New Moon before Wesak April 24

Path of Light Notes and Meditation for Wesak
Join us for this Spiritual Festival May 8 at 7:00 pm Ashland Oregon

WESAK SPIRITUAL FESTIVAL MAY 8, 2009

Keynote: "I see and when the eye is opened, all is light."

Eastern US: 11:03 PM
Central US: 10:03 PM
Mountain US: 9:03 PM
Pacific US: 8:03 PM
GMT: 4:03 AM May 9

Add one hour for daylight saving time.

Listen to Path of Light I, Session 5, for WESAK meditation and
the Legend of Wesak. Another meditation is also below.

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THE FESTIVAL OF WESAK

The Wesak Festival is a great spiritual event, and one which has a powerful effect upon the human race. Its influence has been there always, but unknown to the majority of men. Now its influence is being recognized and consciously being used. Today, humanity has a fresh opportunity to begin to tread the Lighted Way.

If you can do this meditation and sound the Great World Prayer at exactly the moment of Wesak, our combined invocation will release certain spiritual energies which can powerfully affect humanity and stimulate the spirit of love. Make the intention to bring the spiritual blessings you receive through these groups, so they circulate throughout the world to impact humanity.

The Wesak Festival: Countless millions down the ages have recognized the Buddha as the Light-Bearer from on high. He taught people to stop identifying with material things and with desires, to gain a proper sense of values, to stop thinking of their possessions and earthly existence as of major importance. Wesak energies provide an open door between Shamballa and the Hierarchy. It also provides the link between the Buddha, embodying will-wisdom, and the Cosmic Christ, embodying love-wisdom. The Wesak Festival is most effective when selfless servers unite with the light of the soul and combine this light with the "clear light" of the Masters.

This message is needed today in a world in which most of these steps to peace and happiness have been consistently ignored. It is on the foundation of this teaching that Christ is raising the superstructure of the brotherhood of man, for right human relations are an expression of their love of God. The Buddha embodies the Principle of Light, and because of this illumination, humanity was enabled to recognize Christ, Who embodied the still greater Principle of Love. At the time of Wesak, two great streams of energy-one focused through the Buddha and the other focused through the Christ-are fused and blended, and it is the task of world servers to precipitate this combined energy onto the waiting world, where its effective use will be largely dependent upon the sensitive responses of men and women everywhere.

Groups of aspirants can now become channels for the higher energies released through the medium of the two focal points. One focal point, the Buddha, represents the overshadowing world of subjective realities, and the other focal point, the Christ, acts as the Representative of the world of aspiring human beings. This is symbolized for us in religious rituals where the priest acts as the focal point. Here, however, is a momentous point of difference; the priesthood in these great ceremonies of contact is not a separate and separated body of men. All can be priest, the only qualification required being the capacity to align oneself and be en rapport with the soul, and thus be able to cooperate with other souls.

1. This Wesak festival links the past with the present in a way that no other festival connected with any of the great world religions has ever done. It stands for a living truth, and a present opportunity. In their mutual service to the race, the Buddha and the Christ bring about this linking. They also blend the East with the West, and unite in one whole the Christian tradition, the Buddhist and the Hindu faiths, and the aspiration of all believers in the world today, orthodox and unorthodox. Religious distinctions disappear.

2. It marks the high-water mark of spiritual blessing in the world. It is a time of unusual inflow of life and of spiritual stimulation, and serves to vitalize the aspiration of all mankind.

3. At the time of the Festival, and through the united effort of the Christ and the Buddha, working in the closest cooperation, there is opened a channel of communication between humanity and God, through which an approach can be made to Those Who guide the race and to truth and reality, and aspirants and disciples can contact energies which are not otherwise easily available.

4. Expansions of consciousness become possible which are not possible at other times. Disciples and initiates everywhere can be aided and stimulated spiritually to take those steps called initiations, and which enable man to penetrate a little more deeply and consciously into the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. They reveal to him more clearly the wonder of his own divinity, the beauty of the divine in every man, and a little of the Plan to which humanity is conforming, and with which it can cooperate.

The period of the Wesak Festival covers five days of service--two days preceding the full moon, the day of the Festival itself and the two succeeding days. The exact hour of the Wesak Full moon is of greatest importance.

