April 27, 2011 Wednesday on the Beach, Emerald Isle

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April 27, 2011 Wednesday on the Beach, Emerald Isle

(Addressing transcriber) The scenery here today: medium surf, but the surf is surging, not gentle. Quite a lot of power behind it, although the waves are not so big. A hazy blue sky. And we're quite close to the water so you probably hear the waves quite loudly.

(Just as an aside here, so many of you have never met Janice. She remained simply the figure on the other end who was receiving these transcripts, and then she came to Brazil with us, and so many of you were delighted to get to meet her, only one in this group today.... Janice has been transcribing my talks for close to 20 years.)

In response to your question (not recorded), Q, let's think about that little teddy bear. He's straddling both boxes, a foot in each. He's well-balanced. One foot is deep into non-dual experience but he's not fully submerged into non-dual experience, he's able to respond to the world, that Bright Boundless Field poem by Hongzhi that I read to you last night, to respond appropriately.

If he is pushed in some way, the response that comes up is grounded in that side of him that's in ultimate, non-dual reality. There's no fear, only compassion for himself and the one who pushed him, so he responds with an open heart. Compassion knows how to say no. It sets up appropriate boundaries. It lets people know what's what. But it's never done from a place of personal fear or want of personal power, but only from a place of love.

If he is completely submerged into the relative reality box, completely out of touch with non-dual experience, the response is going to come from the personality self, and depending on the clarity of that personality self, it's likely to be grounded in personal need, fear, opinion, and so forth. Then the boundary that is set is much more of a (demonstrating with hands) Push! Stop! As opposed to, just wait a bit. Please think this out. Can you feel the difference?

How many of you have done either the pushing arm exercise, the tai chi exercise that we've done, or just playing around with pushing each other and feeling that push? Have you all done that with me? Have you all done the tai chi pushing arms exercise? Anybody who hasn't? Who has not done that? We'll demonstrate that at the end of the talk, and those who wish to try it can try it for the first time, or again.

Q: You and/or Barbara mentioned beliefs in limitations and working with that. When I hear that, I hear myself saying to my friend, for example, after I have listened to her on the telephone for an hour and it's late, I say, "You know I have limits. I'm acknowledging these limits I know I have at that time. I am not Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama yet. Those are my limits at this moment."

Aaron: That's completely true, part of your view. You might phrase it differently, not "I have limits," but "Right now I have a limited time, or limited energy. I have other things I must do and I've listened to you as long as I am able to right now." That's an honest response. There can be a reality of momentary limitation without an idea of a truly limited self. "I hear your pain but right now I really need to get off the phone," or, "I really need to leave this conversation."

When you say, "I have limits," you're thinking of yourself as small. What if this same friend had just witnessed the murder of her spouse or child or parent, and was filled with anguish? At that point where you thought, "I can't take it anymore," are you aware of your infinite capacity, in that you could go deep into yourself and know, "Right now, there's an enormous need and I will stay with this." I know you have that capacity.

So it's both in the mind and in the way you're phrasing it. Instead of thinking, "I have limits," with a fear behind that, know "I'm being pushed too hard and it's time to push back." Better to come into that balance between non-dual awareness and relative reality and to know, "I'm feeling irritated right now because she keeps dredging up the same thing, over and over. I'm willing to listen if I can help, but my listening is not really helping. It's time to end this." And then not to use "I have limits" as a belief that gets you off the hook, but rather, simply to say, "I've heard everything you're saying and I feel your pain, but right now I need to end the conversation."

You are unlimited. It is you who choose the boundaries. Then you make appropriate boundaries from a place of love rather than fear saying, "That's enough.."

Barbara, when she speaks on the phone with her special deaf phone, the other person must say "go ahead" so Barbara can talk. That means if they don't say "go ahead," she's a captive audience! She has one person with whom she occasionally talks who literally can talk for half an hour. Of course she can't read the telephone and do other work at the time, so she can't listen while she works. She's learned simply to let it go, look aside, clean up email or do something else, look back every 2 minutes or so, and if she sees that "go ahead," she can reply, but she knows the 'GA" won't come for at least 10 minutes. She'll say, "Wait, I want to read back," and then she'll scroll back and see what the person has said! And then, when it's appropriate, she'll say, "Please say 'go ahead' sooner rather than going on for so long, so I can respond more often." And then she has that "go ahead" where she's able to say, "I have to get off the phone now." This is somebody she loves,; it's just somebody who talks a lot.

Q: Sometimes, a lot of the time I have to get off the phone in order to sit there and (be).

Aaron: Say it to this friend when you first pick up the phone, "I don't have a lot of time today. Please come to the heart of what you want to say quickly, because I don't have a lot of time today, and I do want to hear you."

This is how compassion says no. How long can I push him before he finally gets tired of it? (pushing the person seated by him) He gets irritated. I would. But if I push him like that and he raises his hand and says, "When you push me, it's annoying. Please only push me if it's urgent," compassion knows how to say no.

