December 19, 2007 - Christmas Stories

Key topics: Christmas stories, wholeness/innate perfection, Christ/Jesus
Keywords: Christ/Jesus, love

Aaron: Barbara said this is one of her favorite annual events. I think it's my favorite. I especially love the many young people joining us here. Thank you for coming.

For those who have not heard me before and are sitting there wonder am I real, are you real (looking at one new guest)?

Q: I'm real.

Aaron: Okay! Maybe I'm real too, maybe I'm not, but there's a voice here, is there not? It's coming from somewhere. If what it says is useful then listen and use it. If what it says is not useful, throw it away. It's as simple as that. If you find a book on the street with it's cover torn off and you begin to read it, and it's filled with wisdom and delight, will you throw it away because it has no cover and no known author? If you pick up that book on the street, there's a famous author's name written on the front page, you begin to read it, and it just does not resonate with your own truth, will you hold on to it because the author was famous? You throw it away. It's not useful to you. So release concern of whether I'm real and who I am and simply let me share some stories with you.

I suppose I'm always a teacher, I can't avoid being a teacher! But on this Christmas stories evening, I try to entertain as much as to elucidate. If I get too far off on the wisdom end, I will lose the younger of my audience and I don't want that to happen.

Think of a vast reservoir of water. The water travels in conduits underground and comes into each home, and up into your sink. You turn the faucet and water comes out. How would it be if you forgot that your sink was connected to this vast source of water and you believed that you had to carry water in, had some kind of pump outside your house and went out in the winter to pump it and carry it within, in buckets? I come to visit you and I say, 'Why don't you just turn on the faucet?' A light dawns in your eyes. 'I forgot! I'm connected to the reservoir. I don't have to do it this arduous way. Just turn on the faucet.'

You are all connected to source. How many of you have forgotten that and live your life in that forgetfulness?

For those who are new here tonight, in that lifetime in which our brother Jeshua, or Jesus as some of you call Him, walked the earth, about 2000 years ago, in that lifetime I had the great fortune to know him. So these stories come out of that friendship and what I learned from him.

I first knew Him when He was a small boy, as my father and I were part of the Essene school that made a space for His birth, and welcomed Him. He was taken away soon after that birth for His own safety. But when He returned, I had the great fortune to be able to spend time with him. I was 5 years older than Jeshua but we had a lot of love for one another.

Most children express their desires when they play. They are already forgetting that there's a faucet, so if they want something, they grasp after it. Most children forget very early who they are and where they have come from. Perhaps some of these children here tonight have not quite forgotten their true home and the love that surrounds them.

I remember once when we were in the gardens of the Essene community and many of the children were chasing butterflies. Everybody wanted, not to catch a butterfly to harm it but simply to hold it, to have butterflies land on them. So when a butterfly flew close, they would reach out for it.

If you were a butterfly and somebody grabbed at you, would you land? No? (children saying no) No, they flew away. The more they flew away, the more the children grabbed. But Jeshua, perhaps aged 4 or 5, simply sat himself down on the grass and invited the butterflies. He just sat there and the light shined out of him. I would imagine He had a sweet scent like the flowers have, because within a short while He was coated in butterflies in every color, dancing and walking over his skin. He was radiant and they were radiant. They were of different sizes and colors. The other children watched in awe. 'How did you do that?' He said, 'I'm not doing anything.'

And that's the trick. How hard it is to do nothing, not to grasp, not to reach out and actively try to draw to you, what will come to you if you simply sit and invite it with your heart. This doesn't mean you make no effort. He had to go out to the garden. If He had locked himself in a room, the butterflies would not have had access. But once you put yourself in the place in which that which you are inviting can come freely to you, then all you have to do is invite. I want to talk more about this principle with you tonight, and the ways that He demonstrated it so beautifully.

How do we manifest anything in our lives, whether it is spiritual or material? In the Essene school, children were taught from a young age, how to work with their heavy emotions. Sometimes there would be anger or fear or greed, this is normal for the human. Every human feels these emotions.

