June 18, 2020 Thursday Evening, Dharma Path Intensive
What is the Dharma Path?; The Power of Intention in Co-Creation; Aaron, Love, and Yeshua Speak on Answering the Call of Love
Year 2; Intensive
Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. We’re moving on in this Dharma Path Intensive week. I hope you’ve had a good retreat.
We’ll be continuing next year, most of you, but still, I view this gathering as a conclusion of Step 1, the Two-Year Program. So, I want to raise the question, what is the dharma path? The word dharma, as you know, means the deepest truth of things as they are. This includes, but is not limited to, the Buddha’s Eightfold Path and Buddha Dharma. Let’s see if we can unpack this whole concept of ‘dharma path’ a bit more.
The truth of dukkha. I know you’ve heard me say this before. Dukkha does not translate directly into suffering; that’s the English translation that’s often given. But the clearest meaning of the word is slightly different. In Pali, ka means the hub of a wheel and du means ‘off-center’. Dukkha, then, is the wheel that is off-center.
If you are riding in a car and the axle is bent, the car will lurch from side to side. That’s not how you want your car to travel. If you’re in a cart and the wheels are misaligned, the cart will swerve and lurch. It’s uncomfortable; it’s unpleasant. Most precisely, it does not meet with your expectations, so there is both aversion to the lurching and grasping at it to ride true. Grasping at life to ride true—no lurching. The problem is not with the wheels that are off-center or the lurching. The difficulty here is that you have a different expectation, and there’s grasping to meet that expectation.
Conversely, if you are going to an amusement park to ride on a roller coaster, you’d be very disappointed if it didn’t go up and down and swerve. “What kind of ride is this?”, just (sound of smooth air). “This isn’t what I came to the amusement park for!” You would suffer. Things would not be the way you wanted them to be.
So, we see the truth of dukkha and the causes of dukkha, the main cause being grasping, which comes out of expectations and aversion when those expectations are not met.
Then, the prognosis: there is an end to suffering, to dukkha, and the Eightfold Path. This Eightfold Path is a magnificent exposition of the path to freedom, but it’s only partial. In the Dharma Path program, we’ve tried to include not only the Buddha Dharma teachings but a much broader picture, beginning with “Who are you and why are you here? From whence come these expectations?” Looking at the human, the small ego self and its grasping and expectations. And the awakened heart that is always right there and accessible and free of expectation.
With this in mind, we have focused quite a bit on living from the bridge—presence in the mundane and the supramundane realm, nirmanakaya and Dharmakaya, to help you understand the direct experience—not as concept but as direct experience of sambhogakaya. As you know, this translates into “wealth body”. Why is sambhogakaya “wealth body”? Because when you rest there, you are in a position to awaken. You are in a position to live in service in the world. The sambhogakaya, the bridge, is simply filled with wealth—with light, with love, with possibilities that you cannot find in the nirmanakaya, and truly cannot even find fully in the Dharmakaya.
People have often asked me, “Aaron, seeing the possibility to awaken, to move beyond 6th density and truly become an arahant, why did you not choose that?” Dare I say for selfish reasons? The greatest joy to me is that of service, of expressing ever more love, of helping beings finding freedom from suffering. Certainly, the arahant, such as the Buddha, can do that because his energy permeates everything, so he is serving that release of suffering for all beings from that position.
You know what happens to a pot of clear water or a big tub of clear water if you drop one drop full of food coloring in: it literally changes the color of the water. There you might see it as a negative, making the water less pure. For the Buddha, his immense drop of Awakened Heart-Mind clarifies everything, always. If the Buddha had not been willing to move into that space, and if countless fully enlightened beings had not been willing to move into that space to hold a ground of very high energy, this path would be much harder for all sentient beings. So, I have nothing but praise and gratitude and love for him.
But we each must be true to our own path. For me, there was not a need to be somebody who fixes or is a caregiver. There was not a need to be put up on a pedestal, “Oh, look what Aaron sacrificed.” Not that at all; there is no sacrifice. It is simply the fullest expression of joy that I know, to be a bodhisattva in this way, and to support the path to freedom for all beings. It brings me so much joy to watch you move through this process, to see the changes in you, the growth. And as I am able to support you, each of you become able to support myriad people. It’s very beautiful.
