How to Better Close
Each Day In Peace
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Prayers are never
used in theosophy to ask for personal favours. Instead, they express active
decisions and commitments which the individual makes with himself.
An effective prayer consists of clear and well-defined
thoughts. It helps organize one’s own will and is based on the philosophical
principles of self-knowledge, self-respect and self-responsibility. It is
helpful when used to begin something, and also in closing and completing any
period of activity.
The way things finish is as important as the manner
they start. The end of a week, the close of a month and the last days of a year
constitute occasions to evaluate what was done and how. Lessons must be
extracted, and the decision renewed to do one’s best.
Everything is cyclic. Life evolves in spirals: the
last step of each phase prepares the first step in the phase that follows. The final
thoughts before sleeping influence more than just the quality of one’s sleep
and dreams. They help determine the substance of the awakening in next morning.
It is correct, therefore, to direct them in a conscious and creative way, with
a sense of responsibility regarding the effects which they will provoke. A
prayer is a way to set a direction for consciousness in the exact moment of
transition into rest.
How to Improve the Quality of Sleep
The 24 hours cycle is an indivisible whole: the
quality of sleep is determined by one’s consciousness in the waking state. The wider context of one’s daily life must therefore
be examined and improved. It is a healthy habit to sleep early. In the hours previous
to physical rest, one should avoid stressful activities or thoughts which
involve emotional conflict. One must get up in the right time and proper way at
the beginning of each journey.[1]
Fulfilling one’s duty during the day makes it easier
to sleep involved in a soul-level atmosphere of confidence and relaxation, and
correct action naturally tends to occur if one combines noble intentions with personal
detachment and a sharp discernment of right and wrong.
The Prayer Before Going to Sleep can be said
with contemplative pauses which will have a varying duration. The moments of
silence must be as long as they are useful for the practitioner. The right
measure must be sensed. Their duration will be potentially different at each new
practice: pauses can be made in different points according to the significance
of one idea or other in the closing of each particular day.
It is correct to record ideas and commentaries in the
margins of the paper where the prayer was printed.
The practice of saying the word AUM (pron. “OM”) is a way
to evoke the law of universal harmony.
The “holy word” of the Eastern tradition must be
pronounced in a selfless and altruistic state of mind; otherwise; it would harm
the practitioner, and perhaps severely so.
The AUM can be pronounced for some four to five
seconds. Surprisingly to some, the end of the sound must be quick, not
prolonged. Among other effects, the sound of the AUM expands serenity. Those who
love each other may want to practice the following prayer together.[2]
A Prayer Before Going to Sleep
1)
Om...
2) It’s the time to rest now, and I decide to conclude
in peace the small incarnation that I had today. I say thanks to every part of
my physical body, for the work faithfully done. I’m grateful to
each cell of this body. Free from
objective tasks, I accept the presence of happiness in my heart.
3) I now renounce to all desire. Tiredness is welcome. I
experience serenity. I know I am a part of the universal law, and the law is my
refuge.
4) Here and now, the point of balance in my being
consists in the feeling of self-respect and respect for all beings. Love is
like the light of the Sun and the stars. It guides each living being. Through
universal love one finds the happiness of peace.
5) I call upon my higher self, my guardian angel, the inner master of each day. He made me be
born. He guides me every time I can hear his voice. His voice flows above the plane of reality where words
exist.
6) The voice of my Master, my soul’s voice, is the voice
of the sacred Silence. I am a vehicle of the immortal aura which surrounds and
inspires me. In
this aura I live. I find peace in it. Its harmony
is eternal and it is alive here and now. It protects me.
7) Om... Shanti. Peace.
NOTES:
[1] See the text “How to Start the Day”, by Carlos Cardoso
Aveline, which can be found at our associated websites.
[2] After a few weeks (or months) of a daily practice in
which one reads the text in paper, it is correct to evoke the inner and living
spirit of this prayer, that is, the mental
state it produces. Even so, it will be necessary to come back to reading
the text from time to time.
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On the role of the esoteric movement in
the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical
Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.

Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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