I should have brought some rubber bands with me tonight. Those who were in my last class are laughing. We'll use this instead (a watch with stretchable band). Can you see the tension in it? And can you see that it also has the nature to be free of tension? (dangling the band) No tension. Tension comes and right there with the tension is that which is tensionless.

The same is true of all of you. Sometimes tension comes. If you forget that that tensionlessness, that ease and softness and openheartedness, are there, you may think, 'I have to get rid of the tension. I have to get rid of my anger.' That's like twisting the rubber band, making more tension.

But what if you ask, 'Right here with tension, where is that which is free of tension?' In my class this semester, I advocated that people literally put a rubber band around their wrist so it's soft, but when anger came up, to put it over the hand and feel the tension in it. If tension releases, put it back on the wrist again. If the tension remains, take the rubber band off and look at it, how soft and relaxed it is, and find that tension free place within your self where there is no fear, where there is no anger or grasping. Remember the source. Remember what you are.

So in the Essene schools, young children were taught to work this way with their emotions and also within the material world. When there was something that was wanted, not to say, 'Where is it? How am I going to get it?' with fear but simply to note, 'It's right here. I invite it.' In this way picture young Jeshua, sitting in the meadow inviting the butterflies. This openness is at the heart of manifestation.

I've told you a story before about how young Jeshua and I went into the hills where my father kept his sheep. Part of the year I was a shepherd and part of the year I lived at the Essene school. So Jeshua was permitted to come to the hills there with me. We were perhaps 6 and 11. It began to rain that night. The weather was damp and cold. My name was Nathaniel in that lifetime. He said, 'Nathaniel, light the fire.' Now, he's a little boy and I'm a big boy. I'm supposed to be able to light a fire. So I got out my flint, but all the wood was wet. I was trying to strike a spark.

He became a little impatient. He said, 'Nathaniel, just light the fire!' I said, 'I'm trying!' He looked at me, a very piercing look and He said, 'Never mind the flint, Nathaniel; put it down.' Then He simply lit the fire, or more accurately, He invited the fire that was already present energetically to express, and it did.

That light, that energy is in all of you. You have the ability to manifest it. He knew that I could light the fire. I wasn't yet convinced. And because I wasn't convinced, I couldn't do it, so, no fire. He lit it in a moment.

What are the fires you are attempting to light in your life, and are you going about it the wrong way, trying to make it happen with wet wood and a flint that won't strike a spark, instead of finding that which is already light, already open and radiant? Light the fire.

About that same age, we were in those same hills and one of the sheep, a lamb, was missing. Of course I was concerned. I couldn't leave young Jeshua alone, I was responsible for His safety, and I didn't want to take Him with me out of the shelter into the storm to find this lamb.

He said, 'Nathaniel, let me come. We'll find him quickly.' There was another boy with us, just a little younger than me. So the 3 of us began to walk out. Driving sleet was coming down. It was cold. It was wet. Jeshua looked up at me and said, 'Are you going to let us get wet?' 'What choice do we have, it's sleeting?' I heard the words, 'Abba' from Him. Then I could only see that in some way He opened up a force field. It was like an energetic umbrella that covered us, and there was heat. This child, younger than any of you I would say, this 5 or 6 year old boy, simply allowed himself to draw in that energy of the universe and let it light Him up so that there was a shelter, literally. He was radiating light. So we walked out into the fields and very quickly we heard the lamb alone crying and bleating, picked her up and carried her back to safety.

You think these things are impossible but they are not impossible. YOU cannot do it from this ego that you are, but you can do it when you remember that you are divine and that you are always connected to the source.

