Om Ganesha,
Afternoon Pujas and Prayers
Namaste my chelas all over the world
This past summer I started our Book, DEATH HAS A HEART.
The response was great and so I will continue.
We in this Teaching have lived so long with the memory of death and death itself that it has become a big part of our lives and yet is always new.
AIDS has made us more aware of every breath like a song that we love so well and never tire of listening to the words.
The words always mean the same and somehow different depending on the situation of the moment.
I have never lost my gratitude for being able to take care of so many dying and yet the tears of regret that so many lives have been taken is always close at hand.
Death is not a stranger, in fact we are more intimate with death than life at times.
Death the Souls eternal sleep as it is sometimes called, lasts as long as needed depending upon Karmic Choice or choice at times of the individual.
Birth is so close to the ancient song of old men and old woman and many times to the young that one may wonder if it all has been a dream worthy life, and is always worth a worthy grave and yet so many cringe at the word grave or cremation or such.
At birth the bow is already bent for action and life is the arrow which at the end of life goes flying off to hit its mark.
The mark is where you aimed the arrow of karma with the hope of it reaching where you have wanted it to go.
And yet when death is forgotten or the thought of death lessened by life’s habit of skimming over what we fear then life is cut too short.
Did you ever ask yourself what is needed for me to be joyful?
The only answer that could make sense is you.
I am all that is needed to leave the prison of misery.
To be happy takes a lot of courage.
When you are a survivor of life when death swims all around you, sometimes guilt of surviving is the one word you look for.
I have seen this so many times as AIDS claimed life and made death its own.
It takes absolute courage to smile upon life and to take the memory of our loved ones on to the path of joy.
If we don’t then we may find it quite difficult to leave the spaces of sadness.
We all have a lot invested in our misery that we shun happiness for fear of it shunning us.
I have seen the face of death in all its many stages as well as the face of life.
Truly it really is not much different in appearance and feeling.
Becoming responsible for what every you are takes a strong heartbeat, this the family member that we want to avoid, yet it is invited to every party and every breath.
Life is the breath and death is the waiting breath, waiting not to be called, but to be remembered as much as life if not more.
I love the word Shakti, the power, the complete power of the merge of fierce love and the courageous power of the feminine who always remembers that movement is the Mother’s own Force.
Think on a form of the Mother that you so love this moment.
It is hard to think of the Mother and say that I am a victim.
If we all acknowledge the beauty and the wildness of the Mother is with in our blood then we will enjoy and anticipate the journey called Death
Who created Death.?
The same force that created life.
Life Death, life death, life death we can learn to become masters of the moment as we learn to dance with the breath.
The ego or the false self never wants one to think on death and so when death comes knocking so many run in fear, for death is a stranger the false self tells us over and over.
Think on someone you love and say to yourself, I love you even if you do not mean it.
Say it over and over making a space that was not there a short while ago.
There now we are expanding.
Imagine if we can tell death that we love him over and over how much we will expand, expand in the same amount of space and energy.
This is how our lives become big grow big.
This is how we explore what is already there and yet continues to become new.
How many times have we heard the words IF I LIVE LONG ENOUGH I WOULD BE ABLE TO THIS OR THAT.
Well my chelas live now in the moment and say to yourself what you yourself want to hear.
For instance, I love me.
I love me and how much easier it is to love you.
See no time wasted, just a little bit of breath and you can do what you never thought you could do, expand your life.
There is more time wasted on thinking what you hate to do then to actually do it.
My chelas look upon death as a friend who will never abandon you.
A friend that has a heart and an experience of life.
When death has made an appearance especially on a holiday, one tries to avoid thinking about our loved ones who are not here any more.
The pain persists and so we try thinking of something else or try to fill the hole that can never be filled thus turning to instant gratification when what was needed is to think of our loved one with kindness and gratitude.
Sometimes when we are alone we come upon a deep loneliness which leads to fear and then we begin to do any thing to keep engaged.
This is why I greet death each morning and say HELLO DEATH HOW ARE YOU?
And let death have his place amongst the living beat of my heart.
In this way our wounded hearts may begin to heal
God and Goddess are the beauties of our lives.
A place for the weary soul to feel full.
They exist for the enrichment of the true self.
Life and death is like a surging ocean of living dreams filled with memories and communion with God.
Life and Death is the Cosmic Will that governs the hearts of all.
Walk with me my chelas, toward life’s death and death’s life, this is the Eternal Bliss of the Self.
And when the moment, perhaps not a very big moment or perhaps a gigantic moment comes about we can say HELLO DEATH HOW ARE YOU.
And when he answers, perhaps we will be able to hear and become courageous enough to be happy in life, this one or the next.
I love you all so very much
Love Ma
Jai Kali Ma Ki Jai
Always at His Feet Of Our Neem Karoli Baba Ki Jai