath. This creates a space of calm, meditative awareness that enables us to witness the destructive capacity of our some of our feelings. We enter the Assemblage Point of Light and perceive ourselves without judgment, without justification and without analysis. 

In spiritual alchemy, our shadow self binds with our divine light, and our profane self binds with our spiritual self. The energy of this binding releases healing and light that free us from our destructive energies. Our fear, anger, and self-pity are truly destructive, spinning us in circles of dust and sand. Over and over, they steer us away from spirit. When we meet them with the breath and the Assemblage Point of Light, we transform them and create a new substance. It is like four-wheel drive where the energy of the front and back wheels create far greater power together than either set of wheels can do alone. The meeting of shadow and light, of the profane and the spiritual, transforms our belief that our fear, anger, and self-pity are right and true and real. In this way, the forces of destruction become our allies, moving us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from lead to love.

Keeping Your Consciousness Uplifted

When you have been on a spiritual path for a long time, it is natural to forget what you learned in the beginning. When we do our practices over and over again, over a long period of time, we can easily go unconscious and our progress on the spiritual path begins to stall.

What is it that we are trying to do when we pray, meditate, or breathe? We are trying to connect with the divine spirit and to return to our Center. To do that, we have to raise our frequency. Our heart leads us to God and to the Goddess, but we have to do the work ourselves. The resonance is with us all of the time, but when your frequency becomes dull, sluggish, or dark, there is no way to make that divine connection. Even if you are praying or meditating, your vibrational frequency has to be elevated to such a level that you start to find the frequency of God or of the Goddess. So as you practice, remember why you are doing what you are doing: You are striving to uplift your consciousness and to raise your frequency in order to make the divine connection.

When we elevate our frequency, we are building our body of light. Lightness is high frequency, darkness is low frequency. Light is light, dark is heavy. When your thoughts are agitated or when they are limited, or anything in between, it is a low frequency. Everything you do from breathing, to thinking, to speaking, or to taking action, has an impact on your being and the way that you are in this world. The food that you eat, the way you cook, the frequency of the foods you choose, the style you cook with, the environment you live in, the people you choose to spend time with---all of these affect you. If you are thinking heavy thoughts, stop thinking heavy thoughts. Remember to elevate your frequency, even in the midst of a challenge.

In order to succeed on a spiritual path, you have to learn how to develop your intuition and how to accelerate your frequency. Just a few minutes of meditation or a few minutes of reciting The Lord’s Prayer, can help so much. But you must remember what you are doing and how you are doing it. If you are sitting in meditation in the morning, but you are worrying about something by mid-morning or upset about something on the news, your frequency will begin to decline. So always keep yourself aligned with beauty and with love and with light.

When you go to your altar and you light your candle, remember the real reason you are bringing yourself there is to light the candle of your heart. In the morning, when the sun is rising and you breathe the golden light into your third eye, your throat, and your chest, and you fill yourself with golden light, you are doing it to elevate your consciousness and to build your light body. And at the end of the day, when the sun is setting, take in that last little bit of light, so that you can carry it with you into the darkness.

Remember that as a being, you are a frequency, and everything you do affects the nature of your frequency. Make yourself light and remember you are doing it not only for yourself, but also for everyone else. Every being is a frequency. Open your heart in your prayers and surround the world, and send out that frequency everywhere. Offer it very simply, and it will go where it needs to go and it will do what it needs to do.

These words from Bapuji recently got my attention: “Love flowing in another’s life is the source of our happiness, and love flowing in our life is the source of another’s happiness, and this is a universal law.” How we become happy is expressed here in a different way from what I’m used to. You are the source of my happiness, and I am the source of your happiness?

Yes, because we are all one. If somebody is a fun, light-hearted being, we gravitate to that person because their spirit uplifts us. We listen to music because its frequency uplifts us. A being in whom love is flowing lifts us up into the frequency of love.

But I thought that I was the source of my own happiness.

You have to understand that many paradoxes exist within the universal truths. No one can open the flower within your own heart. You have to do that yourself. Yes, we are the source of each other’s happiness when love is flowing in our lives, but each individual soul has a unique journey of his or her own that has to unlock the flower within the heart and keep it open in order to realize love. We can support each other and love each other, but we cannot do it for each other.