He thought of that source as Abba, not so much Father in an awed and respected way, but Abba, Daddy. This is the father in whose lap you comfortably sit, who hugs you and protects you. Why would that Daddy let you get cold and wet in the rain? So when we asked him, 'How do you do this?' He said, 'I don't do this, Abba provides what I need. He always provides what we need. All we have to do is ask.' But you in your small selves, you forget that you are connected to the source and you forget to ask.

Once in later years, this was when he was an adult but before He had begun His ministry, several of us were walking a number of days' journey across the countryside. We had some food with us; we had warm robes. But that first day we came to some beggars, people who were sickly and hungry, and He immediately pulled out what food we were carrying and gave it out. He removed His robe and gave it to a sick man. And as we were watching him, we knew we could not do less. So there we were with dusk coming, without food and without our warm robes.

As the sun began to fall, those of us who accompanied Him became tense, a little bit afraid. It will be dark; we won't have food, we won't have shelter. What will we do? He looked at us as if we were from some other planet. 'What will you do? It is already provided. Don't worry. Don't worry.'

At that point, He sat down. There was a small clearing beside the road and some rocks. And he sat down, simply sat, began to meditate or pray. So we sat and watched Him for a bit. He began to give off light, just a faint glow as if he was lit from within, and the air around Him picked up that light. Within a few minutes, a man appeared. It turned out he lived up on the hillside; we had not noticed his house. He came down and said to us, 'You must be cold and hungry. Please come and be my guest.'

There were 4 of us who went up to this man's house. He had a very comfortable home. And he provided for us, his wife cooked for us a very beautiful meal. Actually it was already cooked, more than just enough for his family. It's clear that at some level he was expecting visitors. And then they gave us blankets and a place to sleep by the fire in their living room, so to speak. Four beds were already laid there.

We talked much of the night. I said this was Jeshua before He had begun his formal ministry, but He loved to talk of the Father, of Abba, the Source, and how we are all connected to that Source, how to rest in that love. This man was entranced by what Jeshua said. When morning came, he gave us breakfast and then insisted, 'I am going to walk with you for the day. My brother lives a day's walk from here. It will be good to see him. And he'll want you to stay at his house tonight.' So we all walked together, walking and talking. And sure enough, near dusk we came to the brother's house. While there were no telephones or email in those days, somehow the brother knew. He said, 'I've been expecting you.' And he also had food in abundance for us, and blankets.

The next morning, the first brother returned home. The second brother insisted he would walk with us for another day to a friend's house. And so it went for a week; we went from house to house, village to village. Somehow, I can't explain how, but word spread that we were coming. Perhaps the birds or butterflies carried the message, I don't know. But as we came to new houses, there wasn't just the family that lived there but slowly there were more people who wanted to hear this Teacher who came speaking of the beloved Father, speaking of love.

It was the first time that I ever traveled for a week with no supplies at all, and it was a very powerful learning experience, because in the past, when I would go up in the hills with my sheep, for example, I always carried the food I needed and extra supplies for an emergency. There was no trust. But in this week I learned I truly can trust; my needs will be met.

Many lifetimes later, as a Buddhist monk, I had the opportunity to touch back upon that trust. The monks go on tudong, traveling around the countryside with their alms bowl and a cloak for an extended journey. No food, money, or medicines, nothing else but bowl and robe that they might need may be carried. There's an enormous trust that those whom they meet will give them food and shelter while the monks share the dhamma.

The first time that I went on such tudong as a young monk, fear came up. 'I'm going to be going far from home, traveling for several months. What if I starve?' But when I meditated, somehow a sense of trust awakened in me. When you ask and are present and know that your needs will be met, they are met. It is this knowing that is so important.

Several years ago, Barbara, talking directly with Jeshua, channeled through Judy Coates [see  http://www.oakbridge.org] , was speaking with Him of her upcoming trip to the healing center in Brazil, and of the blindness in one eye. Jeshua said to her, "Visualize the swelling decreasing, the unneeded excess flowing/draining away. Know that it is returning to its perfect size and condition. Know it. Use My knowing, if you desire." Then Jeshua said again, 'Know it with My knowing.'

