September 29, 2012 Saturday, Co-Creating with Spirit Workshop
Co-Creating with Spirit Workshop
(This transcript not fully reviewed by everyone who spoke.
Also, there is a serious problem with the digital recorder and much has been lost. I have tried to fill in as much as possible, mostly from Aaron’s memory)
Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. There are perhaps a few of you who have not met me before. Thank you for being here with me. I love you.
Have you read the material that was emailed out?(most say yes)Those of you without computer access, or who did not receive it, we have a few copies. I dictated this to Barbara several months ago, as we were planning this series of workshops. This was what I planned to say, but having dictated it and you’ve almost all read it, it doesn’t make sense to repeat what you’ve already read. Let’s start fresh.
You are spirit. I am spirit. The trees out these windows are spirit. There’s a beautiful photograph of the construction of this building in the woods. When the photograph was taken, the roof was not finished. There were just beams and the tall trees overhead. The woods felt so welcoming, enclosing this space. It was not a feeling that the building violated the forest, but the forest spirit was welcoming this space and blessing it.
So spirit is all around you and within you. Co-creating is a bit of a misnomer. When we co-create, it means there are two or three or a thousand of us. But in reality there is only one; you are a part of that one and I am a part of that one. We are all expressions of that one. An expression can be radiant and stand tall, or it can be shrunken, enclosed, and trembling. We each want the expression that we are to be as clear and radiant as possible, uncontracted.
Consider the lotus blooming on the lake. In the summer there are hundreds of water lilies down by the shore, yellow ones, white ones, opening and blossoming into the sunshine. You are all like those water lilies, all grounded in the same lake, growing up and into the sunshine. And you are all mediums. At first we were calling this mediumship training, many months ago. I changed the title. But you are all mediums, and you are all learning how to be ever-clearer mediums. What is it you wish to bring through?
If you are a chef, are you going to content yourself with just throwing something together so people’s immediate hunger is fed? Or are you going to attempt to give them the most nutritious and delicious meal possible? It’s extra work to do that, perhaps. That’s part of dana, of generosity, the generosity of spirit that wants to give in the most loving and clear way.
There’s another part to this. I call you angels in earth suits. You are radiant and angelic beings, and you also wear the earth suit with the physical body that’s sometimes heavy and painful, the emotional body, likewise, and a mind that’s sometimes spinning and turbulent. These physical, emotional, and mental bodies are part of the earth suit. You inherited them when you came into incarnation, and your work is to wear them in as loving a way as you can, but not to be afraid when the body aches, the mind is turbulent or the emotions are raw. This is part of the human experience, and it teaches you compassion.
You are not here to be immaculate and perfect. You are here to learn love. Your commitment to mediumship is one path to learning compassion and love, because you have an instant barometer, as a medium. When you are a medium trying to transmit something but filled with anger, the results are unpleasant. When as a medium you are transmitting from a loving place, the results are much more pleasant and satisfying for all.
Imagine if you were that chef cooking the soup with a lot of anger. “I don’t want to be here.” Put a little too much pepper in it. Not enjoy cooking; just not offering it loving energy. This just is not going to taste so good. But when you cook with love, then you are being a medium for more than just the nutritious broth, but for the loving energy within it.
If somebody comes to you in pain, feeling anger, perhaps anger at something you did or said, the first intuitive response might be to want to place the blame elsewhere, to protect the self. If one is not aware of that anger, it will poison the conversation. But when one is deeply aware, “Anger is present in me,” one can also know “Light and love are present in me.” If the sun overhead goes behind a cloud, you do not say, “The sun has disappeared.” You simply know the sun is behind a cloud. It’s still there. It will come back out. Anger is like a cloud. The loving heart is always there. So your work is to learn how to break through the clouds so the loving heart can shine forth evermore strongly.
When there is anger, fear, greed, impatience, jealousy, pride, whatever, we learn to watch it without so much self-identity with it, and without self-condemnation that it has arisen. People on a spiritual path sometimes say, “I won’t be angry.” And then something triggers the anger. “No, I won’t be angry.” That is just more anger.
Walking without your shoes here in this room, if you stepped barefoot on a tack, there would be blood and a bit of pain. Would you say, “I won’t have blood. I won’t have pain.”? You can be quite tender to the physical body and acknowledge, this is how the physical body is. But when a negative emotion or thought arises, you say, “I won’t have that thought,” rather than “Oh, this has come and I’ll take care of it.”
Once, when Barbara was teaching in another state, she was staying in the home where there was a young child, a little boy who was playing with his Lego blocks. They wouldn’t stick together. Barbara was sitting in the room and reading. The boy finally picked it up and threw it against the wall. Barbara said, “You look angry.” He said, “Yes, I am angry.” So she walked over and sat down next to him. She said, “Can I help you?” He said, “I’m taking care of my anger.” He had his fists clenched, he was breathing hard. When she asked if she could sit with him, he nodded yes. For five minutes, slowly the face unclenched, the breathing quieted. She just sat and breathed with him. And after about 5 minutes, he looked up at her with a smile and said, “I’m all done; we can play now.”
You all have that capacity. How many of you have read Barbara’s bookCosmic Healing?(Most)There’s a chapter in the book called “Trainings”. This is a teaching that I gave to Barbara 9 or 10 years ago. I dictated it to her at the Casa. We were talking about the evolution of consciousness, and how in long-ago times many of you had the ability and were trained to the ability to do what this little boy could do. But you have forgotten and shifted yourself, in part because of your deep aspiration to be loving. You have shifted yourself into negative states where you say, “I won’t be angry. I won’t have fear. I won’t have greed.” rather than just taking care of it.
There are two problems with that. Let me not use the word “problem”—there are no problems, only situations that ask your loving attention. There are two considerations with this. One is that you move into the habitual tendency to be negative toward the self, which is a form of negativity. And the second is that that negativity in itself impedes the evolution of consciousness that you are seeking. So you are seeking to be loving beings, and trying to get there by practicing some self-negativity. Sometimes negativity to others, too, by saying, “I won’t be negative to others. I’m bad if I am.” Instead of “Oh, this has arisen out of conditions and I will take care of it.”
