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the lotus and the lily
Access the Wisdom of Buddha and Jesus to Nourish Your Beautiful, Abundant Life
By Janet Conner Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2012 Janet Conner
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-586-9
CHAPTER 1
Day 1
begin with intention
Intentions shape Light. They set Light into motion.
—Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul
Everything begins with intention. Whether you are consciously aware of your intentions or not, every move you make is powered by a potent but invisible internal engine—your intentions, thoughts, feelings, and desires. Intention has power. This power doesn't require belief in any dogma, god, or religion. It doesn't require hard work to locate or effort to use. You already use this power every day. You can't help it; it's how you're wired. Teilhard de Chardin, the ground-breaking twentieth-century philosopher, priest, and paleontologist, explained this wiring when he said, "You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience."
You may have heard this famous quote and even repeated it yourself. But have you stopped to consider what he is saying? If you are a spiritual being, that means you are made of the stuff of spirit. What is that? In our simplest understanding, a being of spirit is made of light and energy—intangible substances that flow effortlessly and instantaneously to places we cannot physically reach.
We visualize angels and gods as spiritual forms. But set aside religious imagery for the moment and play with science. Consider what happens when sunlight bursts through a prism. You can't grasp the exploding rainbow; you can't put it in a box. Yet it is real. And it affects you. For a moment, you are lost in rainbow joy. After that experience with one dollop of light, spend some time with a few Hubble photographs of stars born billions of years ago. You will be stunned by the power and magnificence of light.
Ah, you say, that's the universe, and the universe is stunning. But you are, too. You have to be. You are a part of it. A less-famous quote from Teilhard de Chardin captures your creative power, "The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed."
Since de Chardin died in 1955, science has verified his words. In The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart summarizes decades of research demonstrating that the outcome of an experiment is influenced by the attention and intention of the experimenters. In a chapter titled "The Human Antenna," she describes evidence that "[d]irected intention appears to manifest itself as both electrical and magnetic energy and to produce an ordered stream of photons ... [O]ne well-directed thought might be like a laser light...." Scientists can even measure the light coming off the top of your head. So that light in the rainbow and barreling through the universe for a few billion years—that's you, too. How lovely to know that the spiritual axiom that we are light is actually true.
McTaggart's conclusion is thrilling: "Intention appears to be something akin to a tuning fork, causing the tuning forks of other things in the universe to resonate at the same frequency." If this is true in the big labs of science, it must also be true in the small lab of your life. So starting today, use your power as a spiritual being of light to influence your spot in the universe by setting your intention for this thirty-day experiment with the Lotus and the Lily.
You have nothing to fear. You are in good hands. Not mine so much, although I will share with you everything I experienced and learned. But you're in much wiser hands than mine. For the next thirty days you will walk with the masters the Buddha and Jesus, and you will hear the wisdom of Hafiz, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Lao Tzu, and many other mystics. This process is a grand experiment, indeed, and now is the time to influence your experiment. This is the perfect moment to focus your light and get your tuning fork vibrating. What do you want? Why are you here? What do you hope to experience, learn, create? Spend some time today getting clear about your intention.
Then speak your intention aloud, sending the vibration of your desire out into the world on the waves of your voice. Speech has creative power. In the Bible, creation itself is recorded as a series of spoken commands beginning with "and God said." But it isn't just the First Creator who has this creative voice. "Any word spoken with clear realization and deep concentration has a materializing value," says Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi. Speak your intention for the Lotus and the Lily today and every day for the next thirty days.
Don't be surprised or concerned if your intention changes as you go. You are going to be dancing with profound teachings, and your soul will move in response. When you feel the urge to change your intention, change it.
But don't skip this important first step. Intention is not only what you do on the first day; it's also what you do on the last day when you create your Intention Mandala. And it won't stop then. As Lynne McTaggart reminds us, "[T]houghts are capable of profoundly affecting all aspects of our lives. As observers and creators, we are constantly remaking our world at every instant."
It is day one, and you have just experienced a double dose of the creative power of intention: you set your intention for the week and conjured up an intention for the whole program. In the process, you have discovered your first nourishment: you are a spiritual being, and one of your great powers is intention.
Reflect
• Why am I here? What motivated me to undertake this process?
• What do I want? What do I hope will happen?
• What are my expectations?
