September 19, 2023 Tuesday Evening, Serendipity Class
What is serendipity? Manifesting something positive out of challenging catalyst; What helps us to be more fully awake in service to the earth’s transition, and how can the class time best support that?; Skillfully engaging with others holding different views
Barbara: In the ideal order of things, Aaron would give his talk first and then I would come in with some examples. But once I have been channeling, it’s very hard for me to come back as Barbara and talk as Barbara. I need ten or fifteen minutes to do that. So, I’m going to share some with you first and then Aaron will come in and talk…
You all know that John is in India for three weeks. He’ll be back the night before our next class, so he will not join us tonight, of course, but is eager to be a part of this when he comes back.
Aaron will talk tonight. We’ll have a half hour of meditation and then we’ll have some discussion.
What Aaron wanted me to talk about: the name we chose for the class, “Serendipity.” Some of you have asked me, what does the word serendipity mean? Some of you guessed perhaps it means chance, or just don’t know.
Everything in our experience comes to us, arising from conditions and passing away. When the conditions cease, it will cease. You’ve had, some of you, 20, 25, 30 years of dharma teachings with me, Aaron and John, repeating that fact. Everything in the conditioned realm arises from conditions and passes away when the conditions cease.
But what invites those conditions? If we have free will, to what extent do we have free will to invite wholesome conditions?
This doesn’t mean that people who are struggling with unwholesome conditions—living in a war zone, or just having had homes destroyed by flood or fire—it doesn’t mean they’ve done anything wrong. Maybe they agreed to participate in that experience for their own learning and in service to others. There’s nothing wrong with that.
So, don’t mistake wholesome conditions with pleasant conditions. Conditions that may not be pleasant can be very wholesome or at least open the way to wholesome outcomes..
For example, many of you know last April, I developed a bad infection in my foot that got into the bone. It was very serious. If it had not healed, they would have had to amputate my foot; maybe even my leg. It was very scary. Why would I allow or invite something like that to manifest?
It’s healed. But as I looked at what I experienced for over three or almost four months—I was not allowed to walk on my foot; only very minimal, from bedroom to bathroom, or whatever. I was not allowed to swim, and I love to swim in the summer. I couldn’t even sit at my computer here, because I had to keep my foot elevated. I was angry! I was frustrated! Why would I invite something like that to manifest?
But as I look back, it was an extraordinary almost four months—in which there was very little I could do except sit outside on my deck, with my leg elevated, and meditate. I really needed that. I do get very, very busy, and I don’t meditate as much as I should, as much as would be beneficial for me. There is always a “good“ reason not to go deeper.
So, here I was in a situation where I was able to meditate. I was freed from so many of the regular tasks that I do. I could not really take care of Hal. I couldn’t prepare meals. I couldn’t do laundry. All I could do was sit with my foot up. I guess this is what it took to get me to sit still for almost four months!
It was a very fruitful period. I saw how I had not given myself time to grieve about Hal’s stroke and the vast changes in my life since his stroke five and a half years ago. I had not given myself time to grieve for my own aging, changing body, and to look into and be with it. I was still trying to race around and do everything I did ten years ago. Well, I’m 80 years old; I’m probably not going to be able to do everything I could do ten years ago. I’m slowing down.
So, what I invited to me was not pleasant, but it was, at some level, subconsciously chosen, and it was very important. And you’ll notice, I didn’t take it to the point of needing to lose my foot. I didn’t need to do that. All I needed to do was sit still for four months.
Not being able to walk, I was using my walker, putting a lot of weight on my arms and shoulders. My shoulders are very, very sore, at this point. So, for about a month, I’ve been seeing both a chiropractor and a different chiropractor who does more processes like myofacial release and energy work (though he uses a different name).
He has this wonderful table. You lie down, head in this little head place, and the table lifts up. The table moves. When he pushes a button, the foot goes up and down, or it goes side to side. It’s like a ride in an amusement park. I’m on the table while it’s moving, swinging! Whoo!
The first time he did it, it brought up so much contraction. It immediately took me to the wave accident, almost twenty years ago. I was knocked unconscious, a near-death experience, by a wave in the ocean. My head hit the bottom. Broken ribs, serious injuries.
When the table started moving, the contraction led me to see how much I was holding tension in my body, and how closed so many of the energy meridians were, and to be able to meditate and invite the opening of them.
Well, not pleasant. But if my highest intention is healing, then okay, I might invite these—it’s not that I said, okay, I’m going to have sore shoulders now. It’s that I said once I could walk, I’m going to walk, but I was putting my weight on the walker in an unskillful way.
