© 2021 Joan Borysenko PhD

Excerpted from Pocketful of Miracles: Prayers, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year, by Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission from Balance Books, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, Inc. Boston and New York.

“The miracle that this book refers to is a shift out of the fear-based prison of the ego into the timeless love, wisdom, and deep connection of the Higher Self. This miracle is the basis of what the late philosopher Aldous Huxley called the Perennial Philosophy—the esoteric, or hidden, core of all religions.”

The Perennial Philosophy—which rests on direct experience rather than dogma—consists of four fundamental understandings:

1. The world of relative reality in which we live is the manifestation of an all-encompassing Divine Mind or consciousness—a quantum field—without which nothing­ would exist. Everything that exists is an intimately interconnected part of that larger, conscious Whole.
2. Access to the Divine Mind is not a matter of knowl­edge, dogma, or doctrine, but a direct experience of the numinous.
3. Each one of us has a dual nature: the ego and the Higher Self. The Higher Self is the Divine Spark within. The ego is the provocateur—the face of our fear and separation— and through its very discontent drives us to look for a deeper connection to life.
4. The purpose of human life is to discover our union with the Divine, not by transcending this life, but by becoming­ fully alive here and now, through the giving and receiving of love and compassion.

Pocketful of Miracles is a collection of daily practices, drawn from the world’s great spiritual traditions, that are meant to bring the reader into a direct experience of the Perennial Philosophy. Peace on Earth begins with peace in our own souls… I initially wrote this book at a pivotal time in my life—a time of rapid awakening, marked by frequent mystical experiences. I was running a mind–body clinic at one of the Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. I designed and delivered programs for people with stress-related disorders, chronic illnesses, pain, cancer, and AIDS. During the eight years that I directed the clinic, thousands of people came through our doors, some near death, especially at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. It’s a powerful experience to listen to accounts of people’s near-death experiences, to be present at the bedside as they recount visions of a world that only they can see, and to accompany people through times of grief and times of healing.

