Today’s post was channeled at 6:45 am this morning before work.  I just jotted the conversation down via automatic writing as it happened.  It’s *full* of spelling errors, but I don’t have time to edit/review today… please read kindly.

Hey Girl, what are we talkin’ about?

Meditation last night, about how love eclipses pain.

Ah Yes.  It is interesting you resisted that message for so long.

Yeah, I’m not sure why I resisted that, since it’s something I intuitively understood anyway.  I’ve certainly heard about it in enough places.  But it’s not easy to look at someone you dislike, or who wronged you and send them love.

Ah, that is the judgment on their actions.  If someone has done you wrong, you ask what teaching this brings into your life.  It is the judgement of “wrong” that causes the bad feelings.  The assessment that this *should not* have happened to you.  The resistance is where the pain is.  Peace is in acceptance.

What about the worst things?  The terrible violence or unjust tragedies people suffer in their lives?

Ah, unjust.  This is a new idea in our culture.  Just a few generations ago, there was less resistance, more acceptance, less emotional turmoil if not less heartache.  It used to be people accepted these things as the will of God, or The Gods, or ancestors had become angered.  This is not a better way of thinking, only a different way.  It was necessary to move beyond this way of thinking, and now you (the culture) has moved into a way of looking at the world as it should be.  As you believe it should be, your imagination of a world at peace.

This is very important.  Before anything can change, one must visualize change in their mind, se it in their inner eye, feel it with their astral (energetic) bodies.  Then you begin to manifest change in the world. 

This resistance to the space between where the world is in her transformation, and where you believe she *should be* is where a great deal of emotional pain is generated.

So we need to practice patience and acceptance?

Girl, I have seen these terrible things.  I would never tell a person oppressed to be patient and await change.  No!  I would tell them to resist!

But resistance causes even more pain.

Yes.

So, sometimes suffering is worth it to change things in the long run?

Sometimes, we sacrifice our own comfort so that others may experience relief.

Are you talking about martyrs?

Yes.  I know how you feel about martyrs.

I feel sometimes people martyr themselves for their own reasons, and that the cause or people they’re trying to help could be furthered without such a sacrifice, and that sometimes people put themselves in a martyr’s position because they are afraid it is the only way to assure themselves they are on a good path; because only the truly virtuous are martyrs.  But sometimes it is not necessary to martyr yourself, and sometimes it is wrong to sacrifice yourself when things can be done another way.  Because you are just as important and precious and worthy of life as those you are trying to help.  And sometimes you can continue to help the world if you do not destroy yourself for a cause, or principle, or to try to save someone else.

Yes, and I see you noticed your judgement there.

I just did, my judgement in other people’s decision to sacrifice themselves or their happiness.  I do feel that happiness is precious, should be protected and shared.

And you are right, Girl.  The way to healing moves through many smiles and laughter.  (This said in great seriousness.) 

Yet, people must learn to make their own decision on what to sacrifice.  It is their own bodies, lives and learning. 

It’s true.  Is it alright to say something if I see this martyr pattern in someone’s life?

Absolutely.  When they come to you for help, it is your responsibility to reflect back to them the aspects of themselves which create their reality.  Not to do this would be deceptive.  And in doing this, sometimes, peoplewill see they deserve to be happy.  Like your sister.

(This is interesting because I have a spiritual sister as well as an incarnated, physical sister.  I asked which one he meant and he said both.)

So, I’m still confused.  Sometimes, acceptance instead of resistance reduces our experience of suffering.  Sometimes it is necessary to resist and embrace the pain of that resistance.  Sometimes it is appropriate to sacrifice yourself for others, and each individual must choose if this is the path of learning they require.

Yes.  There are many ways to Heaven. 

This reminds me of the conversation at Humanity yesterday:  we think of heaven as above, hell below, linear.  Some say the path to heaven is up or down, because everything is a circle.

Some explore the path to heaven through ascension in the higher vibrations, some move through suffering and the lower vibrations.  We always should help those suffering, when possible, for it assists us on our own journey as well as them of theirs.  It is important to realize there is more than one way Home.  In “Eat, Pray, Love” the Guru is quoted, “There are seven levels up to Heaven, or seven levels down.  I have been both ways.”

So have all of us.