For those who aspire to arahantship, fine, I will support you in every way I can. But also consider why you are choosing that and what you most deeply value, at this point.
Many beings offer different kinds of sacrifices to further support the release of suffering on these heavier density planes. Yeshua’s path, of course, was not an easy one. Look what he accomplished. Look at the various great masters, teachers like Ajahn Chah and what he accomplished, what each awakened one has accomplished. Look at those beings like Gandhi and Mother Theresa. These beings are not arahants; they are still very available to help support your process. Your own highest level guides are very available. We give thanks for so much love that is available to support.
Take a moment now to reflect in yourself: what are—not the highest purpose because there won’t be one highest purpose, but what are several highest purposes that I see for myself in this incarnation? I’m going to be quiet for a few minutes.
(pause)
You have now reflected on some of your highest intentions. What blocks the expression of those intentions? It’s quite easy to get trapped, to some degree, on the nirmanakaya end of the bridge, fixing and doing, planning and thinking. It’s also easy—not easy, but quite possible, to develop a deep meditation practice through which you can rest in states of deep bliss. Very joyful, very restful. And there’s nothing wrong with this; it’s one piece of the whole. If you never experience that high vibration of the Dharmakaya, you lack the foundation, the ground to rest centered on the bridge.
The dharma path as I see it is one that invites you to center on the bridge. Not always in the middle; sometimes far to one end, far to the other end, but never losing track. When I say ‘never’, in some moments of profound meditation, yes—the whole nirmanakaya world is gone. But there’s a willingness to come back to it and invite it into the whole.
To walk this path, you need help, and therefore it’s wonderful to be connected to your guidance. This is where we will start tomorrow morning, looking more a connecting with our guides, with the higher self, and also with your power animals. How to draw from those wonderful, great and radiant beings that are so happy to support you.
The dharma path includes the human that you are with an energy system and chakras, and that encompasses all of the elements and with a good balance of the elements. All of these are supports. Also the opening heart filled with compassion and loving kindness. So many areas that comprise the wholeness of this dharma path.
What I’ve tried to do these two years is to at least touch on the major elements of the path. There is always a place to go deeper. Studying the sutras, for example, and other great spiritual texts, also. Deepening in wisdom through the intellect in that way, and then meditating on what one has read.
All the practices that we did in Venture Fourth—the support practices of generosity, patience, loving kindness, and so many more, are helpful. Many of you were in Venture Fourth; you’ve worked with these practices. One possibility for next year will be for some people to work further with it while others go in a different direction. We’ll see what’s most useful.
For now, the place where I most want to focus is the power of intention as is needed to co-create, to hold open the invitation.
I’ve talked to you about Earth history. So many of you dwelt in Lemuria or on other similar planes in other places throughout the universe.
The most important part of this understanding is that when you rest fully connected, with no illusion of separation, that which expresses is not the personality self but only the higher self. And that higher self knows no idea of separation from the Divine.
It’s very powerful to have a large group of very awakened people meditating and bringing forth loving energy to help support a transition in consciousness.
But it is even more powerful when that shift and intention to help support transition comes from the more human aspect, with not just a toe touching the nirmanakaya but far into the nirmanakaya and remembering this is only part of the reality.
Then what invites the transition in consciousness is the power of the human heart to step past its previously self-centered thoughts, past its ideas of limitation, to truly fulfill the divine essence that it is, even while it is in the human form. Not the arahant—a human still in very mundane human experience, but with the “I choose, I invite” that allows you to move past the previously limiting beliefs, to release the karma, and to send that energy out to the world.
This is what has been so important about these thousands of years of human consciousness on this earth plane. The fact that you are not arahants but that you have been able to overcome the self-centered impulses, the old fears, the limiting beliefs, and choose, invite something much more radiant: light and love. To choose to live it. You are so beautiful, and I so much honor your courage as you choose this path, as you walk this path.
Several of us are going to give tonight’s talk in combination, so Love is going to come in now and talk to you for a bit.
