June 30, 2013 Sunday Afternoon, Trainings Workshop One

Aaron: It's been a wonderful weekend sharing these teachings with you, and I very much look forward to our future sessions, to seeing this all unfold. I want to thank Anna Marie for the clarity of your teaching. It's been a joy watching you unfold as a teacher, and watching the deepening of your insights and ability to express them.

We have just less than two hours to the closing, and I want to close the last half hour with a guided meditation. I want to leave us some time for questions and answers, perhaps an exercise. Normally I would do the exercise here, but we have to clear the floor and then put the chairs back. So we'll talk first and then see if there's time for the exercise.

I want to build a bit on what Anna Marie presented, these energetic patterns. Imagine someone is grabbing energy from you or pushing their energy on you. Anna Marie showed examples of blocking or moving out of the body, which are not really skillful options. What can we do when someone is trying to take our energy, or to force his or her energy on us?

Everything is energy, everything. What we want to do with that energy, whether they're trying to pull it from us and we feel their pull, or they're trying to force it on us, is to bring it into the Field wherein we can transmute it. We don't want to get rid of it; it's energy. We don't want to push it away. We don't want to swallow it and personalize it. We transmute it. How do we do that?

(away from mic for demonstration; transcriber can't hear everything) I want you as a collective group to push your energy at me. You're trying to force yourself on me, to get my attention. You can wave your hands, you can do whatever you want. Try to get my attention. Unless there is something unresolved in me, nothing happens, it just goes through me and feeds back to you. You want energy, you want my attention? Keep doing it... (demonstrating, laughter; people are jumping up and down, sending both loving and angry energy) I'm doing this with a sense of joy. Can you feel (the energy) coming back to you? I don't have to take it for myself. I don't have to feel it's going to deplete me or to overwhelm me. I just bring it in, thank it for being energy, and hand it back. It's the same as that pushing arms exercise. We transmute the energy.

Now try the opposite, try to pull energy from me. “I need. I need.” Feel that. I simply become a channel for the energy of the universe. It's not my energy. I feel your need. I feel you drawing at me. I am just letting it flow through. May all beings' needs be met. Inviting love, a kind of tonglen. Sending it through. It doesn't affect me, but I don't have to deny, I don't have to move out of my body, I'm right here. Well, actually Barbara's body is right here and I'm in it. (lost to laughter) All of that that's going on is just going on.

(to two participants) Will you come up here? Will you join us? Let me see how we're going to do this. The two of you are trying to reach each other. Hold hands. We're trying to reach each other. (lost to laughter) Now let's try it a different way. You reach out. I see you reaching out for each other. I just go over and around your energy field. There doesn't have to be any obstruction of any sort. (lost to laughter) I don't take it personally that they're trying to get together, and if they're trying to get closer together, I invite them to get closer together. (lost to laughter) Thank you.

This work of transmutation cannot happen in the everyday consciousness. It happens in awareness and awareness resting in the akashic field. I'm not going to go into this in depth today, how we do it, I just want you to consider that fact, and to watch in the coming month, when something comes up where you feel somebody's energy grabbing at you, can you breathe, and open with compassion to that person instead of contracting? This is still coming from everyday consciousness. And then resting in the field, see this person grabbing, and just internally state, “May your needs be met. May your needs be met.” But it's not hurting you. Watch the person coming at you, trying to force themselves on you. Just take their energy in and pass it right back to them. It doesn't deplete you at all. You can do it forever.

The practice acknowledges the infinity of source. Energy is infinite. If you believe otherwise, then you also believe that you can be depleted. Now, this does not hold true if you're running a marathon and you think, “Gee, energy is infinite. I'll run a double marathon,” but you haven't trained. Maybe you can run a double marathon but the body needs to be trained to do it. However, if you believe, “I couldn't possibly even run a mile,” then you can't run a mile.