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In 1988 my mother died in the hospital where I worked. My son Justin, then a young man of twenty, and I had the indescribably powerful experience of going into the light with her as she left her body. Each of us had a vision at the exact time of her passing, and both of us returned from our respective visions with a kind of double vision. We saw both light and form. While everything is indeed made of light, as every high school student is taught, normally we see only form. It was spectacular to see both. Justin, his face alight with awe, called our mutual experience Grandma’s last gift. “Grandma held open the door to eternity,” he whispered, “so we could have a glimpse.” The sacred night of her passing was one of many times that I’ve literally seen the light. It’s not just a metaphor. It’s a deeper level of reality. In this book I’ve done my best to transmit some of that reality and to include practices that can help open the door. Mystics of every religion and no religion left a trail of breadcrumbs­ through the ages that can, indeed, lead to the experience of union with the Source of Being, the Great Mystery…. (and an important aside here, what some people call God. As you read on, please substitute your own word for the deeper reality of being). The numinous experience of touching the Sacred Mystery is ineffable. It defies description. Absolute peace, transcendent bliss, compassion, mercy, and connection to a much larger whole don’t even begin to describe it. As a scientist I can’t “prove” anything about our relationship to the energy that gives us life. As a psychologist I can say that experiences­ of Divine Union are life-changing. They strip away much of the ego’s preoccupation with self-judgment and comparison to others. They calm anxiety, lift depression, engender compassion, and give people’s lives a transformative sense of meaning and purpose. When our ego, that part of us that’s usually whining, complaining,­ judging, blaming, and chattering in the background, goes quiet, the larger reality of union with the sacred appears as if emerging from behind a curtain. It was always there, just waiting for the chatter to stop. Modern neuroscience demonstrates that when the mind rumi­nates about I, me, and mine, a neural circuit called the default mode network is activated. We worry. We fret. We rerun stories that create suffering and churn up negative emotions. But when the mind quiets and we come into the present moment, the default mode network goes offline. The sense of a separate self diminishes, and we sense that we are part of a seamless whole. Small glimpses of a deeper reality come and go for most of us, but they may be so fleeting that we hardly notice them. But when we pay attention, courting these experiences gently through practice, more stable neural networks form. Temporary mystic states consolidate into more stable traits through a process called self-directed neuroplasticity. When our intention is to become aware of the glimpses and savor the delicious feelings, then slowly but surely we are transformed . . . happier, kinder, healthier, and more present to the world and to other people. We’re also a lot more fun to be around, emitting a joy and lightness that is contagious… Each of us has moments of remembering, when we find ourselves present to the beauty of a sunset, the smile of a baby, or the light in the eyes of a stranger. At those moments we feel most at home in our skin, confident, happy, grateful, loving, and connected to the seamless web of life. We are present in our essential nature, what you may think of as the Higher or Spiritual Self. At other times that connection fades and we adopt a more limited perspective. Fear of loss, abandonment,­ and the withdrawal of love form a shell around our hearts and obscure the light of the Higher Self, which is always present, always calling us to remember who we really are. In spite of the inner drive to wake up to our essential nature, there is another force of mind working to keep us asleep—the ego. As a psychologist, I think of this aspect of personality as the “conditioned self.” It arises in response to the conditions of life that threaten to separate us from love. As children, we’re told to be this way or that, and so begins the process of trying on different identities to see which one suits us best. But in the process of looking for a suitable mask, our Higher Self—our true nature—goes into hiding. Its inherent freedom to be exactly what it is—an expression of divine being—gets lost. The young artist who goes to law school because her parents want her to have a secure future; the boy who loves to watch the way that swans nest in the sea grass but ends up at a desk in a windowless office; the curious child who ends up living in a dull world devoid of possibility. In each case, what Quaker educator Parker Palmer calls the “birthright gift of self” has gone missing. If we’re lucky, we start to notice that something’s amiss. We’ve lost our center. We get anxious or depressed. Stressed and fatigued. This state of “divine discontent” is a red flag with the power to shake us out of our trance and send us on an adventure of discovery. How can we get back in the flow again? How can we be happy? Throughout history, the pursuit of understanding our place in the cosmos has often been akin to navigating the virtual floors of a nouveau casino en ligne, where each philosophical system offers a different game promising the secrets to the universe. My friend who’s a philosopher recently mentioned in his blog, much like a fresh online casino, new perspectives can revitalize our search for meaning, stripping away outdated dogma and inviting us to interact with these ancient teachings in a contemporary, more relevant manner. His blog post emphasized that in this modern quest for insight, just as in a casino, we must remain wary of the glittering distractions of rigid doctrines that might lead us away from the core experience we seek. Instead, we should focus on the essence of these teachings, which, when approached with sincerity, can be as thrilling and fulfilling as any game of chance, with the ultimate prize being a profound connection with the universal truth. My personal aim for spiritual awakening is summed up in these few lines from the Indian classic, the Bhagavad Gita.

Bhagavad Gita (chapter 2; translated by Mahatma Gandhi)

The time pressures of modern life are such that few of us can engage in long periods of daily prayer and meditation. Although your heart may call you to a contemplative life, the need to earn a living may pull you in the opposite direction. The most ancient spiritual wisdom of all tribal cultures was centered around the predictable shifts in seasonal energies. Rituals revolved around sowing, reaping, and the cycling of light and dark. The four cardinal points of the spiritual year were summer and winter solstice, the longest and shortest days of the year, respectively, and spring and autumn equinox, when the hours of light and darkness are equal. Many of the Judeo-Christian holidays are variants of more ancient, seasonally based, earth-centered rituals. Hanukkah and Christmas, both festivals of light, are outgrowths of winter solstice celebrations. Passover and Easter are celebrations of the annual resurrection of life that occurs at the spring equinox. Other important­ points on the medicine wheel of the year are the cross-quarter days, midway between solstices and equinoxes: Imbolc in February, Beltane in May, Lammas in August, and Samhain in November. The monthly and seasonal rhythms of nature correlate with our bodily rhythms. Women tend to menstruate on the full moon. Bears hibernate in the winter, and humans, too, put on an extra layer of fat as metabolism slows. Our dreamlife and inner life grow more insistent in the winter darkness, while the dramatic light of summer favors outward-directed activity. In the fall, the western gate of death and rebirth stands open. The Jewish high holy days, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, honor this energy of retrospection and completion. The old year is put to bed, one’s business is finished, and the harvest of spiritual maturity is reaped as wisdom and forgiveness. In the spring we rejoice at the return of the light. We are freed from the prison of darkness, emerging from our winter dens with greater clarity, love, and purpose. The monthly themes of Pocketful of Miracles reflect the seasonal energies:

Each entry contains a seed thought and a prayer/practice. There are 14 spiritual practices in the book. I‘ve chosen one daily entry from each month for this article. January 23 SEED THOUGHT Things that we think of as solid are actually comprised mostly of space. The distance between the atoms in our body is like the distance between planet Earth and the sun. We are mostly space traversed by streams of energy in the form of light. Our body is made of this light, which radiates out and affects things around us. In turn, we are affected by the energy emitted by others. We have the power to stress ourselves and one another, or alternatively to spread peace and comfort. Which do you choose? PRAYER/PRACTICE The Egg of Light meditation: Imagine the Divine One in the space above you as a star of living light. Feel streams of warm, nurturing, healing love light cascading over you and entering through the top of your head, washing down from your head to your toes. Feel the light washing the marrow of your bones, your muscles and organs, carrying away negativity, tension, stress or dis-ease. Feel old, used-up energy emptying out through the bottoms of your feet into Mother Earth, who will compost it. Feel the fresh energy of living, liquid light filling you with health, happiness, and vitality. Let the light expand all around your body like an aura, merging with the Divine light and the light of others, while encasing you in a cosmic egg of protection. Affirm that only loving thoughts can be released from your egg of light or penetrate it from the outside. During the day, whenever you feel lonely or afraid, surround yourself with the egg of light…. and use the law of reciprocity. When you send a blessing of love and comfort to someone else, you will feel that blessing yourself. Giving is the most elegant way to receive. February 4 SEED THOUGHT Openheartedness is a physical feeling as well as an attitude of mind. Since the bodymind is one whole, whenever we create the physical sensation of openheartedness, our thoughts automatically shift to reflect the body’s reality. PRAYER/PRACTICE Great Spirit of Love and Wisdom, I come before you this morning grateful for a new beginning in opening my heart, that I may truly reflect your compassion, creativity, and blessing in all my relationships. Close your eyes, take a few letting-go breaths, and go to the place of inner stillness. Now go back to your storehouse of special memories, choosing one in which your heart opened, whether to the beauty of a flower, the sound of music, the birth of a child, a moment of love or forgiveness…bring all your senses to the memory, recalling the sights…the sounds… the fragrances…the movements of your body and the physical/emotional sense of your heart opening. Meditate on the felt sense of openheartedness for a few minutes. During the day, whenever your heart feels closed, bring back the memory – especially the feeling – of your heart opening. Hold the feeling for at least ten seconds. Research in neuroscience indicates that bringing up physical feelings of positive memories actually causes the brain to rewire itself. This means that the circuits of an open heart that you are installing will continue to build a more loving mind. March 4 SEED THOUGHT There are different types of fear, and each one is a gift of spirit. The fear that accompanies physical threat shifts the bodymind into high gear and allows us to survive challenging situations. The fear of inadequacy and rejection can lead us to heal old emotional wounds and claim their wisdom. The fear that the Universe is unfriendly or punitive can launch the search for true faith. Every fear is a doorway to freedom. PRAYER/PRACTICE Today, notice the types of fear that come up. Categorize them into those that you can take some action on, those that you are powerless over, and those that you can let go of instantly by taking a big letting-go breath and switching to belly breathing for five or ten breaths. April 10 SEED THOUGHT There is an old adage that says, “However fast you run, you cannot run away from your own feet.” Another adage puts the same thought slightly differently: “Wherever you go, there you are.” You take your ego into every situation, creating the meaning of everything that happens and everything you see, out of the images of your past. PRAYER/PRACTICE Today, when your ego responds to situations with judgment or irritation, let the opportunity to feel hurt and to feel self-important pass right by. Then think about what person from your past, or what incident from your past you were really reacting to. Affirm, “I am ready to be free of the past. I choose the peace and spaciousness of freedom.” Spend a few minutes in centering prayer, the egg of light, or Shamatha/Vipassana meditation. May 5 SEED THOUGHT Each week is a cycle, a microcosm of the cycle of the year. Just as modern society has forgotten the larger cycles and the deep meaning of the Holy Days—which have been demoted to holidays— we have also largely forgotten the weekly cycles. Attuning to the energy of the week, whose heart is the Sabbath in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. When we put aside one day of the week to be mindful and to rejoice in the bounties of the world without working, buying, selling, or distracting ourselves from just being, stress goes down and the heart has time to open. It’s a great time to unplug. PRAYER/PRACTICE Reflect on this ancient wisdom, given to Moses on Mount Sinai, as part of the formula by which we remember our unity with God. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8–11 Plan a time of rest for yourself this week. It could be a whole day—Friday (the Islamic Sabbath), Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), or Sunday (the Christian Sabbath). It could also be a few hours on any day of the week that you consciously set aside for resting and re-creating yourself. June 7 SEED THOUGHT Peace of mind creates the most conducive conditions for physical healing. The great behaviorist Ivan Pavlov lay dying of a wide-spread infection years before the discovery of antibiotics. He sent an assistant to the river with the odd task of bringing back a bucket of warm mud. That done, Pavlov stuck his hands in the bucket and began to play in the mud like a child. A few hours later his fever broke. He reasoned that if he could re-create the most peaceful, wonderful moment of his life, his body would have the maximal chance to heal. Remembering that his mother used to do her laundry in the river when he was a child, telling him stories as he played contentedly in the mud, he re-created that scene, and, sure enough, his body returned to homeostasis, inner balance. PRAYER/PRACTICE After you have shut your eyes and found the inner stillness, bring to mind a memory of a time when you felt peaceful and contented. A day in the sun, a time with a pet, a moment from childhood. Once a memory comes back, relive it with all your senses. Recall the sights and colors, the fragrances, the sense of movement, the perception of touch, and the felt sense of peace. How does peace feel in your body? Two or three times today, remind yourself that you know how to be peaceful. Take a deep breath and remember how peace feels in your body. If you need a little help, bring back this morning’s memory. July 25 SEED THOUGHT There is an old story about three masons who are laying bricks. A man walks up and asks them each the same question: “What are you doing?” The first mason spits on the ground and looks up. “I’m laying bricks. What in the hell does it look like I’m doing?” The second mason groans and mops his brow. “I’m earning a living.” The third mason looks up with light in his eyes and says, “I’m building a cathedral.” Who do you think feels most refreshed at the end of the day? PRAYER/PRACTICE Be particularly mindful today of your attitude toward everything you do, from washing the dishes, to doing your work, to interacting with other people. Which of the three mason’s attitudes are you approaching life with? How does your attitude affect your energy level? August 30 SEED THOUGHT As spirituality matures, simple pleasures like having loved ones with us become almost unbearably sweet. One winter evening, my son Andrei, who was twenty at the time, arrived home from college with the flu. He was so grateful for the simple pleasures of a warm house, his childhood blanket to wrap up in, and a mother to stroke his head and talk with him. Sitting with this manchild, I was poignantly aware that we might not have many more evenings like this as he grew to adulthood and I grew to old age. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than in that moment. The realization that all things are impermanent and that nothing we love can ever be taken for granted opens the heart in wild thanksgiving to the gifts and joys of the present moment. PRAYER/PRACTICE Great Spirit, how incredibly rich the experience of life is. Please keep me awake to its beauty and help me open my mind to the impermanence of life, to the reality that everything I love will someday pass away. Spend a few minutes in centering prayer or Shamatha/Vipassana meditation. Contemplate the blessing of impermanence as it awakens us to the joy of the present moment. September 22: AUTUMNAL EQUINOX Today the cosmic wheel turns and opens fully to the West. The hours of light and dark are exactly equal on this first day of fall. By tomorrow we will be beginning our descent through the Western Gate into the darkness of the underworld. The light is fading and the call of dreams, archetypes, and synchronicities grows stronger. We have prepared ourselves to listen to their messages so that the wisdom of our unconscious can mature in the growing darkness. We can look forward to emerging from the underworld transformed in six months, on the spring equinox. PRAYER/PRACTICE Cosmic Beloved, today the hours of light and darkness are equal. May I find balance in myself, accepting both my light and my shadow, as I continue the work of integrating your love into my thoughts and actions. Thank you for this magnificent journey. If possible, go out into