• Can I set an intention but then let go of the outcome? How do I do that?
• What is my intention? Is this my true intention, or do I have another, more hidden one? If everything were stripped away, what would be my true underlying intention?
Write
Dear Voice,
Why did I get this book? Why am I embarking on this program? Where did the urge to do this come from? What do I want? If I'm honest with myself and with you, what is my heart's desire for this whole experience? I believe intention is powerful, so I don't want to be casual about this. Help me clarify why I'm here. And help me let go of telling you how it should look. I'd much rather you were in charge of that. The journey is beginning, and I am excited. Declaring my intention is the first thing we are doing together on the page. So help me, what is my intention?
Explore
• Play with light. Find a prism and stick it in bright sunlight. How does it feel to hold a rainbow in your hand?
• Play at the Hubble site hubblesite.org/gallery.
• Play with a tuning fork. Watch how it influences everything around it.
• Allow your intention to make itself known. If it pops to the surface, write it down. If it doesn't, don't worry. Pray, meditate, write, or go for a walk. Or ask for guidance as you fall asleep; then notice your dreams and waking thoughts. Ask for help and allow information to come to you. Don't judge it—just ask and receive. But do not ask another person to help you with your intention. This is your month, your adventure, your life. Your answers are inside of you.
• When a phrase or sentence resonates in your heart, you've got your intention. Write it on a beautiful card or do something special to honor it. Speak your intention, see how it sounds, then say it aloud every day.
Nourish
I am a spiritual being with the power of intention.
Want More?
• Read The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav.
• Read The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart.
• Read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.
CHAPTER 2
Day 2
you're not alone
I can See angels Sitting on your ears,
Polishing trumpets, Replacing lute strings, Stretching new skins on the drums And gathering wood for the evening's fire.
They all danced last night But you did not Hear them.
—Hafiz, from "I Can See Angels," The Gift, Translation by Daniel Ladinsky
Why do we feel alone? We know intellectually that we can't be. Even the least scientifically inclined has heard enough physics to know that we are made of energy. (Thank you, Albert Einstein, for a formula so simple that even I, who barely scraped through algebra, can understand it.) And if we're all energy, then it isn't much of an intellectual leap to realize we are all connected. So why then, if we understand the way the universe is constructed, do we feel so alone? I do not have an answer for this. It seems to be the human dilemma. We are all one, but on any given morning, we can wake feeling like one lone person chasing answers, one soul seeking peace, one heart seeking hope.
I know I'm not alone, but I can still feel alone. So every day I stand in front of my altar and say again, out loud, what I know to be the truth. I don't say it for heaven. Heaven already knows. I say it for me. I say the words to remind myself that Spirit is with me. My guides are with me. My guardian angel is with me. I know the Archangel Michael is with me. And the Archangel Gabriel? She's with me. She has to be. She is the loving protectress of all writers. I call on her and her copper orange light every time I write.
I know my parents are with me, too. Dad has appeared to me as a cardinal, his favorite bird, for years. He shows up in the tree outside my dining room window at dusk. When I hear his chirps, I stop, say hello, and thank him for watching over me. After Mom died in 2007, I wondered when she'd show up. One evening last winter, Dad peeped his twilight hello. I went to the window and asked, "Where's Laurene?" Immediately his beautiful orange mate flew to the tree. I cried tears of greeting and thanksgiving. Since then, they've always come as a pair. On a long walk recently, I felt lonely and scared and said in a whisper, "Mom, Dad, I need you." I rounded the corner and there they were in an oleander bush at eye level, just eighteen inches away.
I am not alone. And neither are you. But do you know who is with you? It could be angels, saints, spirit guides, animal messengers, loved ones, goddesses, fairies. It could be a whole chorus of helpers. In fact, it probably is. Wouldn't life be easier, and a whole lot more fun, if you knew who was with you and how to turn to them for help? There are several things you can do to become more aware of your companions. Start with deep soul writing. Ask who's with you. Ask for a sign—something unmistakable. Then pay attention to what happens. Take nothing for granted—nothing. Angels, I swear, have a wacky sense of humor. Don't assume something small or weird or odd isn't a signal from them. Last fall, for example, a penny miraculously showed up on my teaching table as I was concluding a Writing Down Your Soul workshop in Austin, Texas. I gasped, held it to my heart, and whispered thank you. As we were saying goodbye, a woman told me she'd found the penny on the floor and put it on my table. I thought, oh well, I guess this one wasn't from the angels. When I got home that night, there was a shiny penny smack in the middle of my bedspread. I laughed, "Sorry I ever doubted you!"
