A CANDLE IN THE DARK

There is something about the lighting of a candle in a conscious and wakeful way that expands my heart and enlivens my Soul. To light a candle as a sacred act of devotion and dedication touches something deep within me. It connects me to the millions of other spiritual aspirants who have lit candles around the globe in so many places and for a plethora of different intentions. The act itself is transcendent of words and engages the senses in a way that no other sacrament really does. It is a simple act, and perhaps its profundity is in its simplicity. It is a highly personal act when it is done heartfully, even when it is done in a crowd of other people. To stop and to connect to the depths of my inner Being before actively lighting the candle that is before me in many ways reminds me of how I want to live in this world. I intend to live a conscious and wakeful life. I intend to live a life that is permeated with devotion and guided by a dedication to living in the Light of Truth. I intend to live in such a way that brings Light to every situation in which I am involved and engaged. I intend to live in such a vibratory state of reverence that my Presence, like a candle, brings the Light of Love wherever I go. I intend to bring the Light of higher awareness into the darkness of human unconsciousness and unskillfulness. I intend to be an instrument of Light within this world. I intend to shine brightly with the Light of the One Source.

I was not born or reared in a tradition that had much to do with candle lighting. It was not until I was an adult that this sacred practice took on meaning for me. Perhaps that is part of what makes it so special to me now. It is not something that I ever did by rote. I chose to begin to use candle lighting as a meaningful ritual as a representation of the Light that I was finding at the core of my own Inner Being. I never lit a candle in an effort to get an outer Light to do something for me. I was and am lighting candles today to celebrate the Light that is already shining within me. I Light candles to acknowledge the brilliance that is already within others. I light candles to honor a person or occasion or holiday that I feel a call to more artfully bless. I light candles in times of sadness and grief and in times of joy and triumph. I light candles when I am praying, when I am writing, and when I am working with others. The candle light is a representation of the Source Light that is forever burning in the realm of the unseen.

And so in this beautiful season of multiple Lights I prayerfully light my Advent candles in the morning and at sundown my Hanukkah lamps. Between the candle lightings I live in the awareness that I am an instrument of Source Light that is choosing to shine within this world of so much pain, forgetfulness and darkness. I devote my days to staying awake to the ever-present Light that is always available and instantly accessible. I ask not that I be delivered from situations of darkness; rather I ask that when darkness enshrouds or surrounds me that I remember to rely on the only Source of all Light and Life. I ask that I remain open to be a space for the miraculous on this earth. I ask that my heart be used as a portal in service of the Light, and that my Presence be a comfort to those who are temporarily forgetful of the Light. Let me be a candle to light their way. Let my compassion and mercy remind them of how light shines in and through apparent darkness. Let my reverent way of Being be an embrace to all who enter my sphere. Let me truly be a candle in the darkness. Not just in this holiday season, but in each and every day of my incarnation. Let me Be Light. Let me Be Light.

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THE ADVENT OF WAKEABILITY

It is startling to me that we are now entering the final month of calendar year 2011. It has been a rich and wondrous year in so many ways. It just seems to have passed by so very quickly! It is my intention and more and more my felt-reality to live fully within the present moment, and to intimately and profoundly experience the depth of my experiences. This seems challenging at times in this age of constant media, social networking, and critical mass mind identification. We are each plugged into the global brain, and we are all privy to all of the energy that is constantly swirling around and through us. It is becoming increasingly crucial that if we truly and authentically want a direct and sustained connection within our Source, we must claim for ourselves time apart in the stillness as a non-negotiable priority. With the celestial speedup being much more of a dynamic than a mere concept, we must anchor ourselves regularly in the timeless in order to take a respite from the constant busyness of time. We are invited to periodically stop, step back a moment from what we are doing or thinking, and simply allow for some conscious, wakeful breathing. It may not make the days and the time seem longer, but I guarantee that it will increase the quality of the time spent.

We are called to a level of awareness and awakeness that is beyond what any other generation preceding us has been called to. With the advent of the internet and immediate world access information, the power of our collective focused attention is greater than it has ever been. There is almost unlimited power in collective consciousness. The greater the number of individuals that are focusing their attention on a given situation the greater is the collective power. This affects not only the subject of the collective focus, but also the way in which the attention is focused. This calendar year has been rife with what could be termed devastating global scenarios. Mass murders, government overthrows, weather disasters; the ability to look upon these situations in real time has enormous numbers of people fixated on the unfolding of events that both terrify and traumatize. The ensuing chaos within the collective field leaves much of the world population in a trance of trouble and dismay. As vast numbers of people look upon the situations and only identify and resist the surface level of the experiences, transformation is temporarily unavailable. The situations are themselves the effects of mass consciousness perceptions. When they are then resisted by the same collective consciousness that brought about their creation, an almost insurmountable block to transmutation is in place.

A quantum leap in awareness and what I like to call wakeability is necessary to shake out of the trance of surface mind identification and to awaken to the Truth of our One Source. As more and more people devote themselves to staying awake and to seeing through what ultimately are the delusional effects of divided minds and closed hearts, the way we look upon these situations has a profound affect on how they continue to unfold. To see any scenario as if it were a fixed reality independent of conscious intervention is to be unconscious as to the continuing dance of matter and consciousness. The way we look upon anything; the quality of attention we bring to the content of the present moment has an energetic effect on that which we are observing. Looking back over the events of this past eleven months; if 10% of the number of people who were tuned in to the unfolding scenarios had stayed awake in a praying attention, the outcomes would have been profoundly different. If 10% of the people that have contributed endless chatter about how terrible the world situations were and are would have used their breath and voice in reverencing the ever-present possibility of Spirit right here on earth, we would have radically different outcomes to behold.

And so we have one more month until the year 2011 is a history to be remembered. None of us know what may occur individually and collectively during these last thirty one days. Yet we can choose in this moment to devote ourselves to staying awake internally regardless of what may be occurring in our external world. We can dedicate ourselves to surrendering into the One Source our moments, our days, and our remaining weeks of this precious year of life. We can allow our attention to be Light-filled and Love directed. We can commit ourselves to an increased level of wakeability, so that no matter what occurs, we won’t fall into the trance of the surface mind identification. In this time of Advent, regardless of what tradition you are from, we can be relentlessly attentive to “coming to,” which is what the term Advent really means. Regardless of how quickly or slowly the remaining days of this year pass by, that time may be used on behalf of what is ultimately timeless. It is a choice. It is a choice of how to look upon our world and from where. Stay awake. Engage your heart. Live consciously within and look out from the depths of your Soul. The way you choose to look upon this world will have an effect on the way in which it unfolds. Stay awake. For the rest of this year and for the sake of the One, simply stay awake.

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