Okay, what good can come of this? How can I manifest something positive out of this? What do I need to learn?
Then I invite the experiences to me. And this is part of serendipity: inviting fortuitous experience that serves myself and others.
Aaron, have I said enough? He says, yes, thank you.
Okay, my love to you all, then. I’m going to give you Aaron. I will, of course, be back.
Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. It is a great joy to be with you, and to look forward to this year together.
I chose the title “Serendipity” for the class because I want to focus, amongst other things, on free will and what it means to be a human with free will. That means you co-create, individually and together.
So much of the world seems to experience itself as falling helpless to conditions. Many people seem constantly battling to stay afloat.
If this world is going to evolve into a higher density planet, deeply grounded in love, many of you need to make that choice a conscious action.
As long as you believe that you are simply blown by the winds and have no choice in what arises into your experience, how can you help the world evolve and grow in polarity, in consciousness? How can you help yourself and others wake up?
Therefore, this year, instead of setting a program for the year as I’ve done in the past, my choice will be for us to co-create the program together, each of you asking yourself, what is it I feel that I need to further evolve, to further wake up and grow as a spiritual being and as a human? To live with more love, more wisdom, what do I need?
Through the year, we’ll hear some people want this, some people want that. We’ll try to find ways of bringing it all together, so your needs are met. But I want this year’s teaching to grow from you and what you draw forth.
Thus, the first assignment will be this: to ask you the question, why are you in the class? What are you seeking? What brings you joy? What helps you more fully live awake?
We’ll touch on basics of dharma, of course. With John, we will go into a depth of Vipassana, Pure Awareness, and Brahma Vihara meditation. But we’ll also touch on some newer questions to the class.
For example, exploring to some degree the evolution of human consciousness. How can you know where you’re going if you have not understood where you have been?
We’ll look at polarity. If there is no duality, how can there be any distinction between positive and negative polarity? And yet, certainly there would seem to be. If you don’t understand the roots of that which is more negatively polarized in yourself and those around you, and the roots of that which is of a much higher polarity, grounded in love, how can you then out of free will choice reach out for that which is grounded in love?
So this choice is a very important part. What are we co-creating together in our daily life, in a class, in your community, your country, in your world? What are you co-creating in your body, and why?
You don’t need to see specifics of a past life. You need to know what your heart speaks; the deep intention to live in love. To enhance the wisdom that is your essence. To find joy. To be free.
In the time before time, before there was a Planet Earth, in what some of you might call the multiverses, the myriad universes, which are infinite, there was the question: can heavy density, solid form, living on a solid planet, express as high a vibration as something that is really only spiritual body, no physical body (or only a very minimal physical body, mostly energetic)? To what does the mental body adhere? To what does the emotional body adhere? How do you become free of living under the dictates of the mental and emotional body, mind racing, emotions coming up?
Of course, you do your practice. But the old ones, the wise ones who came together to co-create the Earth, they felt that a planet that was grounded in love could evolve to a point where it could deeply support a heavy density being with a physical body that was heavy; not just light, but solid.
You’ve heard me say, many of you, that Earth is a beautiful experiment, and that it is unique. And right now, IS unique. But yes, there have been other “worlds,” other heavy density planets, with various kinds of heavy density material bodies upon them. Because free will was not really understood, beings on those bodies grasped at what they wanted to create. They solidified themselves. The emotional and mental bodies became hardened, grounded in fear, and not in love and lightness.
Through numerous attempts at this we have finally come to this present planet, Earth, wherein there are humans, animals, plants, insects, fish, many different kinds of sentient beings, and each at its own level is learning how to express its energy from a place beyond the fear body, beyond the contracted body, and into a spacious place.
Well, this is a dharma class. What does this have to do with dharma?
Quoting the Buddha: “We are what we think. With our thoughts, we make the world. Think a pleasant thought, and it leads to pleasant conditions. Think an unpleasant thought, and it leads into the unpleasant.” That’s not a direct quote of the most famous translation.. But it’s an inaccurate translation, poetic but unclear.
Here is a lovely translation by Gil Frondsdal:
All experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a corrupted mind,
And suffering follows
As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.All experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a peaceful mind,
And happiness follows,
Like a never-departing shadow.
As you are evolving, it becomes so important for you to reflect on what your individual intention is. Is the intention grounded in lovingkindness or in fear or anger? Why did you come into the incarnation? You may look at me and say, “Aaron, how am I supposed to know that?” You do know it. The part of you that is awake knows why you’re incarnate. Part of you is asleep and doesn’t yet know.
