The Maranatha Practice

Through this practice we open to the inflow of Divine Grace, and connect with that Presence that is our Essence and True Nature in order to bring about healing and awakening, both individually and collectively.

The Dual Intensions of the Maranatha Practice:

1. To invite and invoke the Higher Self * into every aspect of one’s being for the deepest purification, the most extensive transformation, and the most powerful and permanent liberation — a complete supplanting of the suffering separate self with the Higher Self.

2. To invite and invoke the Higher Self * into every aspect of planetary life, into all levels and forms of Consciousness, into every process, structure, and interaction, every entity, organization, and nation, in order for the Kingdom of Heaven, of Truth, Love, and Harmony to be established on earth.

* What we are invoking in the Maranatha Practice is the indwelling Divinity in the heart of all beings, coming to fruition as the presence and operation of God in human form. It is the full realization of one’s True Nature, functioning as the intent to save beings from suffering — to bring forth the Light of Wisdom and Love into the darkness of ignorance and illusion, fear and shame. This Indwelling Divinity expresses in the individual as the deep yearning to be of benefit, to live in such a way as to lift others, and bring healing, peace, and harmony into the world. As this Inner Light is activated and manifests in a person they feel a growing desire to awaken, to actuate their highest potential so as to serve the evolution of others, and the awakening of human consciousness.

Many names have been given to this Indwelling Presence, including ‘Christ Consciousness,’ our ‘Buddha Nature,’ and simply ‘the Self.’ If you look at the lives of Jesus and of the Buddha you will see profound expressions of Pure Awareness, Infinite Wisdom, Unconditional Love and Compassion for all beings, and a life of inexhaustible selfless service in the quest to bring suffering to an end, to lift and expand human consciousness, and to affirm that all beings are equally precious and worthy of love and respect. We see in these amazing lives the expression of Supreme, or Divine Consciousness in human form, and they clearly taught that who they were, we are becoming.

Throughout human history the liberated Saints and Sages of all religions have demonstrated the possibility of discovering and living from this Christ Consciousness or Buddha Nature, this Indwelling Divinity, and that whenever they have, they have left the world a better place. We can follow their example, and never has the world needed its people to discover, invoke, and live from their Higher Selves more than today. 

“Maranatha” is an invocation. To say “Maranatha” is to open oneself to the Indwelling Divinity, to invoke Its Wisdom, Love, and Power into one’s conscious life, and into one’s world. We are not mechanically saying a special word in an unfamiliar language in the hopes of conjuring some magic that will bring us relief from our unhappiness. We are very intentionally saying a word that represents our heart’s desire to feel the Divine Presence within us, and to have that Presence heal and transform our lives, to make us whole and to pull back the veil of illusion so that we can reflect the Divine Light of Love and Grace to the world around us.

Basic Practice:

~ Fully inhabit your experience:

          name it, feel it fully, explore it — don’t identify with it.

~ Say “Maranatha” to invoke your Higher Self into that experience.

~ Be receptive — open to what responds to your invocation:

          visualize light coming in from behind the heart and above the head, or feel something respond from deep within you, etc.

~ Cultivate Surrender, Acceptance, and Trust (SAT): 

          that this moment’s experience, as it is, is an opportunity for healing & awakening, and that Grace is responding whether or not you can feel it in this moment.

~ Practice perceiving all the ways that your Higher Self is now manifesting:

          calm, quiet, light, centered, more peaceful, more fully present, insight, inspiration,  going deeper into the uncomfortable experience, enhanced awareness,          patience, perseverance, compassion for self and others — as  subtle as any of these may be.

~ Shift your identity — “I Am what I’m invoking”  

          as you keep saying “Maranatha” imagine the Spirit of Christ or Buddha is coming forth in you, as  you, and through you in service to the world.

3 contexts to use the Maranatha Practice:

1. Personal: 

~ intentionally raising one’s consciousness  

~ working with difficult mind states, 

~ healing old wounds/karmas, 

~ inviting intimate attunement and communion with Higher Consciousness,

~ collaborating with Divine Grace in all aspects of one’s healing and awakening.

2. Interpersonal: 

~ raising the nature and consciousness of and within the relationship

~ healing relationship dynamics, 

~ cultivating higher relational qualities such as love, empathy, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness,

~ inviting and invoking the highest good for those around us,

~ discovering that our path to awakening necessarily involves our attention and service to those we are connected to.

3. Transpersonal:

~ raising human and planetary consciousness,

~ feeling and healing our connection to the larger whole — to the beings with whom we share this world and life experience,

~ inviting and invoking the deepest healing and transformation in social and cultural contexts, for example: racism, extreme poverty, lack of education and healthcare among many of the world’s peoples, and our treatment of the natural world. 

Here is the VIDEO of The Maranatha Practice class including a discussion and the practice itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cig7Zln47Ec