posted June 14, 2004 10:37 PM         

I know nothing about rosaries execpt they are a Catholic tradition for prayer and meditation. I may even have gotten that wrong; if so, my apologies.

How are they used in a non Catholic manner?

juniperb

posted June 15, 2004 02:46 AM         

Hi Rosarylady,

That newspaper reporter called me about you. Wanted to know how the Dalai Lama got one of your rosaries? He was amazed that we've given them to so many people all over the world. Did you show him the map of the world with all the pins in? Every sacred site you could imagine. Well done.

Great photo of you hanging your rosaries on the trees. Were those glow in the dark ones?

Hi Special,

Since nobody seemed to have any interesting visitors. I am now asking about visions and rosaries. Rosarylady has wanted me to write a book for years and has shared some really amazing stories. We've had great fun with the rosaries, especially the glow in the dark ones. Can you just imagine coming across tons of them, glowing in the dark, hanging like icicles from ghostly tree limbs in a forest somewhere totally unexpected?

I spooked myself really badly one night, I forgot that I draped them in my own woods and freaked out.

posted June 15, 2004 05:44 AM         

Thanks for sharing, I'd Love to purchase your rosaries! Would you please send me details how? I can imagine how you must feel, I love giving things away. I can believe what you say about Gia, she facinates me with her experiences, and I've only known her under a month on LL!

Gia, thanks for introducing Rosarylady funny you mentioned the Dalai Lama, I just bought 'The Four Noble Truths'.

I can understand the migration to visions and rosaries - how exciting! I'm sure you'll get many more beautiful experiences with this.

Would you have those photographs of the rosaries on the trees? Would love to see them!

Love
Special

posted June 15, 2004 08:26 AM         

thanks, gia, for bringing this up. i've been doing some work with dying people and decided recently that i should learn the rosary to help comfort the catholics whose paths cross with mine. rosarylady, do you have any suggestions on how to learn the catholic rosary? do i need to have a catholic person teach me or is it something i can do from reading about it?

posted June 15, 2004 09:31 AM         

XB and Gin, I found a link that you may find useful. Almost half way down is a link labelled 'How to Pray the Rosary'
http://www.tsunyotakohet.com/rosary.htm

Beautiful site

posted June 15, 2004 10:01 PM         

Xelena Ben - bless you for the work you are doing with the dying. It takes a special person to get that calling. I know I couldn't so I do my small part by giving rosaries to people such as you. The site that Special mentioned www.tsunyotakohet.com/rosary is a wonderful site that gives away rosaries and also has a link on how to say it. Thank you Special for adding that.

The origins of prayer beads predate Christian times. There has been evidence of the use of prayer beads in ancient Mexican history and in Hindu, Buddhist and Roman cultures. There is a rosary group in the US within the Episcopal church (Protestant religion) called the Society of Mary, that prays the rosary the same as Catholics. This is somewhat unusual as most Protestant religions do not hold Mary in the same high esteem as do Catholics.

While looking through my files for a site on the prayers of the rosary I ran across an excerpt from the book Ayurveda: A Life of Balance.

If one bead on a rosary represents one's present lifetime, the rest of the beads on the thread are our past and future lives. The rosary as a whole, being more than the sum of its parts, holds the collective memories of all species in the cosmos. When we meditate, we can invoke cognitive memory, we can access the timeless past and future, and intrinsically know the present. The antics of the body and mind have been quiet enough for a splinter of truth to unveil itself and for a moment we are linked, ever so frailly, to another bead on the rosary of cognitive memory. It is through our endless capacity for distraction and superficial countenances, that we can so easily lose access to our inner guide, cognitive memory. It is this memory that can guide us through the beads of all our lives, until the mala of all existence is complete and we merge with the consciousness of the universe.

That really felt right to me. As far as the prayers, I have a friend who says a special mantra on each bead. I think it is the intention you put behind whatever you say that is important. I have been saying the rosary for the last 30 years and since I know the prayers by rote I find that I am not even conscious of what I am saying sometimes and I have to put in more of an effort to be with each prayer. But then again I know that it is my intention of sending loving thoughts to a person or situation that is important.

posted June 16, 2004 04:18 AM         

I loved the bit from The Life of Balance. It was a very informative read. I'll ring you in a day or two and we'll chit chat some more about it.

Did I tell you Special and I are connected in so many different ways? She says a stranger gave her Rosary last year. Remember where I was last year? I took some with me and left a few about in London... could it possibly be?

Where was it given to you Special?

Xelena Ben,

Yes, I second everything R.L. has said. You have great

All prayer beads are good tools and Rosarylady makes non traditional ones for all faiths. She'll help all she can. She's one of a kind. I always joke around that her life review will take forever, and people behind her will get bored and decide to go to hell instead!

I did some hospice work when I first arrived. It was hard. I tried not to take it home but it was impossible. I lasted just over six months and I was emotionally exhausted. I cried not at their passing, but for all their unrealized hopes and dreams. A few months later R.L. and I were stirring up trouble in an old folks home. Having wheelchair races in the local park.

Rosarylady has her rosaries everywhere even the local MRI machine has one. They do bring comfort and also miracles. Yes, it's true.

posted June 16, 2004 07:15 AM         

Thanks for the contact details, I shall mail you soon!

Gia, the rosary was given to me by a bus driver at the bus station in Reading. It was strange and lovely how he gave it to me since I was recently thinking about finding one from somewhere! I was working for a music agency and things weren't going so smoothly!

Xelena Ben, your work is amazing I have a great need to help people / animals and have been thinking deeply about the form it will take. I know I will do it, but not right now. Nowadays I seem to hardly have time to gather my thoughts! The constant battle with time, eh?

posted June 18, 2004 02:43 PM         

rosarylady (or maybe it should just be rosy lady!) - wow. thank you so much for that beautiful version of prayer bead meditation - right up my alley! and perfect timing. but i bet you've gotten good at that in you line of "work"

special - thank you for the link - i'll check it out. as for your desire to help others, well, you're already doing it here! and somehow i'm just sure you have an incredible smile that you share freely with all those in your path!

gia - thanks again for bringing so many fascinating topics up for discussion. i usually don't post a whole lot, but so many of your topics have resonated with me lately - nice to feel on the same wavelength.

i know what you mean about the hospice work. i've been lucky that most of my *friends* have been more content than not with the lives they have led. unfortunately, this morning i attended a funeral for one of my dad's best friends who he'd known since grade school. he was fifty and died suddenly of a heart attack - two weeks after giving the eulogy at his own fathers funeral. he has three beautiful teenage daughters... and this sunday is Father's Day. :blueheart: and his poor wife is trying to be strong, but how can she be? i've never been so close to feeling my heart break. i wish i could take some of their pain for them - it must be just unbearable. today i'm feeling like, compared to that, having a chance to say goodbye to a loved one in hospice care - while not easy - looks like a good option.

soory - just needed to get that off (out of) my chest. thanks

namaste,

posted June 18, 2004 03:40 PM         

Remember, you've got an angel

posted June 19, 2004 02:02 PM         

I'll light a candle during my meditation and say a little prayer for them all.

posted June 20, 2004 10:17 PM         

i really did feel like he was there at his service, especially outside in the cemetery - it was a misty, overcast day - very solemn weather, but beautiful as well. he would've loved it

rosarylady, i came to a similar conclusion after Friday's event - "we need to treat all the loved ones in our lives as if it were our last days on earth" - thanks for putting it into words.

namaste,

xb