October 18, 2008 Aaron and Jeshua, Michigan

October 18, 2008 Aaron (with Jeshua), Interfaith Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan

(Jeshua's portions were not recorded; Judi and Jeshua have not reviewed this transcript..)

Host: ... We are delighted to have you here. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience your own divinity and to be in the presence of two of the most loving energies that there are. Aaron, in his lifetime a couple thousand years ago was a boy named Nathaniel, who was a few years older than Jeshua and close friend of Jeshua. They grew up together in the Essene community near Mt. Carmel and their loving presence today is just a blessing for all of us. We are delighted they could be here.

As I understand it, Jeshua and Aaron have been conferring; in fact Aaron told me this week that he and Jeshua have a couple of things up their collective nonphysical sleeve. So it's been wonderful to watch Barbara and Judy not plan this workshop. Aaron and Jeshua have done all the work of planning and all of the, I would say scheming...

So we are really blessed to have present with us Barbara Brodsky, who is the founding and guiding teacher of Deep Spring Center, who has channeled Aaron for 20 years, and Judith Coates, who, along with her husband Tom, founded Oakbridge University in Tacoma, Washington. Judy has been channeling Jeshua since 1993. So let's have a nice warm welcome for our guests. (applause) I understand that the workshop will begin with Jeshua and Aaron greeting each other, so I'm done.

Aaron: Thank you, David. My young friend of that lifetime and always my elder brother in spirit, I greet you with so much joy and love.

Jeshua: And I you; I greet you with love.

Aaron: And these humans are still with us a bit and greeting with love as well and we embrace all of you love. So many of you were part of that lifetime. So many of you lived in those days. You find yourself called forth by this energy because it is familiar to you. Welcome. We rejoin the circle. My brother Jeshua will begin.

Jeshua: Thank you. It is indeed, as my brother Aaron...(remainder not recorded)

Aaron: (trying to work the recording device) In most areas I am her (Barbara's) teacher, but when I push the wrong buttons, she becomes annoyed!

As my brother has just said, you are spirit, and yet you are also here in what I call your earthsuits. So I call you “angels in earthsuits.” And it is imperative that you not forget either one. When you come into the incarnation, you forget the angel and become involved in the earthsuit. But now is a time for remembering, to know the angel, to live the angel, and not discard the earthsuit, for you have come into this earthsuit for a reason. There is a heavy physical body, a heavier emotional body, and even the mental body has a slower vibration. So part of your work is to raise the vibration of these bodies into harmony with spirit.

You are all interconnected, as Jeshua has reminded you. From that place of interconnection, truly this world can be the Eden that has been described to you. From the place of the separate ego there comes a world of conflict and confusion. The question then is how to bring it together so that you begin to experience those deep interconnections and learn how to use them.

There are two parts to it: to find and to know the interconnection, and to learn how to use it. In the days before our Essene community, in the days of Lemuria, many of you were alive in those times when the earth needed to shift itself, because sometimes the plates on the earth do need to shift. You would feel the earth getting ready to sneeze, as it were, and you would see that the timing was not wholesome for that sneeze, that the energy needed to be shepherded gently so no harm would come of that earth shift. Many of you together would hold the energy, not just beings of the highest level of intelligence but beings at all levels, even the gas and mineral and vegetable of the earth would hold the energy and co-create that smoothed sneeze so that the earth shifted gently and nobody was hurt.

You have lost the ability to co-create and then in your frustration, you each try to push from the individuated ego and of course that doesn't work. So now is a time for remembering, because you have become increasingly powerful with your new clear energy and such, your ability to destroy, and so you must remember your power to co-create and hold this place of peace and love. And you all have the ability to do that.

You are all one, as Jeshua has reminded you. I want to share an exercise with you, here. I'm going to ask you to stand up. You are all trees. Be a tree. (There are pauses as Aaron speaks, while people follow his instructions)  Feel the roots deep into the earth and the wind blowing the branches. A bird lands on one branch. He is no less a part of you than your own twigs and leaves. The rain falls and you bring it into your being through your roots. When a strong wind blows, you center yourself and come down into those roots. Feel yourself grounding deep into the earth. At the place where you go deep into the earth, you and your neighboring tree are one. Your roots are intertwined. And then the sun comes out. Reach those hands up. The limbs are reaching out to the heavens. You have no limit in your being. Be out there beyond any feeling of a separate self, embracing the sunshine, the fresh air, and all those wonderful creatures that land on your limbs. Sway, because you are not rigid.

And then a storm comes, as storms have a way of doing in your lives. You begin to blow, to toss. Feel yourself silently connected, rooted deep into the earth and centered. It doesn't matter what the limbs do or where they go because you are centered. Feel that in your deepest being.

When the time comes that this tree that you are falls down from age or lightning, feel your ability to disintegrate into the earth, for you are the earth and the sun and the water. Be aware of that small seed that takes root in that fertile soil, just another expression of you. These sprouts are all growing up, reaching their own arms to the heavens and grounding their feet down into the earth. All are you. You are eternal.

