Om Gum Gunapatayai Namaha

I've been working with this mantra for the last month of so after reading Thomas Ashley-Farrand's Healing Mantras. It's a Ganesha mantra. Ganesh is the Hindu elephant god, remover of all obstacles.
I have come to believe that elephants are my totem animal. I've collected them since first recieving a stuffed elephant, which I still have, for my first birthday. And in a shamanic healing journey I did recently, an ancient elephant appeared with some important teachings.
But what I wanted to blog about this morning is the idea of obstacles. It's recommended that one begin by reciting the mantra for a period of 40 days. When I first began reciting this mantra, I wasn't really clear in my mind exactly what obstacles I was hoping to remove. I simply had the sense that because of the recent shamanic work I should honor Ganesh in some way, and this seemed the perfect way. As I've worked with the mantra a few things have become clear to me.
Obstacles are really a figment of our imaginations and perceptions. What appears to be an obstacle may actually be a path. And, that because we tend to view things as obstacles rather than opportunities we forget to see the many occurances that are free of obstruction, easily negotiated and flowing in our lives. It takes some practice, and I'm not doing particularly well at it, but a simple change of perspective, awareness, mindfulness about what's going well from day to day is a big eye opener. More goes right than wrong, even when it feels exactly the opposite.
The only real obstacle in our way is ourselves. I feel this day to day, as I contemplate exactly what is in my way. It often appears to be other people and events I can't control. But I am getting a stronger and stronger sense, that even if I can't actually identify how I am in my own way, or what I am doing that blockades me, my spiritual progress, my development as a human being in this lifetime -- the only thing I need pray for in the form of mantra is that the path to myself be open. Perhaps more specifically, the path to my heart. That my heart be free from obstacles. That my being be free from obstacles. That my life be expressed as an anti-obstacle.
Not even sure what that means exactly. It's my morning reverie. Still something to mull over.
I did some gallery going yesterday and will post pics and reactions in my next post. The obstacle to getting that accomplished in this exact moment, is the ultimate illusion: time.