Your whole universe is in transition; this earth upon which you live and all beings upon this earth are in transition, into what we call fourth density. Right now, as humans, you are third density beings, although many of you have already moved through some of this transition. Fourth density, I think, will be short-lived, and you’ll be moving on into fifth density. So you are part of this universal transition of consciousness.
Cosmic Healinghas a clear chart of states and stages of consciousness, which will help you understand the transition. You are all moving through rational consciousness into what is traditionally called vision-logic consciousness, and finally on to non-dual consciousness; out of the state of mundane consciousness into supramundane consciousness; into a consciousness that’s grounded in non-duality and love.
There are negatively polarized beings in the universe that feed off of fear and hatred, and they would like to see the Earth evolve into a negatively polarized planet, a place grounded in fear and pain. So many of you have come to help shepherd the Earth into a positively polarized consciousness, into positively polarized fourth density. But then you come into the human body and human emotions and you forget that your commitment was to love, including the self, so you fall into feelings of negativity. None of this is bad; it’s simply part of the human experience, and part of your deeper learning of compassion.
As we work with mediumship training and co-creating with spirit, the starting place is to look at the places in each person where there is a habitual tendency to some form of negativity, and to use those, not as something wrong with you, but as a place for learning. A beautiful catalyst, a gift given you, even if uncomfortable, that will help you remember that you are divine, that your heart is light, and that you can rest in that light.
We start here, because before we move into where we will go in the next gathering here, next month, we want to work within the self to the point that you are able to feel comfortable opening yourself to spirit, and know that you’re inviting in highly positive polarized beings and not negative. If you leave an opening, negativity will come in. If we open the doors here and shout, “Free beer!” we will have a different turnout than if we open the doors and say, “Come in, we have a spiritual lesson going on, a chance to offer love.” Those looking for the beer will go elsewhere.
The formation of intention is so important. State and know your highest intention, holding that intention so as to be able to offer it out lovingly in the world. Invite co-creation with highly positively polarized entities, rather than getting caught up with the negative. It’s not hard to do. It takes remembering and practice.
I’m going to demonstrate an interesting practice from Tai Chi called “pushing arms,” because life is constantly full of pushes. Something pushes at you and you pull back from it, you shrink away, or you bluster and try to push it back. But there is a third way. And so we can use this whole exercise as a metaphor. There are too many of you to do it here indoors, but if the weather is nice we may do it outdoors at some point today.
(demonstration)
Arm up like this, and you’re going to push me. I might either push back that’s one possibility – or, collapse with the push, another possibility. You see in your lives that sometimes you do one and sometimes you do the other. Sometimes you run away or collapse, sometimes you push back. But there’s a third possibility…(Aaron is now “dancing” with the pushes, just releasing them gently and standing quite relaxed)I just let her keep pushing. I’m not getting tangled up in it. Her push goes past me. Keep pushing hard. I can just stand here and keep talking forever. Eventually she’ll exhaust herself, because I’m not getting pulled into it. There’s no emotional story, “Oh, I’m being pushed! What should I do?” Just relaxed. But if she keeps pushing and it gets to be unpleasant, I can just step away. If she feels moved to follow me, she will. She’ll just keep pushing.(Aaron walking away; pusher running after an trying to keep pushing; laughter)
You get the idea. Thank you…
We all have certain stories in which we get quite caught. For many, it’s a story about being unworthy, not good enough in some way. I should be kind, or I should be more patient. I should be more skillful, wiser. For some it’s a story of, I must take care of everything. The caretaker, the one who always has to get it right, be perfect, take care of others. “I’m exhausted but I shouldn’t mind that. I need to keep going. I need to take care of everyone.” It can move into control, having it all be my way.
We learn how to note that these stories arise, not get caught in them, just to say, “Ah, here’s that same familiar story.” Gradually what we do is to get to know these experiences of feelings of unworthiness, needing to be in control. We start to see the fear and pain behind them. And we open our hearts to ourselves instead of condemning ourselves.
There’s a beautiful story about the Tibetan saint Milarepa. He’s meditating in his cave when the demons of fear, greed, rage, appear. They are hideous. They have big fangs and bulging eyes. The flesh hangs from the bones and gore drips out. There’s a foul stench. They make hideous sounds. Milarepa has been meditating; he opens his eyes, looks at them, and says, “Oh, I’ve been expecting you. Come sit by my fire, have tea.” “Aren’t you afraid of us?” they ask. “No. Your hideous appearance only reminds me to be aware, to have mercy. Sit by my fire and have tea.”
So the beginning of learning to co-create with spirit is to establish oneself deeply in one’s intention to loving kindness and non-harm, including the self in that compassionate intention. And to invite one’s demons, whichever are the most frequent visitors, to invite them in for tea. Just to make peace with them instead of hating or fearing them, or trying to get rid of them. We start there, simply making friends with our demons.
A poem by Rumi.
This human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness.
Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house clean of furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be cleaning you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
So we start with the intention, whatever the highest intention is for you. To be of service, to be loving, to live your life in a compassionate and wise way, to do no harm to any being. And then we watch the experiences of the human, and the places where anger and fear and greed arise. And like our little boy, we say, “I’ll take care of that.” We learn how to simply make space for it. We make a bigger container.
My favorite metaphor for the making of this bigger container. Imagine yourself sitting in a small box, just big enough to sit in. Here I come with a bag full of tarantulas, and I’m going to put a tarantula in your box. Can you see that you wouldn’t even let me approach? You’d run out of the room screaming. (If you happen to be a lover of tarantulas, picture it as a snake.) Now envision that box stretched out, 10 feet on a side. Can you see the possibility, as I put the tarantula down on the floor in the far corner, and there’s nothing in the box, no place for him to hide, that you might stay in there for a second or two until he starts to run, and then you jump out?
