Venture Fourth Weekly Work
Week Eleven Oct 25

Dear friends of VF

There was no mailing last Sunday 18th, and this one is early for Oct. 25. Both weekends, last and coming, I am out of town to lead retreats. Last week you worked with the quality of Order – (Oct. 11), this week you are working with Equanimity – (Oct 18) and next week will be Simplicity- (Oct 25). Please read in Morinis' book as is appropriate.

Please continue with the assignments listed in VF #10. This week please deepen your awareness of the sacral chakra (naval area, orange color, D tone) Next week move on to the solar plexus (yellow color; E tone). The continued investigation is, what nurtures these chakras and helps them to remain open and energized? What leads to lower energy and a sense of closure in any chakra? What can you do actively to participate in the invitation to reopening. Please get to know each chakra on its own, as well as how they come together and each supports the others. Read what Carla says about the 'chakra of the week' too. Finally how do the chakras opening or closing relate to the quality with which you are working - order, equanimity, simplicity? Order is an interesting one; It is very much a second and third chakra quality. Order imposed from the ego is forced and harsh and comes from a closed chakra. What does order feel like when invited from the open chakra?

Continue to read Putting on the Mind of Christ.

Send your journals. More important than sending them, write in your journals.

Spend some time with your crystal and with your other guidance.

Begin more deeply to formulate the intention for the "Intention Ceremony." Some of you have expressed concern about this, not feeling "ready." We will repeat this statement of intention several times through these two years. I expect it will change and deepen as the time passes. Do your work now to understand what the present intention is, and to continue with the weekly practices that lead to deeper self seeing and honesty and greater ability to live our intentions. That is enough for now. Please read the words below from Aaron, which he offered on Sunday of our last Intensive. This is also in the complete Sunday transcript just emailed to you separately (and on the web site), but this portion applies directly to the statement of intention/ taking of vow –however you prefer to regard it.

As we meet privately together, I am much inspired by the work you are doing. Thank you.

with love, Barbara

From Sunday 090830 transcript: Aaron: It has been such a joy to be with you this week and see you all blossoming and opening, working hard and learning. Each of you has the intention to carry this love and deepening insight out into the world in support of others. Right there is the bodhisattva intention. Some of you have expressed concern about your readiness to take a Bodhisattva Vow. It does not need to be stated so formally. It can be stated simply as the intention to be of loving service in the world, and to investigate the ego fears that may try to block such service. That's all we are discussing.

You simply find that within the self which wishes to share itself, and not necessarily to the whole world at this stage. It can be just the intention to feed your cat. That's a loving intention. You're sitting comfortably reading your newspaper and the cat jumps up on your lap meowing, and you realize, "I've forgotten to feed the cat." Loving intention says, "Let's go feed the cat." That is service.

As you connect with that part of yourself that's willing to disengage from that little ego voice that says, "Oh no, I'm comfortable in my chair. The cat can just be hungry," and says, "No, I can't just let the cat be hungry," it's not fear that says it, it's not a judgmental, "You should feed the cat," not scolding. You can find the genuine movement in the self that wants the cat to feel good. This is one of the reasons why we took mudita as a characteristic early on, deeply to connect with that quality of the loving heart that finds genuine joy in the joy of others, and sadness in the distress of others. And does not serve from a place of fear but from a place of love.

For the next intensive, what I'll ask of you is to look deeply in yourself for that place that wishes to be of service because of joy, and to nurture it. You find the small voice of ego that says, "Will too much be asked of me? What if I can't do it?" Nobody's asking you to hang yourself on a cross, to martyr yourself in any way, or to move yourself into any situation of extreme discomfort, only to note this small ego voice of fear and to find the stronger voice of love within that says, "Yes, yes, I can. It's only an old belief that I can't. I can do this." But to make sure the "I can do it" is not coming from a judgmental "You should do it" but coming from a loving place.

The ceremony I envision will be one in which we bring people as much as possible into a sacred circle, do some chanting, and then hold space with an opportunity to bring forth into your heart your own intention, incorporate it–I will walk around the room and take each of your hands, and invite you look into my eyes and wordlessly express your intention to me so that you and I will share it together. It will be private between us.

Let it be as simple or profound as you wish. It can be simply, "My intention is to love as deeply as I can." Or whatever kind of intention you wish to state in your heart. My intention is that you each feel heard, so that you know I'm with you and supporting your intention, for you.