You are waking up. Increasingly, you will know why you’re incarnate. Slowly, you remember. Then you can make choices that are grounded much more in a loving intention, and isn’t that what we’re here for? To help ground this Earth in a place of love and light.
Whether we think about it consciously, or just allow the flow of it, all of you are here to help this Earth and yourselves evolve into a higher vibration of love. To live your life with love.
A beautiful song that Barbara knows—I cannot sing it on tune—“Start the day with love. Live the day with love. Spend the day with love. Close the day with love. This is the way to God. This is the way to God” Or you might say this is the way to awakening, to being awake: grounding in love.
Isn’t this why you’re here? Yes, it really is as simple as that. But in the class this year, I want to give it more conscious direction. What is it that helps each of us to open further into love, and to become increasingly aware of the places of fear and closure?
What Barbara experienced on that chiropractor’s table, her body waving around—“AAAH! Where are we going?!”—the whole body resisting, until finally she breathed and said, “Okay, there’s something I’m to learn here,” and she relaxed.
Now at this point he’s used that table with her three times, and today she had fun with it. It was like a carnival ride. She relaxed. She stopped trying to control the body. Once she was able to relax, she went into some of the experiences, hard ones like that wave accident or an experience of flipping head over heels with her skis, probably fifty years ago. Joyful experiences of rolling down a hill as a child, lying on the grass and rolling. Did you ever do that? Just lie down and roll down a hill. Letting go, relaxing, opening to joy.
You want to treat the body with care. But if you are rigid, how can you open joyfully to life? If you cannot open joyfully to life, how can you invite others to do so?
It’s interesting—when I watch little children bouncing on a trampoline, or doing somersaults, they move so freely until the age of three, or four, or five, then they start to become aware of the potential for getting hurt and their energy field closes up.
This is not the heart of being human. To be human is literally to be free; to co-create with joy and wisdom, and with love.
So, in the class we’re going to focus not only on what you choose to co-create, but on the act of co-creation itself. How we manifest what we choose. From where do we manifest?
I’ve spoken to a number of you in the past two weeks working with sometimes physical or emotional distress; working with seemingly frightening financial situations; endeavoring to create something, and yet afraid to allow it to flow.
How do we choose? We cannot say, “I will do this”; there’s no light in that. But “I open to. I invite.” How does it feel to invite with joy?
One friend, who is not on the screen tonight but is in the class (she will not mind my talking about it a bit), she’s manifesting a very beautiful kitchen, with the idea to feed people. Such a wonderful thing. She is a chef, and she wants to create a situation where she can invite the energy in and the food and the money and feed people who are poor as well as people who are wealthy and can pay for the service.
It was a major step to say, “Yes, go ahead and do it.” And now the foundation is poured and the kitchen is being built. She is inviting this flow of energy: “I choose, and I invite, and I give back.”
I see several of you who have been to Brazil with us numerous times. You know who you are. I’ve seen you go into the situation with some severe physical situations that really seemed to be limiting. And it’s been beautiful to see the ways that you’ve been able to move past those limits and find the innate wholeness in your bodies right there with the distortions. It doesn’t mean the distortions will completely cease, but you are no longer limited by those distortions. I salute you. So beautiful to see this.
I see some of you who came to me ten, twenty, even thirty years ago, as dharma students, caught up in heavy emotions, caught up in pain. And I see the light shining from you now because you chose to, and allowed yourself to, invite wholeness, rather than becoming trapped in the story of distortion, of fear, of pain, of wrongness. I salute you.
The Buddha led us on a path to freedom, to awakening, and this awakening comes from knowing your true essence as an awakened being.
I’m searching for a sutra here; give me a moment… I don’t trust my memory of the English translation; let me find it…
I’m reading here from the Heart Sutra. Some of you may know it and recite it with me. But I will pause from time to time.
The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion
from the deep practice of Prajnaparamita
perceived the emptiness of all five skandhas
and delivered all beings from their suffering.
YOU are that bodhisattva of great compassion, not someone else. YOU have that capacity, starting with yourself.
…form is no other than emptiness,
emptiness no other than form.
Form is emptiness, emptiness form.
The same is true of feeling, thought, impulse and consciousness.
Here you are in a form body, and yet every aspect of you is empty of a separate self. We’ll be looking a lot this year at the non-duality of everything, including form and emptiness, spaciousness and contraction, fear and love. What does non-duality mean?
O Sariputra, all dharmas are empty.
They are not born nor annihilated.
They are not defiled nor immaculate.
They do not increase nor decrease.
So in emptiness no form, no feeling, no thought, no impulse, no consciousness.