I thank you. You may sit. I pass this to my brother Jeshua...(not recorded)

Aaron: You forget the power you have. Even in that lifetime as Nathaniel I sometimes forgot the power I had because the human does forget. A favorite story with Jeshua: sometimes Jeshua would accompany me into the hills where I took care of my sheep. It was a cold, rainy night and a sheep had gone astray. We found it and brought it back to the fireplace--we had not yet lit a fire, we had been out looking for the sheep. So I went through all the mundane ways of lighting a fire, gathering wood, finding dried grass, which was hard to find in the rain, striking a flint. I could not light a fire. Each time I tried, Jeshua looked at me. “What are you doing, Nathaniel?” “I'm lighting a fire.” He watched patiently for 5 or 10 minutes while I fussed with wet tinder and finally he said, “Nathaniel, just light the fire! Oh, let me do it.” And he came forth and invited fire, which immediately burned hot and bright! No flame, no dry grass; if you're going to light a fire you simply co-create with the fire element and bring forth fire.

That lesson has been with me all of these years-- just light the fire! So we forget, we flounder around, trying all the mundane ways to do it. So much is possible when you trust and are willing to move beyond the previously conceived limits.

Two stories I want to bring you from Barbara. Since she lost her hearing in 1972, the middle ear nerves were dead so she had no balance. She walked awkwardly, often using walking sticks. So she was at the healing center in Brazil and walked past the man there, John of God, he incorporates different healing entities, one at a time. As she approached the entity, she had her walking stick and he said, “What's this? You don't need these. Get rid of them.” She said, “I will fall over.” He said, “You only believe you'll fall over. No walking sticks.”

So she went back to her hotel for lunch and on the way back, no walking sticks, and she was walking like this (showing a very tiny, tense step) ... very afraid to take a step. Her back hurt because she was so tightened up. Finally she heard the entity saying to her, “Just walk.” She said, “I can't, I'll fall over.” He said, “I'll support you.” She could feel pressure under her arms. Walking. “Oh! What do you know? I can walk!” No problem. She walked like that for several days. She came back to him the next week, walking well, and he said, “Ride a bicycle.”  So she rented a bicycle and rode around town for several weeks on it.

It's all in your belief of limit or no limit. As long as you believe you are limited, you will live those limits. When you know you are unlimited, that you are divine energy, co-creating with the world, you are unlimited.

The second story. This summer Barbara fell. She was leading a horse. The horse bolted and she didn't let go. It's always good to remember to let go! She held on. The horse pulled her over. She broke her toe, just where this part of the big toe would be, a severe but a straight break. So the doctor said, “Just tape it. It will heal in perhaps eight weeks.” It was very painful, very discolored. In her meditation, she heard these entities from the Casa, from John of God, some of whom she hears clearly, she heard one of them say to her, “It's just molecules. There's nothing solid there.” So the Entity suggested that along with the human healing devices such as ice and the arnica she was applying, and elevating the foot, he said, “Sing to it.” Each chakra has a vibration - C., D., E., F, G., A., B, C. When you sing, just the sacred syllable OM-- (tones OM, rising tones) Not exactly a concert voice! But nevertheless, you get the idea. He said to sing to it. Ask it what notes it needs to help the molecules move and shift.

She spent the better part of three days singing to it. She kept it taped, it was painful and she was limping badly. When she woke up on the fourth morning, there was no pain. The Entity said to her, “ The bone is healed. Be gentle with it but you can remove the tape.” The discoloration had faded. There was no pain. A bit later, her doctor, with some disbelief, decided to x-ray it. How could there not be pain? It doesn't even show the break, the molecules knit that well. There is no sign of where the break was.

You are unlimited. This is not about healing broken bones. That's a convenient thing to be able to do. Barbara understands that in another situation she might not fully heal the broken bone. The question is about not living within your belief of limitation, and to begin to ask yourself, what holds you to that belief?

There is a beautiful quote attributed to various people, which is that your greatest fear is not that you are powerless but that you are powerful beyond measure.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate...

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

Why are you so afraid of your power?  Because you still do have negative emotion and thought, and because you deeply aspire not to do harm in the world. Because you are afraid of that negative thought, you hold the concept of limitation. What is needed here is to release the concept of limitation and to learn not to be caught up in self-identity with the negative thought. It's just a thought. Why are you giving it so much power?

If I were walking here barefoot and stepped on a tack, there would be blood. Would I say, “Oh no, there shouldn't be blood”? The nature of the body is that if the flesh is perforated, there will be a drop of blood. There will be pain. The body has nerve endings. But if I stub my emotional toe and anger comes up, what then? Do you say, “There shouldn't be anger,” or do you simply say, “Ah, anger has arisen in this mind and body. I will breathe and take care of this anger until it resolves itself.” In the same way that you take care of the small perforation of the foot, you take care of the anger. Once you learn not to be afraid of any negative thought that arises but just to make space for it and take care of it, then you begin to be comfortable with your power and unlimitedness because you are not afraid that you will and act negatively and using your unlimitedness to devastate the world around you. Of course you will not do that. Trust yourselves. Trust your heart.

Jeshua, I pass this back to you, my beloved friend.

