The wisdom of all ages and cultures emphasizes
the tremendous power our thoughts have
over our character and circumstances.
~Liane Cordes
On Christmas Eve I joined a Zoom Interfaith gathering. Jeshua’s message,”You Are the Light That Comes to Transform the Earth,” channeled by Barbara Brodsky, was powerful. Here are a few excerpts:
People have sometimes misunderstood my work, said that I came to save the world from sin, with confusion about that word. I take the letters S-I-N to mean sinking into negativity. Through so many lifetimes many beings have been sinking into negativity. And what will save us from that? It is not me that will save us; it is all of us together holding the potential of Love on an Earth that is awakened, the Eden we have been promised. You are important—vital, really—to recreate that brilliance, that love….
You know those lines about the darkest time of the night before dawn. Dawn is coming. You each carry that dawn in your own hearts, especially when you compassionately observe the ways that you do sink into negativity. The watcher is not caught in that negativity. Of course, you fall into negativity at times; you are human. Every human does this at times….
In the darkest hours, look around and say, “Yeshua, where are you?” And I am here, I promise. I will never break that promise or your trust because you are my beloved sisters and brothers. Together we undertook this work. And yes, we are doing it. Despite how the darkness seems to envelop us, we are bringing light, and that is all that’s needed.
This morning I was writing in my journal about writing prompts when a prompt popped into my mind: What if we could….
What if we could use all of the power of the universe for the good of all? Might humans cease fighting as though there was not enough for all? Would men and women cease blaming one another and love and revere our differences instead? What might occur if we can recognize fear and negativity when it shoves us off the path of awakening and we can lay a finger across our lips and whisper, “Shhhhh…..”
What if we do away with ‘what if’ and simply focus on the truth of WE COULD.
We could remember who we really are. We could rise above grasping and clinging and aversion. We could feel the wind and know our body is breathing. We could watch the sun rise and set as sacred witness to the ever-present ever-changing nature of All That Is. We could soften around our experiences and let the space of possibility weave laughter and hope and trust back into our days and our nights.
We could….
A bit later, I listened to an interview with Leesa Anderson: Channeling the Miraculous. She and her family witnessed a motorcycle accident. A deer stepped right into the path of a man at cruising speed. The man went end-over-end and landed in a heap, with his head and arms underneath his chest. You really do deserve to hear Leesa tell in her own words how she heard a message from God; a message given to her to whisper into his ear. And then, to be lost and stop for directions only to connect with the motorcyclist’s wife. Please listen….
Leesa’s spiritually transformative experiences have often happened when she was on the highway. I hope you will take time to listen to the entire interview and to check out IANDS.
NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) has a nifty process of setting up a chain of anchors, moving an individual’s mind states along the path from “I can’t” to “I might” to “I could” to “I can” to “I will.”
Join me in moving our own mind states from “I can’t” to “I will” say yes and join Leesa in Channeling the Miraculous!
What is this one heart we all share? It is our true nature, the essence of our being, which is love and light. Meditation is one effective way of coming to know this inner light of our divinity that is infused with love and pervades everything. Once we come to know our true nature, we develop, through practice, the ability to rest in it more stably. Then we can live more continuously from this heart of wisdom, love and compassion and truly come to know it as the One Heart we all share.
I have previously mentioned the saying, “For those who understand no explanation is necessary. For those who do not understand no explanation is possible.”
Some research indicates the saying came from Thomas Aquinas. Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that the existence of God could be proven in five ways, mainly by:
1) observing movement in the world as proof of God, the “Immovable Mover”;
2) observing cause and effect and identifying God as the cause of everything;
3) concluding that the impermanent nature of beings proves the existence of God.
The original quote was not about ‘understanding’ but about religious belief, specifically “faith.” The original quote is, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
It is amazing to me how perspective differs, but what is does not. For example, this cartoon that Linda B/G shared recently.
At the retreat, the teachers spoke about the nature of karma.
I remember the nature of karma;
I am born of karma, I am heir to karma, I abide in karma, and I am supported by karma.
When I act with intention, I am the owner of my actions and inherit their results.
My future is born from such actions, and their results will be my home.
All actions with intention, be they skillful or harmful, of such acts will I be the heir.