nature and do the meditation of bridging earth and heaven. Center yourself in your breathing and become aware of the energy of the sun. Now open to the energy of the earth. Breathe in the sun from above and the earth from below, letting their energies mingle and balance in your heart. Breathe out the marriage of earth and sun, conscious and unconscious, light and dark, to all beings. You are the bridge between the realms. You are the cosmic awakener! October 30 SEED THOUGHT In ancient Greece, there was a famous healing shrine in the city of Trophonius, sacred to the god Asklepias. At the conclusion of a treatment, the patient was led down a path to two springs. The first was called Lethe, from the Greek meaning “forgetfulness.” Drinking these waters assisted patients in leaving behind bad mind-habits. The second spring was called Mnemosyne, from the same root as the word remembering. These waters assisted the patients in forming new habits, remembering their insights, and putting the new learnings to use in their lives. PRAYER/PRACTICE Get two glasses of water, one representing Lethe and the other Mnemosyne. Take a few letting-go breaths and patiently, slowly enter the place of inner wisdom. What are the mind-habits you are willing to let go of now? Acknowledge them and drink the waters of Lethe. What are the mind-habits you most want to remember and integrate into your life? Acknowledge them and drink the waters of Mnemosyne. November 1: All Saints’ Day, Samhain SEED THOUGHT All Saints’ Day was originally the Celtic celebration of Samhain, the New Year. The crops were in, meat had been hunted and put by for winter, and it was time to rest in the Earth Mother’s womb. Winter is a time for sitting by the fire and telling the old stories of creation, and the wise and true ways of honoring the Creator. On Samhain Eve, which became All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween, the tradition was to dress up in the skins of the animal brothers who gave their lives so that the tribe could eat and stay warm. Halloween honored the cycle of death and rebirth that is evident in the interconnectedness of all life. The thanksgiving celebration later this month embodies much the same principle. PRAYER/PRACTICE Divine Beloved, I awaken this morning with gratitude for a new mind and a new body. At this turning of the cosmic wheel, I align myself wholly with you, and your Body, the Mother Earth and all her creation. May I remember that all plants, all animals, all people are part of your Body. Just as the cells in my body die and are replaced, one feeding on the remains of another, so does all life die and find rebirth in a new form. I give thanks today to all the plants and the animals who have nourished me and my tribe, who have provided food, shelter, clothing, and shoes that we may continue our earth walk. December 20 SEED THOUGHT As the festivals of light begin, make sure that you have left time for yourself to relax, enjoy the season, and stay present to the inner teachings of each holiday. Take breaks, walk in nature if the weather cooperates, and preserve time to enjoy visiting family and friends. What an irony it is (one I’ve experienced many times!) that often preparing for a holiday stresses you out and brings out your worst. The most important preparation is attending to PRAYER/PRACTICE Relax for a few minutes in the holiday rush and enjoy a story of Mary Magdalene and her sister, Martha. One day, early in his ministry, Jesus and his disciples came to a small village, and a woman named Martha invited him to teach at her home. Martha bustled around cooking and serving, while her sister, Mary, sat rapt at the master’s feet. Exasperated, Martha finally asked Jesus if he cared that her selfish sister had left her to do all the work. Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” As you make your holiday preparations, notice whether you are assuming the role of Mary or Martha.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. has been described as “a rare jewel: respected scientist, gifted therapist and unabashed mystic.” Her vision for the past 50 years is bringing together science, psychology and spirituality in the service of healing and peace. Joan completed both doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School in cancer cell biology and behavioral medicine, returning later in her career as an Instructor in Medicine. After defecting from academic medicine in 1988, she founded Mind-Body Health Sciences, LLC. A licensed psychologist and spiritual director, Joan is the author or co-author of seventeen books on integrative medicine, psychology, spirituality and women’s studies. She lives in the sacred mountains of New Mexico with her husband Gordon Dveirin and their two standard poodles, Mitzi and Lola. You can find out more about her work at http://www.joanborysenko.com/, and order a copy of Pocketful of Miracles here .

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Posted by mkeane on Friday, December 10th, 2021 @ 2:25AM
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