The return to the Whole is always complete love, absolute acceptance for everything you know.  Be it pain and suffering, the joys and excitements of your life.  You understand, in the afterlife, the context of your suffering and excitement.  There is no “I’m sorry” in heaven.  There is no forgiveness, because all that happened… (I can’t find words for this concept.    It’s like he’s saying all that happened is, exists forever frozen in time, us apart from you, is part of the whole universe now, is given to god, is tied to everyone, is done, is past but not past because there is no time, no longer exists, but is honoured, as the concept exists because of your experience, is Holy.)

Damn, telepathic communication is challenging at times.  I’m sorry folks, it’s not always easy to wrap words around concepts dropped into my head.

The beautiful thing is that all our experience in life ends up (as described above).  Yet, LOVE Girl, LOVE is the only eternal emotion.  Everything else we inevitably leave behind.  Love will eclipse all, in the end, and so that is why love has the power to neutralize what bothers you on earth.

In the end?

We all came from (creator) our bodies are of the earth.  Our bodies return to the earth, our energies return to the source.  It is inevitable because there is no time, and so, we never left.

It is all a big circle, my sister.

I think my brain is melting.  Marley offers me a joint – Ha!  I don’t think that will make it better, my friend! 

I was only teasing, my girl.  And now, you are needed at work.

So I am. 

One more thing – please ask your readers to ask their questions.  I will try to clarify anything from this they do not understand.

Okay.  I will do my best to translate it. 

Be well, my girl!

So, I encourage you to post your questions for Marley in the comment field.  Please don’t be afraid to do so – I know only a brave few comment, but due to the magic of wordpress statistics, it seems I have somewhere between fifty and eighty readers a day.  So whatever you ask, I’m sure someone else was wondering the same thing and didn’t want to actually raise their hand. 

Ask away, my friends.  This offer, Marley says, does not expire.  Even if you find this post years after it was written, you can still post your question – you will receive an answer.

Marley has quickly shown himself to be as skilled in creating signs and synchronicities as John. John is rather famous for creating a series of signs that people cannot ignore (he talks to a lot of people, and they do a lot of writing. Everyone I’ve read about so far has experienced a startling number of signs ranging from dreams, songs on the radio that follow you wherever you go, books flying off of store shelves and falling open to the one page where Lennon is quoted, etc.)

I particularly appreciate these signs, it’s one of the things that reminds me I’m not delusional. In my more insecure moments, I still wonder whether I am, perhaps, making all of this up. And then something will happen to reassure me my “invisible friends” are very much with me. I always get a little thrill when I ask John to play something for me on the radio, and without fail, within minutes, *something* associated with John or the Beatles is played.

George doesn’t really work like that. When I asked him, once, to play something for me, he said, “oh, that’s really more John’s thing,” and brought in John to do the legwork.

Kurt has *never* played Nirvana for us. It’s odd. I wonder what’s going on there… I should ask him. Oh ha! He hays it’s because I need exposure to other bands, types of music. Kurt is quite concerned about my hard rock / punk band education. It’s kind of funny – I’m 33 and just now “discovering” modern rock music.

Kurt has, on dozens of occasions, played a song that Sweetie recognizes as a sign, like, “Oh hey, that’s Foo Fighters. We were just talking about how the Nirvana drummer joined that band.”. Or, “That’s the Pixies! The one with the female bass player Kurt was talking about.” subtle things like that to confirm for us he’s listening to us, near us, with us. He sighs about me sometimes, as I’m still sobuneducated, music-wise, that I don’t recognize his signs unless Sweetie is around to point them out. Johns signs are usually knock-you-on-the-head obvious.

Well, Marley seems to be in a bit of competition with John in this respect.

The staff at Humanity are particularly open to John’s suggestions – while Sweetie was hanging out there, waiting for me to get off work, three times a different staff member stopped what was playing on the gallery playlist to play a single song from one of John’s albums.

Once I showed up at Humanity, I sat for a few minutes while Sweetie told me how many times John had his music played, I hear, “Listen!”. And the staff pulled out an old vinyl record of Bob Marley, and played the whole thing!

The last few days, it seems every time I walk into a grocery store or a coffee shop, one of Marley’s songs comes on the radio. It’s not unusual around here, with a population of three generations of hippies, still, the timing of the songs is telling. As I write this entry at 7 am in a coffee shop, Sunday morning, staff put on a whole CD of Marley’s music.