Now picture yourself in a space the size of this room and completely empty. No furniture, nothing, just empty space, a completely clear floor. You’re sitting in one corner and I put him down in the other corner. Can you see how in this bigger container it’s possible to sit there and watch him move? When he gets half way, two thirds of the way across the room, you pick yourself up and go to the far corner again. You may do that all day or all week, gradually letting him come closer. There’s space to be there with this “demon.” I’m not calling tarantulas demons. They’re really very lovely, kind creatures, for the most part. But in your heart, you often see them as demons.
We start to befriend the demon through giving ourselves more space. We’re going to teach you some meditation practice, how to work with this kind of space and support it. So I want you to understand the reason why we’re starting here, because all of you are angels. All of you have this innate radiance and love. But if you’re going to co-create, you want to be sure that you’re offering that co-creation from the place of love and not closing it back into the old habit energy that wants to push or run away. This work takes mindfulness and remembering: what is my highest intention? Can I hold deeply to that highest intention?
Here is a very simply practice called clear comprehension: begin by asking, ”what is my highest intention?” Then clear comprehension of suitability: “is what I’m about to say or do suitable to that intention?” And if not, can you see the old habitual patterning that’s there and know you can get off this treadmill? “She’s pushing me, she’s pushing me, and I’ve always pushed back. It’s not suitable to my highest purpose. Maybe I don’t want to push back.”
It’s helpful to see that our experience comes in increments. Sometimes it feels like there’s just a push and rage and we’re gone. We get caught up in the rage. The old habitual patterns take over. And we don’t have much space.
I’d like you to try an exercise with me. We’re going to start by holding the arm out, perhaps palm up, straight out. Not bent but straight out. There will be some physical sensation that arises—heavy, aching, uncomfortable. Can you note the direct physical sensation? Just muscles feeling heavy. For some of you it will happen quickly; for others, not so quickly. Feel the heaviness, heavy, heavy, throbbing, aching, pulling. There’s a point where that physical sensation is no longer what’s predominant in your experience, but the unpleasantness. Can you feel that it shifts? In the beginning it was not unpleasant, but is it unpleasant now? If it’s unpleasant, know it’s unpleasant. Unpleasant sensation, unpleasant feeling about the sensation or thought or emotion, can shift into aversion. Aversion is the “I don’t want this.” Wanting to push back, wanting to make it go away.
Show me with your other hands, how many are at a stage where you would like the discomfort in the other arm to go away?(many hands raised)This is the feeling of aversion. Can you follow the progression? First, just sensation, then unpleasant feeling, and then aversion. Often people are taught to stay with the pain, but that becomes a way of avoiding the aversion.
Now begin to look within yourself, with your arm still out, still heavy, still unpleasant, how do I habitually respond when there’s aversion? Is there self-judgment? Some of you are probably experiencing the thought, “Ishouldn’tmind this. Ishouldbe patient and open-hearted.” Are you trying to get away from the aversion by simply going back into the body and the feeling? Are you trying to meditate yourself out of it into a high, open space? Where do you habitually go with aversion?
Wherever you go, instead put your other hand over your heart. Breathing in, I am aware of the discomfort. Breathing out, I smile to the discomfort. Breathing in, I am aware of the aversion. Breathing out, I smile to the aversion. Keep breathing, what our little boy was doing, opening the heart. Can there be compassion for this human that’s experiencing an unpleasant physical sensation, discomfort, and aversion to the discomfort? Truly open the heart with compassion for this human experience.
Can you feel a shift in the nature of the sensation? It’s still uncomfortable, but you’re not armored against it. You’re relaxed and spacious with it. You may put your arms down. Could you feel that shift? Some yes, some no. This is where we’re going, to an opening in which we see how physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts do come. They are either pleasant or unpleasant. When they’re pleasant, we want to hold on to them. Perhaps the smell of something delicious cooking. “Mmm, I like that! I wonder what’s baking. Maybe I’ve done enough in here now. Maybe I’ll go into the kitchen. Maybe they have something for me.” Grasping, wanting. The smell of a skunk. “Mmm, foul smell. It burns. I want to get rid of it. Why is this happening to me?” So the different stories come. We keep coming back to this centered place, offering compassion to this human. It is in so doing that you set the ground for positive polarity based in the self.
Here in is the very strong intention not to get caught up in the various negative thoughts, stories, and beliefs that come through. Here’s a simple example. The hand is out. Discomfort. The thought, “I shouldn’t mind this. Nobody else seems to mind it. I’m just no good.” Ah, here’s a story; one of Milarepa’s demons. Just give it tea. I don’t have to get caught up in the story. Don’t believe everything you think. The thought comes up, it’s just a thought. It’s no different than the drop of blood on the foot when you step on the tack. It has arisen out of conditions. Don’t make a self-identity with it. Somebody pushes. Pushing back. Push again. “I won’t push back. Why are people always pushing me?” And then, perhaps some self-identity with the story again. It’s just a story. It’s just a thought. Ah, here’s another one. Give it tea. Relaxing and finding an open space with whatever has arisen.
So again, it is in this way, with this kind of practice, that we ground ourselves into a deeply loving, positive polarity. And it is from that base that we are able to invite in co-creation with other loving positively polarized spirit.
Some negative polarity will announce itself with hatred and rage. But other negative polarity, especially, for example, a negatively polarized entity, an entity like myself, of high sixth density but negatively polarized, will be subtle. Such an entity is not going to come in preaching hatred and rage so much as giving little hints. “You know, that person who pushed you, they really shouldn’t have done that. There’s something bad about that person. You really ought to tell that person off. You need to shut them out of your life, close yourself off from such people.” So it can be subtle and sneaky.
