May 2, 2013 Thursday Afternoon, Emerald Isle on the Non-Beach
Why Teach Us How to Work with the Akashic Field?
(This talk reviewed by B Bartz)
Aaron: Good afternoon. I am Aaron. I had some exercises in mind that I’m not going to tantalize you with, since we clearly cannot do them. Although, you were swimming in the ocean! I don’t think all of you would have been ready to go in. Was it cold?
Q: It did not feel cold because the temperature is like the air.
Aaron: So the water and air temperature were both cool…
Q: The hot tub felt really good.
Aaron: I enjoy your playfulness, all of you. It’s fun to see you enjoying the human experience. That’s very beautiful.
So we’ll spend some time with questions today, and I also want to spend some time helping to deepen your experience of the akashic field. I tried to think of what exercises I could substitute for what I had planned on the beach and with the sea.
This is going to sound humorous to some of you. I brought this idea up earlier. Have all of you seen the movie Star Wars? Not all, but most. There’s a little figure named Yoda, and he teaches Luke Skywalker how to use the Force. As many of your films these days, this movie is really a precursor of opening into what will eventually become more universal skill and knowledge. I don’t know if the author consciously had this in mind, but basically he was introducing Luke to the akashic field.
I want to spend a little time today also talking about the difference between the akashic field and the Unconditioned, because as vipassana practitioners there’s some intention to have a direct experience with the Unconditioned. How does working within the akashic field help you to experience the Unconditioned? How can it serve as a portal into the Unconditioned? Just another path. And what is the importance of working within the akashic field on its own, separate from entrance to the Unconditioned?
Let me talk a little bit first, and then we’ll play a little bit.
The Unconditioned, the Dharmakaya. That which exists completely free of any conditions. When you have a direct experience of the Unconditioned, the first time you just drop into it and wake up a moment later saying, “What was that?!” There’s no stability to it. It changes a lot <> though, because that direct experience of the Unconditioned helps you to understand that there is something beyond this conditioned realm, and that it is something that you can get to know and live from.
Further excursions into the Unconditioned become more stable. Mind becomes able to look around within the Unconditioned. The way the experience is really written in some of the Buddhist teachings, I’m trying to think specifically where… I don’t know exactly; it’s not written in any of the sutras, more in Visuddhi Magga. Hold on, I am just pouring through texts, here… It’s also in many of the Tibetan texts.
Opening into the Unconditioned that first time is just waking up into another whole dimension that you knew by hearsay was there, but now you know it’s there. Then you bring attention to the path and re-enter the Unconditioned. The direct experience deepens. The second and later times, you develop the ability to retain a directed consciousness that shines a focus on the experience within the Unconditioned, and to begin to understand the contrast. The conditioned realm pouring out, everything arising from conditions. So as soon as there’s one condition– if I pulled hard on this flower I would probably turn the vase over, which means water would pour out on the <floor/fruit/food>, which might affect the <fruit bowl>. And those would pour out on the floor, which would have everybody jumping up, saying, “Oh no! There’s this spill!” All because I pulled on the flower.
One starts to see the whole flow of conditions, and then one takes it backwards and finds within that flow of conditions that impulse to pull the flower. Not pulling the flower. Not upsetting the vase, not spilling the water in the food, not alarming the group. Forward, reverse. And one finds that one moment where, perhaps D jabbed me in the ribs (he does so)—Oh! We see the whole flow. Jab me in the ribs again—Ahhh…. And it stops there.
So you see that has both power and responsibility. That just because there’s a jab in the ribs doesn’t mean you have to upset the apple cart, so to speak. You can rest in that spaciousness. Breathe, hold space.
This is the direct relationship within the unconditioned, learning how to move around in the unconditioned. And as the experience is deepened, these so-called awakening experiences, you develop increasing skill at holding the space in the unconditioned and connecting it back into the conditioned realm.
