THE PURPOSE OF WORSHIP

Group question: The question this evening concerns worship. We would like to have some information on the purpose of worship, the elements that go into worship, and the means by which one can accomplish worship.

(Q’uo, October 1, 1989)

I am Q’uo, and I greet you in the love and in the light of the One Infinite Creator. You ask about worship. We find that worship is a daunting word in your society. Worship denotes that which takes place within an acceptable church or temple. Worship is that which is finite. Worship is that which is ritualized, and so forth. In this way, many of those who are unable to deal with the proliferation of doctrine and dogma in settled religions find that they have lost the ability to worship, for they have lost their innocence, shall we say, and no longer believe that the Creator is separate and far apart from Its creation. Each seeker becomes aware subjectively that the Creator is immanent and at all times with each seeking entity. It is the entity’s decision to open the door to Love.

Prayers and worship are many, many things. They may be praise. They may be thanks giving. They may be intercession. They may simply be a statement of adoration. Or, indeed, it may be the silent communion tabernacling with the One Who is All, knowing that the self is indeed upon holy ground, standing at both the beginning and the ending of the great cycle of creation while it experiences the illusion of the passing of time.

The purpose of the emotions evoked through worship is to so purify and clarify within a seeker the feelings of unconditional love that the entity becomes aware of the Source of unconditional love. When it is realized that the Creator is truly within, and the whole creation also, then it may be seen that it is an internal matter: the small human self, through purified emotion, opening the gateway to a deeper and deeper awareness of the Christ self, the Creator self, that is the core, the reality, the beginning and the ending of each. One cannot cause oneself to feel emotion. One may behave in such a way as to indicate emotion, but there is the inner knowledge of the depth of that particular emotion. And what the seeker wishes to do is to intensify, by steps which are natural and unforced, one’s emotions of adoration and worship of that Great Self which is at the core of all that there is. Many simply go through the motions, hoping the worship will strike from the sky as lightning. However, it is to the persistent, steadfast, daily plodder, the one who walks with slow, firm steps, who accepts the dust and difficulty of the spiritual path of service to others, who is best able to begin the discipline of the personality that leads one to be able to release the personality and the limitations of human understanding, if we may use that term.

Now, the beginning of worship is a clear realization that the true self of you is the Creator, that you are love, and that within you is the capability of manifesting or channeling the love and the light of the Infinite One-though each of you is within a finite illusion and, therefore, unable of yourself to generate infinite emotion. Within your culture the attitude toward the teacher is not that of adoration and worship. Within your cultural nexus this would seem to be blasphemy. The next great step then, in preparing oneself for worship, is to yield up the humanness of the self, gladly, willingly, and eagerly, to release oneself from the limitations of making sense, of being rational, of analyzing, thinking, concentrating, pondering, and so forth. An emotion is experienced; it is not an experience. It is that which occurs to one.

And why would one wish to rationally analyze? Let us gaze at the nature and the face of the Creator. Oh, how many books have been written about the Father-Mother Creator of all that there is! How many words have been written, how many paths have been taken, to attempt to gain, from the self, wisdom, knowledge, and information that may make one holy, sanctified, and blessed. This type of belief, that understanding and information will move one forward-to the exclusion of purified emotions-is termed among people, “gnosticism,” and is indeed, though not heretical, an ambiguous and unsuccessful road upon which to travel in search of the One Infinite Creator.

Now, you see, many, many wish to be of service to others. Many feel the need to express love to others. But first there must be two realizations. The first realization is that the Creator loves you with a passion most intense, for you are a portion of the Creator experiencing Itself: Love experiencing love. True worship is a response to the unconditional love that lies at the center of the universe and of your being. Within you is infinity and within that infinity, an infinite intelligence. And this principle is one of love, and so all that there is, is love. Secondly, within the process of moving toward worship one first dies to the self. That is, one releases oneself from humanity; one surrenders the self to the Greater Self that lies within in complete trust that that which is love may be answered with the most profound and purified love in return.

The one known as Jesus was a teacher particularly adapted to offering these teachings. Yet, they were misunderstood, misquoted and, to some extent, lost, for this entity always declared that it was not he who spoke but the Father within-an indication of his own surrender to the Infinite One which lies at the heart of each and every thing in creation.