The two days of preparation are known as "Days of Renunciation and Detachment." The day of the Festival is known as the "Day of Safeguarding" while the two succeeding days are called the "Days of Distribution." This demands five days of the most intensive effort in service, leading to the renunciation of all within ourselves, which could hinder our usefulness as servers, and as channels of spiritual force. It means that after due preparation, dedication, and upward striving for the first two days, on the day of the Festival itself we simply regard ourselves as recipients of as much of that inflowing spiritual force as we can contain. As channels we must be prepared to forget ourselves in the service of touching, containing, and holding spiritual force for the rest of humanity.

Regard the day of Wesak itself as a day of inner silence. Preserve a sense of inner peace even wh ile you are serving with outer speech and active interest in others. During the day, we will let the need of our fellowmen be uppermost as we provide a group channel for spiritual forces to become available. We will attempt to hold ourselves steadily in the light of our souls, and work as souls whose interests are with the group -- focused on the whole and not on the part.

On the two succeeding days, focus attention away from oneself to the outer worl and visualized distributing spiritual energy throughout the world. A stream of Saving Force vitalizes and illumines all who seek to serve their fellowmen. It will stimulate their will to good so that they are able to work with courage and intelligent activity in line with the divine plan.

We are told that the Buddha focuses in Himself the downpouring forces, while the Christ focuses in Himself the outgoing demands and the spiritual aspirations of the entire planet. This constitutes a planetary alignment of great potency. If the needed work can be carried forward at the Wesak Festival each year, then the necessary adjustments in the world can be made, but the success of the hoped fore stimulation lies largely in our hands. It is possible to inaugurate a new, vital relationship between the Hierarchy and mankind, and to begin a new type of mediatory work--work carried forward by all servers who are in training for world salvage.

We seek to make the Wesak Festival a universal festival to people of all faiths -- a festival in which the two divine Leaders of the East and of the West collaborate together and work in the closest spiritual union. The Christ and the Buddha use this festival each year as the point of inspiration for the coming year's work. Powerful spiritual energies are uniquely available at this time.

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During these five days of this intensive effort in service:

1. Focus on the true needs of humanity

2. Focus on the necessity of providing a group channel for the spiritual forces to be poured through the whole body of humanity under the expert guidance of the chosen members of the Hierarchy.

3. Make a definite decision to overcome all obstacles to your usefulness as a channel of spiritual force.

4. Seek to dwell ever at the center during the weeks prior to the Full Moon of May and June and five days after.

5. Seek to blend the dimmer personality light with the clear light of your soul.

6. Arrange your affairs so that the week of the full moon can yield to you the fullest opportunity to cooperate. Use sane judgment and real skill in action as you seek to awaken your immediate circle to the importance of the moment.

7. If possible, arrange to be in meditation, in group formation if possible, at the exact time, so you may capitalize on the energy available, and take advantage of the vortex of force generated earlier at public meetings. Use spiritual Influence to create public demand for peace, light, and the will to cooperate and help.

Wesak is a group effort toward a vast group healing. Use prayer, illumined thought and intense aspirational longing for the world as you meditate. Discipline the physical body and its appetites for the five-day period of this full moon. Focus on our group purpose of sending the spiritual energy we receive out to humanity.

Our opportunity during Wesak is to:

a. become channels for the higher energies released through the Buddha and the Christ,

b. know that we are all "priests" when we align ourselves and are ein rapport with the soul and cooperating with other souls,

c. serve as group transmitters to meet the need,

d. become interpreters and increase the capacity of humans to respond and to understand,

e. help anchor a new phase of Light: Knowledge is the hallmark of our civilisation; now another phase of light can begin to demonstrate--and that is Wisdom. Wisdom is the enlightened application of knowledge, through love, to the world,

f. realize that expansions of consciousness are possible that are not possible at other times.

MEDITATION FOR WESAK

1. Enter into Quietness with a few deep breaths. Align the physical body, emotional body, and mental body with the soul.

2. Visualize the giving of the gift from the center where the Will of God is known by the Buddha to the Christ. Use the visualization that follows to participate in the beauty and wonder of the Wesak ceremony.

3. Receptive Meditation. Quietly await impressions and significances of the Wesak "Communion of Water."

4. Say aloud: "At the center of all Love I stand:
From that center, I the soul will outward move;
From that center, I the one who serves will work.
May the love of the divine Self be shed abroad
In my heart, through my group, and throughout the world."