It’s your deep commitment to living your life with love, with harm to no being. Whatever commitments you make, each of you into yourself, your highest intentions, it is these that ground you and allow you, when an impulse comes up to blame somebody else, to say, “Well, I’m also partially responsible.” A neighbor comes over yelling, “Your dog defecated on my lawn.” He’s screaming at you. He’s really abusive. And it’s the first time in 10 years that it’s ever happened. There’s the impulse to say, “What’s wrong with him?” But you also have to know, “Yes, I guess my dog did defecate on his lawn.” Tell him, “I’m sorry, I’ll go and clean it up.” Watch that which wants to blame rather than take responsibility.
Working in this way there must be a deep willingness to take personal responsibility. I’m stating this from my perspective as spirit. Connie and Daniel have offered to share a bit of their thoughts about this from the perspective of the human. So perhaps one or both of you will come up and talk just for a few minutes about how you work with this from the human perspective. And then we’re going to come back and do a guided meditation, working with seeing the arising of negative thoughts or sensations and the importance of taking personal responsibility for clarifying one’s intentions.
(The group takes a moment to stretch.)
Daniel: Welcome back. Let’s just take a deep breath and re-center ourselves into this precious moment together. This wonderful space that we’re co-creating.
One of the first steps to consider in being responsible for creating our intentions is to accept the responsibility to be responsible. Which means, it truly is our job to co-create. Some people like to leave it to the spirit guides to decide what’s best for you. And indeed that’s a wonderful way to do it, but please include yourself in that. Take responsibility for the information you’re given. Is this truly in your highest and best interest? And know that creating your intentions for the highest and the best good of all is an ongoing, evolving process. So be flexible in whatever you co-create. Morphology is goodology. (?) Probably that’s all you’ll remember! And with that, I leave you.
Aaron/Barbara: We’re going to spend some time now, 15, 20 minutes, meditating together. The basic practice is called vipassana. The wordpassanain the Pali language, from which this practice comes, means seeing, to see. Andvipassanameans a deeper clearer seeing, to see deeply. When we see deeply, we see both the habitual tendencies: the clouds that pass by the clear sky, and we also see deeply into the clear sky itself. We start to know the self is of the nature of that innate radiance and clarity. And we acknowledge clouds do pass by, and I have the ability to take care of them.
I like the metaphor of a window. If a window becomes very dirty, covered with mud, do we take a hammer and break it out to put in new glass? Why would we do that? We take a warm soapy bucket and sponge and we wash the window. We also don’t simply leave the dirt on the window and say, “Well, I guess we can’t see in and out anymore.” We wash it. We note the window has acquired a coat of dirt. But the glass is innately pure and clear. We don’t have to get rid of the glass, we just clean off the dirt.
In this form of meditation, we are given the opportunity to attend to the habitual streaks of dirt that come by, looking at the ongoing patterns that are repetitive
(recording breaks up and there is silence for the remaining 10 minutes of the digital file)
Inserted by Barbara: we are having digital recorder problems and working to get a new recording device in place before the next workshop. Meanwhile please go to this link for more on vipassana.
http://deepspring.org/Meditation/vipassanainstructions.html
Barbara: So we watch sensations and thoughts and emotions, to some degree, arise and pass away without so much self-involvement with them. It’s a practice that takes a lot of training. We get better at it as time goes on. It’s a practice that can open into our whole lives and really change our lives, change the way we react in the world, and allow us to honor and live our intentions.
For example, I have a personal intention never to harm any living being. I also have a lifelong dread of spiders. Often I’m down on the dock on the lake. In the summer I sit there and meditate early in the morning. And then I feel this little something crawling on my hand, and the strong impulse energy is to do that (flings away). Immediately, if I’m not mindful– slap, I’ll kill the spider. If I watch, I watch tickling, touching. Thought– it’s not an unpleasant touch, it’s the thought, “A spider!” Thinking, spider, unpleasant, anger, fear, vulnerability. Wanting to hit. What is my highest purpose? If it’s to do no harm, then hitting the spider is not appropriate to my intention, but it’s okay to brush it off.
So I brush him off. I might walk down off the dock onto the grass. Usually I can’t stay with him long, there’s too much discomfort. So I just brush him off, and I gather him up in a cup or pail or something and carry him back to where the grass is. But because I know my intention and because I’m practicing being present in each moment and knowing what’s coming up in this mind and body, I’m able to live more clearly to my intention.
Now, the point here is, if I can kill the spider, I’m opening a door to negative polarity that’s self-centered and says whatIwant is most important. That opens the door to negatively polarized energy. If I start doing that, then instead of bringing Aaron in, when he incorporates I’m going to start bringing in a negatively polarized entity posing as Aaron, because I’ve opened the door by not being honest about my feelings, my fear, by acting out negative impulses to harm another. So we really have to become impeccable with this.
I don’t want to scare you. There are negatively polarized entities. There are positively polarized entities. As we work here together, we’re sitting in a very guarded chamber of light with many loving beings protecting us, and nothing strongly negative is going to come into this space as we work together. But you do have to take responsibility. If your intention is to work with loving kindness in the world, then you’ve got to be responsible to the inevitable negative thoughts and impulses that will come, and to take care of them. Remember the little boy sitting there saying, “I’m taking care of my anger.” If a 4 year old can do it, we can do it. But it’s not always easy.
I remember, this is probably 10 or more years ago, Hal and I wanted to go canoeing on the Huron River. We drove to the place where the canoes are rented. There was some kind of music festival going on at the other end of the park. There was not a parking space anywhere. It was a hot afternoon. I had been working hard all day and it was maybe 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and I was really looking forward to paddling a canoe around on the river for awhile.
No parking. Hal was sitting there ready to pull into a space if anybody vacated. Finally, after half an hour, somebody vacated a parking space, backed out toward us, and a car coming in from the street pulled in! I really blew it! So much rage came up. I got out of the car and went over to that car and said, “We’ve been waiting here half an hour!” “Too bad.” With that “Too bad” I just started yelling at this driver. I was so angry! Sometimes it happens.