“You are what you think. With your thoughts you make the world. Think an impure thought, and trouble will follow you. Think a pure and loving thought and joy will follow you.”  (Dhammapada) You, as the wise heart, are the master of your thoughts. But there is such strong habit energy that sometimes the master gets lost. So our work in this coming month is to find that core of your being where all the mind movement, all the body stirrings, all the habitual tendencies, are no longer enslaving you. You have the ability to come back to the open heart, back to center, and instead of reacting, knee-jerk reacting, have the ability to respond, to just pause and ask yourself, “What is happening here?” Watch the impulses.

We did this yesterday with a cup of water. There was an impulse to swallow the water, but you found that you could just hold space around that impulse. And eventually you transmuted the impulse into energy. There was no need to swallow, but eventually it was appropriate to swallow. But not on a “Got to swallow” basis; just swallow.

When somebody is pushing at you, (demonstrating) I'm going to stand with my back to B. I'm going to ask you (B) to start pushing me. Hey! (laughter) Now let's try this again. You can see how this is going to build up into a pushing match. Let's try this again. (demonstrating) (to B) I see that you're intent on pushing me. Is there a reason for it? Is there something...

B: You told me to! (laughter) You asked me to.

Aaron: I open my heart to you, friend. If you have need to push me, I'll stand here and let you push me for awhile. It won't disturb me. It's okay. You can push. When the need is resolved, then you can sit back down. (B says okay, sits down)

Now, people are not always going to be that reasonable. Our friend B is quite a reasonable person. The hypothetical neighbor we talked about, who's yelling at you because your leaves fell on his lawn, or the dog he thinks was your dog used his lawn as his bathroom, he's irate, he's screaming at you. This is not about you. It's about him. Unless he has a gun or a knife and is about to attack you, in which case you probably need to say, “I'm sorry,” and walk away as quickly as you can, but if he's simply throwing words at you-- he calls you lazy for leaving the stuff on his lawn, he calls you disorderly, he calls you unfriendly and far worse epithets, why should you take them into you? How do we get caught up in what the world thinks of us? His reaction is about him.

A good friend of ours, who's unfortunately not here today, had a house on a lake. Our friend had a pie-shaped shoreline, small water front with a wider road-front edge of his property. He had a new neighbor who always built his dock early every spring, as soon as the ice broke, angled out across our friend's shore-front, so there was no space for him to build his dock.

We talked about what to do. He talked to the neighbor. The neighbor said, “I'm building from my own property. I have the right.” He tried to befriend the man's children, went out and tossed balls with them when he saw them outside, to be a good neighbor. Brought him some breakfast rolls sometimes on a Sunday morning. Just did kind neighborly things. But every year the man put his dock there, and it was driving our friend crazy. “I can't put my dock out.” He had boats. He wanted to be able to put his dock up.

Finally he understood, “this is not about me, it's about him. Whatever he's going to do, he's going to do. I could call the police, but that's not going to change our relationship, and truly, probably legally he has the right to build his dock where he's building it, even if it's an unkind thing to do. Can I have compassion for this man and his grasping mind?” I repeat, he's out there in hip boots with ice floes still floating around the lake, to get his dock in first before our friend could get his dock in. “Can I let it go? What is the solution? I ask the universe for a solution. I open my whole heart to this whole thing. Selling my home and moving away is not an option. I'm not going to let this man force me out. And I'm not going to let him cause me to feel hatred or anger. What is the solution?”

And as soon as he opened himself energetically to the fact that there had to be a solution, even if in the moment he didn't recognize it, his neighbor on the other side came to him and said, “You know this has been going on for a few years now, and I'm sure you're getting tired of it. Why don't we just put up one dock between us? We don't need two docks. Why not put a dock right on our mutual property line?” So the two of them built their dock, shared their dock. Each had half the work. They had the friendship and cordiality of sharing the dock. Let this man put his dock where he likes, no problem.

As soon as you release the idea that there's a problem, there's no longer a problem. It's holding in your head the idea, “This is a problem and I have to fix it,” that sends out the energy that keeps re-inviting the reappearance of some kind of problem. All this energy coming in from this man; just transmute it and feed it back to him. Open to the vast array of possibilities and invite. And our friend did not go to the other neighbor; the other neighbor came to him. This is really a movement out of the akashic field, coming in, inviting. I don't know the answer, but I invite some wholesome loving solution, and I offer all this energy that he's throwing at me out into this arena to help support the solution. And here it comes.