5. Visualization: Imagine the valley (described above in the Himalayan mountains, the big flat rock, the quiet group, swaying to the chanting, radiance beaming through the valley. Visualize the vast intelligence, wisdom, and joy, blending these two streams of energy,

Imagine hearing the chants and seeing the rhythmic group movements in geometrical patterns. The Buddha slowly descends from a speck in the sky to the valley. Then silence--light patterns radiating out from the Buddha, and from the Christ. The atmosphere becomes electric as the Buddha gives His blessing for all humanity.

Sip from a cup of the water charged with dancing atoms bringing new patterns of light within and around you, colors shifting, fluid, beautiful fountains of light.

Visualize a hologram of the world soul, the one human soul. Focusing deeply within, open to the flame within your heart that is ignited by this powerful spiritual energy.

Open to the blessing of the Buddha, receive the blessing, and send it out to humanity. Pause for several minutes to sense your part in the Plan for World Peace and good will.

5. Close silently, holding the gift of the Buddha within the love of your heart, to be poured forth upon humanity over the next two days, and at the Festival of Humanity, a month away.

6. Bless the world as you sound aloud these two world prayers:
Love to all Beings
North - South - East - West - Above - Below
Love to all Beings.

The Great Invocation

From the point of Light within the mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on earth.

From the point of Love within the heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the human hearts.
May Christ return to (reappear) on earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known
Let Purpose guide the little human wills,
The Purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the human race
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let light and love and power restore the Plan on earth.

O M OM OM

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The Legend of Wesak

I would like to share with you the legend of Wesak.

There is a valley lying at a very high altitude in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is surrounded by high mountains on all sides except the northeast, where there is a narrow opening in the mountain ranges. Begin to visualize this now. For in some way, you very likely have been here in your deep sleep, year after year. The valley is bottle shaped in contour, with the neck of the bottle to the northeast. And it widens quite a bit toward the south. Toward the northern end, close to the neck of the bottle, there is a huge flat rock. The valley is covered with a coarse grass. There are no trees or shrubs, but the sides of the mountain are covered with trees.

As the full moon in May approaches, those who are awakened and working with the hierarchy from all the surrounding districts begin to gather. The holy men, the llamas, find their way into the valley, and fill the southern and the middle parts, leaving the northeastern end relatively free. And then there gathers a group of those great beings who are the custodians on earth, of the plan of God for our planet and for humanity. Now every religion may have a different name for these beings. It is still the same beings. The esoteric meditators refer to them as the masters of wisdom, the masters of light. They are also called the rishis, in Hindu scriptures, or the society of illumined minds, in Tibetan teaching.

They are, regardless of their name, a group of perfected humanity, who have entered within the veil, leaving us an example of how it is done. And they with their wisdom, their love and their knowledge, stand as a protective wall, around the whole race of humanity, seeking to lead us on, step by step, from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real, from death to immortality, and from chaos, to beauty.

These groups, these high beings, are the main participants in this festival. They are standing in the northeastern part of the valley. Imagine them now, in concentric circles, the highest evolved of them at the front. And they are looking toward the northeast.

The legend explains to us that there are three great lords in front of them. One is the Christ, who stands in the center. The other is called the Manu, or The Lord of Living Forms. He stands on the right hand. And the Lord of Civilization, who stands on the left of the Christ. These three face the rock upon which rests a great crystal bowl full of water. Behind the grouped masters, and the adepts, and initiates, and senior workers, are to be found the world disciples and the aspirants in their various grades and groups. One does not have to be there in a physical body to be present. Many have had dreams of this place, not knowing of the legend, and yet knowing vividly that they were present and witnessing the entire event that was about to happen. So you can be there present in your spiritual body, in the dream state. And many are.

As the hour of the full moon approaches, a stillness settles down upon the crowd. Everyone looks to the northeast. Certain ritualistic movements take place, a simple kind of dance, except every movement forms a geometric pattern, that creates the position of the patterns that allows the Buddha to begin to descend. They form significant symbols such as the five pointed star, with the Christ standing at the highest point, or a triangle, with the Christ at the apex, or they form a cross, or other, very powerful world symbols. Each one has a deep and powerful meaning. And this is all done to the sound of certain chanted words and esoteric phrases.

There is a great expectancy building in the crowd. The tension increases. And through the entire body of people it is like a very potent vibration. It has the effect of awakening the souls of everyone present, fusing and blending the group into one united whole, and lifting everyone into a great act of spiritual readiness and expectancy. This is the moment of the climax of the world's aspiration, all focused in this group.