Then I had to go back and sit in the car and say, “What was that about?” Can I be responsible for that anger? Eventually I left a little note on that person’s windshield saying he was wrong to steal that parking space, but I was sorry I yelled in such a way. That’s all I could do. So, we’re not expected to be perfect, we’re asked to be mindful and to be responsible.
We’re going to have a break now for about 20 minutes. And when we come back, either Aaron or I will talk about intention for a few minutes. And then we’re going to break into small groups, and within your groups, to ask you to share your highest intentions. Just a chance to talk about, “What is it that I aspire to most strongly in this lifetime?” Whatever your intentions are.
There are no wrong intentions. The intention, for example, to be safe, to be loved, these are fine. Your intentions don’t have to be completely service to others and giving in an unlimited way in the world. I want to be safe, but I also want all beings to be safe. I want to be loved, and I want all beings to be loved. And more specifically, I want to deepen my understanding, my energy, or my connection with spirit. I want to open my heart in places where I’m afraid or angry. Whatever kinds of intentions you carry. So I hope in small groups there will be a chance to share these intentions and to go around not just once but maybe a few times, because hearing others’ intentions may help bring yours to the surface. So that we have clarity. The practice that Aaron spoke about, clear comprehension of purpose. What is my highest purpose? Clear comprehension of suitability. We can’t know if what we’re doing is suitable to our purpose, our intentions, unless we know our intentions.
So we’ll start there. Let’s take a 20 minute break, stretch, walk around, have tea…
(break)
We are now into Saturday afternoon. Aaron will incorporate.
(Aaron incorporated and was talking; then Father John incorporated; recording breaks up and goes silent for about 3 minutes)
Mother: …And now a different energy field. I as the Mother am now in the body. My energy is softer than Aaron’s and Father John’s, but not less than theirs, just a different texture. I’m not going to ask how many can feel the change. There’s nothing wrong with you, if you don’t feel the change. Only, I want you to know that you each have the capacity to experience these different subtleties of energy, just as you have a capacity to experience different colors. It’s something that is learned. Let me give this back to Aaron, who can speak much more clearly than I can.
Aaron: I am Aaron, again. One body, different entities can enter this body. Each of us, each of you, has a distinct energy field. Sometimes you feel it more clearly than at other times, your own and other people’s. When I built up my energy a few minutes ago, many of you could feel that wave of stronger energy. What I’m doing is releasing any barriers so that my energy comes out more fully to you. I don’t want to knock people unconsciousness, here. I’m still keeping it dimmed. But you can feel it. And as I come close to you, you can feel it more. As I approach, it is a big energy field moving through the room. And in my case, with you it’s a very loving energy field.
Yes,<lost to static>. I am always loving. At times I am sometimes angry. For example, Barbara has experienced the coming in of some kind of negativity and my stopping it, not with anger but with strength that says, “No, you may not come here.” But I’m not about to be pushed over. Anger is probably not the right word for it. Strength, clarity. I know my highest intention and I’m not going to allow anything to come in and create negativity and wreak havoc in the room. But I will not stop that by fighting<static>but by such a strong force of loving kindness and compassion that, if it’s a negatively polarized being, it will leave. It doesn’t want that kind of kindness. It thrives on fear. So it leaves.
<static>So each of you has an energy field that is<static for a few seconds>. One, two, three, four. I don’t want to disassemble the whole room. Try to turn as few chairs as is possible in such a way that each of you is facing somebody… (group breaks up into chatter, recording goes back and forth between silence, static, and recording) Okay, what I want you to do… I want you to watch me and J for a minute… J is going to close his eyes and move his hands toward me until he feels my energy field. (demonstrating)
J: It’s more dense here.
Aaron: You can feel that I am enhancing it and diminishing it. Can you feel it coming and going in waves? (J: There are different textures…) For now, just feel the borders of it. You can feel it. And now, open your eyes and I’m going to close mine and feel your energy field. (demonstrating) Very clear where your energy field is. That’s all, thank you.
So with a partner, I simply want you to feel each other’s energy fields. Where does the energy start?
(20 secs of static) …the energy experience and the work with intention that you did. It is normal for the human that there be a simultaneous intention that my needs be met and the love for others and wanting others’ needs to be met. We do a practice of giving and receiving, feeling how lovely it is to give to another. Feeling the joy of receiving.
We’re going to pass the box of crystals around again. I want each pair to take one crystal. Within your pair, you will work with this crystal. You and your partner will pass the crystal, offering it to the other. Feeling the joy of that offering. Feeling any grasping, What if I don’t get it back? Now, I’m going to tell you this. Wherever it is when I ring the bell, that person may keep it! So there may be some grasping, Oh, I want it! Or perhaps some desire for the other to get it!
How does it feel to come back to your deepest intention for loving service to all beings? For sharing? Knowing non-duality and the willingness to pass it on, knowing you may not get it back. Can you work with that grasping energy in yourself with kindness and in a skillful way?
A friend in this group emailed Barbara yesterday a quote she has hanging in her kitchen, “Everything will come out right in the end. If it has not come out right, it isn’t the end.” Trust that!
So when you have a crystal, simply begin passing it back and forth at whatever speed feels appropriate, acknowledging any feeling of grasping without criticizing or judging the self. Just holding the hand on the heart. Breathing in, “Wanting, wanting.” And then the joy of giving it, and really experience the joy of giving and the joy of receiving. Go ahead, now…
(exercise)
One crystal to each pair… I’m not ringing the bell. Just a few more words of guidance from me. So pause what you are doing. Can you all feel the even little bit of contraction? And can you all feel the joy of giving?
You are a pole, like a pole into the ground, with your body, feet, deeply rooted into the earth and the lower vibrations, and your heart and higher chakras up into the heavens. You can’t deny, “Oh, I want it!– No, I won’t have that experience, I’ll stay up here.” You have to stay present with the lower chakra energies that may involve grasping and tension, and also to stay tuned into the higher chakra energies and the heart open and flowering.