Jeshua: My brother Aaron has spoken truly, to trust your heart, to go within...(not recorded)

Aaron: ...So we all know each other. What supports remembering? The more you are caught up in self-identity with the emotions, with the body, with fear, with confusion, with even the workings of the mind in scholarship, the less you remember of your true self. This does not mean that you refuse to know the body or the mind; they are useful tools. You take care of them and you appreciate your tools. If you were a carpenter, you would take good care of your hammer and saw, files, and so forth, but would you sleep with them that night? Would you carry them with you constantly, or when you were done with the work would you put them down?

Jeshua's father taught me this (speaking to Jeshua). I was a shepherd and not quite a shepherd. My human father in that lifetime was part of the Essene community and was also a shepherd. His ministry was to the shepherds because he felt that the men who lived in the hills, who lived with the animals, were more in touch with their true spiritual nature and could be more deeply taught, were more open to new ideas, than some of those who lived in the cities and were bound by their old beliefs. I came into the lifetime, literally, to be his son, from the lifetime before in which I had been Aaron. So my life was spent half the year in the meadows and hills with the sheep and half the year at the Essene community.

I became overly identified with my role as a shepherd and Joseph, your father, would say to me, “When you are here at the Essene school, put down the shepherding. Just lay it aside. Know that the sheep are safe and taken care of. Release that identity.” But constantly I was going back to them in my mind. “Lay it down. Trust.” And then of course, when I was out with the sheep, I needed to be there with the sheep, and held the identity of the Essene student! But there cannot be a self identity, as “I am this or I am that.” We are everything, not limited. But we don't need to identify with the body and the emotions; we simply take care of them. Then where does identity rest? With the angel and the earthsuit as one whole.

The whole Earth is moving into a higher consciousness and all of you have chosen to incarnate at this time, to be part of this movement into a higher consciousness, to shepherd in this higher consciousness. You are all shepherds. This higher consciousness is a non-dual consciousness, truly a deep consciousness of your interconnectedness with everything. So before this you have lived in a, let's call it rational consciousness, working simply by reason and by logic. And before that you lived in a mystical and mythical consciousness.

Now you are evolving, the whole earth is evolving, into this what you might call 4th density or the New Age of Earth, into non-dual consciousness. Your work is to be aware of when you separate, simply knowing it as the experience of separation. If I walk up to one of you and say, “Boo!” (shouting it suddenly) can you feel your self contract? “Ah, contracting. Not a problem, just contracting.” Right there with contraction is non-contraction.

May I have an empty sheet from your book? (holding paper) A perfect clean piece of paper, yes? No wrinkles. Clean piece of paper. (Crumples paper and displays it) Where did that perfect sheet of paper go? Can you see it right here in the wrinkled sheet? Where would the perfect sheet go? It couldn't go anywhere. The perfect sheet of paper is always there. And sometimes it has wrinkles.

When there are wrinkles, you may need to attend to them. If you want to write on the paper, smooth out the wrinkles. If the wrinkle of anger of rises, before you get into dialogue with another person you may want to breathe and smooth out the wrinkles. But the perfect piece of paper is here. You don't need a new piece of paper, only to remember the perfect sheet of paper is always here. Where would it go?

There's a wonderful story, a great teacher Ramana Maharshi, some of you have heard of him. He lay dying and his disciples were gathered around him crying out, “Master, don't leave us! Don't leave us!” They were weeping, they were crying. “Don't leave us, Master.” He opened his eyes, looked at them and said, “Where would I go?”

This perfect sheet of paper that you are, it's always here. When negative thought arises, be aware of negative thought. When the body aches, bring kind awareness to the aching body. That which is aware of anger is not angry. Think about what I've said. That which is aware of anger is not angry. That which is aware of fear is not afraid. You take care of the anger, you take care of the fear, take care of the pain, sorrow and confusion, from this centered place of love.

Hard to use this example with this multi-paned, thick glassed window, but if this window was coated with mud, would you tear it out? You would wash it. The perfect clear glass is always there. You are that perfect glass, each of you. You are radiant, you are beautiful; you are divine. Let yourself shine and take some care to wipe smudges off so that the glass remains clear.

We invite your questions. You may ask them specifically to one or another of us, or simply ask the question and we'll decide which of us would prefer to answer.

Q: My question is quite simple for you, I imagine, which is: how do you make friends with painful emotions and experiences, especially ones that seem to hurt a lot?

Aaron: May I speak to that? First you begin to notice the distinct experiences, such as body or emotional pain. With body pain, it comes to you through body sensation. With emotional pain, it comes to you through the mind. The experience, whatever kind of experience that may be, is either pleasant or unpleasant, or sometimes neutral but neutral experiences don't tend to hold your attention much...(next recording file)

Pleasant experience can bring grasping, longing, wanting to hold onto it. The unpleasant experience can bring aversion. When you put the whole thing in one basket, it's hard to deal with, but when you become aware, it is easier. Here is a simple example; an itch. Wanting to scratch the itch. Perhaps you can't scratch the itch. It's poison ivy; you don't want to spread it or cause infection. Grasping, tension.