Let’s unpack that. “All dharmas…” A dharma is a “thing,” is anything of substance—a thought, a physical object…a thing. They’re all empty.
“They are not born nor annihilated.” In other words, the essence of you exists, now and always. And this year, we’re going to go deeper into uncovering that essence.
“They are not defiled nor immaculate.” That means you can’t say, “This is good in me; that’s bad in me.” The essence is pure. And how can you uncover that essence if you don’t trust that it already exists?
We come to know this essence through the practice, especially through vipassana and Pure Awareness practice. There is a very clearcut path in the Theravada tradition, and we have explored that path together, and we’ll continue to explore it.
In places of great concentration, we may open to a place of light and perfection. Or through a path delineated in the Theravada tradition we may find mind and body seem to dissolve into light, knowing innate perfection. Then, returning to the mundane mind and body, that which seemed perfect disappears, and you’re left with the illusion of distortion.
But does the distortion have any ultimate reality? Of course not.
Your meditation practice is so important because it is what can take you to the experience of that ultimate reality. And so, we practice. We practice in order to open to access concentration. Mind settles down, and you might have a dissolution experience of mind and body. You come more in touch with what you truly are. And then you come back to this present mind and body, but maybe there’s a little less self-identification with it, a little more knowing of the true self. And this is the process of awakening.
“So in emptiness no form, no feeling, no thought, no impulse, no consciousness.”
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no form, sound, smell, taste, touch or objects of mind.
No realm of sight; no realm of consciousness.
I ask you then to contemplate the distinction between consciousness and awareness. We’ll look more at that; not right now.
No ignorance nor extinction of ignorance,
Because ignorance has no solidity. It’s a mundane object.
no old age and death, nor extinction of them.
No suffering, no cause of suffering, no path to lead out of suffering;
no knowledge, no attainment, no realization
for there is nothing to attain.
There’s more to the sutra. That’s all I wish to read right now.
But when we say there is nothing to attain, can you feel an “Ahhh, maybe I don’t have to try so hard. Maybe I can just relax and be the radiant essence that I am.” And this is what I most want to convey to you.
We’ve done a lot of work last year on the three kayas: nirmanakaya, the mundane; Dharmakaya, the divine body; and sambhogakaya, the bridge. We’ve talked about being at the mundane end of the bridge or being off in a blissful space at the supramundane end. That our life on earth is living from the bridge.
But living from the bridge does not mean being trapped in mundane beliefs, in mundane limitations, limiting beliefs. It means being free, knowing the true self. And it is from this knowing of the true self that you can co-create the world you wish to co-create. Not trying tofixthe world, but seeing the world as it truly is, can be. The Dharmakaya world of love, of light, of clarity. Of a pure environment, one of joy.
Do you wish to work with me this year to see how we can better co-create that? Are you with me? Thank you.
So, at this point I’m going to end my talk and move on to some period of meditation. I’m simply going to lead us in a somewhat of a guided vipassana meditation. After the meditation, we’ll have a few minutes break, and then we’ll open the whole floor to questions and discussion.
In the very beginning of the practice, I’m going to lead you just through ten minutes of basic vipassana. Then just breathing and present. Then, at some point you may wish to bring up the question to yourself: Why am I alive? What is my highest intention? What do I wish to co-create?
As a total aside, I’m looking with a smile at the fact that two of you, who are in very different parts of the world, have the same beautiful room behind you. I assume this is a set background that you can choose. I thought to myself, “What a lovely space they are in!” And then I realized you were both in the same space, on two different continents.
Find a comfortable position, back erect, not slouched over. I’d like you not to be lying down but sitting up, bringing more energy to it.
Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out.
Feel the coolness of the inhale and the soft warmth of the exhalation as it touches the upper lip.
I know you use various primary objects, but for now, just for this first five minutes, let’s work with the breath.
Breathing in and breathing out. Be aware if there seems to be any restriction around your breath, any place where the breath seems limited. Don’t try to fix it; just note it, and see if right there with the restricted breath, you can see the fullness of the breath.
In, and out…
Objects will arise and pull your attention away from the breath—right now, my voice. You can’t be fully with the breath and with my voice. So, hearing, hearing.
Whatever arises may be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. If it’s just very mildly pleasant or unpleasant, it will not compel your attention. Just come back to the movement of the breath.
But if something arises, like a strong pain in the body, or a strong memory, and pulls your attention away, be present with it.
Pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral…
As it changes or dissolves, come back to the breath…
And again, if something arises—a sound or other object, a pain in the neck or the back, unpleasant—I would like you to note the boundary line where unpleasant shifts into aversion. That which is aware of aversion is not experiencing aversion.