Some entities feel emotions of any kind with far more ease than others. Thus, we ask each entity to move toward worship, allowing itself whatever latitude it needs to work with the distortions of the self, to by-pass that which is not held in faith. Worship is not an artifact of belief. Worship is a purified emotion from the Self to the self. One self may be capitalized; that is the Self within. The other self is your outer shell which is as a shadow dancing upon the wall of reality.

Your physical shells are illusory. Your creation as you perceive it with your senses is illusory. And, indeed, the reason that many mystics are able to continue worshipping within the established church is that they have been able to separate themselves from the judgment of Self versus self and are able to see teachers, such as the one known as Jesus, not as objects of worship and adoration, but as worthy entities leaving a legacy of wisdom and compassion. Because of the times in which this entity offered its ministry, all of the senses were valued and, thus, each sense was stimulated to align the mind to obedient and complete surrender to that greater Self within. The music, the incense, the taste of body and blood of heaven, the smells and feelings of those buildings which are considered holy and which have been upheld in prayer, occupy the surface consciousness to a great extent, thereby making it far more easy for the entity to move deeply into the self and open that inner door which none other shall ever open, to find love waiting, love so profound, so undeniable, so joyful that one cannot help but love, worship, and adore in return.

The Creator is, to use your words, holy and sanctified. Each of you is likewise holy and sanctified. But there is, shall we say, the surface illusion to be penetrated. As always, for this we recommend daily meditation and the daily contemplation at day’s end of those things which have moved each so that one is familiar with one’s human self and may find it easier and more safe to put aside, knowing that the surface self shall be resumed at a time when these purified emotions have surged through the spiritual shuttle which moves each into the infinite and eternal reality of the circle of creation.

To be in worship and adoration is to walk the path of angels. To move from that path to the daily round of activities is a sorry shock for most. Yet, we would suggest that it is the daily grounding of the self in surrender to the Great Self within that may bring that eternity, that infinity of love into manifestation through the very being and nature of the entity. There is much sacrifice in this path, but as the teacher known as Jesus said, “I do not come to bring peace, but a sword.” That sword shall refine the choice that each makes to be of service to the Infinite Creator. The peace that is found in the service of that Infinite Creator is a peace found only in complete surrender.

This is the sticking point for many who do not wish to surrender what seems to them their free will in order to worship that which cannot be seen, that which is intangible and which has no objective referent. It seems equally improbable, that one would worship another or that one would worship the interior of one’s being. However, in daily meditation, in listening, and in opening that inner door to the principle of love which meekly stands waiting to enter, is to begin the process of spiritual evolution that results in what this instrument would call “praying without ceasing.” When one is conscious always of the Greater Self within, the life becomes effortless and flows naturally as the spring of love wells up infinitely through the entity to the surface entity and then into manifestation to others.

Emotions are not understood well or given appropriate importance within your illusion, for each prides itself upon its rationality, its practicality, and its common sense. These functions are those given to your biocomputer, your brain, and these functions are extremely helpful in making choices, analyzing situations, and moving towards the spiritual by asking questions of this type. However, there will not be enough energy for anyone to sustain a manifestation of service to others unless that entity is feeding itself with the heavenly food of recognition, surrender, and worship, and finally, dedication to be true to the enormous love between the Greater Self and the expressing self within the illusion.

Each of you sees yourself as a being progressing through the years, growing older, and facing the leaving of the physical vehicle. What will you bring with you? What is your permanent personality? It is the biases that you have gained by dwelling in love, praise, prayer, and thanksgiving, in seeking harmony, in seeking peace, in remembering the humility of one laboring under an impenetrable illusion.

For those who wish to enter ever more deeply into the covenant of Love meeting love, we can only suggest that, with light-hearted merriment, one observe the humor, and, shall we say, the oftentimes ridiculous nature of the illusion while maintaining an awareness that at one’s heart one is not foolish; one is not limited; one is of the Creator; one is love. Each day it is necessary to observe the self and begin to cleanse from the self those portions of personality which would keep one straying from the path of surrender to the Infinite One. The fact that the Infinite One is within means that this is work in consciousness to be done by the Self with the self.

