When The Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening Of Ancient Memories - Softcover

Merriam, Dena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0578766825 ISBN 13: 9780578766829

Publisher: SitaRam Press, 2021

Synopsis

When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exist within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story.

About this title

About the Author

Dena Merriam is a renowned international interfaith leader and was Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious Leaders at the UN. She convened a meeting of women spiritual leaders also at the UN and founded the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) in 2002. For 45 years she has been a student of Paramahansa Yogananda. She holds an MS from Columbia University. In 2014 she won the Niwano Peace Prize for her interfaith peace efforts. She is the author of My Journey Through Time: A Spiritual Memoir, The Untold Story of Sita, and When the Bright Moon Rises.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I awoke to find myself in an unfamiliar place, very beautiful but unknown to me. Slowly sitting up, I glanced around me. The landscape was vibrant with color―luscious flowering trees, fragrant meadows, forests in the distance. Taking in the scene before me, I noticed many wonderous beings, but they were not at all familiar and I was not fully present. Memories of my last birth on earth clung to me like wet leaves, refusing to let go. I was neither here nor there, but somewhere in between, and yet here I was, aware that I had been released from earthly life. As I was wondering how to proceed, I heard a voice call me, but I looked around and no one was present. The name called was not the one of the earthly body I had left behind, but the name I was known by in this world. Again, I heard my name being called, “Usha.”

That is me, I thought, but who is calling me? I knew that I still had the form of my last birth, a woman named Meihua, but hers was an identity I didn't want to keep. It had been a lonely life and I was glad to be free. I wanted to return to the form of Usha. I wanted to find Satya, my companion in this world of light. Then I realized it was he who was calling me, but how to find him? Slowly I stood up and wondered which direction to take, when my feet spontaneously began walking toward the forest in the distance, as if some force was pulling me there. As I walked, I glanced around and became aware of the joy of all the beings passing me. It felt as if a momentous event was soon to happen, but I didn't have that joy within me. I should not be here, I thought, as I have not yet subdued the memories. I need to find Satya. He is the one who helps free me from whatever clings to me from my last birth.

I hurried toward the forest, noticing that many of the beautiful beings were casting caring glances my way, as if gazing at me with sympathy. They must see the sorrow shading my heart, I thought. I felt enclosed in a shadow, a cloak of sadness, and wondered if they could see it. Of course they can, I thought to myself. In this world nothing is hidden, but I knew that those feelings of sadness would soon fall away and become like a dream.

Edition details

• Publisher: SitaRam Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0578766825
• ISBN 13: 9780578766829
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 431