The same pattern is true for a mental experience. Loss of a loved one: grief, unpleasant; grasping; wanting the situation to be different; wanting the loved one to come back; wanting the grief to be gone. When you bring attention only to the object, grief, it becomes so big you easily become lost in it. Grief, fear or body pain can be overwhelming. But what's primary in that moment is tension. There is only the experience of contraction, tension, or fear. Watch what happens when you bring your attention to these, instead of the outer experience of the body or mind. Here is tension. Feel it as contraction in the body. Breathing in, I am aware of contraction; breathing out, I smile to the contraction.

In this way, you allow yourself to be the bigger container that you already are. Not to experience yourself as limited but to know the enormity of this container, which is still experiencing that same emotional or physical pain, but now experiencing within a bigger container. It changes the nature of the pain and also, one has space to discern that the pain that arises in the mind and body are impermanent, and will change. When you are not holding it so tight, it has a chance to dissolve. But if you keep holding it and tinkering with it, it is like a scab that you keep scratching. You scratch it off, it bleeds, it forms a new scab, and you scratch it off again, until you are scarred. You just keep giving energy to that difficult body or mind experience and it perpetuates it. My pain. Grasping and contraction perpetuate the sense of a self and it give more energy to the pain or the scarcity or lack.

To use a different example. “I don't have money and my stock is going down. What will I do?” That contraction and fear just gives more energy to the experience of negativity. Right there with lack is abundance. Right there with pain is that which is not in pain.

Many years ago when Barbara was in the hospital experiencing a very intense physical pain in her leg, feeling overwhelmed by it, I asked her one morning, “Do your teeth hurt?” “No.” “Have you got a headache?” “No.” I said, “How about having some gratitude for these teeth that don't hurt and this head that doesn't hurt.” The infected leg was still there but instead of focusing all of the attention on that infected leg, just to open it up, “Ah...I am whole, and there is an infected leg.” Then the infected leg can heal, because you are no longer perpetuating that distortion though giving it a huge reality.

Jeshua: May I add to that as a small practical bit, that what you are looking for...(not recorded)

(break)

Aaron: Sharing and teaching like this with Jeshua gives me such joy, bringing forth so many evenings around the campfire. David, we need a little campfire right here! (a brass bowl is put on the floor and paper crumpled into it ) So are we going to use a match or are you going to light it with a snap of the fingers (addressing Jeshua; continued chatter and laughter. The fire is lit with a match)

Look into the fire and remember. Remember sitting around such a fire with your friends who reflected who you are.

We each lose track of who we are at times and then, when you come up and look in a friend's eyes, they reflect your truth. So one way to move out of that place of depression and separation is to invite remembering, not to enhance the separation of feelings, not to enhance the depression nor to deny the depression and feelings, but to simply note how these have arisen. That which is aware of feeling separation is not separated. But you need a tool, so look into your friend's eyes and you have the reflecting glass. Look into your own eyes and allow yourself just to breathe and to remember.

When the individuated ego begins to stomp its feet, just hold it gently like you would the two-year-old with a temper tantrum. When a two-year-old stomps its feet, you just hold space for it, hold it. You don't let it run around and break things; you hold it, but you hold it with love. It is the same way with the ego. Ego is only a three letter word, brother, not a four letter word! You're not trying to stamp out the ego; it's a useful tool. But the ego is not boss; the heart is boss. So you need to remember to keep coming back to this loving heart. So much of it is just the habit energy that many of you have to say, “Oh no, ego!” or separation or depression, and get out your guns and swords to wage war rather than just saying, “Ah, look what has come up. Here is ego. Here is depression. Here is separation. I will take care of these.”

Here is an exercise for you. Hold up your fingers, just four inches in front of your face and wiggle the fingers. Stare at the fingers-- let's call this one ego; this one emotion; this one separation feelings, loneliness, isolation; this one fear or depression. Look intensely at them. You can't see much else.

Now, keeping the fingers moving, look through them. Look right up here at me. The fingers are still there, they're still moving, and there is that vast space. Look back to the fingers. Do you see how when you focus on the fingers, it captures all of your attention and you lose the space? But when you consciously make the decision to peer through, you see the space that has always been there, the space of the loving heart. That which is connected has always been there. That which is beyond depression has always been there. It's not something you have to go out and find or even create; you just have to remember it. I promise you it is there.

So make your practice to be to pause, take a deep breath, put your hands over the heart if that helps, and to remember. And if you are still feeling a bit lost, pick up a flower and look at it. Let that reflect your innate beauty and perfection. Or look in the eyes of the beloved or in your own eyes in the mirror, and remember.

Jeshua?

Jeshua: I'd like to add a little practicality, a practical exercise besides the one with the fingers...(not recorded)

Q: This one is for Jeshua...

Aaron: Before the question, I'd like to say something here, if I may. Jeshua's speaking about the hair reminded me of this story. Do you remember the story of saving the sheep with my hair? (Jeshua: Yes!) I was six years older than Jeshua and he was at times entrusted into my care to come up into the hills with me and learn about the care of the sheep. A lamb was missing and we set out to look for it. We were high up on a rocky crag; there were no vines or anything long to use as rope. We found the lamb in a crevasse about eight feet down, steep rock. We could see it down there crying.