Over my crib, my mother hung a painting of a huge guardian angel walking behind a little girl. That painting reminded me every day that my guardian angel was with me. So angels have always felt real to me. But if you don't have a relationship with angels or wonder if they're even real, the book for you is Angels in My Hair by Lorna Byrne, who has seen and talked with angels since she was a baby.
An easy way to get a message from the angels is through angel cards. I like all of Doreen Virtue's angel oracle decks, but my favorite is the Archangel Oracle Cards. On the anniversary of my ex-husband's death—a date that is always wrenching for our son—I got down on my knees on my prayer rug and begged the cards for a comforting message for Jerry. I breathed on the cards and drew the card called "Hello from Heaven." The card's message from Archangel Azrael said, "Your loved ones in heaven are doing fine. Let go of worries and feel their loving blessings." Once I stopped crying, I called Jerry. He was so, so grateful for the message.
If you'd like to have a personal conversation with the angels, have an angel guidance reading. My favorite angel-guidance reader is Margo Mastromarchi. Any time I'm facing a big decision or need clarification, I schedule a reading with Margo. (Rest assured the angels had plenty of input on this book.) Margo and I occasionally host live conference-call events with the angels. The angels tell Margo the topic. Members of the event submit questions, and through Margo, the angels answer them during the call. Somehow everyone receives exactly the message she needs.
Animals can be messengers, too. In Writing Down Your Soul, I tell the story of the osprey who landed in the tree outside my bedroom window the morning I woke knowing I was afraid of my husband. The osprey stayed with me for a year and a half. Every afternoon he'd scream until I'd run into the backyard and show him I was fine. Ospreys have appeared as my protectors ever since.
If I sense an animal is a messenger, I stop and ask it to tell me why it came. I also look up the mystical meaning in the book Animal Speak by Ted Andrews or in Medicine Cards, an oracle deck by Jamie Sams, David Carson, and illustrator Angela Werneke. The proposal for this book got finished with the help of a woodpecker. The rhythm of her pecking on the wood outside my window motivated me to keep pecking at the computer. In Animal Speak, Ted Andrews says the message of a woodpecker is "[T]he foundation is there. It is now safe to follow your own rhythms." I finished the proposal in two days. The moment it was complete, I rushed to the window to thank the woodpecker. She flew off, never to be seen again.
It doesn't matter how you go about becoming aware of your support team. What matters is knowing you're not alone, calling for help, and recognizing the presence of your guides. Get to know and love your divine team. They will be your best friends from now on. And don't forget to say thank you.
Reflect
• Who are my guides? Are angels around me? Animal messengers? Something else? Do I know? If not, what do I want to do to find out?
• How do my guides show up? When have I been aware that I am not alone?
• What messages or comfort have they given me?
• How can I work more closely with my angels and guides?
Write
Dear Voice,
I love this idea of not being alone, but the truth is, I do often feel alone. I can slip so easily into that black space where I feel no one is with me, no one is listening. Then I pick up a pen and start to write, or something else happens, and I sense I'm being guided. I'd like to have that feeling all the time. I'd love to walk this earth knowing I am guided and protected. Help me see that. Know that. Feel that. Who are my guides? How am I guided? Help me tune into them and their guidance so I can be stronger, clearer, more connected all the time. I'd love that.
Explore
• If you have a relationship with your guides and angels, continue to say hello every day. Keep the conversation alive.
• Ask for help. The angels, according to Lorna Byrne and Margo Mastromarchi, love being asked to help. So ask. Ask with vigor. Ask your angels to let you know they are there. Then keep your antennae out. They may communicate with you in some interesting ways.
• If you have oracle cards that you like, use them to ask for information about your guides. If you don't, look at sample decks at metaphysical bookstores, or ask your friends if they can recommend a deck.
• If nothing else, say out loud that you want your guides to show up and let you know they're there. Something will happen. They'll send you some kind of signal. But you have to pay attention and acknowledge the message.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from the lotus and the lily by Janet Conner. Copyright © 2012 Janet Conner. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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