While karma is not a term used in Christianity, it is certainly there in Galatians, Chapter 6, Verse 7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
One of the mystical experiences common to retreat for me, regardless of the theme, is that I will have a foreshadowing of a teaching point to come. I will write in my journal an insight, then hear the teacher/s speak that to the group.
Sharing (with permission) the words of one student:
In all the years I had been practicing, it was suddenly like, “Oh, oh….” because I was in that place.
I realized grief isn’t just an intense feeling, it is actually a REALM. I was in this place, and it wasn’t here and it wasn’t the other side. I was somewhere in between and this portal kept opening up, and when it did my heart would just explode out.
I knew, too, that the process of grief for me was a rite of passage, it was something that was changing me.
In our culture, we are encouraged to sort of get over grief and get back to our lives. That this is a measure of our mental health – how fast you can get back as if nothing has happened. I knew intuitively that this was just nonsense. That I did not want to be the same person I was before my father died. I wanted to be different in the world going forward after that.
This student and you and I, like Mary Reed, are likely becoming unwitting mystics…
In a recent interview Mary Reed was asked to name three things she wished everyone could experience before we die. The interviewer did a short animation video of her response, which added a fun, unexpected dimension to Mary’s answer. See: Three Things to Be Experienced Before We Die
The first day of the retreat was the 49th day since Jerry Basham passed. In Buddhism, we chant that person’s name along with gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gone, Gone, to the other shore, the shore of liberation.
When I came out of silence and caught up on messages and social media, my sister-in-law had posted this:
Your Loved One in Heaven
by Sean Dietrich
Hi. This is your late loved one speaking. I don’t have long, so listen up because I have a lot I want to tell you.
First off, I get it.
Ever since I left this world you have missed me, and I know you’re bracing for the holidays without me. No matter what anyone says, this year’s festivities are going to be really tough.
In fact, let’s be honest, this festive season will probably suck pondwater. But then, Thanksgiving and Christmas are tough holidays for a lot of people. You’re not alone.
See, the misconception about the holidays is that they are one big party. That’s what every song on the radio claims. Each television commercial you see shows happy families clad in gaudy Old Navy sweaters, carving up poultry, smiling their perfect Hollywood teeth at the camera. But that’s not exactly reality.
In reality, fifty-eight percent of Americans admit to feeling severely depressed and anxious during November and December. In reality many folks will cry throughout the “most wonderful time of the year.”
Well, guess what? Nobody is crying up here in heaven. This place is unreal. There is, literally, too much beauty to take in. Way too much.
For starters—get this—time doesn’t even exist anymore. Which I’m still getting used to.
Right now, for all I know, the calendar year down on Earth could be 1728, 4045, 1991, or 12 BC. It really wouldn’t matter up here. This is a realm where there is no ticking clock, no schedule. Up here there is only this present moment. This. Here. Now. That’s all there has ever been. And there is real comfort in this.
I know this all seems hard to grasp, but if you were here you’d get it.
Also, for the first time I’m pain free. I feel like a teenager again in my body. You probably don’t realize how long I’ve lived with pain because I never talked about it, I kept my problems to myself because I was your loved one, and you needed me to be brave.
But pain is a devious thing. It creeps up on even the strongest person, little by little, bit by bit. Until pretty soon, pain becomes a central feature of life.
Sometimes my pain would get so bad it was all I thought about. No, I’m not saying that my life was miserable—far from it. I loved being on earth. It’s just that simply waking up each morning was getting exhausting.
But, you know what? Not anymore. In this new place, I am wholly and thoroughly happy.
But enough about me. I don’t have room to describe all the terrific things I’m experiencing, and you don’t need to hear them. Right now, you’re grieving, and what you need is a hug.
Which is why I’m writing to you. This is my hug to you. Because you’ve lost sight of me. And in fact, you’ve lost sight of several important things lately.
Death has a way of blinding us. It reorganizes the way you think, it changes you. You will never be the same after you lose someone. It messes with your inner physiology. It reorganizes you’re neurons.
But then, there’s one teensy little thing you’re forgetting:
I’m still around.
Yes, you read that correctly, I’m right here with you. No, you can’t see me. No, you can’t reach out and hold me. But did you know that one of the things I’m allowed to do as a heavenly being is hang out with you?