What does it mean to know it with His knowing? What is His knowing? It means knowing from that place of non-separation that knows the faucet is connected to the pipe, is connected to the reservoir, is connected to an infinite source. He said so often and is quoted in your scriptures as saying, 'Ask and it will be given.' He speaks of, for example, the lilies of the field, which are cared for by the sun, the rain and the nutritious soil. But you, you think you have to grasp and strive.

To know with His knowing is to come back to that place that knows the source. You can only find that source by meditating, touching deeply into that place of connection. It's not a connection that you have to do anything to create, it already exists; you just have to remember it.

To know with His knowing, this is what you are looking for in your lives. Could it be, like with the rubber band, that the lack of it is experienced and also the full presence of it? On one level, there's lack. On another, it's already here. Here is an example.

João Teixeira de Faria, who is a channel for many different healing entities, heads the Casa de Dom Inácio in Brazil, the healing center where Barbara has visited. He moves into a trance and they come into his body, one at a time. Last year Barbara came up to ask the entity, 'What about the hearing now, where are we with it?' And he said, 'You will hear. Be patient.' But she felt uncertain. Was this promised healing really possible?

At the time, her lip was bleeding severely. In the ocean accident several years ago, an artery was punctured deep in the lip and the scab kept opening; it didn't heal. Finally, she was scheduled after this Brazil trip to have some surgery on it here in the United States, to have it repaired. So she had a handkerchief over her lip because it had opened that morning and was spouting blood. The entity said, 'You will hear. Be patient.' And he lifted the handkerchief, looked at the lip and said, 'But that we can take care of now.'

He didn't even touch it; he just looked at it. Within minutes, the bleeding stopped. Within 3 days, the scabbed that had formed fell off; her lip has remained perfect. Her physician here in Ann Arbor, when he looked at it the next month, said, 'Maybe I need to go to Brazil!'

Barbara realized as she sat there holding this handkerchief over the wound that had just stopped bleeding, that she had a choice. Jeshua's words, 'Know with My knowing,' came back to her. She could refuse to believe, thinking, 'That's impossible. They can't possibly have fixed this, it just temporarily stopped; it's going to start again,' and deny herself from entry into that reality in which the bleeding had stopped. Or she could permit herself to know that reality. Right there with the bleeding was the Ever-Perfect lip and it was now expressing its perfection and could continue to do so.

Right there with your financial problems is abundance. Right there with your bad cold and cough is a system that is completely free of that cold virus. It's not either/or; both exist. Where do you choose to put your focus? You know with His knowing when you know both are here. Therefore, if the lip is bleeding, I need to hold the handkerchief over it. If I am coughing, perhaps I want a tissue to cough into so I don't spread this virus. There is no denial of the present moment. But also lip is healed and the lack of the virus is there.

As with Jeshua with the butterflies, He had to come out of the building and into the field. To seek abundance, you must place yourself in the situation where the abundance can come to you. You cannot simply hide from it and say, 'Well, come on and find me!' Make yourself accessible to it. But it's always there. To know the ever-healed body and mind, you must be open to it. Know it with His knowing.

There was a time when I was traveling with him, we were walking between steep, cave-pocked walls on a narrow trail, several of us with him, when we heard voices crying in the distance, up a hill off the main trail. Hearing that crying out, He immediately turned to walk up the hillside. He said to us, 'You may come with me or wait here.' He didn't push us to come. But most of us came with him.

We walked for about 10 minutes and into an area of even denser caves and a deep ravine where the source of the crying was, which was a woman about to give birth, part of a colony of lepers. She was in some pain and others around her were also in pain because of their leprosy. It was her mother whose cry we had first heard, praying for help.

I was standing back a bit, frightened. I had never been so close to lepers before. In those days, the disease was said to be very contagious so I was afraid of it. Of the others who had accompanied us, several had stayed below but 2 or 3 others had come and were also holding back with me.