You can’t be in two places at one time. So, you can be aware of the aversion and then let go of the aversion and come back into spacious awareness.
Or, if the aversion is very strong, just stay with it. You might ask, “Who is experiencing aversion? Me? Who is ‘me’?” Let’s not get too intellectual about it; it’s just an inquiry to break down the whole idea of a solid self, so that we begin more fluidly to see how objects are arising out of conditions and are passing away and are not self.
We acknowledge the object, but we do not fixate on the object, nor do we try to fix the object. It’s just arisen from conditions.
Then, if the breath feels like too strong an object for you, and you’re used to working with nada, or light, or energy, it’s fine to shift your primary object.
What I would ask, whatever the primary object is, is to be a watchdog watching. When something strong enters your experience, what is your relationship with it? Is it spacious, perhaps a bit curious and open? Or does contraction come, trying to stop it? And if such contraction comes, that becomes the predominant object. And like all objects, it arose from conditions, and it will pass. What happens to it, to that restriction of it, when you notice it? What happens to anger, or fear, or sadness, when you bring kind attention to them?
You all know this practice. You’ve done it with me, every one of you.
Now I’m going to be quiet for fifteen minutes and leave you to meditate silently, and then I’ll be back. I am Aaron.
(sitting)
Break
Barbara: I’m going to ask you a question, that I invite you to speak to. I also invite questions from anybody. My question is this: given the vast range of things we could co-create in this class, areas we could explore, what would you most like to see us bring together, to bring forth as a group? We’re not going to end up with one focus, where everyone says, “Yes, that’s it!” Just a broad range of things that set people’s attention going and help you find what you would like to see us focus on.
It may be ideas for the class. It may be more, what I’d like to see falling into place in the world, and in what way can the class better support that. World peace, cleaner environment, et cetera.
Q: I’m sure one of the main reasons we’re all taking this class is that we’re all on our own unique spiritual journey and searching for personal transformation to our true self. I call it more the true heart self, the heart being a symbol of love and oneness.
I know that it’s important for most people, and for myself, that personal transformation is closely related to social transformation. The two are intimately related.
As a personal example, in my personal life, I’ve studied contemplative spirituality for a long time. But the last few years I’ve studied multidimensional, multiverse spirituality, and I’ve joined various spiritual groups like this one from Deep Spring Center.
So I feel like I am excitedly growing in this new field for me, and I get something from each spiritual webinar group that I belong to, like this one that I’ve only been a member of the last few months.
There’s not much interest in my local community about multidimensional spirituality—needless to say!—here in El Paso, Texas, and I’m sure a lot of cities, except maybe the major ones.
I think one sign of my personal transformation towards my true heart self would be if I could interest others in my local community in this area. Because even though I put out feelers about this<>spirituality, I usually don’t get much response through email. As much as I share meditations or books or even websites, I don’t get much response. Maybe there’s one person that’s interested, maybe one or two persons that are interested, but I don’t think it’s enough to form a local group yet, if there’s just three of us.
So one sign to me that I’m making this personal transformation is somehow I’ll get more of a response from Source, from Divine Love. I’ll touch more people on a deeper level with my message if I’m further along in my personal transformation.
But since I haven’t gotten much of a response, that’s a sign to me, well, I’m not fully there yet, because the vibrations are not going out. So that’s part of the purpose of my taking this course, is to continue my spiritual transformation to my true self, or my heart self. And I would like to be able to form a local group, because as special as it is to belong to people on the web, a few web groups that I belong to like this one, it would be nice to have a live group locally.
Barbara: I hear you, Q. Let Aaron speak to this.
Aaron: I am Aaron. I thank you for this thought, Q, and I would guess there are others who are in the same situation.
I detect some grasping, which is very natural. You want that live companionship. I think it’s valuable to look deeply at the self that is trying to pull in, rather than inviting outward. “I offer this outward. This is my idea.”
There might be some local smaller bookshops in which you can post an announcement, or someplace local where you can put up an electronic announcement, simply saying, “We will meet for meditation. Feel free to join us.” And watch your energy as you post it.
If nobody comes, that’s okay. It’s an experiment. “I am offering this outward and inviting.” And look deeply at any place where “I need a response” versus “I invite a response.”
So, will you try this and just see what happens? Then we can talk about it again. I am Aaron.
I’ll stay in the body. Others? Raise your hands.
Q: I have an idea about co-creating something in the world. Back when Donald Trump was campaigning for the 2016 election, he was arousing a lot of negativity in people. And one of the things that you, Aaron, said about this phenomenon was that prior to that, people had been, like, not really showing their negativity; holding it in, like “Oh, we’re not supposed to do that.” But he was giving permission to people to express it. And that once it was expressed, now people could address it, it could be addressed.
