September 26, 2007 - Wednesday Night with Aaron, excerpt

The resolution of violence / power of compassion / evolution / catalysts of the incarnation as the opportunity for learning

Aaron: My blessings and love to you.

All of you at times have been persecuted in some way, abused or oppressed, and all of you have done that to others. This oppression of others creates so much pain in the world. And yet, it is also so much part of the catalyst for your learning. I’m not suggesting that you need to perpetuate oppression so that you have a tool for learning, but when there is violence from one being to another, in order for it to be a step toward insight and healing you must understand first what has brought forth that violence, and second, understand how you can relate to it skillfully. Only when all of you truly understand the nature of violence will you have a world that is peaceful.

Violence from one being to another comes from a place of fear and separation. If you have one small glass of water and 5 terribly thirsty people, it’s possible that one is going to push the others out of the way, to grab at the glass. What’s happening? Neediness, fear that the needs will not be met, and I would say an irresponsibility, or perhaps a better word would be lack of understanding of the fact that all the beings gathered around that glass are thirsty and that you are all inner-connected.

You are becoming skilled at creating welfare programs but not at addressing the causes of poverty.

Throughout the history of the world, beings have been violent to other beings. And throughout the history of the world, beings have longed for peace. If you truly want peace, why is it not happening?

A primary cause is that you are not seeing deeply enough into the causes of violence and attending to those causes, but mostly tend to address the results. You are becoming skilled at creating welfare programs but not at addressing the causes of poverty. Your doctors can heal terrible wounds, but you do not yet know how to stop the exchange of bullets and bombs. You build wondrous communication devices but have no idea how deeply you are connected energetically and mentally and how to use that innate connection to render the most sophisticated devices unnecessary. As result of this ignorance, the vital communication that could prevent violence is lost.

Let us put this question on an intimate and personal level, rather than universal. Perhaps there is a person with whom you have hard feelings, with much tension between you. Rarely do you sit down with that person or by yourself and look deeply at the causes of the tension. I don’t mean just to say, “Well it’s because he’s rude to me”—that’s not the cause of the tension. His rudeness is just his rudeness. The way you react and personalize his rudeness, the way in which you feel you need to defend yourself, causes the tension. If this being continues to be rude, certainly you can make the decision not to spend time in his company. But if you must be with him, perhaps as somebody who works at the next desk, how can you relate in such a way as to bring about harmony and resolve conflict?

It’s very difficult when all the mind can think of is, “Here he is sitting down at his desk. What abuse will he dump on me now?” Mind is already preparing for the rudeness. There’s already tension about it, though it has not yet happened. In the anticipation, you draw it forth. There’s blame. “It’s all his fault. If he would just shut up, we could exist peacefully.” But of course, that’s not how it is.

In that kind of situation, what would it be like to invite that person to join you for a cup of tea and to say to the person—after your tea, not immediately—a little time for pleasantries and a nibble of the doughnut--and then to say to him or her, “I often feel tension between us. I wonder if you feel it?” If the person denies it, then you need to decide how to proceed, probably just saying, “I hear that you don’t feel it but I do, and I’m wondering how I can ease the tension that I feel.” But more likely, the person is going to say, “Yes, I feel the tension.” He may say it defensively. It’s so important not to put the other person on the defensive, not to say, “Because of what you are doing, I feel tension.” Just, “When we’re together I often feel tension. Is there something that I am doing that brings up discomfort in you, that I could learn about and try not to do?”