May 11, 2014 Seattle: q&A

May 11, 2014 Sunday Afternoon, Seattle Retreat

A session with various questions and answers; akashic field; channeling; and more.

Aaron: A beautiful afternoon. My love to you all. The question (not recorded) is about living from and in the akashic field.

Picture a baseball stadium and a ball game. The pitcher has the ball. With an intentional movement, he throws it. The batter swings and connects. First the ball is in the pitcher's glove, then it's flying through the air. Then it's hit, and then it's arcing up over the wall–home run! Far out of the stadium. It's always in the game; it's always in the akashic field. Whether it's buried in the pitcher's glove or whether the pitch goes by and the catcher has it, at the moment it's hit, and the moment it's at the height of its arc, always it's in the akashic field.

The akashic field is the summation of everything. What we're talking about here then is not what is in the akashic field, but conscious awareness of one's power within the akashic field. That's not really a good word because it's not about power so much as the outflow of one's intentions and their effects within the akashic field.

There is no time when you are not within the akashic field, but if you're ungrounded in the akashic field, you can't really support others. If you are so deeply grounded that you lose all indication of what's going on around you, you can't support others. What I'm trying to teach is a balance, to ground yourself in the akashic field and reach out and touch the world.

This is the basic dzogchen teaching of view, meditation, and action. With the view, seeing rigpa. Stabilizing rigpa and then taking it out into the world. It's just another wording of that. I don't know if that answers your question.

Everything is always within the akashic field; where else could it be? But some of it is swirling around in turmoil and some of it is more calm and still. Sometimes the turmoil is useful–spinning, movement, energy. Sometimes stillness is more useful.

Try to imagine a political election. You have the, I don't know your specific vocabulary here, but you have the two candidates having a debate, and there are supporters for each candidate gathered together. If everybody there had perfect equanimity with all the thoughts of both candidates, who have not at all stirred any emotion, there probably would not be a person elected. There's a certain amount of energy, even distorted energy, which becomes helpful in making things move. However, if the election is based on fear and hatred, you're not going to make a good choice.

So you seek for the election that place where you consider the views of the candidates, understand which one is most in accord with your view and that you wish to support, are willing to get involved in debate with others about it, but not hating others because they have a different view. Can you feel the energy that generates? And the ways that energy–not hate energy, not fear energy, but balanced energy–is useful? This energy comes from moving into the world. You're not sunk down a hundred feet. You're willing to come out where the waves are cresting to participate. But if you start getting too tossed by the waves it's time to reground.

Do you remember a talk that Barbara probably gave 15, 20 years ago? She and John had taken the whole retreat, on the next to last day of a week-long retreat, to a river where people were jumping off not a cliff but a 15-foot rock into the river. The river was coming over a waterfall and into a pool, so the river was coming in here and down a falls, swirling around. And there was a 15 foot rock wall. People could jump off the rock wall into the pool. Because the current was so strong, it washed them downstream quickly.

There was some fear climbing up on the wall, but there was a group of Cub Scouts jumping off the wall. Barbara and John looked at each other and figured, if these 7, 8, 9 year old boys can do it, we can do it! And they checked with the scoutmaster–yes, it's been verified that there are no dangerous rocks below.

So Barbara jumped off the wall into a very swirling current. She was swirling head over heels in the current. A bit of panic came up, "I'm going to drown," because in her deafness her sense of direction prevented her from knowing which way was up. "Aaron, help me!" I said, "Just put your feet down." Well, she had jumped into the pool 50 yards, 70 yards upstream and had been carried down fast. As soon as she put her feet down, the water was only waist deep. The current was rushing by. Just put your feet down.

So that metaphor has been very helpful to her. When she feels herself spinning head over heels, having lost contact with the ground, just put your feet down. The ground is always there. Now, admittedly, it could have been 20 feet of water. But I knew and she at some level knew it wasn't, because she had seen people getting out and walking up to climb back up on the rocks and jump again. They weren't swimming out, they were walking out. So at some level she knew it became shallow.

Just put your feet down. Others?

Q: What is channeling?