I’m also currently reading a book about a person in the white nationalist movement who let go and realized he was wrong, that these white nationalist ideas weren’t relevant. And he opened his heart and became a conscious person.
So what I’m wondering lately about is, what does it look like for people to take that next step? It was hidden; now it’s expressed. What’s the evolution of that into “I can consciously see now, and I let it go, because I choose the open heart, the awakened heart.”? What does that look like in the world, and how can I, and we, address it to co-create it?
Aaron: Thank you, Q. First(lost; two speaking at once; about previous Q’s desire)for a live group with elevated consciousness. You all wish that. You don’t really wish to be in touch with those who are angry and afraid, so it becomes an “us” and “them”.
But I think what’s needed now is for those of you who are more awake, more openhearted, to engage a bit more not with those who are beyond reach, filled with hate, but with those who are somewhat borderline. To find places where you can get into such a discussion with people about how to bring—I don’t think you’ll find anybody who says, “No, I don’t want world peace. I think we should all destroy each other.” The question is what is the route to world peace? What is the route to a flourishing and safe environment?
So, being willing to step out of your comfort zone and engage with those people wherever such talks may be happening. But not just with those who think the way you do.
Can you come into that situation without needing to convince somebody of anything but more willing to listen?
And then perhaps to repeat back: “What I hear you saying is…” and get it straight. The person will say, “Yes, you hear me right,” or “No.” If you’re hearing them right, then you can challenge it lightly: “But if this happens, do you think there’s a possibility that it will lead to an escalation of violence? Or lack of freedom?” Et cetera, engaging people by hearing them.
There are some people who are so far into a fear base that it’s hard for them to hear anything new. I’m talking about those who are closer to waking up. Hear them. Help them to find deeper truth in themselves.
If enough of you become able to do that, you’re going to shift the median over to a place of much higher consciousness and freedom.
But if nobody wants to get involved with those who are speaking of something opposite what you think you believe in. So, you step back, and you don’t want to get involved with that. You just want your own comfortable group.
Look around you. See where there are opportunities to engage with those who may be ready to be open, and see where it takes you.
I am Aaron.
Q: My thoughts are very connected to what you’ve both just spoken of. I’m wondering, at least for myself, what a wonderful opportunity it could be, particularly in our small group, to be discussing doing just that in our life and what comes up for us, but in real kinds of circumstances and situations. Oftentimes, I know for myself, it’s even just watching the news, or reading something—I’m not even so much engaged with somebody else. Just hearing what I’m hearing, experiencing what I’m experiencing, I’m definitely not in that non-duality place.
So, to pick up on what you just shared, Aaron, perhaps that seems like it would be a great opportunity for us to co-create it, to experience it, to practice it, to reflect on what it is that makes it easy and difficult to do.
Aaron: That sounds perfect, Q, a very useful thing for the small groups to do.
And then I would remind you, if you even just contemplate engaging and talk about it in the small groups, or if you actually do engage, the importance to do it mindfully. Here’s where your meditation practice becomes so vital, that you’re present enough to watch somebody challenging you and watch yourself contracting and wanting to challenge them back—to push back, so to speak.
And instead, what allows you to say, “I am listening. I see it differently, but I’d like to hear more from you.” And then to ask very spacious, relaxed questions that invite them to look deeper into the possible end results of what they are suggesting. Just getting people to think and to open. Not competitively, but engaged, dancing together. How does it feel different when you dance with somebody than when you smash against each other?
It’s so easy to become set in your ideas, and that limits your ability to hear another. Until you can hear each other, all over the world, it’s likely there’s not going to be a radical shift in consciousness.
Thank you.
Q: As I was thinking about what I might bring up, I realized that the people who had spoken before had all touched on pieces of it.
Allow me to build a picture here. One of the things I see as fourth density becomes more established in the world is communication between people becomes deeper, I guess I should say. I actually envision something close to what some of us have heard of as the group mind, where our means of communication is deeper than simply verbal, I guess is the way to approach it.
As people were talking, I think one of the things that occurred to me, in terms of engaging, is having a deeper or richer understanding of the processes at work that are causing this fear in the world and this inability to communicate.
Just one example, if you will. I just finished a book calledStill in Focus, where the author examines all the ways that our attention has been kind of hijacked. Towards the end of the book, he alludes to the fact that this process started in the late 19th century. It’s just been really rapidly accelerating in the internet age and the age of social apps.