It seems that the fetus was twisted in the birth canal in an awkward presentation and it could not move out. He knew that I was a shepherd. These people were not shepherds. If you know how to turn a lamb presenting awkwardly in the birth canal, you know how to turn a baby. I am certain that Jeshua could have done this energetically in some way, but He was giving me the opportunity to move beyond fear. He did not pressure me though. He never would have forced me nor shamed me. He invited me, much as He invited the butterflies. He turned to me and said, 'Nathaniel, I have watched you deliver lambs in an awkward presentation. What should we do?' I know that He would not invite me if harm would come to me, so I trusted, not that He would protect but that my love would protect me. That whatever happened, it would be okay.

If He had commanded me, certainly I would have done what He asked. But He understood that this was not a matter of command. That would save the baby, yes, but He could save the baby. This was a matter of helping me grow past the place of fear and limitation in myself, and the willingness to do it had to come from my own heart. I agreed to help. Soap and water were provided me and then I was able to reach in and move the tangled limbs in such a way that the baby emerged, a healthy and beautiful baby.

In most places, when a new baby was born to lepers, it was immediately taken from the mother because otherwise it would catch this disease. The woman was crying from the childbirth but also grieving, seeing this beautiful baby held up to her and knowing it was going to be wrapped and immediately taken away from her. Jeshua said, 'No, no. Leave it with the mother. The baby belongs with the mother.' His presence was so commanding that they gave her the baby.

They invited us in to eat, and again I was afraid. But He said, 'Thank you,' and sat down with them, began to eat the food they provided, food that they had cooked. He clearly was not worried. At first I thought, well He's safe because He has certain powers that I don't have, but I'm not safe. But then I relaxed and tried to know it with His knowing. Where there is love, there is the power to overcome challenging catalyst.

We stayed there for two days. He tended to all of the lepers, washing their wounds, bandaging their wounds, taking the time to talk to them, all the people, young and old. At the end of the 2 days, we moved on.

Almost a month later, I came back the same way, returning home, and as I came through this valley, I thought, 'Let me go and look and see how they are. Let me go and visit that baby.' I walked up the steep path again. This time there was no sound of crying, but I could hear life sounds, children laughing, people talking, music playing. A lookout must have let them know I was coming, because the woman with the baby came down to greet me. Her hands that had been maimed were taking on new life. Missing fingers were still missing but the sores on the flesh were healing. Her whole body looked vibrant with energy rather than so terribly ill. The baby was perfect and beautiful. And throughout the day there, so many people came to greet me, to hug us, to offer food and thanks. All of them were healing.

Did He heal them? One could explain it that way, but I would prefer to say that they healed themselves because they allowed themselves to experience love. That He was the, let us call it the faucet, the open faucet, reminding them of their connection with source so that the love could pour out and bathe them.

In these situations, and I saw this happen many times, where there was some kind of unusual healing, He never took credit. He never said, 'I did this.' He said, 'Abba provides.' He said, 'Love allows healing. Love allows abundance.' And so He gave in this way, not by doing something so much as by inviting others to touch His knowing and know with His knowing, and rest in His faith and love, and it was so strong that one could really not step far back from it. The power of love is infinite, it really is.

So many stories, and yet so few stories; you've heard most of tonight's stories before.

A man who joined us once as we were walking, seemed attentive as we sat by the fire and talked. We invited him to eat and to sleep there with us, but in the morning he was gone, and he had taken those possessions that had any value. In one of the saddlebags we carried a pair of Sabbath candlesticks. He had taken those. He had taken our food. He had taken our heavy robes. And in fact, he had taken the burro itself, who carried those saddlebags.