It’s true. I’m never far away. I’m in the room with you now, along with a big cloud of ancestors, saints, and witnesses. I’m shooting the breeze alongside you, watching you live your life, watching you raise your kids, watching your private moments of sorrow.
Here, in this new realm, I am in the perfect position to help you learn things. Which is what I vow to spend the rest of your earthly life doing, teaching you little lessons, lending you a hand when you least expect it, and desperately trying to make you smile. Actually, I’ve already been doing this stuff, you just don’t realize it.
What, you don’t believe me?
Well, wake up, pal. You know that tingle you get in your spine whenever you think of me? That’s me.
You know how, just yesterday, you had a beautiful memory when you were driving and it made you cry so hard that it actually felt good and you began to laugh through tears? Also me.
You know how sometimes when you’re all alone, preoccupied with something else, suddenly you get this faint feeling that someone is standing in the room with you? Hello? Me.
You’re not alone on this earth. You never were. You never will be. So during this holiday season, when cheerful families are getting together and making merry, and taking shots of eggnog, I’m going to be clinging to your shoulder, helping you muddle through somehow.
I’ll be making your spinal column tingle a lot, and I’ll be sending plenty of signs. Each of these signs—every single one—is code for “I love you.” So start paying attention to these hints.
Jesus came to teach many things, but forgiveness is chief among them.
And yet with compassion there is nothing left to forgive.
Forgiveness is only needed when there is something held against another, some kind of blame.
When you see deeply into another, that judgment falls away and there is nothing left to forgive.
~ Aaron
John and I are back from taking our PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test checking for Covid. The results should be back in about 20 hours, but the roller-coaster of symptoms leave very little doubt.
On Wednesday, as we were traveling back from a fantastic visit with Stacey and her family in Tennessee, she sent word that she had a headache and was suspicious. We had plans for dinner with friends, Linda and Larry, so she would test before that. She had a positive home antigen test.
John and I went into self-quarantine, and in about 24 hours, I began to have symptoms. John was about a day behind me.
Deepest gratitude for EVERYTHING Linda and Larry have been doing to support our recovery, often anticipating our needs before or while we were not even able to articulate them.
I bow down to each and EVERYONE who prayed, sent distant healing, held energy for our recovery. And kudos to my Dharma Sister, Doctor friend, and her endless text support. I told her I need to put her on retainer….
After 12 hours of violent vomiting, during which I was unable to tolerate even water — and an UNRELENTING excruciating headache — a welcome whiff of relief came. I have never tasted anything more wonderful than the first sips of 7-Up that stayed down. I am still running a low-grade temperature, with mostly respiratory stuff now, like a bad summer cold. John reports feeling weak, tired, and we both have a very diminished appetite. And a diminished sense of smell.
But today I put on my apron and made breakfast sausage for John. And I did a load of laundry.
Such a tender heart for our daughter Stacey.
She has had such a difficult time with our hyper vigilance, and then for our exposure and contracting Covid to be a result of our visit with her. The compassion has spawned MANY tears as she and I FaceTime during our mutual quarantine, checking up on one another.
This morning I wrote in my journal: “This isn’t so bad if not for the need to be constantly vigilant that things may have taken a turn for the worse. I finally feel the need to write about all of this.”
I assured Stacey I take full responsibility for having put myself at risk. Her, “I am so sorry…” led us both to the profound compassion Jesus taught that there is nothing left to forgive.
This is the odd part.
When we went to grandson, Brad’s, band concert, John and I stayed double masked. His band rocked the house, and we wore our Apache Jericho shirts proudly!
Later that evening, it was such joy to watch our granddaughter, Courtney, and her Bride’s Tribe head out for an evening of country line dancing.
It never entered my mind to consider lateral risk.
I am sooooooooo grateful to Stacey for being vigilant and protecting Linda and Larry (and any others) from exposure through John and me.
We were treated with such kindness today by the young woman who took our nasal swab. We went in together, sat in the same wide chair, and she called it a strange kind of date. She was so gentle with me, much more than I had been with myself when I administered the home antigen test.
Compassion wells up in my heart and makes my eyes leak.
Words cannot begin to express how thankful I am that Stacey had chosen to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for me while she was here in Michigan the first week of August. In fact, she received that shot 3 weeks to-the-day of her testing positive!