When you think in terms of limits, you create limits. It's not just that you use them as a way out of some kind of uncomfortable circumstance, but you start to believe in them. You said, "I'm not a Mother Theresa yet, or a Dalai Lama." Well, that's true, but you still have enormous capacity, and in a situation that called up that capacity, that needed it, you can offer it forth very easily. Don't cut yourself short. Don't fall into erroneous beliefs because the fear aspect of you is afraid to state its truth.

Others?

Q: With regard to the elements and akasha, are the 3 characteristics present within them? (impermanence, no-self, suffering)

Aaron: The characteristics are everywhere, within everything. They are more apparent in some circumstances than others. When you are very stable within the akashic field, you're at the place, the ground, wherein everything is beginning to express. You have to take some expression of that akashic field and follow it in order to see the 3 characteristics. When they're completely grounded in the akashic field, you may not be able to experience, to see the characteristics, but yes, they're there. They're everywhere within the conditioned realm, and the akashic field is still within the conditioned realm, it's the doorway, the opening into the Unconditioned, but it's equally in the conditioned, not just the Unconditioned.

Q: And the Unconditioned is right there with the akasha?

Aaron: Those red cylinders show it very well, akashic field as the smaller cylinder sitting in the bigger cylinder. We also use the image of the bridge between relative and ultimate reality, and the bridge with deep foundation going into either side. When you're in the middle of the bridge or even over here, just off the edge of relative reality, you're also deeply grounded into the Unconditioned.

I'll talk more about this tonight, but when you rest fully in the akashic field, it's almost like all the haziness that blocks the full view of the Unconditioned is dissolved. So at first the Unconditioned is seen as through a mist, but there, deep in the akashic field, you're not in the Unconditioned yet, not fully, but you are aware that you're in the small cylinder within the big cylinder, and that you can dissolve the walls of the smaller cylinder at any time. The walls of the smaller cylinder are simply created by the mind. There never were walls.

In terms of the elements, if you take any element, the water element out there, you can certainly see impermanence expressed through that. You can see the no-self nature of the sea. And you can see the possibility of suffering. ...J is saying no.

Q: How?

Aaron: Let's turn it into a tsunami. Is there suffering? I'm not talking the sea's suffering, I'm talking about suffering. Let's completely evaporate the ocean. The water element stops. Is there suffering?

Q: For life forms. Are we talking relative to others?

Aaron: I'm using the ocean as an example, but let's evaporate the water element in your body. Is there suffering? You're dying of thirst, the whole body is drying up. If the being is not yet awakened and there is craving for the water element, there will be suffering. If you're freezing cold in a sub-arctic environment, there's craving for the fire element, there's suffering.

The suffering is not inherent in the elements; the suffering is not inherent in anything. If the ankle is broken, the suffering is not inherent in the broken ankle, it's inherent in the wanting it to be different, in the craving. So the suffering is not at all inherent in the elements, but the suffering is expressed through the excess or lack of the elements, the lack of balance. The human condition is such that when there is extreme imbalance, there's grasping, there's suffering.

Some of you are asking, when I say the suffering is not inherent in the elements but the suffering is in the akashic field. Everything is expressing out of the akashic field. The seagulls, the sand, the ocean, the sun, your mental bodies, everything is expressing out of the akashic field. This is that ground.

Where is an emotion before it comes forth and you see it? In that moment before there's anger, where is the anger?

Q: Is that a koan?

Aaron: Of sorts! But it's answerable, and each of you understands the answer already. Where is the anger? The anger arises from conditions. This is not just concept; it can be experienced. So before the anger is known and felt in the body, if the conditions are present, the anger is in the conditions that have not yet fully been expressed. These conditions are not yet purified so they continue to serve as condition for anger to arise. The conditions are in the akashic field. They are part of your karma and karma is an expression of the akashic field.

So all the conditioning is there in the akashic field; when certain conditions meet anger, sadness, fear, or whatever, is triggered to express. This is why I ask you to simply take care of the expressions and work with the conditions, not the results.

The elements are also floating there in the akashic field. Each element is perfectly balanced within the akashic field, but when they come out into the world you do not get the fullness of the element, only that portion which you allow to come forth, which you invite. If you block the water element and invite a lot of fire, you'll feel parched and dried up and a lack of fluidity. If you invite a lot of water element and not much earth, you feel like you're washing away.

Impermanence and selfless expression (empty of self) are basic to the elements in their pure form. The elements themselves are conditioned, so in that sense they are impermanent The balance of elements within your body is also impermanent; that balance depends on what you call forth. I say "call forth;" when you know that you are balanced, that balance is what has been called forth. When you believe you are limited, what element must you suppress in order to believe in "I am limited"?

I'm asking Q because of what she said before, and you don't need to answer, just think about it. Each of you. With that belief, "I am limited," what element do you suppress? It will be different for each of you and at different times.

Q: So Aaron, if everything arises from the akashic field; what makes it all so organized into this world? Why would it not be just...mishigosh? It's Yiddish. Yes, chaos, but more; mishigosh. Disorganized chaos. What makes it so mishigosh and yet all of this amazing organization?