The chanting, and the rhythmic weaving are growing stronger. As you listen, allow yourself to be there now: one of the participants, with your eyes raised toward the sky, in the direction of the narrow part of the valley.

Imagine a few minutes before the exact time of the full moon of Taurus. In the far distance you can see a tiny speck in the sky. It comes nearer and nearer. It grows in clarity, and you can begin to see the outline, until the form of the Buddha can be seen, seated in the crosslegged Buddha position, clad in his saffron colored robe, bathed in light and color, with his hand extended in blessing.

When He arrives at a point exactly over the great rock, He hovers there in the air, over the heads of the three great lords. And a great mantram is said, that is only used once a year, at this festival. It is spoken by the Christ, and the entire group of people in the valley fall upon their faces. This invocation has set up a great vibration, a thought current, which is of such potency that it reaches up from the whole group to the mind of God. It marks the supreme moment of intensive spiritual effort for the whole year. The spiritual vitalization and the spiritual effects last through 12 months.

The effect of the Great Invocation is universal, it is cosmic. It serves to link us up with the cosmic center of spiritual energy from which all creative beings have come. The blessing is poured forth, and the Christ, as the representative of humanity, receives it in trust, and begins to distribute it.

Slowly the Buddha recedes into the distance, until again only a faint speck can be seen in the sky, and this eventually disappears. The whole ceremonial blessing, from the time of the first appearance in the distance, until the moment the Buddha fades out of view, takes eight minutes. The Buddha's annual sacrifice for humanity, for he comes back only at a great cost, is over. And he returns again, to that high place where he works and waits.

Year after year He comes back in blessing. Year after year he and his great brother the Christ work in the closest cooperation for the spiritual upliftment of humanity. They are bringing us the highest type of spiritual force that any of humanity can respond to. The wisdom of God pours through the Buddha. The love of God pours through the Christ. And it is this wisdom and this love which poured through upon humanity at each Wesak full moon.

And now the crowd rises to its feet. The water in the bowl is distributed in tiny portions to the masters and the initiates and the disciples. The crowd, who has brought their own cups and vessels of water, drink from them, and share them with others. It is called the water ceremony of communion. All of the water has been magnetized by the presence of the Buddha, and of the Christ. And thus it carries certain properties and virtues that are healing and helpful. Thus blessed, the crowd silently disperses. The masters and the disciples return with renewed strength to undertake another year of world service.

So runs the ancient legend. I share this with you, in the belief and the trust that you can sense the power of knowing this, and thus use this remarkable opportunity at the full moon to be more conscious of this connection that is possible for you. One day, some year, when you least expect it, you will know for certain, that you were there, and have always been there each year.

Streams of light in the valley are growing stronger. You are looking skyward with all the crowd, and you see the tiny speck in the sky. And you watch it grow larger, and larger, until you recognize it as the Buddha, who has made this great descent to stimulate and bless and to heal humanity.

Imagine that you can hear the chants and then the silence, that you can see the light patterns radiating out from the Buddha, and from the Christ, and that you can perceive more of the possibilities for humanity, of the new civilization that is coming, of the joy and the light and the love, the harmony, the beauty, the vast creativity, the companionship, the relationships, the camaraderie. Let it penetrate deeply as you build this vision, for in truth, you are building a path of light right now, so that you can receive at the moment of the full moon of Wesak, the high point of the entire year.

And then imagine that you are sipping the water that has been charged. And that within you and around you are new patterns of light, colors shifting, fluid, beautiful, like fountains of light. And give thanks from the deepest part of your being, knowing that you are now prepared for the next step on your path of light.

Visualize within you is a hologram of the world soul, the whole human soul. Focusing now deeply within your soul. Give permission to be more aware of your soul, the group soul, and the power of the festival of Wesak. Imagine the field in the Himalayan mountains, the big flat rock, the quiet group, swaying to the chanting, expanded beyond their physical bodies, becoming aware at deeper and deeper levels of their being, of the incredible joy of such love. The truth of ecstasy that it brings, the vast intelligence and wisdom, connected to this joy, the blending of these two streams of energy, as this great being who once overshadowed the great initiate called Jesus, and who is coming again to overshadow everyone who is able to contain and hold and use such a powerful energy of love.

Imagine being so prepared that as this begins to happen, you will be able to hold the Christ energy within your mind and heart, letting it infuse your soul, and enable you to assist the plan of transformation more effectively. Imagine receiving the blessing of the Buddha as part of the whole group.