The group meditations are most helpful in this regard and, indeed, it is true of worship in general that the greater the mass of worshipping faithful souls, the greater the power of love that is experienced not only by those who worship but, in the planetary sense, in the lightening of consciousness of planet Earth. It is for this reason that we never condemn any sort of religious practice which has as its goal, worship. We are not particularly interested in the specific means of attaining the emotion of worship and adoration. We are interested, and each entity needs be interested, in finding a path by song, by prayer, by whatever ritual is required that opens the shell of the passing self, that shell of personality that shall die and be no more, so that it may be broken apart as the egg broken into the dish. It is not the eggshell which those sitting in this circle are interested in; it is that which is within the mystery of that egg, that life, that birth.

If you are at this time only beginning to work upon the releasing of the surface self to the deeper and infinitely wiser will of the Greater Self within, we may say, treat yourself as if you were a precious child, tiny, helpless, an infant which needs to be fed heavenly food. Find a way to feed that appetite through the singing, through the praying, through whatever has meaning for you, and do it persistently and for the love of the Infinite One.

Worship, ecstasy, love-these are interchangeable words as regards the nature of the creation and the Creator. Your worship is only an answer to the Creator’s worship of love. For Love worships love in all ways. The illusion is most complex. That which is to be worshipped, the reality behind the illusion, has no concept, no shape, no face. It is a great mystery. It is also a mystery to us. We do not believe we will plumb the depths of this mystery until we are once again without any surface consciousness of personality, so that we have become completely that which is in the core of our being.

Do not be discouraged. This is not the work of a lifetime. The work of your lifetime is specific lessons which you laid out for yourself and specific services which you wished to perform for the love of the One Infinite Creator. Service to others without love has no real beingness metaphysically and the so-called burnout of many of those who enter the helping professions is due to the limited awareness of the surface self and the lack of depth in seeking the heart of self so that those aids which one may give to others come through the self, not from the self, exhilarating and clarifying the self, not exhausting the self.

Emotions, when purified, are true thoughts. That which you consider thinking is simply that which has been given you in this illusion in order to make choices, and you make them well, my friends. But know this, that love is a steady state. As you tune into that steady state of the Creator’s love, you are so loved. You must needs yearn and hold out the hands of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving to the One who loves you infinitely. And, in time, your return may become infinite and you may indeed live the life of praying without ceasing, of seeing holy ground under each footfall, of seeing the face of love in each and every entity regardless of its condition of life. We leave you now in that love and light. We are those of Q’uo. Adonai.

NOTES TO OUR READERS

We have enclosed a flyer in this newsletter that we think may interest our readers. Our good friend, Barbara Brodsky, channels her guide, Aaron, and it has been our pleasure to work with both of them and to recommend them to you.

Significant increases in postage and reprinting costs are reflected in the cost figures for each of our books and tapes listed on the order blank. We are still happy to accept whatever amount of donation is comfortable to our readers, and we would like to thank so many of you who have been most generous in your donations.

We would also like to again thank all who are helping us to transcribe our backlog of Sunday meditations.

Many of you have accumulated metaphysical libraries and may be wondering where they will end up. Our library is happy to accept materials left to us by will.

Happy New Year!

Deep Spring Center for Meditation and Spiritual Inquiry

January, 1993; Newsletter; An Introduction Dear friends,

With thanks to Carla and Jim for helping us to meet you in this way, I’m happy to introduce myself, Aaron and Deep Spring Center. We offer a mix of meditation instruction and practice and channeled work with Aaron, a discarnate entity.

Aaron calls himself a “being of light,” as all of us are. He was incarnate on the earth plane for many lifetimes, until his final human life over 500 years ago. He tells us that in that lifetime he was a Buddhist meditation master in Thailand. Aaron emphasizes that he’s no longer that master, that he has practiced many religions. In his words, “I am not a Buddhist. I have a great love for that being who was known as the Buddha; also for he who was known as the Christ, and for many other great saints and teachers. I do not choose to label myself here. I find that such labeling enhances the illusions of duality.”

What Aaron teaches largely falls into two subject areas. The first is addressing the myriad metaphysical questions people ask. He will not predict the future nor in other ways impose on our free will. Beyond those restrictions, he speaks of other planes and answers some of our questions about who we are and why we are here. He describes the universe as he experiences it, and shares some of his own memories and insights and his present experiences as a discarnate, sixth density energy form. He speaks with humor and insight. What many people find most important in their friendship with Aaron is that he relates to us as spirit, not just as human incarnation. His perspective of us helps us to deepen our awareness of that divinity in ourselves and in all things.