The real kicker came last night. Sweetie & I have been bemoaning the absence of really good coffee out here. (Sweetie is a master roaster with six years commercial experience, her coffee has won awards for the coffee shops who served it in Toronto.) We ran out of coffee yesterday and made a special trip to the store, where we found:

I think inlost my mind for a second there. Marley has his own line of coffee! This roastery is owned by his son! IT’S NAMED AFTER MARLEY’S SONGS AND DEDICATED TO HIS LIFE!

This coffee WAS NOT in the grocery store last week. The manager seems to have purchased two bags of each coffee in the line – I marched right up to the cash, raved about how wonderful the coffee is, please tell the manager to continue to carry it etc.

I’m drinking it right now.

Damn, Marley, you truly take the cake.

I know several people in real life named “Bob” so when I think and write about Bob Marley, I’ll sometimes just call him Marley. 

(I asked him what he thought of the book and movie “Marley & Me” with the out-of-control lab named after him; he replied “The dog is a free spirit, just like me!  Anything that makes people laugh, is fine with me.  The dog opens people’s hearts, this is a beautiful thing.  I am glad my name plays a part.”)

I can’t help but compare personalities when a new spirit friend settles into our life, so my friends, please forgive me for contrasting your attributes as you relate to us through your most recent past-life expression.

John, such a charmer, so charismatic, so intense, sensual even, yet vulnerable, open, occasionally needy and seeking reassurance.  He’s also our favourite prankster, keen to brighten our day with a sign, synchronicity, whispered joke or physical  humour.  John’s personality doesn’t seem to vary a lot when I relate to him as John Lennon. 

Neither does George, who has always come through to me as calm, consistent, respectful, tolerant, bemused-without-patronizing.  It seems in his last life he always had this sense of being detached from his physical experience, and so being in spirit form is so natural to him.  He’s just plugged right into the heart of the universe and seems keen to distance himself from the human flaws of his past incarnation.

Kurt’s personality varies so much depending on what we’re communicating.  Sometimes he comes through as a young teenager, enthusiastic, full of immature humour (my favourite kind) strength, guts, nerve.  This young Kurt pushes us past our comfort zone, dares us to consider ticking people off, or at least to not allow fear to control our actions.  He helps us to expand the limitations we place upon ourselves.

Kurt can seem like several different people at times, even though it’s the same spirit and the same past-life expression to which we relate.  Sometimes Kurt the jaded rocker comes through.  Sarcastic, cynical, quick to call bullshit and reflect the wrongs in the world.  The Kurt who accompanies me on my meditative lessons is calm, stoic, watchful, protective.  It seems he sets all other aspects of his personality aside when in “teacher mode” and becomes exactly the companion I require on these challenging and sometimes scary journeys into past lives and universal concepts.

And Bob.  The first thing I see about Marley, is his smile and his laugh.  I had to really do some searching to find pictures of Kurt honestly and openly laughing.  John’s online store of laughing photographs are mostly from his early Beatle days, before huge fame, extreme stress, over-indulgence in certain drugs and the “india shits” took their toll.  It’s not that easy to find pictures of John Lennon in the late 70s laughing.  (But there is a great series of John & Yoko in the nude.)

Marley it seems is always smiling.  It looks like there are hundreds, maybe thousands of images out there with his warm laughter dancing through.  I’ve had “Is this love?” in my head all morning – I had to look it up to confirm it was one of his songs.  He seems delighted that I have to check.  Everything I do seems to delight Bob Marley.  Every thought in my head is cause for positive response from him, even if it’s just to send me love.  Is this love, is this love, is this love that I’m feelin?

So what do you do when you sit down to a conversation with Bob Marley?  You ask him about pot, of course! 

Bob, what would you like to tell the blog-o-verse about weed?

Oh, I think they know how I feel about it!  (laughs)

I show him the contrast between worried parents thinking “gateway drug”, me, discovering pot in my twenties, Sweetie’s ex-boyfriend, a wake-n-bake stoner who can’t seem to get anything done.  I throw all this in the form of a question at Marley. 

His reply is first one of acceptance, utterly free of judgment.  No one in this scenario I’ve put to him is wrong.  Parents of course are concerned for their children.  It is their job to protect them and instill within them the inner parent so the children can grow to care for themselves.