Aaron: Basically I no longer have a body, by my choice. I'm an enlightened being, I have no need to come back in a human body, and I can function better without a body. But I do want to talk to you.

Barbara and I had a pre-birth agreement that at some point in her life, if conditions were appropriate, she would allow me to come through her and speak. It took her many years to reach a readiness to do it. She didn't trust me or herself at first, to do it, but finally we reached a point where she started to hear my thoughts. At first she thought, "I'm hallucinating." But she trusted because she was getting useful information and the effects of what she was hearing were helpful.

So she agreed to listen to my thoughts and state them out loud, conscious channeling. We worked that way for many years. She had to learn to trust me. Then the next step was for her literally to release her energy, her consciousness, out of her body, making a vacuum, an empty space into which I could come into the body. So now it's no longer conscious channeling. She's no longer hearing my words and saying them, like a foreign language interpreter would do. I'm literally in the body. These are just two methods of channeling.

Basically channeling is something you all do. Look at the flowers over there. Do you feel some joy when you see the flowers? Breathe in that joy and send it out. Send it out to all beings everywhere who do not have access to flowers, breathing in again and again. The joy, the beauty, the light-- send it out. You're channeling. You're channeling that loving energy and beauty of the flowers. That's really all it is. You're willing to be a medium through which that joy can flow. Barbara in this case is being a medium through which my thoughts and energy can flow.

Q: When you come into the body, whose chakras are there?

Aaron: Because it's my energy in the body, it's my chakras at that point.

Q: So if her body has blocks, do you open them temporarily?

Aaron: I do not open them, I simply bring my whole consciousness into the body and the chakras can no longer remained closed with this consciousness in the body, unless my chakras are closed. Now, I don't have any physical chakras because I have no physical body. But chakras are simply energy taking expression in the physical body. So when I come into the body, I bring in my consciousness.

Q: Is that supramundane consciousness or mundane consciousness?

Aaron: Both.

Q: So you are speaking from both. Are you in pure awareness?

Aaron: I am always in pure awareness. I am always speaking from pure awareness, yes. But I wasn't 600 years ago when I was a human. At this stage, I speak from the realized state of consciousness. That doesn't mean that I can never make mistakes. I still have a perspective. It's not based on ego, but it's based on history and understanding, and I may have misunderstood something. So my view and understanding are not perfect. I still only speak my own view. This is why I always tell people to listen with discernment and take what's useful and release the rest.

There is a subtle distinction I'll make. Barbara is capable of fully releasing her consciousness from the body. The physical body remains, though. If the body is experiencing a lot of pain and I come into the body, I'm not reactive to the pain, but I'm aware of the pain, and I want to use the body very gently so as not to enhance the pain.

This is why recently when the Mother comes in, these monthly sessions we do, she's often been offering just one hand, because this shoulder is somewhat impaired and if somebody grabs it and pulls the arm around, it can cause damage. Actually the shoulder was much better after the return from the Casa, and then somebody took the arm and <sharp sound effect>, "Oh, this is wonderful!" and jerked the arm almost out of the socket, and caused a great deal of new damage. So now when the Mother incorporates, often she only offers one hand. She's learned to feel with the people what's appropriate, and if somebody seems excitable, not to offer the other hand. So we have to be respectful to the body.

Q: So right now, Barbara goes away, is not aware of what you're saying. In the future could she be right there the way the entities sometimes are there talking to you when you're incorporated?

Aaron: You're asking could Barbara learn to bring a level of consciousness into the whole thing so that she could hear the whole thing, rather than being just gone. Actually we've been teaching her to do some of this. You remember in the beginning, as she did conscious channeling, I was dependent on her vocabulary. Now I have established a good vocabulary. But the Mother and Father John and so forth don't have as good an English vocabulary. They have turned to me.

We are teaching Barbara to be at the edge of consciousness, releasing the consciousness from the body but able to come in and answer a question. I don't mean Barbara to speak up as Barbara, but able telepathically to answer a question. But this is much harder on her energy field than when she's just gone. It tires her. It's harder. She's more aware of very high energy coming through. So we do not do this often.

