Intention Set in Stone
Prayer Stone Stacks
Stone has played a role in spirituality from the very moment humanity externalized its sacred vision. Humans gave form to their devotion by scratching images of their deities into rock faces, carving holy statuary, and building stone shrines. The earliest of these were nothing more than simple piles of rocks that honored sacred places, revelations, people, and events. Following in the footsteps of this ancient tradition provides us with a simple and beautiful way to externalize our own spirituality. In your travels, you may have encountered on the sides of roads, trails, or pathways stacks of stones that look like random sculpture. Add a stone blessed with a prayer to such a mound and your intentions merge with those who have left stones before you, empowering you all.
Associating a prayer with a particular stone alters the substance of both, and the formation of a prayer mound can balance and intensify the energy of a site. The mere act of choosing a stone can inspire mindfulness as we lose ourselves in the moment seeking a pebble that speaks to our souls. And placing a prayer stone on a towering cairn is a meditation in patience—slowness and stillness allow us to find our stone's center of gravity so the delicate ceremonial structure before us remains intact. Be cautious, however, when you feel guided to place a prayer rock upon stone mounds you see intermittently alongside well-worn but unmarked hiking paths. Hikers often use small cairns as guide markers to ensure that those who follow in their footsteps will not lose the trail. When in doubt, begin a new prayer pile slightly further away from the path itself and consider adding a relic of some kind to help others understand its purpose.
When you mindfully place a prayer by beginning a stone heap or adding to an existing mound, your thoughts and intentions are left in the care of fate itself. The cairn of which your prayer was one part may be unintentionally knocked down or destroyed by Mother Nature's own hand. Try not to let this weigh heavily upon your spirit. The potent energy of your prayer was released by this destruction, ensuring that the purpose underlying that prayer will spread outward in the direction of the furthest reaches of the universe.
Wanting to Join
Dumbing Ourselves Down
The ability to go into any social situation and sense the level of consciousness in that situation is a gift. It enables us to move considerately in a world that holds people of all levels of awareness. However, there is a difference between shifting our energy to accommodate people and dumbing ourselves down to a regrettable degree. Sometimes, when we get into a particular social situation, we may feel pressure to play it small in order to fit in. Perhaps everyone is drinking or smoking excessively, engaging in gossipy small talk, or complaining bitterly about politics. It is one thing to notice this and modify our expectations and another thing entirely to join in.
When we notice where people are coming from and acknowledge to ourselves that their energy is not in alignment with ours, we have several choices as to how to proceed. One viable option is to quietly endure the situation, keeping to ourselves until it is time to leave. In this way, we take care of our own consciousness and protect our growth process. Another option is to interact in a way that honors and pays respect to the people in the group, while gently attempting to shift the level of consciousness with our input. In order to do this, we must maintain our own vibration, which means that joining in by dumbing down is not an option.
When we choose to dumb ourselves down to fit in, we not only sell ourselves short but we also lose a possible opportunity to influence the situation for the good of all concerned. Our desire to join in may come from our natural yearning to feel connected to the people around us. There is no shame in this, but being able to stand on our own, separate from the crowd, is a powerful milestone on any spiritual path. It can be difficult in the moment, but when we arrive on the other side, our integrity intact, we may find ourselves feeling positively smart.
I choose what to believe.
John Randolph Price
The Bogey Man who lives under the cellar stairs cannot frighten or deceive you now, because you do not believe in him; but when you were three years old, it was very different. Then he had the power to raise your heartbeat to a gallop...
Yet today he cannot cause one flicker of an eyelash—because you do not believe in him. That is the whole difference. Nothing in reality has changed. There is no Bogey Man there, and there never was one at any time; the difference is in you.
Now it is exactly the same with any other kind of evil that may seem to be showing itself in your experience, for all evil is a bogey. It is there only because you believe in it, and it will disappear directly as you cease to believe in it. The only "life" it has is what it receives from you. The only power it has over you is what you give it in belief.
Transformation
Ralph Marston
Light does not conquer darkness by pushing the darkness out of the way. Rather, the light comes into the darkness and transforms it with brilliant, positive energy. In the same way, the obstacles in life are not conquered by fighting them on their own terms or attempting to push them out of the way. The best way to move past a difficult situation is to transform it with positive, productive energy.
No matter how much you push against the darkness it will not go anywhere. Yet the moment you shine your light, the darkness is no more.
When you fight against your problems, all it usually accomplishes is to make them stronger and give them more validity. That's certainly not what you would ever intend.
Instead, seek to transform those problems, those difficult situations, by virtue of your own positive values and efforts. Focusing on what you're working toward is far better than being obsessed with whatever you think you're against.
Rather than struggling against the situation, give the best you have to it. Rather than fighting darkness with more darkness, transform that darkness by letting your light shine.
My dreams help me find solutions.
Layne Dalfen
I know this might sound outrageous to some of you, but if there is a problem you have on your mind, you can ask yourself or a higher power to dream a solution.
Here's how it works: first you write out your problem, formulated as a question. In this note, you should ask for a dream with a solution in symbols you can understand.
Read the note before you go to sleep each night and spend a few minutes bringing that feeling forward. Glance at the note during the day. Then write down or record every dream you have afterwards. You will find that many of your dreams during this period deal specifically with your question.
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