We’re still only affecting the immediate condition that happened to this mind and body, and its reactivity that keeps the cycle going and spreads it out. Now we can take it one step further, inviting—a little gentler, please! (Q jabs) So I see his impulse, going to jab me. When I can take that, I feel that ripple of disturbance before it arises, because there has to be an impulse and intention in you. And I feel that intention. If I don’t feel that intention—you can jab a little, but jab with the elbow, gentler. So I don’t feel the intention. And I have also sent out these ripples of disturbance, of energy. But if I am grounded into the akashic field, not the Unconditioned but the akashic field, and I feel this subtle ripple—Q, you jab Q2; do it again—do you see what I’m doing? Do it one more time. It’s like that dance we do of pushing arms. Just swinging free of it. But as I move into the akashic field, I not only remove myself from the mundane realm experience but I send out spacious energy and soothe the ripple of disturbance.
Now, let’s say the fly bit you. You leaned over to get away from the fly and ended up jabbing D, who jabbed me. So I see the fly hovering around and, we’re back to Luke Skywalker with his Force. I cannot use it for personal power. As soon as I do that, I really move into a strong realm of negativity. As soon as I use it for personal power, I move into a strong realm of negativity. We have beings who have this kind of power. Hitler comes to mind. He really was in there connected to this Force. He knew how to manipulate energy. But he used it for negative purposes and created great harm in the world.
This is why we stress sila so deeply. And before any of these practices are introduced there has to be an assurance, not from me but for you in your own heart, that you are so deeply committed to non-harm and to the highest good of all beings that you will not misuse the power that—it’s not that you gain, but that you always had and opened to. We’ve talked some, at least with some of you, about some of the practices from Lemurian times, and the immense power you had then to come together as a group of beings envisioning something. If you wanted to build a structure, you didn’t build it with your hands. You simply invited crystals to come together in form to create a grand structure that would give shelter or whatever else was needed. Everybody just sat in a circle like this and …(breathing).
Were you part of the group where we sat in Barbara’s living room and tried to invite a candle to light? Twenty years ago and more. Of course nobody was ready to do that then. Probably if we focused on it now together, we could invite that light.
There needs to be stability in sila, in intention, in the loving heart. There needs to be stability to hold negative catalyst when it hits you, such as anger or body pain, even great rage, and not to move off into further negativity with it. Through Cosmic Healing, I think most of you are familiar with my talk “Trainings” and the series of different trainings that were taught in the Essene community where Jeshua was raised 2,000 years ago. They were taught to young children. But most of you have forgotten. So we’re having to refresh your memory through your vipassana practice.
The vipassana practice has real value in itself. It will lead to awakening. And if that’s all that happens for you, this is wonderful. But now you’re in a different time, not 2,500 years ago when the Buddha lived, but a different time where just personal awakening is not enough. Because each of you is asked to take responsibility, not only for your own negative impulses and taming those negative impulses, but responsibility for feeling and experiencing the negative impulses down in that akasha level and understanding how your loving energy can offer– you cannot stop negativity. That would be force. Everything has free will. You offer an alternative. You see the ripple of disturbance and the place that’s still, and you offer the possibility to bring forth the stillness. Not to force that on another, even on <Hitler?>. You cannot force it on anyone. You only keep offering the opportunity.
So your dharma practice today, the word dharma just means the deepest truth of how things are. The truth of suffering, the path out of suffering, the reasons for suffering, the path out of suffering. That everything in the conditioned realm is impermanent and not of the nature of self. You deeply experience and know that, and the direct experience of the Unconditioned, and you’re no longer on this wheel of becoming. This is wonderful. But does it leave the whole rest of the world in that becoming? What are you going to do about it? They’re all killing each other. Can you just pull your hood over your head and walk into the woods? Can you? If you can’t, then what are you going to do about it?
Barbara and I are teaching a four-weekend series this summer and fall in Michigan, Saturday and Sunday through four months. It’s going to be focused very much on this question. I hope within that time to train people, we don’t know who will enroll, but hopefully people will enroll who have some vipassana practice, some ability to be present in the moment, a strong commitment to non-harm and to service, and help people learn to use the various tools to hold a different space for these ripples of disturbance, and really affect the world with their love. I know that most of you live far away, and while you certainly are invited, we will also record what we can. It won’t be the same as participation, but you will be able to read transcripts.
