Who is Aaron?

Excerpt from Presence, Kindness, and Freedom

Greetings and love to you all. I am Aaron. What and who am I? What and who are you? What is the difference between us, or is there none?

I have taught that we are all beings of light. What does that mean? Some of you may be familiar with the meditative experience of the dissolution of ego and body. Those who have experienced that have ascertained that what remains is light. That’s all; just light, energy and awareness. There is no ego in that space. There is no sense of self or other. There is no permanence of form, no individual thought, no selfish will, no personal consciousness. Beyond all the attributes of separate self there is pure awareness, pure heart-mind. Essence expresses as radiant light, pure sound, awareness, intelligence, and energy. These are direct expressions of That which Is. This is what you are. This is what I am.

As we each evolve, we materialize in whatever form is best suited to our growth and to our present learning needs, as directed by karma. This earth is a schoolroom. You are here in material form because it is here that you will find the next lessons that you need. I have evolved beyond the need for material form, and so I have none. Nevertheless I am still learning and am in the form best suited to those lessons I now seek to learn.

I do have a different perspective than the human one. I can call on the knowledge and wisdom of all of my past lives, as well as the wisdom I’ve gained in these 450 of your earth years since I passed from your plane. On my plane we have passed beyond any illusion of the separate, small ego self. We communicate telepathically, one spirit with another or with many others. As there is no ego, there is no need to protect the self from embarrassment or to cover up unskillful choices. Thus our sharing is complete and honest. Wisdom accrues rapidly, for each spirit shares its own understandings and experiences completely, and I can learn from another’s experiences just as well as from my own. I also learn deeper compassion, and it is partially for this learning that I choose to teach. You remind me of the pains of being human; remind me not to judge another, but to keep my heart open in love. A great teacher has said, “Never put anyone out of your heart,” but it is so easy to fall into that judgment on any plane. My contact with you reminds me that what I work toward is unconditional love.

I have the advantage of the perspective of many lifetimes. My final lifetime on your human plane was as a Theravadin Buddhist monk in Thailand, a meditation master. The wisdom and understandings of many lifetimes came together then, enabling me to find freedom for myself and also to help many beings to discover that path. Yet I do not teach you only as that Thai master. I have been a monk in many lifetimes. I have wandered forests, dwelled in caves, and lived in magnificent temples.

Through many lives I’ve practiced most forms of Buddhism. That is only a small part of it. I have been a Christian monk in just as many lifetimes, a priest, and in positions that are higher in the hierarchy of that church. I have been Muslim, Jew, Sufi, Taoist, and so many more. I have lived in all colors of skin, in male and female form, in many and diverse cultures. I have prayed in hovels and palaces. I have starved, and I have lived in luxury while those around me starved. I have been a nobleman and a murderer. I have loved and hated, killed and cherished, in short, I have done just about everything in the realm of human experience. So have all of you.
What does it mean to have compassion for another? Can you see that the potential for negativity exists in you also? Can you move from judgment of the tyrant to compassion for his pain and situation? This does not mean condoning his acts. It means having compassion, acceptance, and unconditional love.

Remember that this learning is a process. If you had already arrived at that space of unconditional love and perfect compassion and acceptance, you would not need to be here learning in a human body.

Let me return to my present perspective. I teach you as all of those beings that I was, the murderer and his learning so painfully gained, as well as the beloved meditation master and his. Beyond that, I teach from my present perspective that knows the illusion of all form, that sees clearly that all any of us are is light and energy, slowly evolving to a brilliance and clarity as all self and ego are dissolved.

As such I do not teach Buddhism or any “ism” separate from the Truth. I know of only two truths with a capital “T”, God and love. All formal religions are merely paths to the understanding of these two truths, which are in fact one.

Much of what I teach falls under the label “Buddhism.” I had my greatest understandings as a Buddhist. I am not attached to this form but do find it a useful tradition to use as a teaching tool. No pride is implied when I state that I was a wise teacher in that lifetime, and my understanding of the tools of meditation helped many beings find their way. So it is natural that I again draw on that wisdom as I teach.

But I am not a Buddhist. I have a great love for that being who was known as the Buddha, also for him who was known as the Christ, and for many other great saints and teachers. I do not label myself here.

I do emphasize the use of vipassana meditation, not as an end in itself, but as a learning tool. The practice of this form of meditation will lead you to a clear understanding of impermanence, of the conditioning that leads to suffering, and of the interdependence of all things. Understanding these concepts intellectually will not lead to freedom. You are not here just to understand these three truths but to learn from your insights and to grow in love and faith, in compassion and wisdom.

The Buddha taught that there is no self that continues, and yet here I am, and I seem to continue. What am I? What is it that continues? You have many aspects. One of these is the personal that you now experience. This aspect has form, thought, and so on, but of course it is impermanent. It is the conscious self. Then there is what might be termed the higher self or superconscious mind. This combined mental and spirit body retains the memories of all the forms in which you have manifested and the wisdom attained by all those forms. Within the same memory pattern, misunderstandings may also be retained until they are resolved. Notice that I have called this aspect higher self. It is still a self.

Beyond that self is what I term the pure spirit body. This aspect is pure light and energy. Some of you have had glimpses of this aspect of Being through meditative experience. Thus, you can come to know that this is your true nature. There is no self here, and no possibility of such delusion. There is only energy, manifested as light, Pure Being. This is pure awareness that looks at the rest — the form, the thoughts — with kindness but without self-identification. Thus we are all, in essence, beings of light. This is what I am, but I retain the use of the mental body to teach. There is no self-identification with the mental body or with memories, only the use of them when necessary.

This is our true being. We begin as sparks of that perfect light, and experience material form as a way of evolution. As it evolves, that first spark increases in its brilliance and clarity, losing all shadow, until it shines as a small sun. If you were to take my essence at this phase of my evolution, and place it in front of that perfect light, you would see the barest edges of form and a gray shadow cast against that brilliance. If you were to take the essence of a perfectly evolved being such as the Buddha or the Christ and put it in front of that perfect light, it would be invisible. That is what each of you is evolving to: perfect invisibility, immaculate emptiness, oneness with God.

Your meditation practice is the way to come to know your true nature by experience. It takes you past the delusion of a separate self. It leads you toward compassion and away from judgment. I cannot overemphasize the importance of these paths of learning. From my many lifetimes of experience I’ve found that the most valuable forms of meditation for those beings that are in a place of readiness for greater responsibility on their path are a mixture of vipassana and devotional meditation. Vipassana is hard work and requires courage and faith. Devotional meditation inspires you, reminds you of the reason for this work and of the path of your evolution to unity with that perfect light that may be called God. Please remember that devotion takes many forms. For example, service is an aspect of devotion.

What I teach you must be filtered through your own processes. I can only guide you. The real learning must come from your own experiences. If what I say is of help and provides guidance, that is fine. Use it. If it doesn’t help, put it aside and follow your own inner wisdom.

I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. I hope I have left you with more questions than answers. Perhaps one day we will meet and I can speak to some of those questions, but please remember that the answers are all already there, within your own hearts. Practice well and find them for yourselves.

Go with my love, Aaron