Children grow up to discover new limits for themselves.  And adults who use the plant to cope with their lives, well, it’s a difficult life sometimes.  We take medication to quell the pain of a headache, there are those who medicate with the holy plant, in search of relief of pain and fear, and the heartache of separation from God.  To look upon them harshly does disservice to our own compassion, our own humanity.  Reach out in kindness instead, to help ease their journey, if you can.  If they will take your hand.  They may sit and smoke instead, and then there is nothing you can do.

For an instant, I see Salvador Dali, in his opium den, hooka coiled in front of him like a hypnotic snake, the room warped and hazy with smoke and bent realities.  (Sweetie knew Dali in her last life, more on that some other time.)

The plant, it can be so much more than this.  It can open your heart.  It can expand your mind. (Here he shows me the heart chakra and the third eye becoming charged and growing larger.)  It can ease the limitations and pressure upon your mind, allow you to lay down your burdens (worries and energy or knowledge blocks) to allow the love to flow from Heaven.

Hey, my Girl, are you going to write what I am telling you?  (He sees my hesitancy and tendency to want to vet some of this, my own worry of what current and future readers will think of this blog entry.  Thank you Bob, I’m reminded to be right here in the moment, and just let the information flow.)

Now.  The thing about the plant now a days, is that it has been altered so much from its natural form.  If you take an unhealthy, unbalanced plant into your body, you will have an unhealthy, unbalanced experience.  For this reason, I grew my own plants.

Nature has given us many gifts.  Humanity may try to improve them, and so they reflect only that they see themselves as imperfect.  Nature makes no imperfect things.   

It is fitting there is such fear of this humble plant.  There is such fear of beautiful things on earth.  It is the contrast which we incarnate to experience.  It is the learning to discover the balance in all things for yourself.  If you do not know imbalance, you never know true equilibrium.  It is your snowflake, frozen in time, forever, it has no meaning!  Only through change, transformation, does God take form.  On Earth.  In all of us. 

The plant, it only helps you to see these things and understand; to move past the deepest pain which every human being experiences – our separateness.  This is why I come to you now.  (He shows me the bubbles.  I think George called Marley in after that conversation.)

Bob, are you telling me I should smoke some more weed?

(laughs!)  Ah, my Girl, you do not need it.  (He shows me meditating and I understand that this practice accomplishes the same thing for me.)  Although, it is good for you when you are so tired.  (He’s referring to the burned-out, flu-ridden, stressed out Toronto Kate of five years past.)  Your body takes in too much of this, (shows me the part of the plant that makes me sleepy) and it takes a day for you to get back.  (Shows me feeling alert after a good rest.)   

Have you ever told people they should smoke pot, or more than they already do?

Of course I do!  Put down the bottle, mon!  Quit hitting your woman, take up the plant!  Set aside your anger, your unhappiness, reach out for peace instead of creating more pain.  Yes, I have told men these things.  I see someone in pain, I gave them (shows me handing a deeply depressed, under-weight woman a joint.)  It is not the answer to problems, it is a new way of seeing them.   

The way you have seen this plant use, it is not my way.  Our way (is this the Rastafarian way?  Yes.) We gather together, we share the plant, we share our hearts, our laughter, our love.  We close our eyes and share our journeys.  We open our hearts to each other in complete love and acceptance.  We grow closer than brothers and sisters in this practice.  If only this culture could replace the tradition of judgment and hatred.  (shows me a preacher pounding his podium in harsh denunciation of some “sin”, shows me holy wars, shows me motherless children, shows me mothers insane with grief over their murdered children – that last one gets me and tears spring up.) 

If only this way of peace and joining together could replace these traditions of war.  It’s only a plant my dear.  It’s only a way to love.

 And there are so many ways to love.

A little exerpt from the conversation between Bob & I this afternoon, (you know, in-between horrifying him with speculums.)  I sense this message is for more than just me, and so I post it for you, my dear readers, to take into your heart:

You are bringing hope to people.  It is so important to bring hope back into the world.  You can rage against the sadness, only for so long.  (He indicates Kurt’s life.) 

Joy, my sistah, hope; experience the essence of humanity.  That is what you bring to the world.  It is more sacred than you think.  You may never in this life understand the impact you have upon the world.