As we are all still recovering, we are recognizing so many gifts in this, and that is likely to continue for some time.
In addition to donating my “Covid-Created” long hair to Wigs For Kids at some point, Stacey mentioned donating convalescent plasma.
Sounds like a very good way of making lemonade out of lemons….
My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue,
An everlasting vision of the everchanging view,
A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold,
A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold.
~ Carole King
Today is day five of a five-day workshop that in music might be called the crescendo of the past three years of an intensive spiritual program with Barbara Brodsky called “Dharma Path.”
The closing ceremony is one in which we are to express our deepest intention for our highest purpose of this human life. I wrote in my journal:
What is my highest intention for this incarnation?
It is my highest intention in this incarnation to participate fully in what Aaron calls raising earth’s vibration and assisting in it’s becoming positively polarized.
It is my highest intention to know the realms of support for this coming to be.
In the personal realm, that translates to balancing old karma, freedom from habit energy related to that old karma, stabilizing new patterns that activate the highest possible frequency and: Living, encouraging [and enjoying] a conscious spiritual journey.
To respond to reactivity with clarity from this highest intention, I remember the great prayer: May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings feel joy. May all beings realize their intrinsic perfection and find perfect peace.
~~~~~~
This morning I awoke at 5:00 am and unable to fall back asleep, went into the front bedroom which is simultaneously serving as my meditation hall, office, and guest room. I opened my email to a promotional piece for a book by Cynthia Bourgeault, Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm, and listened to an interview with her as she speaks about the book. Here is a link to the podcast: A Different Way to Live Virtuously, in which she says:
The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The opposites tend to play out on our planet.
These things [fruits of the spirit] aren’t just virtues, they are not just nice little moral qualities, they are not just nouns. They’re actually energy packets, they are food. And they’re nutrients that our planet needs directly because the lack of them causes things to get so harsh and so desiccated and so dry and barren and parched that you can’t stand to live here. Craziness enters….
We do have something that we have to give back and pay back, and it is not only food for our own realm but for realms above.
She speaks about George Gurdjieff, Russian philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, who died in 1949. She says her book is mostly about “World 24” – from his metaphorical number system about human consciousness.
World 24:
The world of Presence, deep equanimity, of deep mindfulness and of the conscious circle of humanity, the place where we actively receive on this planet assistance from above (from what Christians would call the Saints and the rest of the traditions would call the enlightened ones). Where we hand up our transformed gifts of goodness and love and forbearance and patience and devotion and where we bring down onto our planet the benefits of faith, coherence, temperance, forgiveness, courage. It’s a realm of very active interface between the visible and the invisible, what the senses and reason says is logical and sensible and what the heart knows is good and true.
World 12, accordingly, for the Christians it is Heart of Christ and for the Buddhist it is the Boddhisatva Consciousness – identical states of consciousness where human beings know we are bound to each other.
For over ten years now, my signature line on my email is this quotation by Mother Teresa: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
I ask you to offer support for my intention, and to craft your own.
“Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
And between the two my life flows.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
I am still in a lot of process, triggered again and again by the teachings and the practice on the 8-day Emerald Ilse retreat, a process fueled by an intention to wake up to wisdom. The process, and the practice, is not done for a personal self, it is housed in the concept that there is no personal “I” and all is done in service to all beings. The goal is literally to wake up the collective consciousness called humanity.
My poetry writers group (Southern Circle) has been such a staggering catalyst for practice. After a strong triggering while I was still in Florida, (See: 3 Faces of Happiness) I have not been in attendance due to preparing to return home, traveling home, arriving and settling in, and then attending the retreat. Last evening when a text came through asking who was able to attend Southern Circle Poetry Group this morning, I chose not to respond.
This morning I did more process — inner asking about whether or not I am to attend.
There are times in our lives when too many voices seem to be pulling us in this way and that. Our very confusion in such situations is a reminder to seek silence and centering within. Only then are we able to hear our truth.
Be aware of your wound. Don’t help it to grow, let it be healed; and it will be healed only when you move to the roots. The less the head, the more the wound will heal; with no head there is no wound. Live a headless life.
As I was preparing to draw the two cards from the Osho Zen Tarot deck, I heard that I was also to draw one single card from the Angelic Messenger deck. This message would be true regardless of attending or not.
