Janet Conner - The Lotus and the Lily: Access the Wisdom of Buddha and Jesus to Nourish Your Beautiful, Abundant Life

about the author

Janet Conner is a vibrant writer, speaker, and teacher who became a catalyst for deep soul change after a series of personal traumas. Her land-mark book, Writing Down Your Soul (Conari Press, 2009), connects readers to their extraordinary voice within and is consistently a five-star rated, top-ranked book in the journal-writing category.

Janet and her work have been featured in national media including Martha Stewart's Whole Living, Daily Word, Daily Om, Beliefnet.com, and more. Janet lives in Ozona, Florida; speaks nationally at conferences, churches, book events, and retreats; and teaches a series of sell-out telecourses with thousands of students worldwide. With her signature teaching of Your Soul Wants Five Things, Janet is fast becoming a major voice for spiritual growth and understanding in our time.

acknowledgments

There are many hands and hearts between the covers of The Lotus and the Lily. Some are evident, but most are not. I bow to them all. I bow first in gratitude to the brilliant team at Conari Press: Jan Johnson, who said a very big yes; Susie Pitzen, who walked so gently beside me; and Jim Warner, who once again captured the essence of my book in his eloquent cover. I bow to the marketing team, Bonni Hamilton, Pat Rose, and Lisa Trudeau, who bang the drum with such style and grace. I bow deeply to my divinely appointed editor, Amy Rost, in whose hands my threads are woven into silk. If you love the way this book sounds, bow to her, too. Heart-to-heart, I bend toward Nancy Barton. I drew my perfect agent on my 2010 Intention Mandala and heaven said, Here you go. And I bow to Jo Ann Deck, the best publishing consultant a writer could ask for.

I bow with particular joy to the original members of The Lotus and the Lily telecourses who threw themselves into this unknown and unheralded process, created their Intention Mandalas, and shared their miraculous results. All of your spirits are alive in this book. Particular blessings to Jazz Jaeschke, Beth Reilly, and Catherine Anderson, who generously shared their mandalas and their stories. Thanks to you, the world can see how beautiful and miraculous an Intention Mandala can be.

My heart is filled with gratitude for all who sustained me during the intense months of writing: my son, Jerry, who loves me so much he didn't come home for Christmas; my sister and brother-in-law, Claire and Bob, who kept the pantry full; and my brother, Larry, who understood instantly the implications of the mandala. I am grateful to have two gifted women in my life: Margo Mastromarchi, through whom the angels speak, and Lauralyn Bunn, through whom the masters and teachers of the Akashic Record deliver both their profound wisdom and their delicious sense of humor. And I bow to Cherry Lea, who always calls at exactly the right moment with exactly what I need to hear. I don't know what divine contract we have, Cherry, but it's a doozy!

But above all, I bow to two teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, who planted the Buddha in my heart in just one sentence, and Neil Douglas-Klotz, who introduced me to the Jesus I always wanted to know. I cannot recommend their work enough. And, of course, I bow to my dear friend, Hafiz, who talks to me at every turn, whether I want to hear what he has to say or not.

And last, but always first, I pour myself out before the One, the Center, the Source of all. After all these years, I still stare in wonder when you speak on my pages. I hope this book has served you well. I am deeply, deeply blessed.

Janet Conner
Ozona, Florida
May 11, 2012

how to keep your intention mandala alive

The key to transforming your life isn't going through the four weeks of soul play you've done, rich as they have been. Nor is it creating an Intention Mandala, beautiful as it may be. The key is bringing all you've learned and all you've created to life. This is what your soul wants. It wants to create life. It wants to create a life of heaven on earth.

The masters and teachers of the Akashic Record described heaven on earth as living a fully human life following spiritual, not human, laws. Well, this entire adventure has been a deep swim in profound spiritual laws as lived and taught by great masters. You have learned much. But if you stopped now, set your mandala aside, and didn't revisit it, I don't think much would happen, at least not over the long term. And my intention in sharing this process with you is to help you create a whole, abundant, soul-directed lifenot just for today, but for all your days. This is the landscape that lies beyond the Law of Attraction. This is the fertile field of the soul.

So the real soul play begins now. When St. Teresa of Avila said, The realized soul can play with this universe like a child can a ball, it must have rattled everyone around her. It's still a radical concept. But in light of our understanding of our holographic universe, it makes perfect sense.

Throughout the Lotus and the Lily, you have converted the wisdom of masters and mystics into spiritual practices that speak to your soul. Now you get to create the most powerful practice of allyour own deeply personal, multisensory, daily mandala prayer practice. This is the practice that will nourish and renew your conditions and bring all the seeds you've planted to life. Our guide for how to do this is the Buddha, who taught us to pray with 100 percent of our beings so that our prayers become mantra, a sacred formula with the power to transform reality. We know that the mandala is a visual engine of change with the power to transform reality. Now we are adding full-body prayer that also has the power to transform reality. We're giving ourselves a double dose of transformation.

The key here is that you engage every bit of youbody, breath, emotions, voice, everything you've got. This is fun, and when prayer is fun, we are more inclined to do it. But there is a deeper reason. In his book of Celtic wisdom, Anam Cara, John O'Donohue, notes, The soul is not simply within the body, hidden somewhere within its recesses. The truth is rather the converse. Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely. Therefore, all around you there is a secret and beautiful soul-light.

Your soul and your body are united fully in this human experience, so when you step before your mandala, engage your whole embodied soul-light self in your prayers. How do you do that? Well, here are a few ideas. Take any of them that speak to you and add your own. Create something that makes your whole soul-light sing with joy.

Breath

[F]ormally the word [Yahweh] was not spoke at all, but breathed! Many are convinced that its correct pronunciation is an attempt to replicate and imitate the very sound of inhalation and exhalation. The one thing we do every moment of our lives is there fore to speak the name of God.

Richard Rohr, The Naked Now

Everything begins with the breath. With every breath, you announce, I am here. I am an embodied soul reveling in this human experience. So begin at the beginning and take a few sweet breaths as you step in front of your mandala. Plus, as Andrew Newberg tells us in How God Changes Your Brain, slow, deep breathing replenishes neural energy and reduces stress. Take a breath, and instantly you will feel more centered and ready to connect.

Words

A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world. Through the opening of the mouth, we bring out sounds from the mountain beneath the soul. These sounds are words.