The Mother does depend on Barbara's energy, though. The Mother is a collaboration of a number of entities–Kwan Yin, Mother Mary, other Divine Mother expressions, and also of Barbara. This is not to say Barbara is "the Divine Mother," but you are all Divine Mothers. She's using that Divine Mother energy of Barbara as part of this combination which she is.

Barbara is learning to be semi-present when the Mother is incorporated, and to be available to the Mother as needed, as a human witness. Often she's just gone. But she's learning when the Mother calls to her to come back in and be more present.

Does that answer your question? (Yes)

Some of you have noted, for example, if I, in incorporation here, went up the stairs, I would simply run up the stairs. But this would not do Barbara's knees any good. I can do it because it's a different body when I'm in here. But the musculature and arthritis in the knees and all of that is still there. I can override it if there's a reason. Q asked me if I wanted to stay in the body to come downstairs. I wanted Barbara to come down the stairs herself so she could do it carefully, as suited her own physical knees. So I can be careful of not damaging the body, and yet I still might damage the body if I overestimate.

Are the further questions?

Q: This channeling to me is beyond meditation.

Aaron: There are two things we're doing here. One is simply teaching you the meditation practice. No channeling is required! It's just a meditation practice. But I am Barbara's primary teacher, and the access I have to talk to you about meditation or about anything is through channeling. The channeling is simply a tool.

Let's look at it in a different way. Let's say I was a human teacher and I was also invited to the retreat and would enjoy your good food. But let's say I had no vocal cords, could not speak, so I had to write down what I wanted to say, and Barbara would read it. That's a form of channeling.

There's no need to accept or not accept the channeling. It's simply a device whereby a mind can communicate, although it lacks a body. Or the flowers can communicate, or the candle can communicate, the dog can communicate. You're constantly channeling, all of you. You may not think of it as channeling.

If you're in a situation with a baby and the baby starts to cry, you may understand what the baby needs, that it's wet or it's hungry. It's communicating to you. You're channeling its needs. Or you're hearing its needs, and you might then say to somebody else, "The baby needs to be changed." In that sense you're channeling its needs. You're hearing, "I'm wet! Help me!" And you're telling the caregiver, "The baby is crying, he's wet. He needs to be changed." This is all channeling is.

You've come into something with people who are very used to me, and you're new to meditation, and this is a lot to take on at once. Take what is useful to you here this weekend. If it's only the meditation practice and the channeling seems weird, let it go. If you perceive the channeling as just another form of communication, don't make a big deal out of it. It's not a big deal.

Q: When Barbara is teaching, is this Aaron teaching through Barbara's body?

Aaron: Not usually. When Barbara's consciousness is in the body, she is speaking for herself. She is a very skilled and loving teacher. But I am her teacher, and sometimes she turns to me for answers to questions she doesn't know.

Channeling is more common in your various religious traditions than you think of. For example, we have the story of Moses getting the Ten Commandments. It's channeled. Where did those Ten Commandments come from?

Q: Some of the Asian religions have this kind of channeling.

Aaron: Yes. In the Tibetan traditions they have texts called "trma," t-r-m-a, hidden sacred texts that were left there thousands of years ago with some pre-arrangement that they would be found when they were to be useful. It's a form of channeling, the passing on of these old sacred texts.

It's important not to make something weird or special out of channeling. To recognize it's just one form of communication, and it allows an entity like myself, who has no physical body at this point, a way to talk. I would never force myself on Barbara or any other being, but Barbara agreed to let me come through in this way. It was planned before her birth. So that's how we do it.

Q: Can you please explain to Q about Barbara challenging to make sure that the proper <energies> for communication come through?

Aaron: Thank you. A simple example. If you lived in a downtown neighborhood, would you open your door and shout out, "Free beer!"? Might you open your door, stand at the doorstep, and nod to passersby who you know and say, "I'm having a little party. You're welcome to come in," --because you meet my standards. I know you; I know you're a loving person.