The point that I think is relevant to what I’m saying here is, in order to get our attention, the human being is hardwired to pay attention to things that might be hazardous in the environment. And so, for social media to keep our attention, to keep us looking at our apps for hours at a time, has to constantly provide something that grabs our attention. And that grabbing of our attention is offering something that seems threatening to us.
So what happens is, we get into this cycle of ever-increasing horror, if you will, as we engage in our social apps. And that leads us ever deeper into being bound up in this darkness and low vibration.
That particular insight I find very useful in how to approach people in their fear. And insights of that sort I think could be helpful to all of us. And I would certainly like to see if others happen to bring forward or share some insight they can offer.
So I’m kind of trying to emphasize and build on what’s already been said about the need to engage. I think part of it is the need to understand what the dynamic is that is causing people to be so bound up and frightened in the world. Thank you.
Aaron: Clearly said, Q. And this brings us right back to our vipassana practice, to mindfulness of tension and contraction.
You’re constantly bombarded with sounds, with sights, with energy, with thoughts. Some of it is pleasant; some of it is unpleasant. It’s hard to take it all in, in the busyness of daily life.
But right there on your cushion during your practice, watching an object arise and be pleasant, leading to grasping, or unpleasant, leading to aversion. And the mindfulness that knows grasping has arisen in this mind and body; aversion has arisen. I can feel the contractions of it. Right there with grasping or with aversion, where is spaciousness? Where is peace? Where is the open heart? Can I keep coming back to, and finding, that universal light and love and spaciousness that’s Awareness? See the different pushes and pulls without getting pulled in.
I would suggest to some of you that you, willingly or unwillingly, turn on your television to your least favorite news channel, the one that the other party more commands. Listen, and watch the “Oh, no! That’s not true! Oh, that’s terrible!” Watch all this coming up in you, and just ahhhh… This is how some people think. I give them space to be who they are. I do not have to fix them; I only have to love them and hold space for them.
And as you do that, the Open Heart spreads energetically throughout the earth. People will gradually not push back, because they are not being pushed.
Now, you must understand how to not push back while still saying no from a place of spaciousness, light, and love. The not pushing back that I’m talking about doesn’t mean that you let yourselves be steamrolled by negativity.
But can you learn to say no from an openhearted and clear space, without fear, allowing the other to have their opinions and beliefs until they’re ready to let go of them? Raising questions that are based on deep hearing of them rather than on your opposition to what they’re saying. I pause.
I would add here that for Barbara, a lot of agitation comes up if the television is turned on to a channel with a news commentator with whom she strongly disagrees. And I tell her this is perfect practice. Mellow out! Just listen!
Who else would like to speak?
Q: Aaron, can you speak to that moment when we’re conversing with someone, or we’re in someone’s presence, and for one reason or another, we feel in some conversation or body language a discomfort. We feel, for the lack of a better word, pushed against, or attacked. We feel that rising wish to defend, which will be perceived, likely, as attack by the other person.
How do we achieve that seeing, being in the presence with another and seeing them through just the eyes of love? Knowing their innate perfection wherever they are, and finding that<>warm, embodying presence for them when we’re feeling—and it’s true, it’s the contraction. We can feel it in our body. Are there mantras we can do that are helpful? Are there exercises we can do that are helpful?
Aaron: Not mantras, just practice. That which is aware of contraction is not contracted.
You must practice this first on the cushion, just quiet, in your own home, because there are plenty of catalysts that will come. The bee buzzing around your head, or the aching knee, or whatever it might be. How am I relating to this? Can I relate with a bit more of an open heart and spaciousness, and with compassion for myself for being present with something that’s uncomfortable?
As you learn how to ground more into that compassion for yourself, that compassion carries over to the other person. Then you cease to see them as the opposition and to try to fix or negate what they’re saying. You’re more able to say, “I disagree with what you’re saying, but I hear you.”
And then perhaps to ask a more neutral, not as defiant, pushing question, but, “If it goes this way, how do you see it working itself out in five years? How do you see this happening, from your perspective?” Getting them to think about it rather than pushing them. You don’t like to be pushed against the wall, and neither do they.
When there is more compassion for the self and the feeling of being pushed against that wall, whether it’s by another or by, as I said, the mosquito flying around your head as you’re sitting, then you’re more able to connect with others in a more openhearted and less fear-based way.
Get to know how it feels to be centered in the midst of fear and contraction, and simply to observe, “contracting.” A neutral observation, not a shaming. Just “contracting, contracting”. That which is aware of contraction is not contracted. In this moment, where is the uncontracted? You keep coming back to that again and again in your practice until it stabilizes. You’re increasingly able to catch it faster and to be increasingly non-reactive.