Whatever comes to you can be a significant opportunity for spiritual growth, whether it was intended as that or not. Your larger life goal is to grow in grace and to find union with the divine Presence through love.
After reading all three of these cards, I used the “library angel” process of just randomly opening a book and seeing what guidance or message is being divinely sent to you. The Daily Word randomly opened to May 21 (one month from today). FYI- I do not have the March/April edition because those do not get forwarded while we are in Florida.
Sometimes I may become so immersed in dispiriting practices and behaviors that I become blind to the blessings and beauty in front of me. When I engage the world with love instead of fear, I more easily behold the Christ within myself and all others.
At the retreat, we received Darshan with “The Mother” (See: Remembering Wholeness/Darshan With the Mother). Each individual receives a message of divine wisdom. The message that came for me was an expansion of the previous message to a dear friend, Dorothyann.
Dorothyann:
So much light and love pouring out of your radiant heart. You are getting much better at not getting caught in the story of “not good enough.” It still comes, of course it still comes.
This week when that story arises, would you just bow to it and say, “I do not accept that, no thank you. Shhhhh….”
Don’t try to drown it out, just, “No thank you.”
Right here along with the one who still has some belief about not good enough, where is the radiant one? Can you touch that radiant, open-hearted aspect of yourself — and know this is the true self.
I love you and I am helping you.
Debra:
I love you. Here I am going to have an opportunity to spare a few words because you heard what I said to Dorothyann.
“Shhhhh…. Thank you, Teacher, but no thank you. I am not taking that into me.”
Remember who you are. Remember your light and loving heart. That’s all you need to know.
She saw a friend’s Facebook post about his dog, Bassie, passing.
She has several favorite quotations about dog’s passing, and she most often shares a very special one from The Dharma of Dogs, but she sent this one:
In the Lakota/Sioux tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most wakan, most holy. There’s a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world. The prayers of those who grieve are considered especially strong, and it is proper to ask them for their help.
You might recall what it’s like to be with someone who has grieved deeply. The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend. The mystery is looking out through that person’s eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future. In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom.
~ Tara Brach, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart
Her friend responded:
Thank you, this is how I experience it now. Very special things are happening in my life right now. The great contact is becoming more and more noticeable. It is a special time for me.
This post begins with a reprint of a Sacred Story published December 23, 2017: “Husband’s Clothes:”
As she stood in line at the grocery store the man in front of her looked so much like her late husband it almost took her breath away. The same height, the same built, even a similar style of movement.
Without thinking she spoke, “My husband passed recently and you are of such a similar build I am wondering if you are open to receiving his clothing. Some people are funny about that. I have been wondering what to do with them. He even has jeans he’s never worn…”
“Well, that is very kind,” he smiled softly.
They also discovered he wore the same size shoes as her husband, so those went with him, too. As he was leaving with his treasures he thanked her and confessed, “I have a new job that I have to wear ‘good’ jeans for. I only had this one pair, and I have been washing them every night and wearing them again the next day.”
She suddenly realized she had obviously truly been guided.
Warp and weft refer to the orientation of woven fabric. The warp direction refers to the threads that run the length of the fabric. Warp yarns are finer and stronger than weft yarns.
Life is comprised of warp and weft. But the greatest of these is warp….
Larry, the now beloved husband of my dear friend, Linda, had lost his wife, Joyce. Soon after we met, Larry wondered aloud to Linda, asking if she thought I would be offended to be offered some of Joyce’s clothing. Many of the items still had tags hanging on them…
Assured by Linda that I would be honored, the clothes were lovingly given and received. As my fingers glide across the keyboard right now, I am wearing one of Joyce’s dresses.
One of my friends is in the process of “death cleaning.” In Swedish it is called döstädning—dö is “death” and städning is “cleaning.” The process is simply to get rid of unnecessary things, especially important as you age. You know you will eventually leave the planet, taking nothing tangible with you — we all will.
While we take nothing, we leave everything.
After their passing, the influence of our loved ones remains.