Aaron’s main focus is to help us learn to live our lives more lovingly and wisely, and in so doing, to find freedom from this cycle of birth and death. He says we are a composite of four bodies-physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. We are incarnate to find harmony between those bodies, not to get rid of one or another or to find one better than another. We are here “to learn the meaning of unconditional love.” We do this by beginning with ourselves, finding love even for that which we have judged as unacceptable in ourselves. We learn to watch for the arising of fear and judgment and find equanimity for all that which arises in our experience. This is our path to learning non-judgment and unconditional love of others. Such love does not preclude work to move past unskillful reactivity, nor does it mean we are free of responsibility for hurt to others, but we all can find compassion, out of which judgment ceases.

Many of us find that we learn as much from what Aaron is as from what he says. He truly embodies (if one can use that term for a disembodied spirit) what he teaches. He is gentle, compassionate and truly non-judgmental. These qualities inspire us and allow us to feel safe as we explore our own fear and judgment. Yet Aaron does NOT want to be put on a pedestal, and reminds us that he is a seeker just as we are, that he also learns from us.

Meditation work focuses on Vipassana or Insight Meditation, which finds its roots in Buddhist teachings. We’re not teaching this to push people to become Buddhists. To Aaron, a Buddha is “an awakened one.” Our wish is not to create followers of any specific religion but to offer Vipassana as a foundation and vehicle for awakening. We do branch out from traditional Insight Meditation; instruction may include meditation involving the chakras, Mudra meditation which works with the energy meridians of the body, meditations to open to our spirit guides, guided meditations of various sorts and more.

We offer channeled workshops and meditation retreats in many cities. Spring will take us to the southeast and northwest United States. Please write for a schedule. There is also a program of classes and workshops in Michigan. A thrice yearly newsletter includes 4 pages of channeling from Aaron. A book, Aaron, is available for $8. It’s 75 pages, spiral bound, 81/2 by 11. and contains transcripts from tapes of channeling sessions in many cities. Book Two is under way. Feel free to write; I try to answer every letter in whatever way I’m able. We cannot personally channel answers to your mailed questions, but they often find their way to channeling sessions, If so, we’ll send a copy of the tape. We’re always glad of help to transcribe tapes from channeling sessions. It’s a wonderful way to “hear” Aaron first-hand if you live far away. I’ll send you a tape to transcribe. Do it at your own pace. We have a big backlog of tapes waiting to be transcribed and about twelve new ones taped each month. Your help with this will continue to make Aaron more widely available.

How do we each walk the path that speaks our true nature of limitlessness and oneness? How do we find faith that all paths lead to God and simultaneously understand that it is necessary to develop the self-discipline to adhere to a path, even when the way is hard? It takes love, courage and effort. Helping others to find and walk their own paths is the focus of Deep Spring Center. Please take from us what fits your needs and leave the rest.

With love, Barbara

Our work is supported by your donations. Your generosity allows its continuation and is deeply appreciated.

Please let me know if you’d like to be on our mailing list.

Barbara Brodsky, Deep Spring Center, 3455 Charing Cross Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48108

January, 1993; Aaron’s Pages; An Introduction

The Journey; Durham, NC; Fall, 1990 (excerpt)

We often hear the phrase “our journey” or “our path.” Can you talk about this journey. Where are we coming from and where are

From the perspective of your human understanding, you are going home, to that sweetness and brilliant light that you once knew so well and now only dimly remember. From the perspective of your soul, you are going

The whole journey is an illusion. How can you have ever left God, when He is within you and you within Him?

Do you really imagine you could leave that source of perfect light and love, and be alone and separate in the world?

You are children, camped In your parents’ back yard, learning the skills and independence that lead to maturity. The illusion tells you that you are away from home. Do you see the necessity of that illusion? But your parents keep a watchful eye from the window and the back light shines brightly. You are never truly alone.

What is this journey? It is the slow unfolding of that which you must learn to return to your Creator as mature and compatible co-creators in the dance of life. It is the blossoming of your beautiful self, from an ember into brilliance.

It is time to move beyond your fears, to acknowledge your true being and the oneness of all creation. It is time to penetrate the illusion.

