April 30, 2012 Monday at the Beach, Emerald Isle

What is the Akashic Field? How Can We Get to Know It?

(sound of wind and surf on mic; words not always clear; some missing text)

(Barbara begins by speaking of a personal experience of practice within the akashic field, not necessary to the transcript so reader may wish to skip to page 2.)

Barbara: Before Aaron comes in, I want to share with you a way that I've been working within the akashic field. I got a letter from the man who's bringing John of God to Austria and Germany, and who was given a copy of Cosmic Healing by the manager of the Casa. His organization has a book-publishing segment, so he said he wants to translate it into German. The challenge is that I do not own foreign rights to the book. My publisher does. This exchange should be so simple: just send me a contract and I'll sign it. I can see myself pushing and pulling, going through all of these technical mechanics and people's resistances is bringing up so much aversion and frustration.

Aaron keeps saying, just open to the akashic field. Feel all the tensions—your publisher wanting to make some money on it, this man and his good intentions, and wanting to bring it out to sell at his book events and fairs in Germany. See both of them wanting them to make money and both of their good intentions. See the big picture and all the undercurrents flowing. He says for me, if I feel frustration, that's just one of the undercurrents. See how that frustration hits their grasping at things to be their ways and pushes things further askew. Try to visualize energetically what happens when there's a big open-armed-heart holding this whole situation, letting any tensions dissolve.

Now, this is challenging for me because I definitely have a preference! It's been two months and it's just going back and forth and doesn't seem to be getting anywhere and we're running out of time, because it has to be translated. So I'm just working with this whole thing, trying to hold it all with love. Trying not to express frustration in any of my mail to them. I just sent off a letter today saying, “I have not heard anything back from you in two weeks. I trust your negotiations are going well and I'm so excited that this book will see the light of day in Germany. Looking forward to all the good it will do.” So I'm just trying to keep it very positive, and to watch the “Yes, but” that's coming up in me, “What's going on with these guys!!”

Q: Why are you running out of time?

Barbara: There's time for them to get it done by John of God events in the fall, but there are some big book fairs in Germany, big spiritual book fairs, and he wants to take this book to Book Fairs in Germany. For that to happen, the book has to be translated and ready in about 6 weeks. This whole thing started 2 months ago.

We'll see. If it's meant to be, it will be. I can let go of it to that extent, but then there's the human part of me that says, “No, I want it this way.” So I'm envisioning the whole akashic field as a vast container with all the different forces and currents and everything flowing through. I can really feel the energy beyond the words when I tune in energetically to these, one man in Germany and one woman at my publisher who's responsible for foreign rights, and the few emails I've gotten from them, the energy flowing between them, and just trying to hold this big space around whatever contractions they're each having. I think it's largely my publisher. The other man is pretty open, I think.

Just sharing that as a way I am practicing with the Akashic Field. But it cannot be used as a way to get what I, as ego, want, but only for the highest good. . Okay, Aaron is going to come in.

(

Aaron incorporates)

Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. What a delight to sit here with you in the sunshine by the ocean, a perfect dharma day. For those of you who were in Venture Fourth, this is where I would have loved to have done all our work with the elements. Some of you have done that with me here.

So we're talking about this “thing” we call the akashic field, each of you getting different takes on it, many of you getting close to a more comprehensive understanding. Each of you is seeing parts of it, like the blind men and the elephant. “The elephant is like a snake,” holding the tail. “No, the elephant is like a tree,” holding a leg. “No, it's like a wall,” touching the side. What is the akashic field? How can we really get to know it?

Look at the waves. What is the wave? Is there anyone who can point to anything and say, “That's the wave.”? The wave is made up of many factors. It's comprised of all the elements, it's comprised of the adhesive nature of water to pull itself together and rise, and of the gravity to pull it down, and of the fluidity of water. It's all wave.

The difficulty in defining the akashic field is that it is not just the objects, which are only a part of it. The ocean, the beach, these are part of the akashic field, and all the elements that make the ocean, that make the waves. The people sitting here listening to me, you're all part of it. These are objects. But also, all of your intentions are part of it. All of your karmic history and old patterns are part of it. All of the habitual patterns as they arise and pass away are part of it. And the Unconditioned is also part of it. So we have that which is compounded, that is, arising out of conditions and passing away, and that which is uncompounded. It's all part of the akasha and akashic field.