Jeshua said, “I will climb down and get it.” And I said, “I'll have no way to pull you back up.” He looked at me, a very wise young man of six, and said, “Nathaniel, just cut off your hair!” I had long hair. It had never dawned on me, but here was a rope! So we simply took the knife and cut off the hair, braided parts of it together, made a 10-foot rope and tied it around Jeshua's waist, lowered him down. He picked up the lamb and I pulled him back up. The power of hair! (laughter) It is a precious memory.

Jeshua: It is.

Q: (hard to hear)...My question would be, when you came upon Nathaniel trying to light that fire and you said poof! and the fire was lit, my question is, that's a lot of compassion, for me. <><Nathaniel> who has what we would call a disability, can't hear, what is it that guides you to enter that life and cure that or not?

Jeshua: You are speaking of the deafness of this one? Yes... My beloved friend, the one known as Barbara right now, is being a most wonderful teacher. She is showing you can live the normal life, have discourse with friends, without having the advantage, and sometimes disadvantage, of the ˜. She does hear intuitively. She does feel vibration on the body, and all of you have experienced to some extent when you are with the drumming, and you can feel the vibration of the drumming. Certain of your music in this day and time is very, very strong and you can feel that vibration. Even to a lesser degree the one known as Barbara feels the vibration of sound.

She is teaching, as the servant that she is, that you do not have to be what is the usual image in order to live a very full life. She travels, she has gone to a foreign country many times, she has raised 3 of the small ones, though they are not quite all on their own now. She knows the fullness of life. Why does it not heal yet?

The answer is in the yet. Because when the purpose of the appearance has served everyone that she has agreed she will come in contact with, when that purpose has been fulfilled, then the hearing will appear once again.

But right now it serves as a great teaching point because although there is not the physical hearing, there is a hearing of within, sometimes more strongly than for the rest of you who have hearing and all of the world is blabbering at you. It also gives opportunity for ones to stand with her, and although the usual conversation is not easy, there is a great feeling of love, when you stand with her and you feel her love vibrations.

So she teaches. She is the servant. And when she has completed all that she contracted to do, in a body in this lifetime, her hearing will come back. It is already in process of happening. It is not going to be so instantaneous that she is thrust into a world of noise, but it is a gradual process.

Thank you for asking.

Q: This is for either or both of you. Just curious if there's anything you can say about your teachers or how you came to learn what you learned. I know you mentioned obviously learning from each other, and others in your community; how did that come about? How did that learning occur?

Jeshua: The same as it happens for you...(not recorded) I pause now for Aaron.

Aaron: There truly are no separate teachers and learners. You are all teachers, and you are all the learners as am I. As Jeshua and I taught here today, we teach and learn from each other.

The foremost teacher is your commitment to love and the remembrance of that commitment. Then when you hear things, you measure them by that commitment, and what you hear will either resonate as truth or not resonate as truth. When you remember that commitment to love, then you are able to learn from everything in the world because what does not resonate as truth also teaches you. “This is not how it is. And I am committed not to act in service to this, to fear, to greed, to hatred. And this does resonate as truth, and I will act in service to this, to kindness, generosity, to openheartedness and connection.” This awareness is the greatest teacher.

As with Jeshua, I had many teachers, including Jeshua. Each one served a purpose, but each one was temporary; even the greatest teachers simply pass through to remind you of something of which you need reminding. When you have awakened to that, that teacher passes, and then the next teacher will come.

Sometimes what you at first experience as harsh deprivation is one of your life's greatest teachers. Somebody asked Jeshua about Barbara's hearing. Barbara has talked many times to me and to Jeshua about the hearing. This has been the greatest pain in her life and also the greatest teacher and the greatest joy. How can something be both pain and joy? At first it was pain because she didn't understand it and she was at war with it. And then she understood the gift of it, but there was still pain. Slowly she began to make more space for the pain, to discover the ways in which the deafness was a gift, and to find true equanimity with it. Only then could she begin to look at the question, “How do I invite healing with this?”

And now she is beginning to hear. It will be a gradual process, as Jeshua said. She's been going to this center in Brazil, to John of God, and the loving Entities there have said to her, “You will hear.” Now she hears thunder and car-door slamming, something banging or something knocking. One here can attest to her hearing laughter. One who is in the room now was laughing behind Barbara's back at something that was said and Barbara turned around. And this one said, “You heard me!” And yes, at some level she heard it.

You are whole; you are always whole, like that wrinkled sheet of paper. She is learning now to move past any old idea of limits, old belief in limits; she is allowing herself to express her innate perfection, and as Jeshua said, there is an agreement to do it at this pace so as to be able to teach others how also to find their wholeness. It's not really about the hearing. I know she will hear and she knows she will hear. But it's not about that, it's more about transcending belief in limits; knowing one's innate wholeness and living in the world from that space of wholeness. So she is willing to be patient and do this step by step so as to demonstrate this path for others. Perhaps knowing she will hear in the end makes it a bit easier.

Do you have further questions? Is the talking stick somewhere?