Interestingly, as soon as he built this shared dock with his other neighbor, the next year the man moved his dock over. He no longer felt the need to put it right there. He saw he wasn't getting away with pushing, because our friend did not accept it as a push. As long as he felt it to be a push, the neighbor was drawing energy from it, as in Anna Marie's charts.

I want you to watch for this in your daily lives in all the little ways it happens. The spouse or child who leaves the dirty dishes in the sink. How many times are you going to say, “You have to clean up the dishes?” It just becomes a battle-- push, push, push. How do we step out of that? If you feel the dishes must be washed after every meal, that's about you. If your spouse or child feels they don't need to be washed after every meal, it's just a difference of opinion. What would I do? I would probably buy two sets of dishes and store them in two separate cabinets, and if necessary I would install a two-basin sink. It's worth a bit of money to do this and get rid of the hostility. Let them know, “This is your set of dishes. This is your sink. You can do what you like. The cabinet on this side holds my set of dishes. And if we start to get a lot of bugs in the sink, you're going to need to pay for the exterminator. Agreed? I'll get off your back. You can do what you want with your dishes.” Probably when there's no longer energy being gained by hassling you, he or she is going to start washing the dishes.

So much of this is about the exchanges of energy and the old patterns we set up, and how we step back out of those unwholesome patterns and re-center ourselves, holding the intention for the highest good of all beings, with harm to none, with a loving intention. And then just ask the universe for ideas, for solutions. Keep watching for the way you're both drawing another's aggressive energy or drawing another's grasping energy, and what pattern you're establishing. Then ask, “How can I transmute this energy?” Really consecrate to the highest good, offer it out in whatever way, and get yourself out of the pattern.

(bold added to accent the assignments for next workshop)

For this next month, I would like you all to develop a vipassana practice. A few of you have just met this practice this weekend, but all of you have done some forms of meditation before. Work with the vipassana practice, and work with whatever prior practices you have. You can understand conceptually why this specific practice we call vipassana is useful to you. There will be an opportunity to develop it more deeply.

It is a basic ground for everything that you are learning and choosing to manifest in your lives, just to be in this present moment with as open a heart as possible, and to be able to observe where you're contracting and where the heart is not open. Not to fix it. The open heart is always there. To say, “Ah, I've lost touch with the open heart. Where did it go?” Bring it back. More specifically, bring attention back to it, and find it where it's always been. Connect with it again.

So use your vipassana practice to keep yourself in connection with your open heart. Pay attention in this month to the elements, outside in the world and in your body. Begin to ask yourself, when anger comes up, what element is out of balance? Is there too much fire energy? Is there surplus fire energy in all the other elements? Is the air element filled with fire? The water element? The earth element? Can I feel how everything is permeated by fire? What will cool it off? Go out on your lawn and stand under the sprinkler. Lie down on the grass. Let the sprinkler rain down on you, and the blue sky above you. My guess is you cannot maintain this imbalance of fire energy if you're lying there on the lawn under the sprinkler. Or go float on a lake, or take a cold shower, or a luke warm shower, but a cooling shower. Just sit and breathe. Imagine yourself sitting under a big waterfall. Hear the water dripping down on the rocks. Feel the play of the water over your body, just in your imagination as you sit and breathe, and see in five minutes to what degree it has shifted the balance so the fire element is no longer over-dominant.

Feeling yourself very sluggish and lethargic, needing more fire element. Go outside and sit in the sun. Do whatever is necessary and helpful to bring up energy. Maybe it's not sun you need. Maybe the earth element is baked hard and it needs more air in it. Just breathing for a few minutes, deep breathing, can bring in more spaciousness and more energy. Play with it. Investigate. There's nothing you can do wrong. It's not a sense of “get it right.” Just investigate in yourself. Especially when there are strong emotions, what element is over-dominant? What elements are not strong enough in this moment? And how can I invite them in?