Imagine that you have a creek in your back yard. Usually the water is fresh and clear. One day you notice that the creek water looks muddy. From that position, right on your creek bed, all you see is that 20 yard stretch of creek and the muddy water. That muddy water is part of the akashic field. It's part of the conditioned expression of the creek in that moment. The water fresh and clear as it was yesterday is part of the akashic field.

You're wondering what's going on so you begin to walk upstream, up the hillside. About a half a mile up you see a beaver dam. It's new, just finished. So the water is not flowing as freely because the beaver have dammed up a big stretch, and they've churned up the water above the dam so it's muddy. The dam is part of the whole picture. The muddy water beyond is part of the whole picture.

You walk up, wondering how far back the mud goes, and a few hundred yards beyond that you come to a farmer's field where he's running a sprinkler incessantly and a lot of runoff is pulling up some of his topsoil into the creek. His greed, wanting his fields to be lush and green so that he's over-watering them, that's part of the picture.

We multiply this times a hundred thousand, so many different conditions, everything contributing. The bird who ate a berry, was full, and then defecated into the stream. That's part of it. The natural elements that caused the berry to grow so the bird could eat it. The nature of the bird to be hungry. This is all part of it.

You return back to your segment of the stream. You watch in yourself the wanting to fix, wanting to blame, but there's no way to fix and nothing to blame. Eventually the water will return to its natural purity. But yes, if there's a lot of muck in your stream, you can scoop some of it out, clean it out a bit. You can even go down and remove part of the beaver dam so it's not so fully blocking the flow. These are all temporary fixes.

We see our habitual tendency, wanting to fix. “I don't want it this way. I want it that way.” And there's nothing wrong with wanting your stream to run fresh and clear. Perhaps you get your drinking water from it, or perhaps you have a slightly dug-out area where you like to swim.

But we watch the habitual tendencies, wanting to fix, anger, aversion, wanting to blame. We hold all of these together in this big field of different influences, all coming together, all interacting. And because of your deep insight into dharma, and John spoke about this, this morning, dependent arising, because of your deep insight into this, you're able to watch your grasping and let go, to some degree not to enact the tendencies.

We begin eventually to really see the different channels coming in, the different influences coming in, especially predominant ones in the self, and ones that may be predominant in others. How does one hold this field with love?

Working in this way, the highest benefit that I understand is that it takes you so directly to seeing your own habitual tendencies, how those tendencies have become manifest in the past, how they've become beliefs, how you're stuck in them, and the possibility of stepping out of that whole mess and into a much clearer space. The one who steps out at first does seem to be a self. “Me, I will not do it that way, I will do it this way.” But then gradually this “one who knows,” this deep heart center of pure awareness, comes forth and becomes increasingly able to hold the ever perfect as it is recognized in that moment, along with the confusion, the chaos, the distortions, to hold it together.

We come back to something that I was teaching some of you 20 years ago. We have a fresh underground spring that surges up and runs down the rocky hillside in a stream. The water is so pure right there at the spring; you can drink anything 20 yards down, as it's rolling down over the rocks. It runs into a creek bed made of dirt; a mile downstream there's an open area where cattle are wading in the water. You walk down there. Now you're thirsty from your walk. You want to drink. But now the water is muddy. Do you have to walk all the way back up to the spring?

Some of you would think, well yes, either that or I've got to chase the cattle away and wait a few weeks for the water to settle. Well, either way, you're not going to want to drink the water right there where the cattle are. But if you brought a filter so that you could filter out the sediment and any bacteria, the ever pure water is always there. Do you remember my teaching you this? We've used this illustration many times. The ever-perfect spring is always there. Don't look elsewhere for it. Look right there. Look right there where the distortion seems to be, for the ever perfect. Why go elsewhere?

