May 17, 2016 Tuesday Evening, Be a Lamp Unto Yourself Class
History and Mission of Deep Spring Center
Aaron spoke at the beginning of our final class about Deep Spring Center
Aaron: My blessings to all of you.
We came together 27 years ago to create Deep Spring Center for Meditation and Spiritual Inquiry. People came because they were curious to talk to me. They wanted to know from me, who are we? Why are we here? They wanted to know what to do with negative emotion, how to handle body pain in a loving way, how to wake up. Others wanted to know how to meditate, specifically how to work with the vipassana practice which I taught. Many wanted both. Some wanted one or the other.
When we created Deep Spring Center and wrote a mission statement, it was with the idea that Deep Spring would encompass all of this, the whole pathway of waking up, of becoming more clear about who you are and why you are incarnate, which is primarily to deepen in wisdom and compassion; and learning to meditate as a tool to such deepening.
Barbara and I were both clear from the beginning that we were not a Buddhist center. It was important that we be open to everyone. Basically we rejected the idea of a membership organization, feeling that it was important that people could come and go freely. People have said to me through the years, “I belong to this church,” or that synagogue, “and if I had to join Deep Spring, I would find it troublesome, because I would not feel I could be a member of both. But it’s so nice to have an open door and be able just to come.”
But we also made it clear from the beginning, it’s important if you participate in this center, you support the center with your energy; with your finances as you are able; with your time, taking classes and doing your spiritual practices, because one important means of support is simply living what we teach. But it all had to come together.
(Looking across the room☺ There’s something, a flower or object that has a very beautiful energy. I’m not sure what it is. Very interesting. It’s almost transparent, in part. (someone brings it over) Peacock feather. The energy of it caught my eye. Very delicate. Remnants, dropped off from something that is alive. So delicate. The life lives on in these fronds, these feathers.
What we teach is like that, the dharma as I call it. It’s exquisite and it’s fragile. It must be treated with love, with respect. And when this happens, the radiance and beauty of it captures your heart.
So I asked people from the beginning not to commit in terms of signing on the line and carrying a membership card, but to commit in terms of carrying these precious teachings in their hearts, and doing the inner work really to wake up. To become deeply committed to the evolution of consciousness that’s bursting open on your earth today. This shift from a lower vibration of fear, negativity, and darkness into knowing yourselves, all of you, as radiant light; knowing the beauty that you are.
One simple term for this is dharma. The simplest translation of the word dharma is “an understanding of the way things are.” The Buddha did not create the dharma, and thus it is not defined as Buddhadharma, it is dharma. The Buddha expressed it magnificently and helped people to understand it. His words are Buddhadharma. The tools he offered are very helpful. But don’t think of the dharma as something Buddhist. Dharma is perfectly aligned with our intention to be a non-denominational center. Jesus taught the dharma. He said, “Love one another.” That’s one expression of the dharma. The Hebrew prophets taught the dharma when they taught of one divinity or God.
The dharma teachings as expressed by the Buddha help you to clarify: everything in this conditioned arises from conditions and ceases when the conditions cease. Therefore, everything in this mundane world— emotions, physical sensations, thoughts, beliefs, all of these arise because of conditions. They are impermanent. We say they are not of the nature of a separate self. This simply means they arise out of conditions. And when you believe they are self, when you self-identify with what arises, you suffer. This is the dharma, just this.
So I’ve been asked, why do I need to use the word dharma? I understand that it could worry some people who think, “Oh, they’re teaching Buddhism.” But my goal was more to clarify for people. This is not Buddhism specifically, although it’s also included in Buddhism. This is simply the deepest truth of how things are. And it’s very helpful to understand that. So we need tools and words with which to understand it.
Thus, I began to teach what might be called insight meditation, mindfulness meditation, or simply, vipassana. Here is another term, this one from another language, the Pali language. But it’s a lovely term, because the word passana means seeing, to see, and vipassana means a deeper, clearer seeing. Without the deep clear seeing, we can’t understand things as they are. If we stay at the surface, understanding will not come. Unless we deeply understand the nature of this conditioned world, we cannot open into the Unconditioned, the Divine, God/Goddess. We cannot experience that unless we begin through our experience to understand the distinction between conditioned and unconditioned.