People ask me, Aaron, are you taking a new direction? Not at all. This has been my direction since I started, since I first met Barbara, and long before that when Barbara and I agreed to work together in this plane, when she finally woke up to my presence and gave me an opportunity to speak. This is not the end of our intention; it’s only part of the pathway. Someone said this morning, who knows where we’ll be in 10 years? But for now, this is the next step.
The ground is your vipassana practice. Your understanding, if not deep a direct experience, at least your understanding of the distinction between conditioned and unconditioned, and your ability to touch on the Unconditioned and use that as a ground. Your ability to move energetically into that space where you experience these ripples of disturbance and, as with any ripples of disturbance, your heart goes out to it. And you offer what is appropriate. It’s not really any different than, as we were sitting here, you suddenly heard people screaming in the street. Would you put your hands over your ears and say, “Go away, we’re meditating.”? Would you run out there yelling with knives and sticks in your hand? Or would you just walk out the door, holding space in your heart, and see, what is the problem here? What’s causing this pain? How can I hold space, or if necessary say a compassionate no to somebody who might be hitting another person? In what way can I attend to this with love?
But increasingly you find the ability not to have to wait until there’s the disturbance, but to feel the ripple of disturbance. Some of you are doubtful. “Oh, I can’t do that.” Why not? If I had told you 15 years ago you’re going to be able to settle down and spend a week meditating here with a rather still mind, you’d say, “I can’t do that.” You’re growing up. So we’re taking it to the next step. Yes, you can do it! It’s fine to suck your thumb, but with the other one, leap across the abyss!
So let’s take a little time for questions. This was stated mostly by way of inspiration and explanation. Why I’m teaching what I’m teaching, and where we’re going, in a sense. And then I do want to leave some time for some exercises. We’re going to play Luke Skywalker experiencing the Force. We’re going to put your training to use.
Q: What is the difference between any intuitive feeling that something is about to happen and the ripple from the akashic field?
Aaron: Your intuition is really your higher self. Your higher self, which is the non-mundane aspect of you, the deeply wise and loving aspect of you, is basically moving into the akashic field and feeling the ripple, and then telling the conscious self, “Whoops, something’s going to happen.” You’re learning to trust this communication between the different levels of your being. And you’re also starting to be able to discern when it’s a negative voice of fear, “Be careful! Something’s going to happen! Lock all the doors! Something bad is going on.” Now wait a minute, where is that coming from? Before we call the police, let’s just sit and breathe and center and see if it’s just coming from a place of fear.
Other questions?
Q: The ripples and distortions that you talked about, can they be neutralized by service and devotion for the good of all mankind, or does one have to actually be in the akashic field to affect those distortions?
Aaron: You are always in the akashic field, sometimes more consciously than other times. What I’m trying to do here is help you try to know you’re in the akashic field. You’ve been in the akashic field all your lives.
Can it be neutralized? It depends on what it is and where it’s coming from, and how long it’s been gathering energy. If a 20-foot tidal wave rolled in, and has been coming from miles out, building up power for days, one of you feeling it coming could probably not turn to it and say, “No, that’s enough. Go back into the sea.” It’s picked up that much power.
However, I have lived in times and places where a whole village had the ability and understanding to turn back a tidal wave, because this was part of their basic training from childhood. People knew how to control the weather, how to control the elements. Not control, but co-create with the weather and elements. So you didn’t say, “No, sea, that’s bad,” but just, you felt the first ripples of disturbance that were going to give rise to the tidal wave, the subtle underwater earthquake, held space for that, opened your heart energetically to the sea that was going to react to that. Saw all of the conditions pouring out that were going to result in a tidal wave, and shifted it before the earthquake happened. Sending that energy off into a place where it would do no damage. Not despising the energy. Simply understanding and co-creating with it.
Q: Did the villagers know it was a tidal wave, or it was just a distortion?
Aaron: They did not know it was a tidal wave. They felt the distortion in the coming of the undersea earthquake and had learned by experience that such a distortion left untended would result in a tidal wave. So before the earthquake had a chance to happen, when they felt that energy building up, they were able to change it.