We did not do a lot with the chakras this weekend. Is there anyone here who's not familiar with the basic chakras? (no) Okay. So we have base, the spleen chakra around the navel, the solar plexus, the heart, the throat, the third eye, the crown, and above the crown. (pointing)  

Pay attention. In a moment of strong emotion, as you step away from that encounter and you're trembling with anger or sadness, are any of the chakras more closed or are they all fairly open? Probably something is more closed. Don't try to fix it. The chakras are always open. But you've reached a different level of reality in which this chakra seems to be closed. That which is aware of the closed chakra is not experiencing closed chakras. We keep repeating this slogan. Go to the place where it's open.

Feeling the stomach churning, just bring your hands to it, and attention. Ask, where in this churning belly are  spaciousness and stillness? Mingle the chakras and the elements. If the stomach chakra is closed, can you feel the hard earth energy there? Breathe into the belly. Picture water running through your system, the energy, the sun running through your system.

Just play with this. This should not be work but intriguing play. Experiment to see what supports your being able to be more openheartedly present in any moment. We are not talking about getting it perfect. We are talking about simply being 5% more mindful in this moment, not getting so caught up in the stories. Watch the possibilities. Keep coming back to, “what is my higher purpose here? “

He or she says, “We're going to watch this TV show.” “But I don't like that TV show. I want to watch this one.” “No, you said we could watch this one.” Back and forth it goes. This was your Saturday night date with your beloved. Are you having fun? Which is more important, the harmony and joy between you, or getting the TV show you want? It's okay to say, “I really don't want that show, and I hear you don't want my show. Let's look over the offerings, see if we can find a movie we both want to see. Or let's play a game, or take a walk.” Get out of that combatant stance, “I need to be right,” by examining, what is my higher purpose? What blocks me from enacting that purpose? My ego saying, “But I want it my way.” Well, is that so? I hear you, ego. Sit down, have a cup of tea. So we don't get caught up in the stories. We find the innate spaciousness in our being, that innate open heart.

So this is where we're going to start from. If you do these practices so that you feel more comfortable with them, we'll be ready to go much deeper when we next meet. I will probably send you some akashic field exercises before next month. Not certainly, but probably. But for now, just focus on working with vipassana, the elements, the chakras, and awareness of your energy field, and how you're relating to other people and circumstances in the world. Work deeply with your higher intentions, as you shared here with your groups. Don't feel, “That's settled. Now I know what my intention is.” Every morning when you wake up, ask yourself, “What is my highest intention today?” And promise yourself with the intention, “I'm going to try to live my life today as much in harmony with that intention as I can.” So when you're about to slap the mosquito and you think, “My intention is non-harm to any being.”—“Okay, I can brush it off. I'll put on some bug spray so it won't bite me.” Let it be.

At this point I'd like to open the floor to questions.

Q: How do we handle it when we start to be guided from our heart and out of that we perceive things that are inharmonious or unhealthy...

Aaron: In yourself, or in the world?

Q: Relationship dynamics, either with self or other dear ones. And so opening the heart then leads to a certain amount of heartbreak.

Aaron: Q, your heart will break as you do these practices. Acknowledge that's going to happen over and over again, because you're letting go of the ego and its “I want it my way” repertoire, and beginning to open and experience how it's not going to be that way. And yet others are still going to be saying, “I want it my way.” And you are not going to keep giving it to them their way, either. So there's going to be some heartbreak.

But consider that this is a healthy and necessary step. Your hand,(taking hands) pull me... As we do that, we just both get sore arms and shoulders. Pull again... “Now wait a minute. You keep pulling at me, maybe we need to sit down and talk about this, because my arm is getting sore from all this pulling, and I think yours is, too. Can we talk about how we can relate together in such a way that we're not pulling at each other so much? I really want to hear what it is you need when you're pulling at me or pushing me in that way.”

So at that point you ask. You mention what you perceive, and the other person might say, “You're crazy. I don't see that going on.” “Okay, what do you see going on when you're combative in this way? I love you. I don't want to be combative with you. What can we do to heal this?” And to be able to say to the other person, “I hear you although I don't agree.” Really hear them.

This work asks of you that you give up your own opinions, to some degree. Not that you release your deepest held views and values, but that you consider others' values and find the meeting place, over and over again.