Love: I am Love. You are love. Say it with me, please: “I am love.” Say it like you mean it. “I am love.” (spoken loud and slow) I still hear some doubt, there… “I am love.” Let it vibrate through you. “I am love.”
For all of you, the powerful choice and intention to move first into consciousness and then to emerge, finally, from that “Garden”, knowing the Divine and then releasing the immediate connection with the Divine to move into heavier consciousness, heavier density. There is pain, of experiencing the separation from the Divine, or at least the illusion of that separation. Then come many lifetimes of more fully releasing the illusion, until you begin to more fully know who and what you are.
I know sometimes you feel, “I can’t do it anymore. It’s too much.” You feel cut off. But you are never cut off, only fear closes the chakras. Energy does not move through you. You cut yourself off, fear cuts you off. Why not come home? Why not trust the truth of who you are? For this is why you came.
As has been said this week, we are coming up close to this time of transition into higher density. It is almost certain that none of you will experience it as “Oh, here it is, the transition!” It won’t be like that; I don’t think so.
When morning comes, is there a time when you say—dark; almost pre-dawn; dawn is arising; moving into light; and suddenly, it’s daylight—is there any place where you can say, “That was it, the moment between darkness and light.”? Rather, you, Earth itself, all, will look back and say, “Ah, I see we’ve passed out of the darkness. We are passing out of the darkness. There is decidedly more light, and more light, and more light. What joy!”
And there will still be moments of despair when you say, “There is so much light. And yet when I cut my foot, there’s still pain and aversion to the pain. What’s wrong?” Nothing is wrong. You are a mammal. When there is physical pain, this is what happens in a mammal body.
To experience the pain as unpleasant does not mean you are doing anything wrong. If aversion to that unpleasant sensation comes up, that doesn’t mean you were doing anything wrong, only, the conditions out of which the experience of aversion arises have not been purified. But as Aaron is fond of saying, that which is aware of aversion is not experiencing aversion. “Hello, aversion. Just sit here by my side.” You are all becoming more able to do that.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the concept of the tipping point, the place where when something rocks back and forth, at what point it tips. Here it’s easy to bring it back; at what point does it tip?
You are approaching the tipping point where no matter what hold negative polarity tries to make on this earth plane, positive polarity is holding it up to the point that it cannot tip. Yes, the Earth still right now can move into extreme negativity, but I think that soon that will become impossible.
Then everything on Earth will know the truth, “We are love,” and will rejoice, to broadcast that truth out into the universe.
Imagine a vast chamber of darkness, and one person comes in with a candle, the first light in that dark chamber. It doesn’t begin to light up the chamber, but that one flame then lights a dozen, two dozen, a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion candles, until the chamber is lit. Is there still darkness in the chamber? If you let the flames go out, the chamber could return to darkness. But this is a flame, this flame of love, that cannot go out.
This is the flame that I came to ignite, not just on Earth. I helped to ignite it in many places in the universe.Then those places will begin to look around and see a light here and a light there, and know, “We are not alone.” And we truly are changing the whole universe into a realm of light.
This, my beloved ones, is what you came to do. You came at my call. You said, “Maybe I can do that.” Or you said, “I think I can do that.” Or you said, “Yes, I will do that!” However you came, it was with love and courage. “I invite light. I invite love. I invite the freedom from suffering, for all sentient light everywhere. I invite a return to the light that is the birthright of every sentient consciousness everywhere in the universe.” And you, each of you, come with the power to make it so because of your courage and hard work.
I know you hold me up on a pedestal, but my dear ones, I hold you up on a pedestal. Without you there is nothing I can do except hold on and remember the light. YOU are the light-bearers. And I cherish you for that.
There was one whom I called forth as an especially powerful light-bearer, one who is a very purified old soul, who had no need to move back into the earth plane. The one of whom I speak had not gone on to fully release the mental body but retained itself in 6th density. He rested for time beyond time close to me until I asked him, “Will you come to Earth to help light the way?” You know of whom I speak.
It’s a hard thing to step out of this realm of love and back into heavy density Earth. But our beloved one answered the call. He has been friend and teacher to you. He is not alone in this; he is simply a well-known one who answered this call. So, I want to state clearly that there are others who have answered the call who have remained unknown and have worked more under the surface. Neither way is right or better-than.