Q: Jeshua, I wonder if you could please clarify an issue for me, did you really actually die on that  cross? And I know these questions are all <>. First of all, was that event and suffering, was that essential to that particular lifetime? And what does it mean that Jesus died on the cross for my sins? Am I involved, or anything?

Jeshua: You were there... (not recorded)

Aaron: Your lives remind me of a great theater. You begin off-stage. When you are a ready for a new part, you and your guide, or as Jeshua has called it, guardian angel, come together and look at the list of parts. Your intention is not to find an easy part but you wish to find the part that will give you learning. And so you reflect upon what you and your guides together have understood to be the primary areas of learning into which you might enter. And you look at the various parts that are offered, with the two questions, “Where can I best learn?” and “Where can I best serve others?”

There is no certainty how the part will develop; it's all improvisation. You have free will; there is no script. So you choose the part, and you literally go onto the stage. Part of the planning is of the others who will be the parents, the friends, those with whom you grow up. Whatever strong habits you have brought with you, such as the habit to contract with fear, this will come with you into the incarnation, and whatever deeply positive ways of being you have brought with you, they will also be there. Nothing is ever lost. So if you have deeply learned to be in your heart and to open in compassion to others, there could be momentary forgettfulness, but as the incarnation develops, you will remember this. But there will always be situations that are challenging for you for that's what the incarnation is about.

These challenges come in different forms. For some it may be body challenges, for others it may be poverty and hunger, or a confused mind, lack of abundance, the sense of not having love around you. Let us regard the one with the habit to contract in fear. Each of these challenges offers you the catalyst that might lead you to contract in fear, and each time you contract in fear, all of your loving guides are there with you, trying to remind you, if you only will hear them, “It's okay. Open up. Relax. Right there with fear is that which is not afraid.” You are not in incarnation to stop fear. Fear is not a problem. Actually there are no problems, only situations that need your loving attention. When fear arises, it's a strong catalyst, it needs loving attention. The more fear that arises, the more opportunity to investigate that fear and find that you do not need to get caught up in fear, but that you can open to that which is not afraid. That you can, by the force of your own free will, choose love, and it is this choice of love that changes everything.

Some years ago Barbara came to Jeshua with the question—she was suffering a lot at that time both with her deafness and certain kinds of body pain, and she said, “I see you having suffered on the cross and I want to know how you got beyond that suffering. How did you deal with that terrible pain?” And Jeshua said back to her, “I did not suffer.” This threw her momentarily; she had an angry answer at first, “I look to you to be the teacher at how to get past suffering and you're telling me you simply moved out of your body and did not suffer.But I don't know how to do that.” And he said in reply to her, “I had already done the suffering. I had no need to experience that kind of suffering, that torture of the body, so it was the most compassionate thing to do, to lift myself out of the body.”

This was a strong teaching to her and I offer it on out as a teaching to you. You are here to learn. You are not here for comfort or convenience, you are here to learn. Sometimes that learning does involve the experience of pain, body pain, loss, and so forth. But often it does not and you only believe it does. What if there is no reason to suffer? You've done that. Maybe you're ready to say, “That's enough,” and move yourself into this larger space beyond suffering. Are you ready to follows Jeshua's lead and move beyond concept of limitation?

I'm not suggesting there will not be pain. If you step on that proverbial tack, there's still going to be a pinch in the foot. But pain and suffering are different things.

As you lift yourself into that place of spaciousness and love and remembrance of who you are, here you are truly saying no to fear and negativity. Much of it can be seen in the body. When there's fear, the body contracts. With love, the body energy opens, the whole body opens. The breath is free, the body is relaxed. When you find yourself contracting, just stop and note, “Here is fear. Here is pain.” And remember your beloved Brother's teaching, “I do not have to suffer. I have a choice.”

There will be pain. These bodies of yours will decay; they will grow old. There will be physical ailments. There will be loss of loved ones and the pain in that loss. This is part of the improvisation. You must stay connected to this pain, and perhaps this is the hardest thing to do, to both remove yourself, above it, and yet to stay connected to it. Here is the tree with its branches in the air and its roots in the ground. Or we can think of a pole, a great column that connects earth and heaven.

Your work as a human is to stay as connected as you can to the pain in the world but not from a place of fear, from a place of love; to hold that space, literally to be a bridge that connects earth and heaven so that you may walk freely about the stage knowing the joy of your being, knowing the enormity of your being, with deep respect for each other person's being, with joy, with love. To know the fullness of who you are.

The improvisation continues and each being has free will so you never know what another being will choose. In some lifetimes you receive much catalyst and in some lifetimes you provide much catalyst for others, as Jeshua was speaking about Osama bin Laden. There is always a balance through the many lifetimes. At times you experience others' negativity, at times you may be the catalyst for that negativity.

There are no bad souls. There are people who do unskillful things. The soul of one who causes great harm in the world is still a beautiful soul. There is learning to be had, especially if that being takes delight in hurting others. This creates a certain kind of karma that that being will need to resolve and balance. Meanwhile, you have invited this being into your experience because for some reason you needed this catalyst. Probably to remind you to keep the heart open in compassion, not to judge others, but to love. And as enough of you are able to hold that ground of love, regardless of what is going on in the world around you, you will truly have a world of love, grounded in love, where fear does pass through but is not held onto nor enacted. This is the Eden you have been promised. Are you ready to create it? The time is now.