I know I interrupted you. Is there more you wished to say?

Q: Well, just that I think that some of this has been destabilizing, has felt very destabilizing for me, and made it harder to trust the heart.

Aaron: It does throw you off balance; there seems to be no solid ground. It does also grow easier with time. These patterns of which we speak, you've probably been engaged in these patterns for lifetimes, often with the same partner. Barbara and her husband have known for quite a long time that in a distant past lifetime she opposed him and he killed her. In this lifetime they disagree at times. They also deeply love each other and have been married in what I would say to be a very loving and healthy relationship, for 45 years. Somehow they've managed not to kill each other in this lifetime, even with occasional strong disagreement. They've learned to hear each other. But it was not easy. And there was a time when everything was chaotic, because there was a lot of pain and anger.

It took, on both their parts, the willingness to say, “I love you. I don't want this negativity between us. Can we learn to let go of our own views enough to hear each other deeply?” I teach a process with people where I ask one person to say, “This is what I am experiencing,” and the other person to repeat to them, “What I hear you saying is...” Not “I disagree.”, but “What I hear you say is you are experiencing this.” And the other person feels heard and says, “Thank you.” Then this person says, “What I am experiencing is...” And then the other person says, “What I hear you say is...” They're not trying to agree, they're simply trying to hear each other. And out of that hearing each other comes the next step of considering mutually supportive paths out of the conflict. But the first step is for them both to agree to hear each other and not need to be right. I find that most people, no matter how resistant, are willing to try this because it feels good to them to be heard. It starts to open doors.

Okay? Others?

Q: In your story about the dock, you had mentioned that there were no problems to solve. I have read this in other places as well. If there are no problems, what is the proper way to perceive that?

Aaron: As soon as I say problem, “Problem! Problem!” can you see yourself tensing up? Got to fix the problem. And some of you really love your problems. You keep them going. They give you a boost to keep your energy going. They give you a way out of having to experience some pain deeply. The pain of your helplessness. The pain of your human level limitation.

When I say, “Ah, here is a situation that needs our loving attention,” can you feel that there's a different energy to that? It's as simple as that. As soon as I say, “Problem!”  comes “Fix it! Fix it!” “A situation that needs my loving attention. Ah, let me just hold space for it.” I still want to attend to it, but there's nothing to fix. Therefore I don't get myself contracted. And I don't perpetuate it by feeding back negative energy into the situation, only openhearted loving energy.

In each moment I'm creating what will come next by how I will relate to it, whether it's the mosquito on my arm or a dog cutting across my yard or somebody angry at me. How am I going to relate to it? If my highest intention is to live my life with kindness and in harmony, how can I relate to this situation with kindness? But remembering it's not kind to let somebody keep slugging you. So at some level one has to attend and say no. “No, I cannot permit that.”

Other questions?

Q: I think you said that the chakras are always open.

Aaron: On the ultimate level. But on the relative level, sometimes they are closed. This is the simultaneity of ultimate and relative. Okay? So instead of trying to fix the closed chakras on the relative level, we bring attention to the always-open chakra on the ultimate level, and then invite the relative plane level to move itself into replication of that openness. In that way we are attending to it with love rather than trying to fix it.

Q: How do you not get caught up in your story when you're dealing with daily physical ailments?

Aaron: You note the compelling pull of that story and you begin to ask, if this story were not running now, what might I be experiencing? Usually the story is a kind of smokescreen, a habitual smokescreen protecting you from something. Deep pain; maybe a lot of anger at the pain. “I don't want the pain.” Body tied up with aversion. Wanting to blame somebody; the careless driver who ran into your car and caused you an injury. Who are you going to blame?

What happens when we finally just drop into, “This is how it is.”? Here is the pain. That mind churning, looking for ways to fix, looking for reasons—this is suffering. The chronic pain, I don't want to say it's just pain, minimizing the torment of chronic pain. But it is simply pain. One learns how to find spaciousness around the pain.