There are groups in the U.S. today who are aware of the fault lines and who bring attention, when there’s seismic disturbance under the earth many people come together to meditate, to ease that distortion. We get emails every few months from a group that is doing conscious work with the earth itself to help ease these kinds of natural disturbances by working within the akashic field. Now, they don’t use the word akashic field, just prayer and energy and sending love to it. And those who have been thusly trained will work in the akashic field, and others will simply do loving kindness meditation.
Q: Just as we do at the Casa, in co-creating and holding the energy, can we in our meditation practices, our individual practices, do the same? Can we use our meditation practices in conscious ways to deal with…
Aaron: Yes. But never violating another being’s free will. You cannot say, “I’m more powerful than you, and I stop <>.” You can only hold loving energy around any negative intention.
Barbara’s brother, who had no conscious training in meditation or really deep spiritual work, but who was a very old soul, there’s a vivid memory through Barbara. All the young children and Barbara and her husband and her brother and his wife, they were together at Barbara’s parents’ condo community, out where the barbecues were, to make a picnic for the family. Barbara’s brother was a big man, 6′ 6″, broad shouldered, and very gentle. A man came up on his bike, and he was clearly a bit inebriated, and leaned his bike– there was a man, Barbara’s brother was barbecueing here and at the next barbecue, the man leaned his bike there between the man’s barbecue and the food he was preparing. So the man turned to the man who had parked his bike there and said, “Please, can you move your bike over, because it’s right in my way.” And the man picked up a big knife from the table and said, “I’m not gonna move my bike. You move your barbecue!”
The children were all gathered around, wide-eyed. Barbara was rather astonished, didn’t really know what to do. Just, Oh! She couldn’t hear the words being said, but she could see the violent threat. Buddy, with total calmness, just walked up—now, he’s 6′ 6″ and can get away with this, where you <>! But he simply took the man’s arm, like that, from behind, said, “You don’t really want to do this.” It was like the Force. “You don’t really want to do this. You’re going to hurt yourself and others.” He didn’t force the man to drop the knife. Just the clarity of his voice and his intention: “You do not want to do this. It’s the beer in you that’s doing this. Give me the knife and I will be happy to move your bike. Let’s walk out of the area together.” There was such strength and confidence and kindness.
Most of us have to practice for years to attain that. Buddy was born with it. Her brother died 12 years ago of a sudden heart attack. He was a very clear and powerful and loving old soul.
Q: So in the co-creation of loving energy, is it important for that energy to be directed to a particular person or persons or situation?
Aaron: No, you don’t have to know where the ripples or disturbance are coming from, only that you experience the ripples of disturbance. Barbara told of the dream before the Boston bombings, and she had no idea what it applied to. Only, within that lucid dream, seeing what was going on, she saw the need to calm these ripples of disturbance. I am aware that thousands of other people around the Earth also felt those ripples of disturbance. So a lot of loving energy was pouring in into the intention to do the bombing before the bombings happened. And that certainly contained the damage. It did not stop it from happening.
And one cannot use force to stop it. Let me phrase that differently. If they had posted a letter saying, “We’re going to bomb the Boston Marathon. Here’s who we are.”, certainly the police would come in and stop them. But within the akashic field, you cannot force them to stop. And you have to understand that the people who were killed and maimed also were choosing at some level to participate. The people in the Holocaust were choosing at some level to participate. People in any disaster are choosing at some level to participate as a way of resolving or balancing their own karma, teaching others. We don’t always understand, and sometimes it seems just unbelievable. Why would this be allowed to happen?
(The recording file ends; next recording file sounds like a guided meditation)
Whatever you’re feeling, if there’s doubt or uncertainty, simply know it as doubt. If you’re feeling, don’t try to identify it as these specific individuals, just, from which direction is it coming? Can you feel it as those ripples of disturbance and just offer it love? Hold it in a spacious container.
For those whose heads I touched, see what you feel. As you project out this negativity, what do you feel coming back to you? I’ll be quiet.
As that loving force surrounds you, let it release the negativity, bring it into balance. Those of you who are sending loving energy to that negative energy, begin to feel it subside. Feel the dissolution of me and them, and how your energy fields start to come back together. You’re really very powerful.
This works because love is stronger than hatred. This is a very simple depiction of that fact. I’m not suggesting if you had a crazed killer in here with a machine gun, you could sit projecting loving energy on him that would be enough to make him drop his gun. Perhaps you could. It probably would have needed to be tended to much earlier, before he stood there with the machine gun.
