I'm fully grateful

Always, on these days when we receive the blessing of Abuelos and Abuelas of the Andes, there is something to be thankful for, even when something bad or unpleasant happens to us, when our plans don't work out, or when the unexpected visits us.

It is always possible, in any situation, to get in touch with the blessing of being alive, receiving the Breath, in that space of humility and affection that is the Heart. And, of course, it is not easy; it requires humility, surrender, wonder; it is a position of awakened and wise consciousness. It is neither obvious nor mechanical. But when we learn to distill wisdom by appreciating the breath, the amazing fact of being alive and sensitive, love flows; this wise awakening burns the heart and gratitude perfumes all of existence.

Ah... gratitude, remember when it visited you, when it spontaneously emerged from your being. That real connection of affection for our loved ones, for being on a cold day in a warm little house, spontaneously awakens full gratitude. Gratitude for the magic of the breath that penetrates and caresses us. For the clothes that protect us from the cold, for food and teeth, for the sparse or abundant hair that covers our heads, even if it is white and fragile. For the soft water we drink and bless, for the Holy Earth and its fertility that never stops GIVING US.

For all the men and women who, through their work, allow us to eat, live, and heal ourselves. For our friends and their kindness and sincerity. For the illnesses that allow us to be aware of all our healthy organs and for the time they have served us without complaint. Find in these days a renewal of the alliance with Holy Life, with Gratitude for all that is and comes, from the hard-working and silent cells to the stars that surround us in their mysterious glow.

Gratitude comes naturally from an open heart that appreciates what comes to us now, whether pleasant or unpleasant, everything has meaning and is part of a resonant harmony. Feel the possibility of waking up with gratitude and spending a whole day with moments of gratitude without words, without repetition, with natural gestures from the heart that smiles at everything and embraces everything that is. We appreciate the sacred Earth where we take each of our steps with gratitude for being sustained by Mother, Pachamama.

We love our own steps, those that in the dance of the labyrinth lead us to the freedom to love with a heart full of gratitude and enjoyment. Find in each moment an opportunity to release gratitude. Appreciate something in this present moment, there is always something wonderful, even if simple, something that encapsulates cosmic aesthetics. Appreciate with wonder for no reason, no matter how small or common it may be, and even if you have seen it a thousand times; today you are new and grateful.

Realize, my dear friend, that there is nothing irrelevant, ridiculous, or ordinary in this mysterious universe, and that everything is a creation that has been gifted to us for the eyes of the heart. If you release the perfume of gratitude, magic will come to you, and when it radiates from your cells, from all your atoms, the extraordinary will present itself.

Gracias! Gracias! Gracias!

21-Day Practice

The final answer

Are the stars shining in the sky? Yes. And MamaKilla, the Moon? Yes, it shines high above...

And how can I perceive this wonderful Presence that shines and glows?

With love and the help of Grace, we can try to convert the strength of all fragments into Presence. And thus feel the essence of living in friendship with the Whole.

We are alive!

Wisdom, understanding, is realizing and not losing sight of the true perspective of being alive, so as not to be completely absorbed by your emotional doubts, by the complexities of problems, and lose what arrives in silence now: Life.

If we lose this perspective and, in a final moment, wake up, it will already be too late and we will be leaving, we will be standing at the exit door and we will not have learned or enjoyed the most sensational discovery, which is hidden in: I am alive, I live! It is a loss of cosmic proportions...

In a brief moment of Life, the end arrives, intense and complete, and that's it! We have no control, none whatsoever. We are not victims, nor are we guilty of anything, but naturally what is born is destroyed by the same force that brought it into this Life. And we cannot escape this law, except for one small detail that has been given to us as the most precious and beautiful gift.

A door, a threshold, a leap into the Garden, and that is “being conscious of Being.” Awakening, remembering that we are conscious, is what reverses these natural processes.

Although there are no rewind systems, there is the possibility of being conscious of the Now and thus being able to appreciate not what distracts us, but what IS.

And what now is?

The ever-new flow of Life within us and in everything we perceive, which is also Timeless...

Although you may not realize it, this table and the chairs where you have breakfast are now new; your mother, your husband are new, renewed on this day, in this present moment...

If you are conscious, you can have a perspective that is based on Life and not on a fragmented memory, in which you are a newcomer together with the Whole... Sadhana, the Teaching of Andean Mysticism, reveals the meaning of existing, of living in this Infinite Ocean and your connection with the Totality of Life.

You know, it's simple and obscure at the same time, because we were educated in material responsibility—including the beings we care about. Your material security is above the quality of life that comes from understanding the possibility of being conscious of the Garden of Instances of Existence.

These days, we celebrate the 24th anniversary of the arrival in Brazil of this art of celebrating the Garden of Instants; many will say it was a coincidence, but it was not.

Although we may not realize it, there is a Universal Flow of Intelligent Life that desired and sought this arrival in order to distribute the Inca seeds; which, if nurtured, reveal to us the ultimate secret, which is total gratitude for this brief moment of life in the Pachamama Garden, which we also call Pachamama Consciousness...

The Infinite has reached the finite, to perform the alchemy of Return through the finite once again to the Garden Home of the Heart, transforming dust into something priceless.

“To live united with my breath is to live in the consciousness of the true being that lives through me. I am not this body that seems to limit me. I am the space in which the breath that nourishes and envelops it appears. The living ocean in which it moves and exists. The loving Mother who sustains it.”

We learn to take something very common, the awareness of breath, of the now, of the present flow of life, and transform it into something that is uncommon, because it is Infinite...   And how can I perceive this wonderful Presence?   Feeling that I am alive and that it is Life flowing in this body that allows me to connect with all of Existence.  

We are alive! Celebrate!

* Isolda Marie Flores, ativista da Nación Pachamama.