The rest of us were upset, but Jeshua just said, 'It's okay. It will work out.' We walked on. Of course, we found food; we found shelter. Somebody gave us cloaks to wrap around ourselves for the cold. We were a bit uncomfortable but we were fine. At the end of the second day of walking, we came to a small public building where one could purchase some food, and outside that building we saw a familiar burro. We walked in and the man looked at us aghast, because he had been riding the burro. He never thought that we could come as quickly on foot, that we could catch up to him. But here we were.

He started to grovel. 'I'm so sorry. I did wrong.' He expected us to be very angry with him. Jeshua just said, 'It's okay.' He said, 'Take it all back,' and Jeshua said, 'No. If you took it, it's because you needed it. You keep it.' And then He invited the man to eat with us and to travel with us the next day.

At daybreak again the man was gone, no surprise, and again, a few days later we caught up with him. It seems he had sold most of our goods, and he had the golden coins but not the candlesticks or the cloaks. Again he put on an air of being ashamed. He offered us the gold. I believe he was afraid we would beat him. Again Jeshua said, 'No, you keep it. If you had not needed it, you would not have taken it. If you still believe you have need of it, you take it, otherwise you'll just take it from somebody else. If you have no more need of it, pass it to others with need.'

The next morning, to our surprise, the man was there, and asked, 'May I travel with you?' For another 3 days we traveled together. The man kept asking, 'What can I do? How can I make up for what I have done?' What touched me most powerfully is that Jeshua led him to feel there was nothing to be made up for. He had acted upon his impulse energy. Now he was beginning to understand that he had done harm to others, taking that which did not belong to him. But he did not yet fully understand that at some level this all was perfect, and that his stealing the goods, his meeting up with us not once but twice, that this was all part of his own spiritual journey of learning.

On the third day, we came to a man whose broken cart that was lying by the road. He had 2 children that he had been carrying on the cart. The cart had fallen into the ditch and the axle had broken to the point where it really couldn't be repaired. And his donkey that drew the cart was injured in the fall, and was limping on 3 legs. All the man's goods he was carrying to sell were still scattered on the ground.

The man was still leading our burro. He looked at Jeshua, an almost unspoken, 'May I?' And Jeshua nodded. He came to the man and said, 'Why don't you take our burro? You can put the children on it and he'll carry them.' And he gave him the gold coins and said, 'You can use the money to buy yourself a new cart.' The man was clearly a very poor farmer whose cart had been rather makeshift. He was so delighted; he felt so grateful to receive this great gift that would enable him now to carry his produce on to the market, and to carry his children.

So the man took the burro and the coins, thanked us and left. What was most powerful for me was the change in this man. He no longer seemed ashamed. He saw that he had received something, not just stolen goods but our good will, our love, and that it was possible to pass that love on to others. I think he finally saw the radiance and divinity in himself. He later became a very devoted follower of Jeshua and served Him in many ways. Was completely changed.

Now how would it have been if Jeshua had berated him and instead, yelled at him, 'Thief! You're no good!' But the good man was there all the time, right there with the thief.

It's the same thing in all areas. Tension is there and that which is not tense. In all of you, that which is angry, sometimes nasty or mean, impatient, is there; these expressions come up in the human. And your radiance and divinity are there. Others can help you to bring these out, but also you must bring them out in yourself by knowing that innate divinity with His knowing, knowing the connection to source and being willing to live that connection, even when the ego is saying, 'I'm just no good.' It's hard to live your divinity when you do not believe in it. You know the voice of ego. It's so self-condemning, so judgmental. So filled with impatience at the self. This is just ego. Shhh! Tell it to just sit quietly, that it's not going to have the final say, and know your own divinity and radiance with His knowing and know that you can live from that place of goodness and love, which is right there, even with the anger, fear, and greed. Where else would it be? Nothing can come from nothing. If the goodness was not there, it couldn't suddenly come; it's got to have been there.

Let me tell you one more story and then we'll open the floor to some questions and then we'll let you go to your cookies and conversations.