Back in 1989 when we started, I offered all of these as tools. I made it very clear I was not teaching these tools to teach Buddhism, and people understood that. But then people came along and said, “Oh, I want to study Buddhism, and I like what you’re teaching.” And then they wished to make Deep Spring a Buddhist center. But that’s not the way it was intended to be.
My highest intention in teaching you, the reason that I came to Barbara in the first place, is to aspire toward the alleviation of suffering for sentient beings, including all of you. If I did not believe that you could move beyond suffering, I would not have come. I would not choose to waste my time. I would go to some other universe, somewhere where beings were ready to become awakened, to become free. But I know that here you are ready. You are ready to love. You are ready to open to the deepest of wisdom and compassion. You are ready to drop off suffering.
In one of my first conversations with Barbara, when she asked what I have come to teach her, I said, “You are suffering. Let’s look at the nature of that suffering.” But it’s not enough to look at the nature of suffering. It’s also important to look at the nature of joy, of happiness, of freedom. To really know in yourselves when you are free, when you are awake, and how that feels within you. Because it’s not just one realm of suffering, and one realm of freedom; they come together. Part of your human experience is the experience of suffering. That suffering comes as a teacher to help you wake up.
In that original mission statement, which we still use, we made it clear that spirit would be part of this. I was there as a teacher. And we purposely did not say, “Teachings from Aaron.” We left it open, because I said we don’t know what other entities would wish to participate. So I’m not listed in the mission statement by name, only “working with spirit,” co-creating with spirit. Because you are spirit. How could you not co-create with spirit? It would mean not co-creating with yourselves. We have to include spirit!
So we went around as on a Ferris wheel, going up and coming down, going up and coming down, round in these circles, trying to understand who we were as Deep Spring Center and who we were as individuals. Who each of you were and are.
Gradually many of you opened to connect with spirit. Those who did not want that as part of their spiritual exploration have left. They’re no longer blocking the way. We are finally free to be who we always have been, I would not say to recreate Deep Spring Center as to remember who you are, each of you, and who Deep Spring Center is as a support for you.
Deep Spring Center is nothing more than all of you. Don’t give it too much importance. It’s beautiful to have an organization that can support you, but it is no greater than all of you together and the radiance from your hearts. That’s what is the core; your intentions to wake up.
Through these almost 30 years, the world also has spun around many times. There has always been negative polarity on the earth. But in recent years there is an increase in the power of negativity, the power it displays on the earth, I believe precisely because it is frightened by the increasing power it sees of positive polarity, of all of you having the strong intention not to enact negative thoughts and feelings in yourselves, not to support them in the world but truly to be supporters of love in the world.
If you have a bully and he pushes people around, punches people, says nasty things, and you try to run from him, try to ignore him, he’ll keep pushing harder. But most bullies are cowards. When you stand up before them, not to punch them, not to display hatred or anger, but to show the true radiance of sentient beings, the true power of love, it’s this to which bullies will respond.
There are a lot of bullies out there. They come as terrorists. They come as people who are hoarding and taking more than their share in the world and causing deprivation for others. They come from all those who are living from a place of fear.
You have a wonderful tool within yourself, a wonderful power, is perhaps a better word, which is your own higher self and your own guidance. My dream for this class this year was to help you connect more deeply with this guidance so that you may express more fully the powerful radiance that you are, and thereby able to say no more clearly to negativity in yourself and in the world around you. As you develop this ability in yourselves, it spreads. You model the enactment of loving kindness for others.
We come back full circle, Deep Spring Center for Meditation and Spiritual Inquiry, because there must be the meditation practice that helps you to see exactly what is arising from conditions, what conditions have been implanted in your since time beyond time, that you’ve carried forth, and that you’re ready to shake loose.
It’s vital to understand that what has arisen will cease when the conditions cease, and you are the ones that have the power to release and to cause the cessation of those conditions that have led to fear, depression, anger, confusion, greed, and so forth, in yourselves. Each of you that fulfills this, even just partially, becomes a strong force for light in the world, for love.
You don’t have to do it perfectly, but to quote the Buddha, “if it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it.” Why do I ask it? Because you can do it. Because you have affirmed your intention to do it, to wake up.