I'd like you to look at that ocean again. Envision towering waves 10 feet tall. That's one potential of the ocean. A big storm brewing, huge waves. And then envision it even calmer than it is now. See tiny wavelets lapping on the shore. Picture it more like a lake. Still. The wind has stopped. The tide is just turning. Feel the inherent stillness and the inherent violence.

Now if you want to swim, at least theoretically you can sit by the water and hold the akashic field in your heart and in your mind, co-creating with the waves the perfect water conditions for your swimming; even the temperature degrees. How do you want it to be?

Granted, if you want it to get warmer, it's going to take a huge blast of sunshine; 120 degree temperatures here on the beach might warm it up by tomorrow. But it won't be very comfortable to sit out here on the beach. Is that really what you want? You're co-creating. You're holding the whole field and all the possibilities. Remember that there are, at least in this group, 20 other people co-creating it with you. Maybe some of them like the water temperature just the way it is.

When you work within the akashic field there must always be the deepest respect for the free will of nature and of all beings, not just humans but all sentient beings. As you gain power with this, you do not impose your will on others because you become more powerful. You must always work within this field with the deepest love, respect, and for the highest good of all beings. At that point there must be some degree of surrender, just the statement, “This is my preference. But my highest preference is for the highest good. And if this preference is not for the highest good, I let it go.” This is why we do not teach people how to do this work before they have deeply established sila and readiness to hold what is for the highest good as highest intention.

So we're back to square one. What is the akashic field? It really is everything. It's the uncompounded, and the compounded objects that arise out of the uncompounded and dissolve again. You notice I'm using the term “compounded” rather than conditioned. They're really almost equivalent, but compounded gives a clearer sense of beings and objects “becoming” out of all the different conditions. Compounded into this and then a little push and it becomes that, and another push and it becomes that.

Some of you worked last summer with Barbara with the Circle of the Sun material: it introduces the energetic stream, the central channel, the channels behind the eyes, and learning to open to that space. I told Barbara and all of you then: this is not essential. This is one path, through the Tibetan Buddhist practices that often involve visualizations. If it works for you, it's fine, it's useful. But it is not an essential path.

The essential path is really the path of the open heart. It's not even wisdom, although that certainly has a part in it. It's the path of the open heart that's willing to surrender the boundaries and know its deepest interconnection with all that is. As long as there's even the slightest bit of armoring, you cannot go deeply into that field for the highest good of all beings because there's still the subtle notion of self, me, mine, what I want. And yet preference does have a part in this because you each do have free will. It's wonderful to know your preference without grasping and attachment, to invite that preference always with the acknowledgement, “For the highest good of all beings.”

When enough of you are able to work at that level, you may come together and something as simple as negotiating a contract is very easy. People look and say, “What is our purpose here? It is to get this book out into the world. Our secondary purpose is that we each make an appropriate income in it. But the negotiating of the contract simply becomes a clear statement, “This is our highest intention. Let us invite it.”

When what you seem to be inviting does not manifest, what is happening? Either of two things: sometimes there is some blockage to that manifestation which you have not fully acknowledged. In other words, one might say, “I want my mind to be peaceful. I want to let go of the whole karmic tendency to fix and control.” But that tendency may be very old and it may be called up when there is fear, in order to block the experience of fear, to help you avoid fear by becoming the one who does, the one who fixes, the one who controls. Sometimes it's very subtle.

The other thing that may be happening, when what you believe you wish to manifest does not manifest, is that you've made the statement, as Barbara has made with her hearing, “I choose to hear. But I am willing to maintain this deafness, at least for now, if it's for the highest good of beings. My higher purpose than hearing is service to others.” You may not consciously make that statement, but at a deep level in the heart there is such a statement.

For example, if you're in a relationship, either a social relationship or a work relationship, which is challenging, maybe at some deep unconscious level there is a commitment to help the other person become less controlling and fixated and fearful by being willing to be a foil to that person, but also not to allow yourself to be abused by that person. For you, there may be some challenge in how to say no, not to be abused. Gradually you're leading that person on to a more open heart. So you're willing to put up with the challenge of the relationship because you committed yourself to serve as an instrument of growth for the other person. Then you may ask, “Why isn't this relationship working out?” Well, you can't do it for the other person. You can either opt out or you can stay there with as much love as you can muster, saying “no” in an appropriate way to abuse, and gently guiding the other person to further open the heart.