Q: Can we focus on countries taking greater measures to stop and reverse climate change?
Aaron: I am Aaron. I’m not completely clear on the question. But climate change must happen from a place of love and respect of all sentient beings, including your Mother Earth. Not from a place of fear and fix-it mode.
And then it’s the same thing, in your practice: what is your inner climate? Is your inner climate somewhat agitated and hostile? How are you going to attend to that and bring it back down into a more neutral, smooth, open space? Until you can do that, how can you support a climate change in the world?
It all comes out of your practice. I do not mean by that that you do not do anything to support climate change now until you’re awake, fully awakened. That’s not going to work.
But can you approach the issues of climate change, of war, of hatred, from a place of your inner self? What is there about your inner self that you’re at war with? What is there about yourself wherein you’re trying to change the climate forcefully rather than gently, lovingly?
Gradually, you become adept at how to do this skillfully with yourself, and then in a slightly larger world, and then in a much larger world.
This to me is the value of our practice. This is why we’re here, gathered together, looking at the ways to literally bring more light into ourselves and our experience and into the world.
I think we have time for one more question or sharing.
Q: I just wanted to share two things. One is, doing the meditation, I started to see seeds. And I thought, oh, this is the perfect “What is my life? Why am I here?”— to sow seeds. And then I began to see the earth and became like, oh, the seeds, there’s something I need to do with the earth. It seemed to be a balance between all these ideas that are going around, that we do get a lot of information every day.
I thought about Q saying the stolen focus, and I’m beginning to think about how do I cultivate a focus so the ideas land in a fertile place and can grow, sort of tending things, rather than, I also feel bombarded by all the information that comes electronically. And this idea of a stolen focus, that I can reclaim my focus. I feel I’ve been willingly giving it to the news world and over-consuming news. So I’m feeling grateful that that idea came during the meditation.
But I also wanted to share something with the group. Today, my husband and I buried my mother’s and father’s ashes at the national cemetery. We had a ceremony there. When we showed up at the appointed time, there were lawnmowers buzzing all around the place, where I had thought I would arrive early and meditate. It took hours before I realized—my father just died a month ago—my father’s favorite thing to do was ride his lawnmower. When we got there, I’m telling you—three, four, five lawnmowers, a crew of them, and they were just buzzing around this place. And I felt like, oh, okay, Daddy, you’re here and you’re letting me know! But it took me five hours to get to that…
So I’m thinking if I reclaim my focus from the external pull, maybe the messages will land sooner than later. I wanted to share that with the group.
Aaron: Thank you, Q. It’s a beautiful image. I’m going to give you back to Barbara.
Barbara: Thank you, Aaron… Aaron, you’re giving me back the body, but I don’t know what to do with it… He says, live in it!
This next two weeks, please give some attention to two questions. What energy am I bringing predominantly into uncomfortable catalysts in my life? If something feels uncomfortable to me, a physical or emotional or mental catalyst, how am I relating to it? How might I relate to it more spaciously and peacefully? How can I find that space and peacefulness and presence through my meditation practice? How does my practice take me to a more openhearted presence with that which is either unpleasant and brings up aversion, or that which is very pleasant and brings up grasping?
And then the second question is what would I like my focus to be in the coming months? If I’m interested in helping the world, if that’s of high importance for me, to raise the vibration in the world, what might be my most direct route to helping invite that presence? And of course, meditation is going to be part of it, but what else?
It’s not just formal meditation but mindfulness. In every moment, when something pushes us, how do we respond? Am I reacting, or am I responsive? Is my heart open, or is it closed? How can I listen better to myself and to others?
Okay, so please look at all that, and I’ll see you in two weeks. My love to you.
And I don’t have to say it: please try for a daily practice as much as is possible, but with kindness to yourself. If it can’t happen, it can’t happen; that’s okay. Sometimes it can’t.
So, no grasping at a daily practice, just holding the intention: This is my tool toward waking up. I invite the time and way to do it. What allows us to co-create what we seek in our life?
Okay. Love to you all. I’m going to add one more thing here. I love that John is in India and at various of Maharaji’s ashrams. Some of you know Neem Karoli Baba has been my guru most of my life, since I was about 6 years old and called him “The man in the clouds”. I’m really rejoicing in John’s being there. Some of you might like to energetically connect and just feel his presence too—you’re not going to get emails from him but feel his presence. I’m sure John will share things with us when he comes back.
On the left is my computer desktop picture. One day I’ll share my “throwing oranges” story.
Love to you. Barbara