Thich Nhat Hanh shared a beautiful story:
A friend of mine has been taking care of her ninety-three-year-old mother. The doctors say that her mother will die any day. For more than a year, my friend has been teaching her mother meditation exercises that have been very helpful. She began by watering the seeds of happiness in her mother, and now her mother becomes very alive every time my friend comes around. Recently she told her mother, “This body is not exactly yours. Your body is much larger. You have nine children, dozens of grandchildren, and also great-grandchildren. We are all continuations of you, and we are very happy and healthy. You are quite alive in us.”
Her mother was able to see that, and she smiled. My friend continued, “When you were young, you were able to teach many people how to cook and do many other things. You made people happy. Now we are doing the same thing; we are continuing the work you have begun. When you were young, you wrote poetry and sang, and now many of us write poems and sing beautifully. You are continuing in us. You are many beings at the same time.” This is a meditation on nonself. It helps her mother see that her body is just a small part of her true self. She understands that when her body departs, she will continue in many other forms.
During the December 16, 2020, “Evening with Aaron,” I heard an amazing story about Nathaniel, a follower of Jesus. Nathaniel’s group had been brutalized, all of their ceremonial objects stolen, along with their food!
When Jesus learned of this, he took Nathaniel with him and went to confront those responsible. Nathaniel was frightened they would be beaten again. Jesus admitted they might, they were outnumbered, but Jesus insisted that they must be willing to say, “No!”
Confronted by the Divine Love in Jesus, the men stepped back.
Imagine Jesus speaking about this:
I would not have hurt them — how could I hurt them?
But they had to hear this truth. “Where is that within you which is capable of love, which is capable of non-harm? Remember from whence you have come and cease to destroy. I ask this in the name of our Father and with love. Cease to do harm to each other and yourselves.”
I motioned to Nathaniel to pick up the blanket and the candlesticks.
He was a bit afraid, but I nodded to him, “Take them. They belong to our Father, not to this band.”
“Keep the food,” I told the men. “If you are hungry, please eat. But these tokens of the Sabbath I bring back with me, lest you desecrate them.”
No one stepped forth to stop us.
I’m sure if Nathaniel were here in the body he would tell you he was trembling! And yet, his love, his deep commitment to service of all beings —
Here I am, Lord.
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
The same commitment you all have.
We took these candlesticks, rewrapped in the blanket, and simply walked off into the dark. We walked back to the village. These men never came to brutalize that village again.
People can learn.
The warp direction of our fabric is the Divine Love that runs the length of human existence. The warp of this Divine Love is finer and stronger than greed, hatred, brutality or any of the faces of fear. Just as the band of men who had stolen from Nathaniel were disarmed, every face of fear vanishes with the warp of love.
When you stay in the relative reality box, you create the kind of fights with each other, ‘I’m right.’ ‘No, I’m right.’ ‘No, I’m right.’ You can’t hear each other. You become more and more polarized. And this of course is consonant with the lower stages of consciousness, the magical consciousness that believes that somehow it can prove to everybody that it’s always right. I think you all know that one! If you don’t remember it in your own experience, go and find a 2-year-old. It’s very much engrossed in the magical consciousness and very certain that it’s always right. Slowly you begin to open out, and as the stage of consciousness rises you move more into the openness that can view infinite possibilities. ~ Aaron
From my journal this morning:
D: I fully recognize the thought, “when I make a choice that is right for me, it is right for everyone,” as a relative reality thought. The thought holds a subtle distortion because of the separate self.
What is whispering to me is awareness of the interconnection of everything. Like waves in an ocean.
So how do I navigate?
V: The awakened heart knows one person is planning a picnic — a big event serving lots of people. A “thank you” event to many, for great service to humanity. That heart also knows the farmers in the region need rain. The time is crucial. The seed has been planted but rain is needed to bring forth the sprout. Many will feed upon the bread made from the farmers’ wheat.
What happens to support highest good for all beings?
D: This is exactly what I am asking!
V: In relative reality, a conflict-of-interest seems to exist. This is not real.
Imagine an all-night, slow, steady rain. Imagine the rain nourishing the soil and causing the conditions that bring forth a healthy harvest. Now imagine the sun coming up, a light breeze blows over the face of the earth, drying up the surface moisture. The picnic takes place now on a ground that is well-watered.
When you are drawn to notice a seeming “conflict-of-interest” simply greet the situation with an open heart, saying, “Hello, Teacher.”