But Yeshua answered the call. I want to bring Yeshua in now, asking him, “Yeshua, can you tell them what prompted you to answer the call, and how it felt?” Since we can’t both be in the body at the same time, I am going to release the body unto Yeshua.
I am Love. You are love, and I love you.
Thank you.
Yeshua: My beloved brothers and sisters, I am Yeshua… (adjusting seat)
Love asks me, why did I come? Because you asked! It really is as simple as that. I suppose you could ask, “how did I know that he asked?” If the one you loved above all else, the most beloved one, said, “Please, will you do this?” you would not think about, will it work out? What will the consequences be? You would say, “Yes.” And there would be no question of hearing the Beloved. The heart hears.
That beautiful song, “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…”
There is not one of you who would not answer that call. So how could I not answer it?
I had no certainty of how that lifetime would play itself out. I knew before my birth the general plan, but there were no details painted in, just the general plan. A plan for what?
Humans were so deeply caught in the belief of being the ego. Very few humans, even those with deep spiritual practice, had any idea of being anything beyond trying to be a good person—which is beautiful but limited, because you are so much more than a person, and yet we do not leave the person behind. That is how you live from the bridge: drawing the person in from the nirmanakaya, holding the hand of love, and meeting together in the middle of the bridge.
The words of that song—I cannot sing it—one verse: “I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry… I don’t know all the words—I apologize! Does somebody know the words? Anybody with a voice who is willing to sing just the first verse? Barbara knows the words but I will not disturb her.
“I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry… (someone begins to sing, pauses)
(Yeshua notes someone has posted the song on Zoom chat)
All who dwell in dark and sin, my hand will save.
I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Who shall I send?
This is the request that came to me. How could I say anything but
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.
There is not one of you that would do it differently. But I had the added support of being already an enlightened being, so there was no unwholesome karma to snare me. There were no stories of fear or limitation. There was no ego to say, “Oh, will this make me important?” Or, “How much will I suffer?” Just, “Here I am, Lord.”
Beloved ones, you are all doing the same thing: coming into this lifetime, not in the same way I did, not yet as enlightened beings, but you are waking up moment by moment in this lifetime. Your radiance is shining through. You are bringing light where light is needed. You are offering love where love is needed. Always holding the hands of God, Goddess, Divine Source, of Love.
Together, we can do this. Let me put it simply: Are you with me? And if you’re not sure, that’s okay. Just hold my hand and walk as slowly as you need to.
Tomorrow I know Aaron has planned for you to work with more guided meditation toward meeting either your primary guide or higher self or power animal, or perhaps all three, so that you more strongly feel the support that is around you. I know in these next two days the plan is also to work more with energy and the chakras, with balancing of the elements, with more fully knowing who you are, as I knew who I was, in order that each of you can walk the path to fulfill your own highest intention, the highest invitation of your heart.
Do you think that I walked that path perfectly? No, definitely not! There were times when I made unskillful choices. Being in a heavy density body, there was no longer 100% clarity. But the heart of compassion was there, which was willing to forgive myself for the unskillful choices, let them go, and move on, asking forgiveness where it was appropriate.
The same will be true of you, of course. There is no need to grasp at perfection because you are already perfect. You are love. And yes, you are human, so there will still be distortion. Don’t worry about it. Just do the best you can.
“I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.” “
I will go, Love, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.”
Invite the Divine Essence to lead.
Join this beautiful circle, your own selves and your higher selves, your awakened guides, all the great masters, and Love. Take our hands and join the circle. This is why you have come.
I offer you my deepest blessings, that your path may be filled with light and joy. But where there are challenges, you will always feel my love and the love of so many that surround you. You are cherished, and you are never alone.
My blessings and love. I am Yeshua.
Aaron, have you need to come back? He says no, release the body to Barbara. I love you.
Barbara: Thank you…
(C sings (both verses), “I, the Lord of sea and sky…”)
Thank you so much, C. I’m deaf, and even I could hear it, my heart could hear it. Thank you!
So a short stretch and then a sitting. I’m going to go. I’ll see you in the morning…