This is all working within the akashic field. It may or may not be conscious. The more it becomes conscious the easier it gets, because you recognize these divergent streams, these ripples of disturbance, for what they are, and  don't take them as self, just know all of this arising from conditions. My creek, it's muddy. Okay, there are all these conditions. I take care of what I can and simply wait for the rest to resolve. But I don't take it personally, and I don't contract around it, which enhances a self, which further entraps me in this whole karmic outflow.

This is all you can do on this earth plane: to extricate yourself from the karmic flows that are so deeply habituated and live with as much spaciousness and peace as you can. And it's never going to be perfect. Eventually something is going to come along like my-- (shout) hey! --and trigger a contraction. That's okay.

So I still have not really answered the question, what is the akashic field? I'd like to hear some thoughts, questions, whatever, from you. Does anyone want to take a stab at defining your experience of the akashic field? I'm stating that in a very specific way: your experience of it. Your experience and another person's experience are not going to be the same. That's fine. I open it to you.

Q: I have two experiences. One, eyes open, and the other, eyes closed. Eyes open is easiest. It was my introductory experience at Venture Fourth, the drinking water experiment we had. The water tasted normal but I opened my eyes to the first day of Creation. I had total <feeling> brand new life. The second experience, eyes closed in sleep. I was doing pure awareness and up came a distortion. I transmuted the distortion into light.

Aaron: When you say, “*I* transmuted the distortion into light”, do you mean it transmuted itself. Or what transmuted it?

Q: No ego was (involved).

Aaron:  So, love and awareness transmuted it. I want to be very careful with the vocabulary, because “I transmuted it” is different than “Love and awareness invited its transmutation.” And it really transmuted itself.

Q: It's two languages. Number one, visual. Everything brand new, with the eyes, the feeling. Number two, energetic.

Aaron: Thank you. That sounds clear. The more of you that report your experiences, the more those who are not sure they're getting it will feel confident to translate their own experiences. Remember, there is not just one experience of the akashic field. It's like saying, “What is your experience of water?” Do I mean ocean? Do I mean a little bottle of spring water? Do I mean a waterfall?

Q: I am wondering about, to me it seems like when one steps out of the mundane mind, then mind is the akashic field.

Aaron: And instead of myopic vision, narrow, suddenly as one steps out, there's this vast field.

Q: Even if nothing is in it, right?

Aaron: Even if nothing is in it, because even if nothing is in it temporarily, objects begin to float through it.

Q: And being able to know anything means that those “anythings” come from the akashic field, right?

Aaron: Yes. So, for example, if you are meditating in your garden and the “I” slips out and there's just spaciousness. Then there's the droning of the bee—hearing, hearing. There's nobody hearing, but hearing is still happening. You see the bee drawn to a beautiful flower. You smell the scent of the flower. You are the bee. You are the flower. Suddenly you're tuned into all the bees in the vicinity, all the flowers, the whole habitual pollination of the flowers, this pattern. You know it deep inside you. And then it goes. The droning stops. The bee has flown away. And there's only silence. You rest in that silence. Then there's an ant crawling over your hand—tickling, tickling. Again, no self; just aware of the presence of this small being. Watching it crawl over a hand, you lay it down on the grass and let it crawl off on the other side, and it's gone. But through the ant and sensation you are tuned in into the whole akashic field.

We tune into the whole universe in this way, if we let ourselves go deep enough. For some it can be a frightening experience because it's so immense. Yet it is an extraordinarily beautiful experience of knowing, literally, “I am that,” knowing the divinity in all of that. And the heart is so open with love. You watch and see the careless person walking down the path step on the anthill. The heart breaks open, but there's no blame. There's no anger.

Thank you, Q.

Q: (Hard to hear over surf) I had an experience in Brazil where I was with Barbara and she was channeling a lot of healing energy. It was just a big spacious emptiness. And when a thought would come, like, <inaudible> or should I send metta, the answer would be no, just be there, just be present.