Aaron: There's a scientific law, entropy, that everything is constantly decaying into chaos, and yet it decays into something new. The forest trees die and decay and become the ground for the new forest. There's a certain basic organization as part of this earth's structure, and a different basic organization as part of other domains of existence.

On Earth, if you have buildings like this house built on the sand and a tsunami comes, it breaks them apart; then parts of the houses rot away and decay. Eventually, if nothing is done with the ruins, 100 years later you just have sand, back to the pure dunes. There's a certain order to it. So it moves into chaos on its way to a new order.

Q: What orders it? What is the intention?

Aaron: Let me offer a different example. You're in a room with a lot of agitated people, everybody yelling at everybody else. There's a lot of mixed emotion and pain. There are a few of you who are very conscious and able to hold space for that pain. This was some kind of planned meeting to try to bring about some kind of resolution, but everybody is yelling at each other and throwing dishes at each other; the whole thing is descending into chaos.

It will resolve itself into whatever order is invited by the gathered group. Maybe everybody will kill each other, the corpses will be cleaned out and the room will become still again. Who knows? Maybe the people who were sitting there with enough deep centeredness for all this chaos will be able to offer out appropriate words or energy, a container for all that chaos, so it's mixed together and eventually comes forth as a sense of direction.

Have any of you ever been in a Quaker business meeting? I don't mean a meeting for worship but a meeting for business? A Quaker meeting for business can be quite chaotic because the central idea is that every person's view is important. 90% of the people can agree and 10% can disagree, but they don't vote, they wait until there's full consensus, so everybody is heard. There can be very strong emotions, a lot of agitation, a discussion on an issue that can go on for weeks and months. But eventually a new order comes out of the container of lovingkindness that's holding all the agitation. The intention is to allow a shared consciousness for the highest good to emerge. It's really no different than making soup. You put all the ingredients in the pot. Eventually you don't have radishes, carrots, chicken, celery and onions; you have soup.

Q: What makes the soup that is our universe?

Aaron: You all do.

Q: Our conscious intention?

Aaron: Your depth of conscious, your clarity or lack of clarity. The lack of clarity throws in a lot of hot sauce. You're constantly creating it.

I lived in an Essene community 2000 years ago. I had lived with others with deep conscious understanding before but never in such a connected community. There was such a clear intention to create the support into which the one who you know as Jeshua could be born, a community that could support his teaching. Certainly some people had doubts, but they learned how powerful their doubts were, and that the doubts could be like setting a nest of hornets loose in a room. So they learned how to work skillfully with their doubts, not be caught up in fear about them and also not to suppress them.

The power of, not just visualization but knowing, was experienced and it was known that we could all depend upon each other. Think of Jeshua and the story of his walking on water. Can you walk on water? (no) What if he materialized on the beach here beside us, took your hand and said, "Come with me, brother; come with me, sister."? Do you think you could do it? (yes)

This knowing is the power that derives from knowing your divine nature. I go back to the Casa. What if Joao said, "How can I let an Entity come into my body and cut somebody's skin? I can't do that; he could bleed to death!" He couldn't do it, could he? He gives himself completely over to the spirit plane, having done his own inner work to verify that what is incorporating in his body is only a highly positively polarized entity with no intention to harm. And then he trusts that entity to do what it needs to do. Joao the man could not cut somebody and stick his fingers in the hole; the person would be screaming. Joao himself, the man, could not scrape somebody's eye.

There's a deep knowing and a willingness to release the limiting beliefs of the personality self and step into the divine self. So somebody like Joao is a wonderful example of it, the human capacity to step into the divine self.

Barbara got up from her nap at 2:20pm. She said, "What are we going to talk about?" I said, "I don't know yet." So she simply pulled on her bathing suit and came down to the beach. Could Barbara do that? Well, she did give a dharma talk that way the other night and it was quite a clear talk, but there was some hesitancy about it, whereas, coming down here today she has no hesitancy; she simply will give me the body. I just tell her, "Don't worry about it. I know what I need to say."

Letting go of the personality self, opening into the divine self, and of course there are different degrees of that. So, Barbara can come down here without any idea of what will be said, open to me, and let me talk. But because she has limiting beliefs, she could not, at least not without taking Jeshua's hand, she could not walk off onto the surface of the ocean.

It's not necessary to learn to walk on water; that's not a skill that's particularly necessary or useful in the human realm. That's why you have boats! It is useful to see the limiting beliefs that entrap you and that are truly hazardous to you and to others, and to understand, "I don't need to hold on to that belief anymore. It's not helpful to me; it's not helpful to others." As long as you believe, "I do not have the capacity," you will not manifest the already-present capacity.

Each of you, I'm sure, has known people who lived or were dying with terrible pain, but who died gracefully. Terrible body pain but they weren't lying there screaming, "I can't stand it! I can't stand it!" Some of them were, but each of you probably has some example of somebody who has lived with or died with terrible pain with an amazing gracefulness and spaciousness, knowing not "I can't do it," but, "If this is what's asked of me, I will do it."