A friend of ours who works with people who are dying, tells the story of visiting a man in the hospital. Every time he came in, every day for several weeks, all the man would talk about was his pain and how he was dying and how terrible it was. And our friend tells how he finally said to the man, “You know, I think your problem is that you're dying 24 hours a day. Could you die one hour out of every 6, and the rest of the time could you look out your window, listen to music, and think about the friends you've had in your life? Just open your heart a bit.” He's still dying. How is he going to die?

With chronic pain, often there's not been a solution. You can't just grit your teeth and say, “I'll live with it. I'll live with it.” because that contraction simply enhances the pain. How do we hold a spaciousness that doesn't get caught in these habitual stories? And even more important, to ask the question, what is this story protecting me from? Sometimes it's fear or sadness or anger. If this story didn't keep spinning out, what might I be experiencing?

Barbara tells what I find a very moving story. About ten or fifteen years ago, she was in the hospital with a very severe cellulitis infection in her leg. It was extraordinarily painful. The leg was grossly swollen; the skin was split. They were giving her pain medicine, but nothing really touched the enormity of this pain. In spite of IV antibiotics, the infection was running up her leg. So they had told her, if it goes higher we're going to have to amputate the leg to prevent the infection from entering into the organs in the body. She was afraid. She was angry. And at some level she could feel how she had already dissociated from the leg, in a sense had cut it off. Her mind was telling stories of, “Poor me. Why did this happen to me? It's not fair.” and so forth.

So late one night they wheeled a woman into the second bed in her room that had been empty, a woman clearly just out of surgery. The doctors and nurses were working over an amputated stump. The woman was clearly in pain. The curtain between the beds got pushed aside as they worked. Barbara's heart opened as she saw this woman. She saw how closed her heart had been, not wanting to acknowledge her own fear of losing her leg, and her own anger. But her heart opened to this woman.

So she sat up in bed and she just began to do metta (lovingkindness) meditation. From that slightly more spacious place, she began to consider all the people all over the world who had lost legs that day, in an accident, through illness, maybe in an earthquake or a war. And she began to open her heart to this leg, this one leg to heal for us all. Can I really bring this leg into my heart, even if I'm going to lose it in two days? Who knows what will happen? But in this moment, can I fully love this leg? This is everybody's leg.

So she meditated for many hours that night, finally sending loving energy to the leg, letting go of the stories. And the pain was no less, but gradually through the night, that antibiotic that had been going for ten days suddenly kicked in, and within 24 hours the infection had started to go down. It still took a few days, but there was no longer the thought that they would have to amputate. The leg was going to heal.

The important things here for Barbara were the acknowledgement of the possibility of opening the heart; the mindful awareness that she was closing the heart. That there was something behind the stories, some old terror, fear, feeling of helplessness, fear of helplessness, anger. Desire to be able to run and swim and do the things she loved to do. Opening the heart. This is the human condition. The body deteriorates. Can I be present with that reality, but not accept that it has to happen to this body right now? Truly give this leg every opportunity to heal that I can give?

I know that's only a partial answer. I hope it's helpful.

Q: I previously tried to explain to someone who is here today what you had said about loving oneself is also a protection for oneself. Could you explain that for her benefit, please?

Aaron: I'm not quite following the question. The benefit of loving oneself is also a protection for oneself?

Q: The exact words were, no one else can protect you. It is loving oneself that offers the protection for the self.

Aaron: Okay. So cherishing the self, but not cherishing the self beyond other beings. Cherishing the self, cherishing each individual aspect or expression of the One. Because only if you love yourself does your energy field open in such a way that you can receive the love of the world.

Let's look at an orphaned animal. Hungry, crying out for food, but at some level it's developed an idea, “All I deserve is to starve.” So food is offered, and it turns away. At some level it believes, “I don't deserve that. If I really deserved food, the mother would be here holding me and nursing me. Something must be wrong with me. Therefore I need to reject whatever is offered.” But when it shifts and begins to acknowledge, “I am a cherished and beautiful being. I choose life. I choose joy. I open my heart, my mouth. I open myself to receive that which sustains me.”, it changes the energy entirely. What are the beliefs that keep one shut down and unwilling to accept that which sustains?

