Five Streams Carrying Me Home (and Maybe You Too?)
I am always curious how people come to be the way they are. I particularly enjoy when someone from a completely different background has come to my own conclusions. For example, The Holographic Universe, a book by Michael Talbot, articulates my religion in scientific language. Synthesizing the work of quantum physicists David Bohm and neurologist Karl Pribram, the book describes how all things and people are inherently connected. Perhaps the universe functions as a holograph, each part containing the whole.
Another example is adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. Although the teachers and traditions that have influenced adrienne maree brown were virtually unknown to me before reading this book, she too believes we need decentralized leadership that understands our connection to a greater whole. Current patriarchal models have so inhumanely exploited people and nature as to be suicidal. Instead, she calls on humanity to be like birds flying as a flock. Not planning and hoarding resources, but an adaptable shared direction arising from each bird's awareness of the closest seven birds. She is careful to name her teachers (Octavia Butler is a big one), and give credit to where she first encountered an idea. This choice honors the contribution of others, rather than replicating colonialism by silently taking credit.
We tend to slip out of togetherness the way we skip out of the womb, bloody and messy and surprised to be alone. -adrieene maree brown
For this reason, and so others can benefit from my teachers, I'd like to name some of my teachers.
Esoterically speaking, I take refuge in the Christ and Buddha, accessible within my own heart and mind. This inner Teacher guides me in all things. This is the Awakened Heart, God, Brahma, Spirit, or Holy Spirit. It is the screen on which all my movies are played, and the projector's light animating the film.
Exoterically, the teachings and lineages of Yeshua and Siddhartha Gautama are currents that guide me home.
On the level of Oneness, or non-dual consciousness, there ceases to be a distinction between what is inside and outside. Humans are one with God, for it could not be otherwise. And on another level, it is helpful to distinguish between Spirit and human. Not to choose Spirit over humanness, as in spiritual bypassing, or to dismiss Spirit as materialist scientists do, but to accept both in balance.
Words have a way of being co-opted, watered-down, and losing their original context. Jesus is one of them. Originally pronounced Yeshua, Jesus never intended to found an institutional Church. As I understand it, the soul known as Yeshua was one of the first to awaken from the dream of separation. He already understood his unity with All that Is, and yet was asked to incarnate again to demonstrate this Truth in the midst of a world mired in darkness. The future of humanity was at stake. So he came willingly, not as an individual, but with many others.
1) Nowhere is this story told as powerfully as in Anna, Grandmother of Jesus, a book channeled by Claire Heartsong. For too long the role women played in the Christ Drama has been eradicated, and here the story of Jesus is told in the voice of his grandmother, a matriarch in the Essene community and mystic in her own right. She tells of many souls who dedicate lifetime after lifetime to the awakening of humanity, people called Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist tradition. The book offers its own energetic attunement and healing, and Anna makes herself available for those who feel called to develop a relationship.
2) There are so many books inspired by Yeshua. I am both always surprised and not surprised to find another. None have been as influential for me as The Way of Mastery published by the Shanti Christo Foundation. At first, I read it quickly, like a famished Prodigal Son welcomed home to a banquet. Now I read it slowly, as a love letter from my deepest self. I sit with the questions and exercises, and let mystery answer, like hydrothermal bubbles rising to the ocean's surface. The Jeshua Letters by Jayem tells the story of how a guy named Marc living in Seattle began to commune with Yeshua and provides more context to how the Way of Mastery came to be. Read Amazon reviews here; purchase here.
If you do not bring forth what is within you-- and what is within you is Love, is Christ-- you will feel burdened and unfulfilled. -Way of Mastery
3) No one has been more influential in describing the path and practice that I follow than Barbara Brodsky and the spirit she channels called Aaron. Aaron walked with Yeshua, but needed many lifetimes in the Buddhist tradition to really learn how one “turns the other cheek.” He is, therefore, able to integrate Buddhism and Christianity, drawing on the most helpful concepts and practices to help us live from the Awakened Heart. Ranked in the order I'd recommend reading them, here are some of their books:
Human – a short poem (called a book) that distinguishes between our Spirit and human aspects. Available online by donation.
The Path of Clear Light – a longer poem (also called a book) that simply and profoundly invites us into a traditional Dzogchen understanding of everything as clear light.
Cosmic Healing – This long book describes Barbara's personal journey, becoming deaf at 28, falling into despair, meeting Aaron for the first time, and seeking to regain her hearing through spiritual healing. It is a great introduction and distillation of Barbara and Aaron's work, especially valuable because Barbara shares so vulnerably about her own struggles.
Christmas Stories (PDF) – Each Christmas Aaron has told a new story about what it was like to walk with Yeshua. Available online by donation.
Presence Kindness and Freedom (PDF)– A great introduction to Aaron's teachings
The Deep Spring Archives have so many freely available talks and workshops.
4) Another important channel for the Christ energy is Pamela Kribbe, a Dutch woman who has written many books including:
The Jeshua Channelings – This is her first book and is a good place to start. Most of her work is available freely on her website, but I prefer to read the e-books.
Heart-Centered Living
The Christ Within
Dark Night of the Soul
The Forbidden Female Speaks
The Egypt Channelings: From fear to joy
5) The Guides speak through Paul Selig and invite us to incarnate our true self and recognize ourselves and everyone else as Divine in form. I recommend reading these in order:
The Book of Love and Creation
The Book of Knowing and Worth
The Book of Mastery
The Book of Truth
The Book of Freedom
Beyond the Known: Realization
These constitute five essential streams that carry me in my personal and professional work. I am grateful for their influence and happy to share them with you. I have ranked them in terms of importance, with 1) Anna, Grandmother of Jesus being the most influential and descending from there. Of course, there are so many books that have shaped me. Here are just a few more:
Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm by Stephen Harrod Buhner. Stephen Buhner, a skilled writer and scientist, flips modern paradigms on their head and restores Indigenous understandings of unity and interconnection.
Undefended Love by Jett Psaris and Marlena S. Lyons. Relationships are catalysts for awakening if we choose to take responsibility for our reactions and forgive our judgments. Here is a book with the inspiration and tools to develop intimacy and open our hearts even when it's difficult.
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein. Like chocolate after a dementor attack, this book restores hope that although humanity stands on the brink of collapse, not all is lost.
