Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Barbara Barodsky

  • SOAR

    When the loving heart simply asks, “How do we best find forgiveness in this situation?” and you take it into meditation and you ask for help, the help that comes is not spirit help versus your help; it’s simply love, one voice of love coming through whatever source it can come through. Let go of “Who is it coming from?” It’s just the voice of love. You can tell when you are tuned into that voice of love because there’s not a lot of contraction and grasping. The body energy is open, connected. ~ Aaron

    This morning begins the fall retreat with Barbara Brodsky, John Orr, and Aaron. I will be physically at home, serving as Zoom host, but my heart is also with each of you.

    This morning as I readied my space, I noticed some words on a promo piece for Zan Lombardo’s Forge & Scroll exhibit:

    It is time to give up deeply….He could do no more. Transformation appears as the death, at its right time.

    As I wrote the words into my journal, along with the comment, “I’m not sure from where the words came,” I also hear: “The words came from the ONE.”

    I played with the letters in one.

    O – N – E

    Only now energy.

    I had selected some special healing stones to place on my side table. I put the spirit (or love) rock that says FORGIVE YOURSELF on my computer.

    Then I wrote in my journal my often-expressed desire of spirit: What would you have me know?

    The voice answered:

    “No one is going on retreat. The ONE is present. You will have a split second of grief as you let go before you soar.”

    S – O – A – R

    See once and release.

    The retreat ends late Sunday afternoon. The Buddhist practice of dedicating merit is that we practice not only for ourselves, but for the benefit of all the people in our lives and in the world as well.

    May all beings come to the end of suffering.

    May all see once and release.

    May all know peace.

    Namaste’

  • He/She/They Have The Whole World in His/Her/Their Hands

    From my journal entry of an exercise during class on mediumship with Barbara Brodsky:

      You need not teach anything, Dear One, just live as your own consciousness evolves. You have been here before — but not exactly!

      Think for a moment about the park you live in now. “Separate” homes are owned and lived in yet you share the streets. Beyond that, you share the sky, the sun, the wind. Even those express with uniqueness in each case. One may be shaded because you face the east or west. EVERYTHING fits into this dynamic.

      You have been dreaming of human existence on Earth without fear of death. You have whiffs of the ripple effects. Yet, not you, nor I, nor THE ALL THAT IS knows exactly what will unfold. Like a storm. Much is known, but nothing is known exactly as it will be.

      Even the cookies that you bake time-after-time using the same ingredients in the precise measurements is subject to distinction.

      Child, what song lifts your heart?

      He’s got the whole world in his hands.

    ((The song began to play in my mind, including an ad lib verse of he’s got Deep Springs Sangha in his hands.))

      Notice how your thinking mind wants to argue a bit with the word “he.” Your heart does not demand a change in the word. Your heart agrees with the purity of the intention in that word. Notice how some demand a special application of the gender-sensitive pronouns, preferring “they” to “he or she.” Once the heart has opened to its true capacity, none of that will generate reactions.

      You will be present in the presence.

      You will have peace that passes understanding.

      Dear One, another song?

    ((Peace is flowing like a river, flowing out from you and me. Flowing out into the desert setting all the captives free.))

    I had shared a quotation from a film about not asking a person who had lost a loved one how he or she is but to ask instead, “What was your loved one like?” I included a link to the film with a disclaimer, “It was a bit too preachy for my taste.” My daughter commented that probably means she would like it! When my sister commented (asking me to define preachy), I took down the post.

    I looked up the definition of preachy: having or revealing a tendency to give moral advice in a tedious or self-righteous way.

    Then I looked up proselytizing: the action of attempting to convert someone from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.

    Somewhere in my bodies I can feel the space of Loving What Is (Byron Katie) and Whatever Arises, Love That (Matt Kahn).

    Oh, my…. Byron Katie says there are only three kinds of business, and asks: Whose business are you minding?

    Notice when you hurt that you are mentally out of your business.

    If you’re not sure, stop and ask, “Mentally, whose business am I in?”

    There are only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours, and God’s.

    Whose business is it if an earthquake happens? God’s business.

    Whose business is it if your neighbor down the street has an ugly lawn? Your neighbor’s business.

    Whose business is it if you are angry at your neighbor down the street because he has an ugly lawn? Your business.

    Life is simple — it is internal.