All of the elements: earth, air, fire, water, and energy — they all know how to collaborate. You are made of these elements. You do know what to do for the highest good of all beings, and harm to none.
As Aaron says in the opening quotation, slowly, you begin to open out, and as the stage of consciousness rises you move more into the openness that can view infinite possibilities.
From Neale Donald Walsch:
On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know that most dramatic conflicts are perhaps those that take place not between men, but between a man and himself.
What are you battling with right now? What unwanted habit? What undesirable behavior? What old pattern? Claim victory over these, and your entire life can change.
Last evening I looked up and saw a soft pink haze in the western sky. I stepped out on the front porch and saw a rainbow out to the north. I grabbed my phone and took a photo, and as I turned around the western sky was ablaze with color.
On May 11, 2020, the poem of the day was “Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda. Please go to Duke Trinity College and read the entire poem. Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He transitioned from this earth plane in 1973, but “Keeping Quiet” is his perfect gift for us at this time. Sharing here the next to the last stanza:
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Michigan has gone back under stay-safe-at-home orders as the numbers of coronavirus cases from community contact skyrocket. This is happening across the globe as the second wave of the pandemic crests.
Humanity is invited by this “teacher” to view infinite possibilities as we are keeping quiet….
Just when all the chips are down,
the chins should be up.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
This morning I could feel a subtle pull to look at media, but everybody knows as soon as a winner of the Presidential election is resolved, that news will be widely known. So, why participate in any of the drama?
We are in the midst of a major shift in consciousness on the earth. The loyal opposition is pushing the negative polarity as much as they can. Knowing that this time was coming on Earth, not only old souls have come, to support the transition, but also, strongly negatively-polarized souls have come to try to defeat this transition, to hold the earth into the lower density.
This is playing out on all the spheres and on all the levels including, of course, the human level. You are not pawns in some game of chess. You have enormous power. You have advisors on the spirit level, but you humans are the ones that can control whether, when, and how this transition will happen.
Along with those of you who are of a much higher consciousness, there are those who are of high intelligence, with a lot of power and understanding of power, but with intention to use that power in service to the self. This is really what this shift is about—power in service to self, or power in service to all beings.
The Roman games come to mind. Roman games, called ludi, were probably instituted as an annual event in 366 BC. Might common day sports be the current iteration? Or perhaps politics? Red, white, green and blue teams inspired great loyalty. Wondering if the red and blue of the political parties somehow also originated with the Roman games.
In 532 AD rioting sparked by the disputes of chariot fans destroyed half the city of Constantinople!
Augustus only banned fighting to the death due to a shortage of gladiators. It has been estimated that 500,000 people and more than 1 million animals died in the Coliseum, Rome’s great gladiatorial arena.
Human history is rife with dark times.
Dagnabbit, we have more common sense to use for the common good!
One source attributed ‘dagnabbit’ to Elmer Fudd. His twisted version of “dang rabbit” was sputtered while stomping his foot on his hat, after the rabbit that always outwitted him when he was hunting did it again.
In The Long Linguistic Journey to ‘Dagnabbit’ linguists say humans are afraid of speaking the True Names of enemies so we create taboo deformations. My grandmother would say flitter, in the exact same situations my dad would say $*@#….
All too often, people go through life being cautious in the name of being careful, when it is, in fact, a matter of fear. Moving ahead boldly is a better indicator of self-assurance and has a much better chance of ending in success. ~ David J. Bloyd; MS, CMP Emeritus
One of my dharma sisters shared a mantra composed by the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, known as a philosopher, teacher of peace, and all things positive. The mantra loosens the grip fear can have on you.
While silently breathing in, say the first line of the two-line phrase; while silently breathing out, say the second line of the two-line phrase:
Breathing In, “I’m aware of the fear,”
Breathing Out, “I smile to the fear;”
(Yes, these are the appropriate words!)
Breathing In, “I recognize fear as Energy,”
Breathing Out, “I express Gratitude for Energy;”
Breathing In, “Energy and Fear are Power,”
Breathing Out, “I can safely hold Power;”
Breathing In, “Power supports Wholesome Change,”
Breathing Out, “I Invite That, which is for The Highest Good!”