You have never been anywhere, but the illusion has served its purpose. Now shed the illusion. Learn to acknowledge your perfection, your unlimited nature, your oneness with God and all things, the wonderful beauty of you,

There is no rush. You each move as you need to. Be assured that every being will find its way home and in time will understand the illusion of the journey. Each will find that sweetness of its non-separation with the perfect light and know the harmony of the universe.

Truly you are all home. You have only to discover this and know that it is so.

Anchorage, KY; Fall, 1992 (excerpts). The question was about working with fear and inner turmoil

My dear ones, first you must look at the erroneous assumption that the turmoil and darkness you experience are your enemy. When you experience turmoil, that’s just turmoil. When you experience fear, that’s just fear. Then there follows the secondary reaction to that turmoil and fear. It is not the feared object nor the experience of fear that closes your heart and sends you into darkness so much as your reaction to that fear. Can you see the di

When you are lost in such fear or other negative emotion, there is real change in your physical being. You are energy, manifest as light. With the arising of fear there is a change in the chemical balance of the physical body and in the vibrational frequency of the light body. Energy is constricted and you truly feel the imprisonment of that darkness. When this pattern is understood, you learn that it need not be continued. You become free of reactivity to that which arises.

With practice of awareness you begin to notice that when physical perception or sensation first arise, you are in neutral about them. There is no aversion with the first moment of experience, only sense consciousness which registers as “seeing, seeing…,” “touching, touching…” or perhaps, “knowing, knowing….” Then follows perception which labels what is seen, felt, or known-“seeing an angry face…,” touching heat…,“ or “remembering pain.” Awareness that discomfort accompanies the sensation or thought comes next, and then fear that you will be hurt by that experience, or that your needs will not be met, as happened previously. This is the working of old mind patterns. With arising fear comes the shift from neutral consciousness of sensation or thought to aversion or clinging. This is when anger or greed arise, not anger at the object of aversion so much as anger in response to a sense of perceived attack. Old mind says, “this which has arisen may hurt me, as has happened before.” Or if what has arisen brings pleasure, then neutral awareness may shift to grasping, wanting more, or fear that it will not remain as it is. Attachment and aversion are both offshoots of fear.

You are not here to get rid of anything in your life. If turmoil or fear is what is experienced, you don’t need to get rid of the catalyst for fear, nor of the experience of fear, to again be peaceful. You may allow the experience of fear with your heart as open as it can be, and with no judgment if it closes a bit. Then the old mind issues-the remembrances and the projections into future pain-fall away. None become part of this moment’s experience. You are just present with this moment, and in this present moment there is no fear, only the immediate experiences of your senses.

Are you familiar with those sticky burrs that catch on your pants’ legs as you walk through a meadow? The pants are the mind. The burrs are memories and projections. As they knot together, the collection becomes an unworkable mass, which closes you into darkness. You need not get rid of the burrs to restore light and space. Awareness, not aversion, is the tool that brings in light. Being mindful of the tendency to dwell in painful patterns of old mind, the burrs become just another arising. “Remembering, remembering…, seeing, seeing-anger, greed or whatever.”

Increasingly, you find the ability to stay in this moment with its much more workable reality and allow the experience of it. When the experience is unpleasant, you note that discomfort, “feeling aversion…” and begin to find some compassion for the human you are, stuck in an uncomfortable place. Judgment falls away; reactivity falls away. You begin to know that you need neither suppress nor act upon the catalyst, just open the heart to make room for it. It takes courage and strong awareness to do so.

As you begin this practice you start to see that each catalyst is in fact a gift offering you the opportunity to practice being present with pain. There is no “getting rid of” anything, no grasping, just an opening heart that finds space and compassion for all that lies in the realm of human experience. There may be pain or sadness at a catalyst, but no hatred. There is increasing willingness to be with whatever is experienced because it is clearly seen that the pain and sadness are workable. Then the arising of that which is uncomfortable no longer leads to grasping for control, to aversion, to clinging. Whatever arises will still arise, but your relationship with it is changed and there is quietness, peace, equanimity and joy, even in the face of pain.

Washington, DC; Fall, 1991.

Are you real?

I am as real as you are. And NO, I am not “dead,” thank you! I simply exist on a different plane. You are made of light and substance; I am only made of light. When you move beyond the substance of your human form, then you also will be only light, until your next human incarnation. You call this death. I call it just a step in the process of our evolution to