As you pass it back and forth, you are<static>up and down. Now I want you to try<static/silence for a minute>and the energy of the crystal. Try to stay with both. This is essential to your<static/silence>that you are grounded and open to the highest realms, both. Practice it for a few minutes.<static/silence>
(exercise)
Thank you. Please take your seats. We’re going to go for another 15 minutes here, not even that, 10 minutes, and then have a break.
Are we recording? Yes. (tape immediately goes silentfor the remaining 8 minutes of the digital file)
Barbara: What we’re trying to introduce to you here are a number of tools that help support us living our highest intention. Bringing attention to energy in ourselves and others; watching contraction in the body. Aaron is going to talk about this next, after we talk about the chakras. Working with the elements. We’re not going to get into that today but later on this fall. These are not ways of fixing, but ways of simply inviting the whole body and emotions and energy field back into balance. We do that in a responsible way because our highest intention is to stay in balance.
I’m not sure how we want to approach this. C, D, AM? Do you want to just go over…? I want to rest my voice a little and let some of you talk about this. Do you want to just talk about the basic seven chakras and the function of each?
Anna Marie: And ask the group what they know already.
Connie: (off mic, hard to hear; also not reviewed) On one of my visits to see John of God, I had a group with me that was<>, let’s just say that, because the energy was so strong. When I walked up to the entity, he stood up,<>, and I about fell over. The energy of this entity balancing my chakras. And then he said to me, “Five crystal beds, right now.”<>And he said now, so I think he was testing me. I go to the bookstore, find 5 crystal beds right now,<>. I had to get off the bed and ground myself on the cold floor, because I thought I was going to take off like an airplane. So that should tell you how important the chakras are.
(can’t hear clearly, about Walter at Omega Institute) … (the entity) took his hands and went right up his chakras, three times, and Walter stood there like a normal person, and walked out the door. He told me that his organs, once the entity worked with the chakras, the internal organs, the liver and the kidneys stopped(malfunctioning?)So this is very important in your life.
D: My guides are asking me to share this with you. The chakras, they’re using these terms, are the jewels of the temple. The jewels of the temple. One is not more important than another, though all of us have over-developed some, underdeveloped others. And they want me to convey this to you: there’s a reason why some are underdeveloped. And they’re saying most of it was for security reasons when we were young. You can ask the chakra why it closed down or did not develop. You can put a crystal near it or on it, and that will help open<>. They’re impressing me to say, do it with grateful curiosity, not resentful judgment. “Why did you shut down? How did that help me be safe?” And once you do that, that awareness can bring it into the present moment, that that safety may not be needed in the same way now. And then they can expand.
AM: (off mic) So in the same way, whenever we’re working with our energy fields, we’re always resting in as much of a loving space for ourselves as we can. To more ask our bodies what they are trying to tell us, and work with that from intention and love. Not from will, in the solar plexus, which is the place we’re usually working from which says, “I’m gonna fix that. Let me fix you right there. I think you’re broken.” Right?
So we want to move from this will space more toward our heart space and intention. And that is the space, which I think most people were cultivating in their small groups today, where you slow down a little, you let your energy settle, and you just rest in a loving space. When you first are practicing this, you can try to remember something that evokes that feeling in you naturally. If that is when you hold a teeny little baby and you feel that very open, loving space, then remember that. That alone can help open your heart chakra and get you flowing into your heart space. Or for some people maybe it’s remembering their puppy or their kitty, or something in nature, whatever evokes that loving feeling for you.
You don’t even need a real deep spiritual practice. If you can rest in that heart space and just be there and be present, things will begin to balance and open. As you pay attention to that, you may get insights you can work with that will help the energy stay open more permanently. Otherwise, as soon as we go back to our normal life, things go back to the same old way they were before.
If you can be in that loving space, there are a lot of techniques that you can use from that intention/heart space rather than the will that will support the opening and balancing of the chakras. Most of you said you know the basics on the chakras, so you know that every chakra has a particular note, a particular tone that goes with it. If sound resonates for you, you can learn what those sounds are and just do some toning. There’s actually a vowel sound that goes with each chakra. The heart vowel sound is AH. And if you know the right note for that, it’s even better, but you can go—with me: (everyone together) AHHH… Let’s do it one more time—AHHH. (See Chakra Attachment showing the qualities of each Chakra and related practices to tune them).
I personally cannot just pull a note out of the air. So, one way that you can work to tone the chakras, is to use special tuning forks that you hit on your arm to start them vibrating and then you put them on your body. You first put the tuning fork by your ear and listen closely because it’s a real fine sound, and you begin to tone whatever you’re hearing, and then you put the vibrating tuning fork on the chakra. So what are vibrations? They’re just Hertz, just cycles per second. So a note is a cycle per second and also, by the way, a color is a cycle per second.
Besides using sound, you can work with toning the chakras by knowing that the heart chakra is green, and you can just imagine green filling your body from top to bottom, and then finally entering into the heart chakra. A meditation on this for each chakra was in the notes that we sent out.
What I like to do when I’m traveling around, because I’m not a musician, is just for a quick balance, the older of us may rememberThe Sound of Music, right? One song was (singing) “Do, a deer, a female deer…” This song goes up the notes in one octave, repeatedly. One note for each chakra so by singing this song you can tune your chakras. You can put a hand over each chakra when you get to that note: Do (base of the torso), re(below belly button), me (above belly button), fa (the heart), sol(throat), la(3rdeye, between the eyes and up a bit), ti (crown), do(one hand length over the head). So even though I can’t sing well or find a particular note in singing this song, I can hit the notes pretty well and the song is pretty easy to remember. And singing it wakes you up. Another way to balance, besides working with individual chakras is to work with the flow between the chakras. The song also helps with that. So, how about if you all sing with me, just for one minute, a couple lines of that?