Q: Thank you, Aaron and Jeshua, for being here, for the wisdom and love that's imparted. If you have anything to say, Jeshua, that would be of benefit in guiding this <>, I would appreciate it. I also ask, these open hearts are here and transcendence and transformation has taken place, and it's a synchronous time for good to unfold. If you could say something to the visioning of good, to the joining together, to the oneness of <> to unfold here as we come together to focus, to manifest, to be loved, guide us higher, we would honor and appreciate that.

Jeshua: It is a very good question and it is something that all of you have been working with...

(not recorded)

Q: I recently just learned to talk to the Holy Spirit, and I say “Holy Spirit”—my ego perception does not know my best interest and I don't know what anything is for. And then you just talked just recently about script and improvisation. So my friend L was talking about script and non-script, maybe it's not even important, but, what page are we on, does it matter?

Jeshua: No, it doesn't matter. When it is said I do not know what anything is for... (speaks of a tapestry. Go with the moment, go with love. Trust.)

Aaron: The book has many pages but it is one book, one book of the path of love. Have you ever just opened a book to a random page and found that it speaks to you? Sometimes you're not sure why it speaks to you, only that it does and you need to reflect on it. And sometimes the words are very clear.

You don't need to know what page you're on, you need to trust you're in the right book. You've chosen the book by choosing the incarnation and then bringing consciousness to your intention in the incarnation. When a page comes along and seems clear, then it's easy. When a page comes along that brings pain and challenge, then you pause, breathe, and ask yourself, “How is this particular discomfort or challenge connected to my highest purpose?” When you ask that question, almost always there will be clarity.

So let go of the page you're on. Knowing which page you're on is the ego's game. The ego wants to know because the ego wants to control everything.

Love doesn't need to control anything because love is always there to fall back upon. As soon as the question comes up, “What page am I on?” simply note, “Here is fear, here is tension. Ahhh... What book am I reading? The book of the path of love. I open this book. This page certainly is relevant to my present life situation so I will simply take it into me and read it and let it filter its way down until I understand it. And then it will have been a useful teacher. Then, when I am ready. I release this page and turn to another page.”

Thank you for the question. Further questions?

Q: (hard to hear) Thank you for answering the question about bin Laden and how he is really a high being. The same thing could be said, though, for Bush. <><> They really decide what's going on <> around the world. They don't have good intentions for us.

Now, we have this economic situation where people are losing their shirts. I don't know if any of us will have any money left after (2? 10?) years. But I really understand it as, what's really happening economically, in past depressions, the rich got rich. But I understand that this time, this planned economic disaster that's going on, the <> that are behind all of our problems <>, they're going to lose their shirts this time. They're going to be brought down to our level. And then we won't have a dark side that we have to deal with anymore. What I understand is, <> <downturn> in something, in the market, <financial world> <I want to know> how you feel about what I'm saying. This is the way I understand things...We should be dancing in the streets. We should be doing <handstands?> and standing on our head and playing music and we should really celebrate <><> so disastrous <> a gift <> living world. <>

Jeshua: You have spoken wisely. That is part of the...(not recorded)

Aaron: You are all a reflection of each other, and everything we see comes as reflection. And everything you experience comes as expression of your own beliefs. There's an old teaching story. A man has left his home and is looking for a new home, has traveled many days and many miles. Below him he sees a village. There's a woman sitting atop a hill, so he asks her, “What are the people like in this village?” She says, “What were people like in the village you came from?” “They were corrupt and cruel, narrow-minded,” he replied. “I think you'll find people pretty much like that here.”

The next traveler asks, “What are the people like in this village?” and she asks the same question, “What were people like in your own village?” “They were very loving, very kind and generous.” “Yes, that's how you'll find people to be here.” It's your experience; what do you see in people?

But we remember this ‘angels in earthsuits'. Everybody is the angel and everybody is in the earthsuit. Within that earthsuit there is sometimes confusion and distortion. When you say no to the distortion, you are not saying no to the angel, you are saying no to the distortion. When you believe that all that is possible, is that distortion, you keep inviting it. When you recognize the divinity of everyone and everything, then you invite the expression of that divinity. That doesn't mean that you do not say a compassionate “no” when there's negativity. But fear doesn't say no, love says no, and this is what makes all the difference. You are not seeing only the negativity but the beauty and radiance, the possibilities, and thus you invite those possibilities through saying no to the fear. When something is negative, when a leader would lead you into a path that your heart says is not the right path, then you say no in whatever ways are open to you, through your vote, through whatever kinds of political action are appropriate, whatever skillful means you have in your society. Love says no.

You are creating a new world, as Jeshua has said. There are the lines from the Christ in the Bible, “I am the resurrection.” You are all the Christ, you are all the resurrection. Each of you is resurrecting yourself from this image of the narrow, limited self into the divine vastness that you are. You are restoring yourself into your divine expression. And in resurrecting yourself, if you are that, then your neighbor is that. Each of us is that. Suddenly you're aware that the bin Laden, the Bush, each of these is that divine energy, and we begin to see the potential for the expression of that divinity, even in that negative person.