So it will be a simple ceremony but I hope one that's meaningful to you, one that provides a deep ground for your future work and support for your work. Barbara will send out more material, suggestions of the kind of intentions that she has made and that others might make. I realize that she's sent an email to you that included a ceremony that she experienced in her meditation, and that may be helpful to you, but I don't want her to send you too much because I don't want you to base your own intention on what somebody else feels. Remember that the intention will change and grow as the months and years pass. It's not a stagnant intention. I want you to discover it in your own heart.

The power is in this statement of intention. It's just like taking the precepts. When you come to the retreat and you take the precept not to take that which is not freely given, then you're a bit more mindful about not running the water unnecessarily, not taking more than your portion of the food, not picking up something somebody left somewhere that makes you say, "Ooh, that's nice!" You know that's not yours.

If you found it on a desolate street, you might pick it up, look around, and see there's nobody in sight. "Somebody dropped it. Okay, I'd love to have this and it has come to me." But seeing it on the table at the retreat, you know somebody placed it there and will come back for it. It's not freely given. The intention there is not to do harm.

The bodhisattva intention serves the same purpose though it goes further than not harming. When you're about to act in a way that comes more from the ego, you touch back into that intention and remember, "This is my intention and I want to be true to it." When fear limits you, you remember the intention and transcend fear.

I think you're all familiar with the practice of Clear Comprehension, which in the sutras accompanies mindfulness. It's a part of the teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

Clear Comprehension of purpose: What is my highest purpose? I don't mean necessarily THE highest purpose but in this moment, what is my purpose. Somebody's yelling at you and calling you names. Anger arises and you reflect to yourself, "Is my purpose to be right and get my ego fed? Or is my purpose to help create harmony and understanding? What is my purpose in this moment?"

Clear Comprehension of suitability: is the impulse arising and what I feel moved to do consistent with this purpose? To scream back? Well maybe not. Maybe that's not what I need to do. What other options do I have? So we have clear comprehension of purpose and clear comprehension of suitability.

Clear Comprehension of, the way the sutra phrases it is, of the domain of meditation. That means simply that you take all this energy into a quiet place and become aware, what is predominant in my experience right now? So you connect deeply both with the experience of ego, of fear, and old conditioning, and of the loving heart. You allow yourself to know the simultaneity: the clouds and the sunshine, the clouds and blue sky.

We often use windows as a metaphor. These windows are very clean so they don't serve as well as my metaphor. But if the window was very crusted with dirt, we do not need to tear out the glass. The nature of the glass is clear, we would simply wash the window.

When negative impulse arises, we allow it to purify itself, to self-liberate, to release. Then the nature of mind and of heart return. These are not separate terms; mind and heart are one. The clear, radiant heart-mind becomes accessible. It does not become accessible only after the dirt washes off the window, it's accessible right there while the dirt is still on the window, and accessing that clear radiance is a part of the power of what helps to release that which is unwanted, unskillful.

So we keep working toward this balance, openheartedly acknowledging any tension, fear, anger, greed, or other kinds of contraction, holding the highest intention not to enact this in the world, using the supports of the precepts, of the intention to service for the good of beings–let's not call it bodhisattva vow, just of this intention. We use the supports of turning to our guides. We use the support of finding where the body is closed so it's difficult to access that ever-loving and pure heart, and then doing skillful work to reopen.

So we take care. If you were walking outside and you fell and skinned your knee, would you just say, "I didn't really do that," or would you go in and wash it off? You take care of your body in that way. If something comes up that brings up fear or greed or anger or any other strong emotion, it's no different than the skinned knee; you take care of it. You don't overreact, with the skinned knee you don't rush off to the hospital emergency room. You don't weep and wail and begin to think, "I'll never walk again," but you also don't ignore it. You wash it clean and if needed you put a bandage over it. You attend to it.

You are human. That means that there is an emotional body. As long as you are not fully enlightened to the arahant stage, negative thoughts will arise if the conditions are present. The conditions have not been fully purified; negative emotion will arise. The more lovingly you attend to such, the more you move in the direction of purifying that karma so that such negative thoughts cease to arise.

Clear Comprehension of purpose, of suitability, of the domain of meditation; Clear Comprehension of the dharma, is the fourth of these. In Clear Comprehension of the dharma, we simply reflect: whatever has the nature to arise has the nature to cease, and is not me or mine. I would ask you all to write that all out, that phrase that I've repeated endless times this week and hang it someplace in your home. Put it on your altar or paste it on your mirror or wherever you will see it on a regular basis.

Whatever has the nature to arise has the nature to cease, and is not me or mine.

There is also the beautiful sutra in which the Buddha says, "Abandon the unwholesome. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. If such abandonment brought pain and suffering, I would not ask you to abandon it. But because it brings good and happiness, I say abandon the unwholesome."