F.E.A.R. (false evidence appearing real) may be the true name of humanity’s only true enemy, but fear has myriad names: greed, anger, cruelty, vengeance, hatred, bigotry, sexism, racism, impatience, insecurity, shame, blame, ignorance, meanness. The list is long.
For sure, common good is common sense….
Breathing In, “Power supports Wholesome Change,”
Breathing Out, “I Invite That, which is for The Highest Good!”
There are seasons in a marriage.
I’ve heard a therapist say,
“Every marriage has cause for divorce.”
Not every day.
But there are those days.
~ Deborah Berecz,
Conflict as Catalyst™ Newsletter October 2020
In an email exchange last evening my dear friend who had asked me about any preference for a Presidential candidate wrote,
Your response to my question was most intriguing. You changed your answer from the person to their traits. Yes, I agreed with everything you wrote about the essences of both men, how those essences connect to us, and your wish that whomever wins would live and lead from those traits and from that true essence. To quote the lyrics from a song, “What a wonderful world that would be.” If only….
John sings a song titled “Some Day When Things Are Good” by Merle Haggard.
Someday when things are good
I’m gonna leave you
I can’t seem to go
When things are bad
For the past 7 months, I have done yoga daily. Kathy Zerler and I started our daily practice the morning after Michigan was mandated to “stay safe at home.” Kathy has inched her way into technology, and since late April we have been recording daily practices using the Zoom platform and sharing those on YouTube. (Just search: Kathy Zerler Youtube.)
Today, Kathy is starting back teaching in person restorative yoga classes at the YMCA. Eight foot squares have been taped on the gym floor, everyone is required to wear a mask, temperatures will be checked upon entry, and a list of all participants generated for contact tracing, if the need should arise for that. It would be dishonest to say I don’t have concern as the COVID-19 numbers are spiking.
This morning Kathy opened our Zoom practice with a reading from The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane: A Novel, by Lisa See. It is a powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance. Kathy started class by reading a section about the virtues of drinking tea.
“Always remember If you don’t love tea,
you can’t make good tea.”
(pg. 191)
I was telling John yesterday morning that it was about 50 years ago when I did a term paper on this shift away from valuing character traits (Honest Abe). I well remember the research — some related to the “God is Dead” movement that occurred when the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. From that horror, for the first time in history, we perceived that humans really could destroy life on earth.
That jarring awareness of what humans did to humans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused a shift of our collective psyche from a longer-term view to preferring shorter-term relief, ushering in the devastating era of “the end justifies the means” living. We collectively became short-sighted and pleasure-seeking. Hence fast-food and drive-through banking, and a divorce rate in the US of 40 to 50 percent. The divorce rate for subsequent marriages is even higher.
Kathy read, “Just the physical process we experience when we drink tea — our search for huigan — causes us to turn inward and reflect as the liquor coats our tongues, shimmers down our throats, and then rises again as fragrance.”
Huigan is the pleasant aftertaste of tea, literally meaning “Returning Sweet.”
Humanity is at a turning point. We can see the bigger picture. We can co-create the world we dream….
Kathy continued reading, “Buddhists grant tea the highest spiritual qualities, ranking it among the four ways to concentrate the mind, along with walking, feeding fish, and sitting quietly….Together, these three disciplines have taught us to look upward to see the state of the heavens and downward to observe the natural arrangement of the earth. But whatever you believe or however you view life, the quality and goodness of a tea are for the mouth to decide.”
Ah, those days: days leading up to the election, days as we navigate a global pandemic. Days that cause us to turn inward and reflect. Perfect days to drink tea!
This short video is from Remembering Wholeness, October 25, 2020. Aaron, channeled by Barbara Brodsky:
If you are unable to view the video, here is the transcript:
To know that we’re co-creating this — all of us — not just us, but the people who might wish a different person to be elected. But, not holding who will win so much as the world we really want to envision: a world of love, of respect, of support for all beings.
May the candidate that can best help that to happen win this election. That, rather than, “I want my candidate to win.”
The one who can best support a healthy environment, an end to the pandemic, financial well-being, adequate food and home, respect, lovingkindness….
May the candidate who can best support this win this election. And then may that support flow from all of us to create the world we envision. Thank you.
~ Aaron, channeled by Barbara Brodsky at Remembering Wholeness, October 25, 2020