I'm trying to think of a childhood story of Jeshua that will appeal to our young audience. One that I have not told before…

Many of us within the area of the Essene school were on a picnic of sorts, had taken off on this beautiful spring day to walk up into the high hills where there was a breeze, spring flowers, a beautiful view. Jeshua was about 6 or 7 at the time.

His mother came to me and said, 'Where's Jeshua?' and I said, 'I thought He was with you.' And she said, no, He was last seen walking with me. She thought he was with me. But he had left me and said he would go back to where Mary was. Where is He? People were worried about him. People began to call out His name.

People spread out to look for Him. Where could He have gone? He had known not to go off by himself because there were some wild animals in the hills that could attack a small boy. Where could He have gone?

I thought I knew where He was. I went with His father, with Joseph, and we walked up into the hills to a place where He and I and other boys, together, used to delight to go. And sure enough, we found Him sitting there. It was a small grotto; there was a spring with a small pool of water, beautiful flowers around the spring, a very sacred feeling spot.

It was not up to me to reprimand him, but His father said to him, 'Jeshua, why did you go off by yourself? How did you get lost?' And Jeshua looked at him and said, 'I was not lost. I am with Abba.' I could see that this was challenging for Joseph. He wanted to control this small boy and not have Him wander off endangering himself. And yet he realized that to say, 'No, you must not do this,' was to teach Him fear. So he said to Him very gently, 'An animal could attack you.' And Jeshua said, 'Father, that is not in my reality.'

We create these realities for ourselves. Jeshua knew that an attack from a small animal was not in His reality; therefore He was safe. His father Joseph did not yet trust that such an attack was not in Jeshua's reality. It was still in Joseph's reality; that's why he was afraid for Jeshua.

I'm not suggesting that you young people go off into places where there is danger in the city because you cannot yet do what Jeshua could do. It is still in your reality that you CAN get hurt. What I am asking you to do is to look at this reality of fear that you have created and ask yourself how you can know the ultimate safety of the self so that you cease to invite negative happenings into your life.

We must recognize here there will be sometimes sickness or loss no matter how closely you hold to the reality of safety. At times, you will be in trouble. But what is trouble? Can we say that Jeshua was in trouble when he was crucified? I don't think so. He was following His path.

This is an important distinction. If you find yourself in a situation that's challenging to you, you may recognize, 'I am following my path.' Barbara with her deafness understands this. The deafness did not come because she did something wrong, the deafness was a result of many different conditions come togethergenetic, environmental, physical, many different causes. But she understands that the deafness is part of her path of learning and growing. She also understands that it's no longer necessary for learning and growth so she's ready to release it.

Jeshua came to understand that this crucifixion was a part of His journey, His ministry, and His own path. But being eaten by a mountain lion was not a part of His path so he had no worry or fears of that. Look deeply at yourselves and understand what in your life IS part of your path and is useful to your growth, and what have you taken on yourself as an added burden that you do not need. 'No, father, it is not part of my path. I have no worry about it.' Can you do that? So much wisdom from such a young boy! 'It is not part of my path.'

I'd like to pause this formal talk here for one or two of your questions, and then we'll have some social time.

Q: I was wondering why God was referred to as father and not mother or both.

Aaron: It's simply cultural. God is neither father nor mother but both, the divine male and the divine female coming together. In some cultures, that divinity is thought of as more masculine and in some cultures more feminine, but it's truly not either, it's both. In Jeshua's Essene culture, there was much love of the divine mother but God was more personified as masculine, simply cultural. It was part of the Jewish tradition in which He was raised.

Another question? Any questions from the young people here?

Q: Sophia would like to know where Barbara goes.

Aaron: It's hard to explain… You have a physical body and a spirit that rests in that body. When you are born, the spirit is with the body and for most of your life, it's there. But some people develop the ability to release the spirit from the body so that the body is simply briefly an empty shell. Barbara and I have an arrangement where she will move the spirit out of the body so I can move into the body and use the body. She goes to the place where I am when I am not in her body. It's a very light-filled and spacious place where she is very much at ease. She comes back feeling rested and happy.