(Group sings Do Re Mi)
So, do it in the car or wherever!
Just a couple of other things. There are lots of ways you can tune and tone the chakras, depending on what you like. There are yoga postures that will open different chakras. The base chakra is earth. The second is water. Then fire, then air, then ether or space. You can do postures that evoke or open these. So, what kind of yoga posture would you think would open the base or earth chakra? Any standing posture, focusing on your feet. Yes, tree pose. Triangle pose. Connecting to the ground. There are other postures that will help you open the other chakras (attached chakra chart). For example, for the fire chakra—any kind of a twist helps to work with the fire chakra, also called the solar plexus chakra.
So, if you’re into movement, you can balance the chakras that way. You can use sound, you can use color. You can also use imagery because, as in the email notes that we passed out, each chakra has a different attribute associated with it, like the base chakra being associated with fear. So, if you’re feeling fear, you can just sit in meditation with it and be with it and let it be there and wait in spaciousness for an insight or for the fear to dissolve, or you can also ask, “Where does that fear resonate?” It is highly likely you’re going to feel something in base chakra, or in the lower part of the torso. And then you can just be with that with love. You can notice what it feels like and relax with that.
You can also work with breath. And I will send out a chart so you can see these different modalities. I bet you’ve all done some, but there are more variations. You can also use breathing. So, for instance, for the solar plexus / fire chakra. There is a breath called the dragon breath. Does that make sense? Because fire, right? So in the dragon breath, you’re breathing in the mouth and out the nose. Think of the dragon. So how about we take just a couple of those kinds of breath. In the mouth and out the nose… (group tries it) Make some sound with it… Now, I’m getting lightheaded!
So, remember we are not trying to fix anything, we are holding whatever is present in love. Loving attention alone can release contractions in energy flows and may provide insights that help you to make changes so the particular contraction may not arise again. Lovingly, practicing any of the modalities with the chakras may temporarily open and balance them and from this space you may have insights for change as well.
So that’s all I’m going to say about chakras. Does anybody have any comments or questions?
Q: What’s the element related to the heart chakra. You said the chakras were earth…
AM: The base chakra is earth, the other chakras are: water, fire, the heart is air, and the throat is ether, which basically is space or awareness. If you are in deep meditation, you rest in the space of awareness. Aaron will sometimes say akashic field. But just think of it as space.
Q: What’s a yoga posture for opening the heart?
Group: Back bends, or opening the arms…
AM: Another thing that people sometimes do that can help with opening the solar plexus or fire chakra is, the “Ha” exercise, it’s a chopping kind of thing where you yell HA (loud shrieking burst) while at the same time spreading the legs about shoulder width apart, clasping the hands and then quickly bending over in a chopping movement. This also moves energy through all of the chakras.
Q: What are some good ways of finding out what the chakras are?
AM: If you can’t feel energy, is that what you’re saying? If you can’t feel energy, then what I would go for is paying attention to the physical body. So if you feel tension in the chest, that’s probably the heart chakra. If you feel it more in your shoulders or neck or up in here, that’s probably the throat chakra. If you feel it like you’re more tight in the butt area, that’s probably the base chakra. If every time you feel angry you feel shoulder or jaw tension or have stomach or intestinal problems, then sit with the physical area that hurts or is contracted. The chakra in the area of the physical issue is likely the one that is contracted as well. So you can start with the physical. It doesn’t really matter. And eventually, if you pay deep enough attention over time, you start to feel the energy. I say feel because I feel it. Some people might see the energy, some people might hear the energy. Someone was just saying today they picked up a crystal and they heard the tone of the crystal. So that would be an example of hearing an energy vibration.
Q: (inaudible)
AM: Let it arise for you. Work with the physical and then see what comes up. Don’t make assumptions about what you should be experiencing. Depending on your predominant sense, you might be sitting there thinking, “I should be seeing something. I should be seeing something.” And you’re so busy thinking “I should be seeing something,” you’re blocking that you’re hearing something or more subtly feeling something.
Q: Can you use a pendulum on your chakras, too?
AM: Yes, some people, if they’re clear. It’s harder to do on yourself, but practitioners might hold a pendulum over a person while they are lying down. And then if you’re really clear and don’t interfere with it, then the pendulum should go in the direction of the chakras. Some people get good at it, seeing how fast the chakra is spinning or if it is open or closed or whatever. It’s a useful technique, but it’s easy to get caught up, “Oh, that’s too fast, that’s too slow, that’s too sideways.”
Barbara: I want to speak a bit to the question about helping to open the chakras to see what’s blocked. First, meditation is probably the most powerful tool. Just being present in our body, we start to feel (stops to check if the tape is recording—the recording immediately breaks and goes silent for the remaining 10 minutes of the recording file)
Barbara: please see the pages about chakras inCosmic Healingfor information that was lost here.
We’re going to do a guided meditation here, and then we’re going to break into small groups and talk about the meditation. Again, you can go outside, you can go down to the lake. So we’ll spend maybe 20 minutes with the guided meditation…
Right now, some of you have crystals and some of you don’t, and we said it will all come out right in the end. Anybody who did not receive a crystal, please take one as it goes around. I want everybody to have a crystal as part of support for this meditation. These all came from the Casa.
A couple of people have asked me if I will sign books… (book info)
So I’m waiting for the crystals to get around and then we’ll start the guided meditation.
(talking to Dan about the recorder not working)
Aaron is going to incorporate while the crystals are finishing their way around…
Aaron: My blessings and love to you. I am Aaron. It’s such a joy to share this day with all of you, and with this beautiful day and woods and sunlight. I don’t know if many of you made your way down to the lake or up the hill into the woods, but this whole land has very lovely energy. Very sacred spot, high energy.
So I want to invite you into a guided meditation with me. Does each person have a crystal now? (Yes)
When we make a decision for positive polarity, we must look in ourselves at any negative energy that comes up in order not to be self-identified with that negative energy. That which is aware of anger is not angry. So instead of trying to fix the anger, you bring yourself back to that which is positive. You remember that which is whole and radiant and beautiful in the self.