As we walk everyday on the path of love, and as we journey as a soul on the path of love, we have to face our darkness. So there is that paradox. Lead us from untruth to truth, from darkness to light. We have an aspect of ourselves that is unconscious. So even though we are drawn to the light, we have to be brave enough to meet ourselves when there is darkness.     

Blessings and love,

Maresha

One Primary Challenge

Each incarnation has, at its core, one primary challenge. In the course of a lifetime, all of one’s experiences are geared to learning the nature of this challenge. This learning occurs on various levels; it is not simply black and white, or 1, 2, 3. It permeates our consciousness, and therefore, our day-to-day existence. This primary pattern underlies all small situations, all large situations, and everything in between. When the soul becomes aware of its opportunity in this lifetime, one can begin to unravel, sometimes thread by thread, the nature of this primary challenge. We can also say that the challenge is the lesson currently trying to be mastered within the soul.

The primary lesson that is learned through the various life experiences is not necessarily difficult or arduous, although it may be. For some souls the lesson might be to learn how to relax and be in joy.  Therefore, the lessons should not always be thought of as hard or challenging, even though someone who is learning how to relax may find this a challenging feat. Dropping all ideas, projections and expectations around what the challenge looks like is a good idea. Then you can begin to observe neutrally, within yourself, the reoccurring themes in your life.

The reoccurring themes are undeniable; they show themselves to us over and over again. When a soul is young and beginning the quest, the challenge is not as obvious. But as one moves into adulthood, the challenge becomes more obvious, and even more obvious in middle age, until it becomes undeniable. The sheer act of living and being alive will bring us everything we need to learn. If we are open to this learning, we can progress more smoothly. Through our willingness, we can learn to accept the primary lesson that comes to us. If we do not like the lesson, our levels of resistance will stall our progression and bring us greater levels of pain.

While the soul has one primary lesson to learn in this lifetime, we can also say the soul has one primary purpose. As we fulfill that purpose, we can then accept the next level of learning for which we are ready. In these accelerated times of change, the soul has the opportunity to explore and learn whatever it needs to regarding the primary lesson, as well as some sub-primary lessons which may reveal themselves. You can accomplish a great deal as you weave this   awareness into your practice of awakening.

The primary lesson reveals itself to us as a negative or a challenge.  See if you can recognize yourself in the following descriptions. You may recognize yourself in more than one, but there will be One Primary Challenge that you revert to the most when you are in reaction to life. You will recognize that you often react in the same way, over and over again.

 The following are primary challenges or lessons :

1. Self-deprecation –inferiority complex and low self-esteem. “I am unworthy.” “When I am right, no one remembers, when I am wrong, no one forgets.”

2. Arrogance – an air of superiority that covers a feeling of low self esteem and the fear that others will pass judgment and find them wanting. “I am so good at what I do that I make others look foolish.”  “I am afraid others will see my weaknesses and not like me.”

3. Self-destruction – the act or motivation to harm oneself either physically or emotionally out of a conscious or unconscious belief that life is not worth living. “I cannot help myself from drinking too much.”  “I want to be done with all of this.”

4. Greed – the experience of perpetual wanting or desiring, out of a fear that there will not be enough to go around. “There is never enough for me.”  “I want more, more money, more things, more love, etc.”   

5. Martyrdom – needless suffering, feeling like a victim in a situation that is beyond one’s control and feeling like there is little that can be done about it. “Look how you treat me after all I have done for you.” “I always get the bad end of the deal.”

6. Impatience – a feeling of frustration or tension that comes from the fear of missing out, and a feeling that there is not enough time. “I don’t have the time to wait for . . . .” “I wish everyone would hurry up, they are holding me back.”

7. Stubbornness – taking a stand in the face of a real or imagined opposition. Fear of change, not wanting to let go of one’s position. “It is my way or the high way.”  “I am sticking to the way I have always done it.”