I think that’s enough. You may open your eyes. So where was the negative energy coming from? When I asked who could feel it, all of you raised your hands, but none of them raised their hands. And when I asked who could feel the love coming to the negative energy, all four of them raised their hands.
(background comments)
How many of you felt it on both sides? You only felt it on that side? Perhaps this is related to their response to the negative energy, that it brought up a negative response in them. I don’t know. How many felt it at that end? So this end felt it at that end, but this side felt it more at that end than this end.
(background comments)
Q: What I felt wasn’t necessarily anger. I felt a lot of energy…
(recording file ends, next file)
Barbara: We’re picking up after the exercise. The first person said it was darker when someone was there, and then bright when they left. And you felt…
Q: I felt the air and the heat from the sun…. I felt like I was kind of away from everybody and that there was this dense area.
Barbara: That’s accurate.
Q: The energy of the people felt different compared to the energy of the wall, the glass wall.
Q: I felt sort of like dancing, warm <> with people’s energy. And then I would wait for a clear path to open up. And then when I saw the clear path, I would move.
Q: I felt it was a whole lot easier going backwards, and was almost, like struggling to go forward with fear. But when I went backwards, I was dancing and flowing and moving.
Q: Toward the end, when I felt someone’s energy, I went ahead anyway, and I did bump into them.
Barbara: Those of you who did not experience much, there’s nothing wrong with you. Some people will feel this more than others.
Q: I saw the light in the darkness whether somebody was there or not. I thought that was like cheating. I was like looking through my eyelids. That wasn’t what we were supposed to be doing. That was just like a physical thing, when something comes in front of you, and you can still feel something, the difference between light and dark. So I did that a lot. I could feel people coming at from the side more than anything. And mostly I didn’t move, by the way. I was standing still… It would be more comfortable for me with the <cane> to stay still. I was by Barbara on this side. I could feel people approaching me. But I didn’t do anything. And they apparently felt me, because mostly they didn’t bump into me. I could smell them, too!…
Q: Are there any exercises that we can do by ourselves after the retreat to develop deeper awareness of the akashic field?
Barbara: Aaron is saying, if you have a ceiling fan, tie a balloon to one end. So as it goes around, it swings around. Close your eyes and try to develop the feeling of when the balloon is coming toward you. And of course if it hits you, it’s just a balloon. It’s not going to hurt. But see if you can kind of dance with the energy of the balloon.
Something you can do here at the ocean, that I was going to have you do today, that you can do singly, is, the water comes in and out. Try to feel the ocean. Walk out and then back up. You’ll hear it, yes. But you can’t always tell exactly where it is. Begin to back up as you feel the ocean coming toward you, and then move back in down toward the water line as it recedes. So just playing that game with the ocean, feeling its energy.
Aaron: I am Aaron, not incorporated. This is basically about sensitivity to the akashic field, developing some confidence so that you can enter more at will and play in the akashic field. The other thing you can do at home is to begin to be sensitive to these ripples of disturbance. And when you feel it, without having to figure out where it’s coming from, just stop. See it as literally a ripple in the space. Just send out loving energy to it. As you feel it reside, just open your eyes and go about whatever you were doing.
Q: Is that enough?
Aaron: What is enough?
Q: That’s the question.
Aaron: You do what you can.
Q: We don’t have to know what the problems are? We don’t really have to know anything about it?
Aaron: How can you know where the problems are?
Q: I’m saying, like if there’s some war that’s ready to start, or a special area of the world that we know about, that could develop…
Aaron: You may feel it. You may not feel it. In that lucid dream, Barbara had no idea what that was about, only that there was a strong disruption in the energy, and the need was to send love to it, whatever it was about. Probably at any one time on Earth there are a lot of situations of distortion. Just offer love.
But sometimes you can feel it. For example, if you live in a house with other people, you might tune in to become more sensitive to the other people’s energy, so that you can walk into another room and say, “Are you upset about something?” And the person can turn and say, “A salesman on the phone was just very rude to me.” You start to feel it. Just offer love to it, and sense if it’s local, where it’s coming from.