    Count, in five minute intervals, how many times you are in someone else’s business mentally. Notice when you give uninvited advice or offer your opinion about something (aloud or silently).

    Ask yourself: “Am I in their business? Did they ask me for my advice?”

    And more importantly, “Can I take the advice I am offering and apply it to my life?”

  • Out of Control

    Hearing Barbara Brodsky speak candidly about her husband, Hal, being so very vulnerable in the nursing home. What if the facility goes on lockdown and he can’t have the therapy so desperately needed. She wonders if she should bring him home. “I want to know. I don’t know. Does anybody know?”

    Barbara hears Aaron, “Come back into your heart. What does your heart tell you? What is the most loving thing in this moment? How can you do what you need to do without panic?”

    We are in a place of “DON’T KNOW.”

    This is the sympathetic nervous system, and this system has no “immune” system. This is the most vulnerable space during the global crisis related to COVID-19, because it is the most vulnerable space related to everything.

    Life feels out of control. But is it really any more out of control than life itself simply is? Nothing inner has really changed, even though many outer conditions have changed.

    Hand sanitizer is difficult to find. Rubber gloves are out of stock. Even medications necessary for survival are in short supply.

    These conditions are current.

    School closings, restricted travels, stock market reactions, global focus on COVID-19…. these conditions are current.

    You cannot directly change the outer conditions.

    As my fingers float across the keyboard I am watching the video of our Dharma Path class from March 10, 2020. I am including some of Aaron’s words in quotations below.

    “Everything will change and again and again….”

    “Your attitude, your energy—you have control over that much…”

    “When you are honest with yourself, this is where you have control…”

    What is out of control is the fear. This is not a new condition for humans. Fear is so familiar it feels natural, but it is neither natural nor healthy.

    “What can one person do? Look at the fear…. beyond fear, almost panic…”

    “Unconscious fear is just adding fuel to the fire….”

    “Talk about your fears in a nonjudgmental way….”

    My dear friend and yoga teacher, Kathy, and I were sharing such gratitude for our yoga practice. Yoga is mindful movement. The body is different every time you come to the mat. Your practice is to stay aware and to move from within.

    Earlier this morning, upon the draw, the poker machine gave me a straight.


    “We all want certainty….”

    “Everybody wants to be healthy and have their loved ones healthy….”

    “It is one world…. You wanted the problem to be their problem.”

    “Whatever is happening to a baby on the other side of the world is happening to you….”

    Life is a poker machine. You can only play the cards you are dealt. You know the game. You know what to save.

    “How can I handle this in the most loving way….”

    “Any virus is still a sentient being in some degree. It may not speak your language but it works with energy just as you do….
    When enough of you come together and say, ‘No, you may not take over and kill.’…. Start speaking to the virus. ‘If you attack us and we die, you will die….’ Said in love, not in hatred and disgust. ‘Every sentient being deserves happiness.’ Praying for this virus. Is anybody here praying for the virus that it may have well-being without destroying others? This is where it starts…. The next step for the higher conscious of humans….”

    The following poem was written on 3/11/2020 Lynn Ungarhttp://www.lynnungar.com/about/ Barbara Brodsky sent the poem to our class. It is timely, poignant, and clear.

    Pandemic

    What if you thought of it
    as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
    the most sacred of times?
    Cease from travel.
    Cease from buying and selling.
    Give up, just for now,
    on trying to make the world
    different than it is.
    Sing. Pray. Touch only those
    to whom you commit your life.
    Center down.
    And when your body has become still,
    reach out with your heart.
    Know that we are connected
    in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
    (You could hardly deny it now.)
    Know that our lives
    are in one another’s hands.
    (Surely, that has come clear.)
    Do not reach out your hands.
    Reach out your heart.
    Reach out your words.
    Reach out all the tendrils
    of compassion that move, invisibly,
    where we cannot touch.
    Promise this world your love–
    for better or for worse,
    in sickness and in health,
    so long as we all shall live.
    –Lynn Ungar 3/11/20

    “Unless you do not take care of the world’s population, you cannot take care of yourself and your family….”

    “Holding hands with your comrades and asking where is love here…. Thank you for coming as a teacher…. Now we are learning what we need to learn….”

    “You are here to help the consciousness of earth to a higher consciousness….”

    “I cannot destroy with hate to support love….”

    “You are capable of this….”

    “You have the ability to handle whatever comes with love….”