Sometimes when you dream--do you have beautiful dreams sometimes? (Yes) She goes to a place like you are in your most beautiful dreams.

Thank you for your question. One more question… We will take 2 more questions… The first from a young friend…

Q: Was Jeshua wealthy?

Aaron: Jeshua was very wealthy but not in material possessions. The whole Essene community was very comfortable because we grew our own food. There was always abundance. We knew how to invite abundance for ourselves. And yet there were times when there was some brief scarcity. When there was scarcity, we invited abundance.

At His birth, He was given many gifts that helped to support the necessary travels in which first He found safety and then later in which He found an education. I would not call it wealthy, only that what was needed was always there, as it is for you. Nothing to waste, but never a lack, even though sometimes you may perceive it as a lack.

My brother?

Q: Is the hell realm self-inflicted?

Aaron: Absolutely. Completely. There is no eternal hell. There is always support to draw yourself out of that realm. People will wander in darkness for as long as they need to with their eyes closed, until they realize they can take the blindfold off and there will be light. They can wander feeling alone until they look around and see all the hands reaching out to help them. It's self-inflicted.

However, here we get into Buddhadharma. The Christian and Buddhist hell realms are identical in actuality. Your karma creates this hell realm which you maintain until you are ready to release. The Buddhists talk about beings such as the hungry ghost, which is depicted as a being with a huge body and a very small head, with a tiny mouth so it can never satisfy the needs of its body. I am sure you all know such beings that are constantly grasping and craving, constantly suffering because they are so afraid. They have what they need but they're so afraid, 'I need more! I need more! I need more!' One may think of some of your stock market followers as hungry ghosts. People in that kind of financial mind trap always seem to need to accumulate more and more.

But if your karma is so deeply habituated to that grasping and fear, it can take a long time to shift that karma. However, this is what your spiritual practice is about, the release of karma and opening into the potential freedom to live your divinity, to move into a heaven realm.

I thank you very much for your attention, for sharing yourselves with me tonight. I hope you've enjoyed hearing more of these stories about Jeshua. I beg forgiveness from those who have heard some of these same stories numerous times. I believe they can be retold and remain fresh as I tell them.

As you celebrate this week as the time of His birth, please think about what this means to the world. The world was in a place of darkness. The old teachings were of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; you've heard it said that just leads you to a lot of blind toothless people.

But the world was spiraling down into that blindness and toothlessness. It was clear to many beings that a change was needed. It was this clarity that invited His coming and His willingness to come. He who had resolved all karma, who had no karmic need to incarnate, came literally to share himself with others, to share these teachings of love, to model these teachings of love, to be love. Think what it would mean to leave that heaven realm and come here to this earthly realm in service to all beings. There is much of heaven here, I'm not denying that. But there is also some of hell here. You've all experienced it. So he came willingly into this human body, into this finite structure, out of love, and this is the real gift of this season.

Let His message of love live in your own heart so that you may also be a messenger of and model of love. Work with a spiritual practice to live love even when there is negativity, to bring it forth more and more into the world. Remember, please, those of you who are of different religions, that Jeshua was Jewish. While you may think of the celebration of His birth as a Christian holiday, His life was not a Christian life. His life was a human life modeling the true power and possibility of love. So don't cast that off just because this is not your holiday, but ask yourself, 'What is the deepest message here?'

May you have a blessed Christmas and whatever else you may be celebrating. Last year the holiday of Hanukkah came just at the night of this talk and we lit a menorah. In so many religious traditions, there are holidays of light. Let this entire holiday period be a remembrance of light, not just external light but the light of your own heart and your intention to live that light in the world because only then will there truly be love and peace in the world. This is not a dream but it is a true reality if enough of you commit yourselves to it.

My blessings to you all. I will depart the body.

(taping ends)

Copyright © 2007 by Barbara Brodsky