Think of the most reprehensible murderer that you can think of on a vast worldwide level, someone like the Hitler. And think of this human being holding his own child with tenderness. Is this being capable of love? Of course he's capable of love. Right now, in this scenario, he's enacting fear and turning his back on love, but the more of you who refuse to turn your back on love, and as Jeshua has said, who walk up when somebody is upfront with you, and smile, the more the path of love opens. Then the other is flipping the page and saying, “Where are we here? I know how to react to hostility; how do I react to a smile? How do I react to lovingkindness?” This was so much our Brother's message to turn the other cheek, not to get caught up in another's hostility. It's not about you. His hostility is just his hostility. Her fear is just her fear. Nothing permanent. Remember who you are. There's no need to get caught in their projection of themselves. And you can reflect a different image back to him or her which contains love.

Further question?

Q: Thank you. I have a question that, a lot of people that I live with are incredibly loving, and they hold a very scientific view of the world. They look at evolution and natural selection and say, “Well that seems to explain everything.” We're talking about, wondering about who's orchestrating the seasons and they'll say, everything comes about <in causes> in an evolutionary process, there's no intelligence behind it all. And if I understand the Course in Miracles, some people suggest it says that God did not really intend this world, that God would not create a world that causes so much pain as this. So it's kind of a 2-fold question. Is this world God's intention, is there an intelligence behind it all? And if so, <> occurring and yet is there something else occurring, is consciousness also driving things. I don't know. What do you have to say to that?

Jeshua: A very good question, yes. Who is God? Who?

Q: I can take a guess... If God is aware, and what is God, who is God-- God is?

Jeshua: God is you...(not recorded) Thank you.

Q: ...Actually, it's my daughter, who is perhaps one of the most loving, creative, exciting people that I've ever met. She's open to possibilities. She's a scientist; she's studying veterinary medicine. And it's interesting that I'm not the least bit worried about her, but we have this ongoing dialogue. And I think her belief in the realities perhaps science has discovered to some degree around evolution caused her to dismiss the possibility of the creative aspect of being... the overarching intelligence, perhaps, of God or whatever is going on. And it's just that it's something <>, we have this conversation all the time.

Jeshua: You're right. And it is fun, isn't it? Take that to heart. And thank you for asking.

Aaron: I would add to that. As Jeshua said, it's a semantic question. Certainly your daughter experiences love and you might ask her, “Given a choice, would you choose love or hatred? Love or absence of love?” And I think she will say love. You might then ask her, “Does it seem that love is a basic principle in the world, that all beings are capable of love?” If she says yes, you can point out how beings have a choice, to act from that place of love or not to. This takes the issue apart from the question of God. From my perspective, God is love. But you don't have to get into that. Simply, there is intention, for kindness and concern for all, or self-centered intention. Throughout the world, all beings want to be happy. Therefore there's an intention to create that happiness for themselves, and if they see deeply enough, to realize that they cannot have that happiness in themselves unless all beings experience such happiness.

Then we start to see the potential to live from this place of love in our heart, inviting love and well-being for all. From there, it's one more step to understanding that principle of love as God but we don't start there, we start with the simple human experience, “Yes, I choose love and I want to be happy. And if what I do makes you unhappy, I can't really be happy, so we're connected.” And then we take it step by step.

Do you have further question there?

Q: No, thank you very much.

Aaron: Others?

Q: Getting back to what <> said earlier about love taking us into a higher dimension, and visioning, we've heard much about attracting the good or manifesting what we want via visioning. And you can vision in love or out of love. So you're visioning in love. I've long had a vision of blessing and children singing and uplifting others. So if you're visioning in love, the miracles that were done in the life that you lived, can we see those in our lifetime if there's enough love and visioning?

Jeshua: Yes, and even more...(not recorded)

Q: ...I have personally experienced <> violence. That person is now in prison. <long question, unable to hear>

Jeshua: First of all, even though...(not recorded) In peace and in love. Namaste.

Aaron: I would like to add one thing to this, sister. Do you have in your house perhaps a small plant or a book or a piece of music that you might give to another? Yes. When you go home, find something and a friend that you know will appreciate it, and simply give it to them. Watch the feeling of giving, and as you give, open yourself; be both the giver and the receiver. For you indeed are both. Give with the open heart. You are not giving with the idea of receiving something back right away; you are giving unconditionally. But then open your energy field and make the statement to yourself, “I am free to give and free to receive. Whatever is in need, I give out to that need. And I invite the universe to give to me in ways that support my need.” In this way you overcome any blockage that feels the self unworthy to receive, because in the act of giving you open your energy and know the beauty of the self that is capable of giving.

Thank you all for your presence here today and for sharing your questions and your radiance and your love. It is always a joy to be here with you.

(turning to Jeshua) Thank you my beloved friend and brother for coming all this way from the other side of our country to be here with us.

Namaste.

Group: Namaste.

Host: We're finished...

(recording ends)

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