Aaron: Yes. And that was the akashic field. You're speaking, I believe, of that afternoon in the pousada, yes? And we were very much holding open the akashic field there, with entities coming in to help the person who was struggling with such pain. What we were doing, Barbara, you, some others of you were there, some of you outside the room, some of you inside the room. What we were doing was simply holding open the akashic field to allow the person who was feeling ill to release the contractions, to release the old habitual patterns. Just holding space and inviting many entities in to support this openness. Just holding the space. But not trying to make anything special happen, just holding it for the highest good of all beings.

That's why the non-doer is vital. Even tonglen done from the heart is still a bit of a doer, different than pure being. That doesn't mean we do not practice tonglen; it has a place. But you cannot practice tonglen AND work in the akashic field unless you have very deep experience of releasing the self. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's hard.

Q: (Hard to hear over surf) I had an experience about 20 years ago. My teacher (Marcia Rose) was giving me a massage. I saw inside of me <a bright> Buddha and another being <>. It was an incredible experience, so much so that when I was done I felt a need to submerge myself in water. She told me just to do what I needed to do. And for two days I couldn't walk <inaudible>. It felt as if I were baptized.

Aaron: You were. You were. Marcia had, even 20 years ago, a very deep access to the akashic field, not always consciously, but in offering massage and bodywork she was always deeply connected to the akashic field, so that she was able through the massage and her opening -what I was talking about in Brazil - holding open the portal, she did not create the experience, she simply held open the portal and showed it to you so you could call to you the entities, the energy, the experience, that was appropriate for you.

Q: What she did was tell me, “It is about time. They're very close.” And not to be afraid.

Aaron: So, simply normalizing it. Helping you trust the experience, which is important.

Those of us who are deeply connected to the akashic field can assist you in these transformational experiences when you are ready to invite them. If you are not ready, you block them. In the incident we were just speaking of in Brazil, the person having that experience was ready. So those around, human and entity,  were simply holding the space and supporting, to allow the experience to happen. And there may not even be intellectual clarity about what happened. That's okay. There was still a very real transformational experience, even if one cannot articulate it.

You each have experiences like this. As you become more at home, at ease, in the akashic field, you can call more on spirit. You begin to connect to the akashic field at so many different levels and invite these transformative experiences. Sometimes it's an insight, sometimes it's a release, sometimes both.

Q: (over surf) I had several experiences of the akashic field when I was with you in Seattle. One of them is in the notes, where spontaneously the column of light appeared. The quality I wanted to share is that I entered into that column of light, like a doorway with great reverence, to serve the highest good. And once I was in, once I experienced the akashic field, there was no “I”. It was that <inaudible>. But it was also conditioned in that there was energy moving <inaudible>.  I thought...

(Aaron suggests passing the mic so the speakers can be heard on tape)

Aaron: Yes, this was a direct experience of the akashic field.

Q: So, the experience I had in Seattle was one of that column of light with the centers of light appearing, and then the sense of incredibly deep reverence and commitment to serve the highest good. And then I moved through a doorway into the akashic field. As I said a moment ago, it was vast, expansive, but also conditioned. There was energy moving. There were beings appearing. Amitabha Buddha appeared. This is in the notes from Seattle.

But what I wanted to share is, once I was in there, I thought, “How can I be of service? Who can I serve?” And instantly my mother appeared. And again, there's no “I” serving. So instantly my mother appeared, and like Barbara was saying, I invited the option for her to know more joy. She's been suffering a lot. So right there with her karmic pattern of suffering, there appeared a sort of very clear energy of the possibility of living with joy. So this space was held for her to show her that this was an option. No doing, no me fixing, just showing.

And it just occurred to me today that my mother is really transformed. She is really shifted, really different. She is seeking to find more joy every day in her life, starting to cultivate gratitude. That's why I wanted to share it. My mom is... She's about 180 degrees different. Her energy is positive, I mean, she still has her karma but she feels so much better. Anyway, I wanted to share that, and it was so simple.