Just because a being is a spirit doesn't mean it's going to be a loving spirit. When Barbara releases her consciousness and opens it to me, part of the process is always to state her highest values, for the highest good of all beings. She has a set statement she goes through. She asks, "Do you come for the highest good of all beings, with harm to none? Do you come in service to all beings? Do you come in harmony with the Christ consciousness and Buddha consciousness?" And she needs to get a yes from that, in the sense of a loving entity. It must be harmonious with her values. She can't ask it to be something that she's not. This has been a primary learning point for her, to help her release old anger, old bitterness, old fear, because it would attract something negative. So she says all that and then she steps back and says, "This body is consecrated to the light." And she has protected the body in this way. Something negative can't come in. She does that every time she channels, no matter how many thousands of times I've come into her body.

We serve as mediums in many ways. If you find somebody who is sitting and crying and you just take their hand, maybe put your arm around them, give them comfort, you're being a medium for loving kindness. You're channeling loving energy to somebody who's feeling pain. So mediumship is not something esoteric, it's something that all of you do every day. But this specific form of mediumship takes much skill and practice. It's just a specific form of mediumship.

I don't want any questions or discomfort about mediumship to keep you from the vipassana practice. So if you have any dis-ease about the mediumship, just come back and do the vipassana practice. I sense that it's less dis-ease than curiosity.

Q: I got all these questions by reading from the books (Deep Spring books on the table). And one of the books (47 Stories of Jesus) is talking about Jesus Christ-- how did Jesus Christ get involved with this? I'm not sure how he is involved in this practice. I didn't read the whole book, I just flipped through. I don't understand the relationship between Jesus Christ and the essence of this meditation method.

Aaron: I can't really answer that. Jesus-- Jeshua, as I call him, was a man. I don't want to go against people's specific religious beliefs. But yes, he was a Son of God. We are all Sons and Daughters of God. However, he was a great being on a soul level and brought forth this very high consciousness that we call Christ consciousness or awakened consciousness. Jesus the Christ, Jesus, the one who is awake. It's like the Buddha. The word "buddha" simply means "one who is awake." Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, the one who was awake.

Throughout the history of this Earth there have been occasional awakened beings, these two being among the most famous. They have all come into this earth plane with the purpose of helping to develop greater loving kindness and compassion in the world, and to help the release of suffering, fear, and hatred. The Buddha taught this meditation method, introduced it, before Jeshua's birth. But Jeshua did travel to those parts of the world and learned this method. He did not teach it himself, except to a few of his closest disciples, but he practiced it. He practiced prayer, he practiced meditation. All great spiritual teachers and masters have practiced these methods, with different articulation and different names. I don't know if that answers your question.

Q: My understanding of meditation is mainly from Buddhism. So why are there some books talking about Jesus Christ?

Aaron: Why did I offer this book? In Jeshua's lifetime, I was incarnate in the part of the world where he was. We were boys together. We were children together. I was a few years older than him. He was a beloved friend. I was not one of his disciples in that traditional sense. I was a friend. I was a teacher, eventually, in the Essene community in which he lived. My father was a teacher in that community.

At Christmas time I have traditionally each year told a story, some of my memories of him. What was he really like as a person? And people have found those stories useful to get to know, not Jesus the Christ, but Jeshua the living human being with such an amazing love for all beings, and what he was like. Did he ever get angry? Was he ever afraid? What was he like? And these are of course just one human's memories. This is not him; this is my memories of him. But people have found the stories helpful. That's all it is.

So it's just the human that I was, his perspective, what he experienced. About the gentleness of him, the strength of him, how he combined the two. How open his heart was. How he responded to critical situations truly from an enlightened perspective, and what he taught me. When I say he was my friend, I say that it was a great honor to consider him my friend. He was 5 years younger than I was but he was certainly the teacher.

Does that answer your question?

This book is a compilation, strongly edited, of much longer transcripts, maybe 500 to 1000 pages of transcripts. This is a compilation edited by our friend Bill, who wanted to make the work more accessible. So with our permission he took the transcripts, read through them, tried to release repetition, and create just an assemblage of highlights from these stories. I think he did a masterful job. So, my focus here is to try to give people a sense of what he was like as a human being, what it was like to walk the earth with him.

Other questions? (No) Shall we stop here, then? Give you all a chance to read, to sleep, to meditate, to walk, whatever it is you're called to do. I'll release the body to Barbara.

(session ends)