Barbara will email the sutra out to you. "Cultivate the wholesome. One can cultivate the wholesome. If it were not possible, I would not as you to do it. If such cultivation brought pain and suffering, I would not ask you to cultivate it. But because such cultivation brings joy and peace, I say, cultivate the wholesome."

So I'd also like you to write those keywords out, "If it were not possible I would not ask you to do it." Barbara will send you the whole sutra. Just a reminder, whatever you're trying to do, if it were not possible, I, Aaron, would not ask you to do it. The Buddha would not have asked you to do it. All these loving entities would not ask you to do it.

Clear Comprehension of the dharma means seeing that when an unwholesome impulse arises, it is indeed possible to observe its arising and not be swept away by the energy of it. But if one feels oneself being swept away, to come back into a quieter place and investigate the energy and see this has arisen of conditions. What is the direct experience of anger without any stories? What is the direct experience of fear or sadness or confusion without any stories?

One comes back into that clear space and finds, the more you do, the more you release the old karma, the old conditioning, so that it gets to the point that when this same person comes up at work and starts yelling at you with rage in their face, "Look at the sloppy job you did! There was a word misspelled, 2 T's instead of one." Yelling, raging, "You can't do anything right!" Instead of having to defend yourself, you just note, "This person is suffering." And you're able to say, "Yes, I hear you. I'd be happy to retype it and make sure it's spelled correctly." There's no need to defend, no need to judge the other, there's compassion for the other.

What is my purpose in this moment, to defend myself or to create greater harmony for all beings through what I can do in this moment? I find I have the capacity for peacefulness. Even while rage, feelings of shame, and of confusion, are coming up in me, I can ground myself; even in that moment. If you've got the crystal in your pocket you can just reach your hand in and hold it for support. You can breathe and just come into the heart. You can open yourself and ask your guides, "How do I deal with this? I need some support here." You may simply feel yourself embraced in loving energy that helps dissolve the anger. Or you might connect with the thought, "This being is suffering. Hear his suffering."

So there can be different kinds of guidance. As you sit there clenching your fists and wondering what to do with your anger, a sunbeam may fall across your feet or a bit of rainbow light from a crystal. Who knows where the answer will come from? Open yourselves and trust you are supported. Which means that you can do what you did not believe you could do. I'm not talking here about going out and lifting up automobiles, I'm talking about being more spacious with that which in the past has brought strong contraction and suffering.

This is the action of the bodhisattva. You don't have to take a specific vow that says, "I'll keep coming back time and time again until all beings are liberated," that's not necessary. If you feel you want to state that as an intention, that's fine with me but I don't hold that as expectation for you. Just, "I resolve, I hold the intention to do my best to respond in a loving way to whatever life puts before me, and to treat all beings as part of the One and part of myself, to live my life with love and care for all beings."

As the weeks and months go on, I think you'll see how this work weaves together. The human experience is often one of alienation and loneliness, and you so often feel, "I cannot do this or that." And no, you as ego self often cannot. If I asked one of you to move this sofa–(name), can you move the sofa?

Q: Yes.

Aaron: Yes, you could?

Q: Yes.

Aaron: Alone?

Q: No.

Aaron: With 4 people sitting on it?

Q: No!

Aaron: Could 10 of you together lift the sofa and move it, even with 4 people sitting on it?

Q: Yes.

Aaron: Yes. Now think of this as magnified by the whole world. All beings, part of each other. You, the ego self, are limited. You as the divine creation expressing out through this body, these eyes, this heart, this energy, you are unlimited. So you learn to connect to that through your daily and weekly work with meditation. You observe the places where you still get caught and you learn to pay attention to them. You open to support, you ask for support, you invite the support you need. You learn not to separate but to connect yourselves.

Gradually it builds up until you recognize how powerful you are and you cease to be afraid of that power. That's it.

We've talked in big terms here, this whole transition that the Earth is going through, and the intention that many of you already held before the invitation for Venture Fourth was sent out, the intention to help support the Earth through this transition. It's a beautiful intention. Now what we're doing is, it's like having the intention, "I want to have a party." That's a lovely intention. "Now in preparation for the party I'm going to clean my house, prepare some good food, bring in some flowers, make the room lovely for the party so that it's suitable to support the party." What we're doing in a sense through this program is preparing the space for this party to which you intend, that is, to support this transition of Earth in whatever ways are most appropriate. For each of you it will vary.

A reminder, when you offer loving energy to the person who speaks abusively to you, and with compassion, that does not eliminate the strong side of compassion, You may find the need to say, "No, you may not call me names and speak abusively," but you say that from a place of love and not to try to take back power.