Close your eyes now and let us go through this practice together. Hold your crystal in one hand, that will be a support. I invite each of you to reflect on and remember a situation in which there was fear or anger. Just remembering how it happened and how it felt. Where you felt that tension in the body. When fear, anger, or other negative emotion arises, there’s contraction.
Something we didn’t do today that I do as an exercise often is, not to surprise you, because I’m going to announce it, but I shout. A loud shout. You’re already expecting it but you don’t know when, and so you’ll be startled. When you hear that loud shout, there’s probably going to be a contraction somewhere in the body. Watch where it comes. Do you hold it in the shoulders, in the throat, in the chest, in the belly, in the heart, in the face, even? In the back? And second, how are you relating to that contraction? Is there judgment, “I shouldn’t feel contraction.”? Is there anger at the self, “I won’t feel contraction.”? Or can you find the place of softness, even if there is judging and anger? That which is aware of the judging or anger is not judging or angry. We keep inviting ourselves back to this soft open space.
In this way, we avoid trying to fix something through will, and rather remember and reopen to that which is innately open and loving and whole. Even while the body is still shaking a bit from the startle of the loud voice, or the unpleasantness of it, or the self-judgment that arose, “I should be able to handle this,” even right there is the open heart.
You re-enter that open heart, rest in it, the power of your intention to ever more fully live from that open heart. When there’s contraction, try to feel which chakra is most affected. It’s probably something habitual in you. So either from my shout and what contracts, or just from your memory of a time of fear or anger, notice what chakra seems to close up, and remember that it’s only an illusion that the chakra is closed. The chakras are always open, at one level. And yet, within the physical body you may experience a closure. Instead of self-identifying with the closure and trying to fix it, can the heat be deeply open? Breathing in, I am aware of contraction. Breathing out, I smile to the contraction.
I’m focusing so much on contraction versus expansion because this expansion is the hallmark of positive polarity, and contraction is the hallmark of negative polarity. We sometimes talk about service to self versus service to others as the identifying mark between positive and negative polarity. But there can be service to self alongside service to others. It’s okay to care about the self. That can come from a place of deep loving kindness. But when you are most motivated by fear and move into a place of force, there’s always contraction. When you are operating from a place of deep love, there is always an expansion of spaciousness.
If there is contraction, that which is aware of the contraction is not contracted. You’re not trying to fix contraction, either, simply attend to it with kindness. So you keep coming back to that which is open and spacious.
This crystal that you hold is a guide. It has a radiant energy. You can place it on whatever chakra feels most closed or contracted. You can simply hold it in your hand and ask it to help bring light and loving energy into whatever part of the body is contracted, whatever chakra is contracted. So you can use the crystal in that way.
So we’re working both with the power of intention, for the highest good of all beings and with love, with harm to none. The acknowledgment of the self as a divine light, the power of free will choice, and the ability to release whatever is blocked and open fully into the most open radiance of your being.
So bring this memory to your mind, something that brought up anger or fear, or simply watch your reaction when I do the shout. And then begin to work with either of these, feeling the simultaneity of the contraction and the possibility of opening into the reality, the real expression of openness. It is simultaneous, not linear. In other words, you don’t go from contracted to open. You go from awareness of contraction to awareness of the simultaneous openness. So there’s nothing to fix, just, where do you place your attention?
(shout!)
Breathing in, feeling space. Feeling contraction, also. Ask your crystal for help. Put your hand over your heart or your belly, or whatever is contracted. Or if my shout did not cause much contraction for you, go into this memory of some place of pain or fear or anger and see if there’s any subtle contraction around it. Remember your intention: “For the highest good of all beings, including myself, and with love, I offer this energy out into the world, to be manifest as radiance and light, and to support light throughout the whole universe.”
I’m going to leave you to work with this quietly for 5 minutes. Wherever there may be contraction, offer it love. That’s really the only instruction. Wherever you may be holding stories of negativity or something wrong in the self, for the highest good of yourself and all beings, can you step out of that story line? It serves no one. I’ll be quiet.
(meditation)
May I be happy and find peace.
May all beings everywhere be happy and find peace.
May all love and be loved.
May I support that love in the world.
Now reach out for loving energy that will support your intentions, through your crystals, your guides, your own higher self, in whatever way that support comes to you. Literally ask for help, requesting the highest energy possible that comes in support of your intention. Don’t try to find that support. Simply rest in it. It is there.
If you don’t feel it, relax and make the request again. Whatever you experience is fine. There’s nothing special that you should feel. You may want to bring your hands to your heart center. Visualize green light. Tone the F tone, Fa …(group quietly tones Fa) You’re not trying to make anything happen, just inviting the heart back into its inherently open space.
This room is so filled with spirit, and I think most of you feel that. Some of you may feel, “I don’t deserve that help.” That’s just a story. Let it go. Our greatest delight is to help you raise your own vibration and be of deeper service. We are grateful to be invited to help.
You may try opening your hands in this way. In a sense, opening your body and energy, inviting loving energy to come in. If you feel that support, you may express gratitude, which further opens you and raises your vibration. If you feel this energy, allow yourself to experience the joy of co-creating this energy with spirit. You are beautiful, and you are loved, cherished. You are powerful, and we trust your power and ask you to learn to trust it.
Through this work, may all beings everywhere find an end to suffering.
May all beings raise into a higher and higher vibration of love.
May all beings be happy and find peace.
(bell, bell, bell)
So I invite you now to move back into the groups you had earlier today, and spend a half an hour sharing your experience with this meditation. What happened for you? How does it feel to be closed and contracted? How does it feel to be open? What supports opening? Sometimes different supports for different ones of you.
Please return here promptly a few minutes before 5pm so we’re ready to start again at 5pm with our closing, which will just be a few minutes. Thank you.