Once you have begun to observe yourself neutrally with awareness and self-respect and have identified either one or two primary challenges, you can begin to invoke the positive pole of each primary challenge. In order to neutralize the negative, we must learn what the positive pole of the primary lesson is. By applying the positive pole to your primary challenge, it is transformed. In the beginning, this is just a mental process. Later, as you become more internally adept and know how to “burn” the dross of reaction, real transformation happens.

  

Positive Poles of Primary Challenges:

1.       Self-deprecation—humility, humbleness or modesty regarding one’s successes.

2.      Arrogance—a good feeling and pride about the value of one’s work, etc.

3.      Self-destruction—sacrifice and surrender, giving up something of value for the sake of the greater good.

4.      Greed--appetite, a desire for all that life has to offer.

5.      Martyrdom—sacrifice, giving up to others instead of thinking of only oneself.

6.      Impatience—spontaneity, boldness. Relieving the frustrated energy with forward movement.

7.      Stubbornness—strong intention, fixed in purpose, determination.

     If your challenge is stubbornness, for example, practice letting go in the face of resistance and take a risk when you feel rigid, unyielding, and resistant because of an underlying fear of change. Invoking the opposite pole is an ongoing practice in consciousness. In our next message I will address the specific steps to successfully letting go and moving into a new level of consciousness.

The Beginning of the End of Suffering

The integration of consciousness is a result of having achieved balance within the bodies. Each body must be in alignment with the next: the physical with the etheric (vibrational), with the emotional, with the mental, and finally with the spiritual. In order for each to come into harmony with the next, all must be under the auspices and guidance of the higher self. If the higher self is not operational or only operational some of the time, then any of the bodies may act out, like children who feel they have free range and can run wild when their parents go away for a few hours.

An individual must make a conscious choice: the choice to follow the personality and ego mind, or the choice to follow the higher self. The higher self exists without duality; it does not split. It is connected to, and is, Oneness. There is no question. There is no indulgence in lower emotions. There is no over-riding the body. This aspect of your consciousness is always ready to serve you. It awaits your conscious choice to empower it, and then it steadfastly, swiftly, and impeccably acts on your behalf. The higher self acts as a loving parent whose only interest is to love the child and to always act in the child’s best interest.

When you experience synergistic, harmonious energy, the higher self is at work. Most people have a hit or miss experience of the higher self because they have not consciously chosen to surrender to its guidance all of the time. Having succeeded in aligning with it once in a while, we are given the experience of alignment, synergy, and harmony, so we know that this level does exist.  Inner spiritual training can teach us how to find this alignment and stay there. This is the beginning of the end of suffering. As you develop this alignment over time, inner conflict begins to melt away, questions are resolved, and abiding trust takes the place of self-indulgent behaviors. The polarities begin to settle into Oneness.

There are five simple steps to begin the end of internal suffering:

1.       Commit to a daily meditation practice of at least 20 to 30 minutes.

2.      Learn how to do deep, yogic breathing called The Golden Circle Breath.   

The Golden Circle Breath can be done in an upright, seated position, with the spine erect, or can be done lying down. Inhale through the nose, drawing the breath in slowly. Contract the back of the throat slightly, making an “ahhhhh” sound as you draw the breath in. The mouth remains closed in meditation. As the air passes over the windpipe, it sounds like a tire being inflated. By contracting the back of the throat, the air flow can be regulated, thereby allowing the inhalation and exhalation to be prolonged. Continue with long, slow inhalations. Let the abdomen relax and expand as you inhale and receive the breath. Exhale slowly to fully empty your lungs. Control the flow of the breath. Naturally and gradually, as you relax into the breath, the breath will start to “breathe itself.”

3.     During meditation, promise yourself to bring your attention back to the sound and sensation of the breath each time you see your mind wandering.

4.     As you “witness” or watch yourself from within, make no judgments; simply observe what arises and continue to go back to the breath.

5.     Drop any expectations of what a successful meditation looks like. Be grateful for the mini-victory of simply being willing to sit with yourself for a few minutes each day.

This may sound too simple to effect any real change, but with time and commitment, you are allowing your higher self to be front and center each day. You are thereby giving yourself the opportunity to change your habitual reactions to the irritations that arise daily, simply by doing nothing other than sitting and breathing consciously. This is entry training to inner development and the beginning of the end of suffering.