March 23, 2013 Saturday AM, Seattle Retreat

Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. I'm happy to have us here together.

You all know this is not the traditional vipassana retreat (this is a non-residential retreat) and yet I highly value this practice and I do not choose to neglect it. Vipassana will be a focus. But we are not here to become vipassana practitioners. I don't mean just not here at the retreat-- not here in the incarnation. You are old souls who are on Earth at this time to aid in the transition of consciousness on the Earth. And you are gathering the skills you need for your own evolution, and to support your intention to advance to support higher consciousness on Earth.

The essence of this work is to know yourselves as divine and loving beings. Yes, sometimes negative thought arises. Fear arises, anger, and greed. But these mind states do not define you. The vipassana practice gives you means to watch what arises in the mind and body without building a self-identity on it. When you cease to build such a self-identity, you are freer to know who and what you truly are, and how to do what you came to do.

So we put this together: deepening and stabilizing the vipassana practice, and remembering that the vipassana practice truly is just a tool, a helpful tool, but a tool.

We will touch on numerous things this weekend: stabilizing vipassana, knowing wholeness, remembering your divinity; some work probably with the akashic field, what we call the primordial purity and All Ground. We understand this primordial purity is the light expression of the All Ground, but that in a non-dual universe, there is also a darker expression of the All Ground. We don't have to fix it. We choose the light. We rest in that primordial purity and, increasingly, we know the true self. When something nudges us out of track to expressing that true self, we ask about it. In what way am I being nudged off balance here? Returning to balance because of the aspiration to live the life with love.

I'm not saying anything new, here. I just want to set a ground for the retreat. We will talk much more later. I thank you. That is all.

(tape paused while group members each share about practice)

Aaron: ...Talking about why people do or don't meditate. The impulse to fix that so many of you carry because of your deep, loving intention to purify suffering in the world. And the fear, if you let go of the ego self as the driving force, everything is going to collapse. The ego must carry it! Then you become over-burdened and go faster and faster;  it becomes impossible to step back and trust spaciousness.

Since we last talked (last retreat here was 5 months ago), in that span of time, the Earth has been moving further and further into a transition into a higher density. The forces of love are very much with you, but also there is negative polarity. I don't say this to scare you, but simply matter-of-factly. You know there is negative polarity. And negative polarity would like this Earth to transition into a negatively polarized planet. All of you are here because of a strong commitment that this not happen. But you can't stop it from happening from a place of fear.

Negativity, contraction, fear, must continuously be met with the open heart, with love, with the strength of compassion that knows how to say no, but says no from spaciousness and love. And in order to do that, you must constantly reground yourself in that love through your meditation practice, or whatever spiritual practice.

As humans, you do become lost-- jump on the treadmill and go faster and faster. So I'm just saying now: stop! See what you're doing. You know the practice of clear comprehension. Clear comprehension of purpose: what is my highest purpose at this time? Is what I'm doing suitable to that purpose? My highest purpose is to enhance the power of love in the world. Is running faster and faster suitable to that purpose? If not, what are my options? Can I see the fear that's coming up and driving me and finally say, “No, I'm not going to keep doing this.”?

(recorded portion of session ends; we move into sitting)

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