Q: I've been really fascinated by all the sharing about people's experience with the akashic field. I want to share something, and I'm not sure it's a form of the akashic field or not. Because it's not something that just happened once or twice. Probably in the last 6 months, when I go into a quiet place, a lot of stillness, and I experience a lot of energy while I'm doing that, sometimes it's very quiet, sometimes it's very vibrational. If there's a lot of stillness within it, then perhaps an image or a feeling will emerge, and old habit energy, such as, let's say, fear or doubt. I see it quite clearly. It doesn't have a lot of aversion to it. And the spaciousness I'm feeling, for the most part, isn't MY spaciousness, it's just spaciousness. So when this doubt or fear arises, I pretty much, like I say, don't feel aversion to it. I open my heart to it. Then there's a sense of just drawing on this energy, which comes from my back up through my crown, the back of my head, down through my heart. And it just sort of absorbs this habitual tendency, this old mind, the energy, which is mixed in with the love. There's just a very intense feeling of what I think of as a transformation. And then I just kind of go on with the meditation. And this happens fairly frequently. So it's different than what other people are talking about, in the sense of there being kind of a remarkable event. So I'm just wondering...

Aaron: Imagine yourself in a situation where you need to cross a fairly rapidly flowing river, not wide but rugged. There's a large group of people and you've been leading these people, who are part of the leadership. You come up to the river bank and fear strikes, contraction. Then a deeply loving being suddenly appears. You may picture it to be the Buddha or Jeshua. He reaches out and takes your hand and says, “Brother, I will walk across with you.” And your fear dissolves.

Yet, at some level you're still feeling the fear of the others who are standing there on the shore. It's no longer your fear; it's simply the human fear. But conversely, as your fear dissolves, that release of fear is imparted to the others, who may not feel it to the same degree. But you're modeling it for them.

This is what I'm talking about when I speak of holding open the portal. It's holding an energetic portal in which we can compassionately feel the pain and fear and confusion of others without taking it into ourselves. We can compassionately feel all the energetic support that's available, not just from entities but from many sources. And we in a sense hold open the doorway so this energy may flow back and forth. We become the doorway. To me that's what you are speaking of, just the willingness to release self and become the doorway.

I would be happy to hear more of your individual experiences and have you share them. I also very much wanted you to try an exercise, which some of you have done. Some of you are going to yoga at 4, so you're welcome to do the exercise now, after I describe it, or you're welcome to do it after yoga.

I want you to walk now while the water is so calm in the wet sand. Do a slow walking meditation, feeling the waves coming up and touching your feet, touching, touching. Seeing the wave coming in and wondering, is it going to come higher than my ankles? How high is it going to come? Is there any tension? Or feeling that maybe it won't come high enough and you'd like it to touch the feet. Feeling that tension. Until all of this thought, planning, trying to control, simply dissolves and you become both the beach and the wave. Just being the beach, being the water, and finding yourself in that place where you know you are both.

Q: A quick question. When I was in Brazil and in the waterfall, I had an intense experience of the self totally falling away. Also aware of incredible bliss at the same time.

Aaron: This is a place where the entities are holding the portal open, allowing you, as you are ready, to experience the falling away of the self, to experience the bliss. Different people have different experiences in the waterfall. Many experience bliss and the falling away of the self.

Q: Is that the akashic field?

Aaron: The entities there support your finding what you are most seeking, as long as it is not harmful to any being and is for the highest good. What you were seeking was the falling away of self and the experience of bliss, so they supported your opening to that. Others here might say that they had different experiences in the waterfall, each according to what they were most seeking. Barbara usually experiences a deep sense of purification, not necessarily no self, not necessarily bliss, but a sense that everything that is impure is being washed away. Others have other experiences. Again, it's a place where if you are open to the akashic field, you will enter it. The entities are holding the portal open without any conscious effort needed on your part except to walk yourself down to the waterfall. You may enter into the akashic field and invite that which you most need. So it's an experience of the akashic field.

Q: Is the akashic field where you (Aaron) always are?

Aaron: Yes. Okay, we'll continue tomorrow. For now, if you feel so moved, do this walking meditation in the shallow water... I want you to use this as a way of opening into the direct experience of the akashic field, but do not TRY, just to rest in spaciousness and walk.

(session ends)

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