Young grandson climbing at dawn; Joshua Tree Nat’l Park, CA

What does it mean to fully enter into incarnation?

Barbara (speaking with Aaron):…to rephrase the above (see Blog 8) very simply. All-That-Is manifested itself, among other expressions, as what we call Relative Reality and our human experience. This experience includes free will. Because we have implicit free will, what manifests through and from humans will depend completely on what our unique distortions are, not what All-That-Is determines. Through this exploration, we discover our true essence, return to it and enrich it.

Aaron: That is correct.

Barbara: You said of the Unconditioned, “It contains no self-directed will, it simply is.” In the next paragraph you said, “Because it extended to that relative reality all attributes of itself, it extended free will to that relative reality, to create itself.” But this seems to be an act of will. Aaron, will you talk about will and intention as regards both relative and ultimate experience?

Aaron: I am Aaron. To answer this one must consider “right effort.” For effort, there must be intention. As long as that intention comes from any place that entertains the notion of separation and self, there will be either wholesome or unwholesome karma resultant from that effort. When the expression of intention comes from that which is free from delusion and rests deeply in wisdom and compassion, the results of that effort will be free of karma. You experience this deeply when you rest in pure awareness, and understand that resting in Rigpa, one is outside the karmic field.

The human rarely experiences an extended movement from pure awareness without touches of the personality-self emerging and shading the motivations. When those twinges are noted with kindness, they simply come and go. If you have a cup of tea that you are carrying through a dust storm and spread a plastic film over the top, the dust may seem to settle on the tea but cannot really touch the tea. The tea remains pure. That which expresses from pure awareness may seem to be distorted by the varying motivations of the personality self. But it is only a seeming distortion. Just as you lift away the film and dust, pure being releases the distortion and rests in the purity.

All-That-Is is capable of manifesting and exploring distortion but it cannot get lost in those distortions. This touches on the later question, “Can infinite being experience non-being?” We will come back to that. If you think of will as that which must come from the personality self, then you wrap yourself into a bind where That-Which-Is is incapable of will. When you understand will as an expression of intention, offered from a place free of delusion of separation, for the good of Being-ness in it’s infinite diversity, then will is understood as the expression of co-creativity of the One.

You may think I am speaking paradox. I am giving that impression intentionally to shake you free from the notion that there is either ultimate or relative, and to remind you that the relative is simply part of the ultimate. There is no language for that process of statement of will or offering of intention in the ultimate sense. We can only phrase it relatively and understand that since there is no-thing, there is no All-That-Is and no will. Only when we drop off the thing-ness and return to pure being-ness can we understand will.

Barbara – July 27; what do these words mean to me today? I return to these words from Aaron: “If you think of will as that which must come from the personality self, then you wrap yourself into a bind where That-Which-Is, is incapable of will. When you understand will as an expression of intention, offered from a place free of delusion of separation, for the good of Being-ness in its infinite diversity, then will is understood as the expression of co-creativity of the One.

When I hold and offer the intention to do no harm, do only that which is for the highest good of all beings, Aaron’s words above re-assure me that I can thusly choose from a place of some degree of purity, of absence of service to self. To get there takes practice, takes mindfulness, learning to observe the arising of ego and no be caught in its stories. So many people come to me and Aaron looking for certainty, but no one else can give us that. “Is this the best/ kindest/most loving…way?” We don’t want to do harm; we don’t want to create unwholesome karma.

Am I grasping from an ego place when I say, as I did Tuesday, “I choose to live my fullest life and help Hal live his?” There’s no “correct” answer. I have to trust my heart and my experience. What is the direct experience of grasping? Of spaciousness? It’s all basically about my practice, grounded in intentions, my willingness to trust but not blindly trust, but to keep kindly  checking upon myself. From where does this intention arise? And the next one? And yes, there’s also some small amount of grasping, seen and released with love.

I’m a tiny microcosm of the universe but a vital one, as we all are. I truly believe that with each loving, awake choice we  make, we bring more light into the world, into the universe, the multiverse. We matter!

I felt like I didn’t want to do my PT today; body was achy, perhaps the rain. This is a simple choice i make, for myself and for the universe… to keep the energy moving through this bit of humanness, or to let go. But if it is to move, the intention must be grounded in lovingkindness.  So, I stopped; I backed off bit. I did some chanting. I allowed the acknowledgment that this body was tired and hurting. Then Aaron asked, right here with soreness, discouragement, anger, where is compassion? And yes, it is there, precisely because the universe is non-dual. It’s always there, just sometimes lost somewhat in the darkness.

Emerald isle beach after a storm