Q: My son knows when I’m feeling tension and asks me…
Aaron: Your son is a very old soul who is very attuned into the akashic field. He’s a higher density being.
Q: Could you clarify what you mean by lucid dream?
Barbara: Lucid dreaming is waking up within the dream. Knowing, like in that lucid dream before the Boston bombings, I was in a situation where there were a lot of explosions going on and people stabbing and clubbing each other, a lot of violence. And I was terrified—how do I get out of here? And then just this moment of—wait, this is a dream. Fear is not going to help. I don’t need to run, it’s a dream. Hold space for all this pain within the dream. So at that moment, if somebody is running after you with a knife and you suddenly are aware—no, wait, this is a dream!—you turn to the person and say, “You’re a figment of my imagination. You’re a dream. Stop.” You don’t give it permission to continue.
So it’s simply being awake within the dream. Have any of you experienced lucid dreaming? Okay. For most people it’s not a continuous situation. But when it comes up, it’s a powerful situation.
A man named Robert Waggoner wrote a very good book about lucid dreaming, Lucid Dreaming: A Gateway to the Inner Self. Robert is a very kind and heart-centered person with a deep intention to use this as one gateway into consciousness, based on his own experiences.
Q: This morning when D was talking about flying, I have these dreams of when I fly and I feel very awake. And I feel like have total control; I use my arms, I do a certain thing to make myself go higher. I do certain things to make myself go lower. I actually fly over communities of people, or where I see trouble, and I can actually slow myself down and land. I do that in my dream. Now, I can’t make myself dream about flying; it just happens sometimes. But I don’t know, I’m thinking it must be when I feel good.
Barbara: How many of you have dreams of flying? Almost everybody dreams of flying at some point. I have frequent flying dreams, and I don’t need to use my arms, I just direct attention where I want to go and my whole body moves that way.
Aaron said to me once that those dreams of flying are based on long ago times when we had a very different kind of body. Not birds with bird wings, just more crystalline-structured bodies that we could move more easily at will, very light, and we could simply choose to move in this direction. We didn’t have to walk. If I wanted that glass, I would just invite the glass to me. A need to move the body– just allow the body to move. There’s such a sense of freedom in dreaming that.
Q: Do other people have those dreams when they feel good? Like the people <in this room>? Does it tend to be when you’re in a more positive state?
(murmurs; it just happens)
Barbara: I don’t know. I’ve never explored that. It would be interesting. How many of you have had dreams of flying this week? How many of you had lucid dreams this week? I think you’re more likely to have lucid dreams in a retreat environment because it’s part of the mindfulness practice. When you go to sleep, if you’ve been meditating before you go to sleep and watching the breath, the primary object, very present, in a dream there’s a very quick awareness of, “Oh, now I’m dreaming. Now I’m sleeping.”
Q: At the talk that Robert Waggoner gave, when someone asked about lucid dreaming as a spiritual path, he said, try meditating when you become lucid in the dream. He said anything you do in a lucid dream consciously is about nine times more powerful.
Barbara: And also, for me, on long retreats, when I’ve started lucid dreaming during the retreat and started to meditate in the dream, I’ve found a very direct access into the Unconditioned. That then when I woke up, it made the awake daytime practice much sharper and clearer.
Q: I took a nap this afternoon and I felt a jolt. This was all in my mind, but I felt I had a whole new level of awareness. I mean, I did in my dream, I felt that way. I don’t know if that’s how I’m going to feel from now on, but …
Barbara: Napping is helpful because we’re not in as deep a sleep and more likely to dream. In the Tibetan dzogchen tradition, they do a 3-year, 3-month retreat. They have very little contact with anybody else through that three years. They’re in a group together, and the teacher meets with them, but they don’t come together a lot and it’s silent. They don’t talk. They’re not allowed to lie down. They sleep in a special chair that has a supporting headrest so the head doesn’t rock. I guess foreheads drop on a headrest, but you’re sitting up. For three years they sleep sitting up. The goal is to create a much lighter sleep. They take a lot of naps rather than sleeping for eight hours a night, and do a lot of lucid dreaming.
It’s after 4. Let us end here so people can get up to yoga.