Only love protects you. We'll talk more about that  the next weekend together.

We have a choice to make now. It's 4:30pm. We have one more hour. I had intended to do either one of two exercises and then end with a guided meditation. Or we can simply skip the exercise and spend another half hour with questions. What is your preference? Do a lot more of you have questions you'd like to ask? I see just one hand up, two hands. Okay, let's hear those two questions and see if they are short.

Q: I would like to say I don't have too much problem with most of what's being said, taught, in my life, doing this, but I have a 13 year old. I go between walking the walk and feeling like I'm not doing him justice with that, because he can't get away with everything in the world. The world won't treat him that way. Lovingly trying to teach him that there are consequences. I want to say to him, “You need to do this.” But I also want to say, “I want you to do this, because you want to do this.” I want him to want, to get it.

Aaron: Perhaps an option when there's something that the son should be doing, ideally, and is choosing not to do, is to sit down with him and say, “We have a difference of opinion. You know I feel you should study for your test tomorrow. You seem to feel you don't have to. Can you explain what you're feeling to me?”

Q: We've done that.

Aaron: And what happens?

Q: He says that he understands the universe has something in store for him that doesn't have to do with studying (lost to laughter)...

Aaron: And he's probably right, and yet it's helpful to point out to him you may not be able to meet what the universe has in store for you if you don't study for the test and pass your school courses. At 13 you do need to set up boundaries. That can be a way of saying, “Either you get passing grades or you cannot do these specific things that you like to do.”...

Q: That's what I'm doing. I have consequences...

Aaron: ... Not laying down the law, “I am right. You are wrong. Therefore you must do it.”, but, “You're still my child. I'm still your mother. I respect you  but because you are 13, I do need to have a say in your choices.. In some ways you may be an old soul, but you are still a 13 year old. Therefore as long as you are living in my house, you need to follow my house rules. If you don't like the house rules and you get to be 18, you can move out.” Tough love. It's okay to do that. But it's not okay to push. So it's important to hear him.

Q: Very good. Thank you.

Q: I'm very fascinated by the concepts you brought up yesterday about kyo and jitsu. What is the relationship of that, of observing the elements in our bodies?

Aaron: Observing the elements in your body and observing the kyo/jitsu habitual patterns in your body are two different things. If the elements in the body are out of balance, then chances are the kyo/jitsu pattern is out of balance, but not always.

Jitsu is often an overbalance of fire energy. Kyo is often too much earth energy, flat, or water that's not moving, no air to it. So you can begin to look at any habitual expressions of kyo and jitsu imbalance in the body and begin to ask yourself how this is reflection of a habitual imbalance in the elements. Keep in mind, though, that you are not trying to fix any of this. You are simply bringing it loving attention. Loving intention with the intention to invite balance, because living in balance is more harmonious. Here we are back to knowing your intentions. Keep in mind the simultaneity, the already existent balance and the experience of imbalance. Both are there.

So don't fix, just pay attention. What needs more right now? What is blocking balance? If habitually one has a lot of fire energy and a lot of jitsu energy, what do I get by holding this imbalance? What does this imbalance protect me from, and what do I fear in balance? For some people in that specific situation, the answer may be loss of power. People have the idea that if they keep a lot of fire energy going, it gives them more power. But it becomes imbalanced. Some people are just like the proverbial skaters on thin ice who keep going because they're afraid they'll fall through. So that's a different kind of fire energy, constant motion. What does this imbalance protect me from?

Q: I have a comment about relating with others with compassion. Your book Forty-Seven Stories of Jesus has several short stories that illustrate that beautifully, from your stories about remembering the lifetime with Jesus. So I just wanted to mention that, for people who are interested.

Aaron: Thank you. That book is presently out of print. We are republishing it and hope to have it available by September. All the copies that were printed have been sold. We're making a few simple revisions, cleaning it up and republishing it. (L volunteers to proofread it.)

I will release the body to Barbara. I will come back to lead the guided meditation at the end. Thank you all for being here with me.

(session ends)

Guided akashic field circle meditation.  It could be appended to the transcript. I think it was already sent out in the pre-reading though,

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