Wednesday, January 19, 1994

A Message from Aaron

(Aaron considers this last transcript and this preliminary note to be the start of the second semester. He has asked that this last transcript be included here as indication of where the work is going, and that it be the start of book two, of the spring term work, which will be available in early summer.)

(Channeled privately before the class and printed.)

Aaron: I am Aaron. My greetings and love to you all. Some of you have worked with me and with Barbara for many years, some, for a shorter time. Some of you are new to our work. I would speak to you all about our present path together.

Like a rope, your spiritual paths are composed of many strands. We can name these strands in many ways, following the language of many different religious traditions. Let us be simple and non-technical. One great strand is simply living lovingly and skillfully in the world. Working within this strand pulls together the substrands of morality manifest as intention to offer your energy with non-harm, non-judgment, and compassion. This strand is fundamental. It was the basis of our work for several years.

Another strand is mindfulness, deepening attention. Amongst its substrands are concentration, skillful use of energy, greater tranquillity and the opening heart which increasingly allows one to be present in each moment. You can already see how these two strands interweave and depend upon one another for their strength.

Let us call the third strand wisdom. Within this strand are the deepening awareness of your true nature and of the interdependent nature of all that is in the universe, and the ability to rest more stably in ultimate reality. Exploration of this strand is newer in our work together.

Last fall we began to speak less frequently of the skillful living in relative reality and more about the balance. This shift is not because I find skillful living in relative reality to be unimportant, but because it's time to more fully bring in the third strand. You must continue to work with mindfulness. You must continue to strive to live lovingly and with non-harm, to understand the ramifications of your actions, words and thoughts, and also the meaning of being 'someone' who is striving.

We could continue forever to talk about nothing but how to live skillfully in this moment and to work on it. It is highly important but insufficient. The preliminary work is essential. It shows you where there is aversion to relative reality. It opens your heart to this human who is afraid. It teaches you equanimity with all that arises in mind and body. As long as the aversion is treated as solid and something to be escaped from, then ultimate reality, heaven or nirvana, become something separate, something to be grasped for, a place of escape. Relative and ultimate reality, heaven and hell, samsara and nirvana, are non-dual. If you grasp at ultimate reality as escape from the pain of your humanness, you only dig yourself in further to the patterns of aversion, grasping and fear. Learning about this has been our foundation. Most important is that we have raised awareness of intention to live skillfully, and opened compassion for the being who finds that so difficult. That intention and growing compassion walk with you.

Now we have brought in this third strand. You are learning to see how boundaries arise, and that they are the delusion of old mind. You are learning to let go of identification with that arising, and to come back and rest in what various systems call pure mind, rigpa, the light body or higher self. These terms are not quite synonymous but are close enough to bring them together in this way.

We all meet here together, new and old to this work. Those who are newer to it travel hand in hand with us. To all of you, a word of caution: constantly you must go back. You must earnestly practice this skillful living in the present, living with love and an open heart, compassion and non-judgment. My book, Aaron, and many transcripts are available as guidance. Your meditation practice is your tool.

Tonight we jump into a new phase of this work for which all of this has been preparatory. In past months we have been discussing the light body, the perfect, unwrinkled sheet of paper, the illusory wrinkles and how the physical, emotional and mental bodies reflect those wrinkles. If I were to introduce you directly to practices of identifying with that perfect sheet of paper without the practices of finding compassion for that which experiences itself as wrinkled, I would be teaching you duality and disassociation with the human, not the integration and non-duality which are where this path truly leads.

We move ahead then with this caution: what I teach here is not escape from your humanness, but deeper embracing of that humanness, wrinkles and all. We will begin tonight with the introduction of very specific practices for releasing identification with the wrinkles, be they emotional, mental or physical distortions. It is essential that you see that this work must be done with no aversion to any of those distortions, only the skillful realization, 'This is not who I am. I need not carry this any more. I let it go.'

It will be each of your responsibility to be aware of where there is aversion and to do further work on the relative plane with the human who is still stuck in unskillful distortions.

This is background. I would like this statement to be made available tonight and in following weeks so that each being who joins us understands that this present work is only the blending of the strands and that each strand still must be attended to. This is important. Given a physical distortion such as a painful back, or an emotional distortion as the frequent arising of jealousy, if there is any aversion, you are not releasing the distortion but solidifying it through the attempt to get rid of it. I am not suggesting this is bad, but it will be painful and lead to further adhering karma. You must attend to the relative being.

I fully trust that people are always where they need to be. If you are new here tonight or in these past few weeks and, if our work speaks to your heart, trust that you are meant to be here even if it seems very new to you. Trust that the pieces will come together as they need to. I do not wish to frighten you with my cautions, only to remind you this work will ask your deep energy and effort, skillfully given. Our work is not about judgment, preference and aversion, nor about avoidance of these, but about equanimity. It is about balance, non-duality, and opening the heart.

My love to you all as we walk this path together. That is all.