I am delighted with the remembering of who Deep Spring Center is, that is coming forth, of going back to our roots. But now it is different; we start again in a new place. It’s much as a very small child might say, “I want to run. I want to walk. I want to climb,” but it doesn’t have the skills yet. But so many of you now, through all these almost 30 years, have grown into the skills, some of you through Deep Spring, some of you through other sources. But now coming back here because something in what we are offering touches a deep place in your heart, the deep intention to awakening. Here is the deep intention to support awakening on this world and throughout the universe; the deep intention to release the old remnants of fear and negativity and truly live the radiance and love that you are; the deep intention to support such change in the world.
I would not bypass any portion of who we are or have been. The remembering of who you are is important, but in order to live that truth of your being, you do have to investigate the conditions that have given rise to the clouds that have shadowed the inner sun, if I might use that metaphor. To understand these clouds is to pierce them so they dissipate. This is the process of awakening.
Coming back to one question that has been raised: why do I need to use Buddhist terminology? I don’t need to. Instead of saying “dharma,” I could say to understand the deepest truth of things as they are. Well, what do I mean by those truths? The truth of impermanence. The truth that everything arises from conditions and is without self. But this is simply what is taught, not just in Buddhadharma but many other systems. But I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. The Buddha says it clearly. I have enormous love and respect for his teaching, although I do not call myself a Buddhist. So it’s helpful to borrow the terminology that’s already in place, simplified as much as is possible, but not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.
I don’t expect anyone to be Buddhist. I am not a Buddhist. What I want is for you all to wake up; to encourage you in that, to support you in that, and to help you remember you are already awake. There’s nowhere to go, only to realize you are already awake.
Part of our original mission statement, an essential part, is that we are a center for non-duality. This is much more vital to our identity than that of Buddhism. Non-duality means, let’s put it in a simple way. Anger may arise, and that which is aware of anger is not angry. We do not deny the anger. We do not deny this awareness of that which is not angry and the ability to rest in that awareness. The anger is real in mundane terms. The essential purity in which there is no anger or any form of negativity, this is perhaps a greater reality, but harder to touch upon. Thus, we practice!
Another thing that the Buddha taught, that I find a very beautiful statement, is the importance of bringing together the supports needed for awakening: moral awareness; the deep intention to do no harm, to be loving to all beings; a willingness to deeply watch the places where you slip into negativity. Wisdom; the deepening wisdom to understand how that negativity arose, not be caught up with self-identification with it, and, also understand how not to enact it. The wisdom to understand what it means that this negative thought or action arose from conditions, is impermanent and is not attached to a separate self, though each is responsible to what arises within. The meditation practices that help you, they are used as a tool to help you discover the wisdom, to understand how these things arose, and that they are impermanent. And the heart centered practices that keep the heart open. Through these tools, we gradually let go of identification with the small self and begin to know the innate radiance that each is. We taste it gradually, and deepen in the ability to live it.
This does not have to be taught as Buddhism. I think one of the errors that happened for us through the years was increasing numbers of our teachers and sangha were committed to being Buddhist— I don’t say that with any negativity, I cherish these teachings— but because they were wearing blinders and saying, “This is Buddhism,” they neglected to see the wider scope of it. What we offer is simply the path of awakening, in any religion.
The question for me as we re-remember Deep Spring, not just our original intentions but the added intentions that we have gained through these 27 years, is how we can best express ourselves in the fullest ways to, again, not “pour out the baby with the bathwater,” but also how to best hold everything that we find dear and express it in the clearest ways. Not to be afraid of nor attached to Buddhism or any other system of thought. You all know my love for Jeshua. As I am not a Buddhist, I am also not a Christian. And yet I love what Jeshua taught. And I love the being who taught it. There are so many other grounds for learning, for me and for all of you, that we might cherish without self-identification.
So I throw this out to you all, as part of the Deep Spring community, as you reflect on how we reawaken the vision for Deep Spring, and recommit ourselves to use this coming together as a community and the teachings we offer as ways of awakening in ourselves and awakening in the world: how does what we’re doing support the highest good for all beings, and harm to none? How does it support the necessary transition of consciousness? Necessary if this world is going to continue to arise to the Light and not sink into a negatively polarized black hole.
I think this is all of your highest intention. The board and the circle that came together last Saturday, exploring some of these questions, all welcome your input. We hope you all think of yourselves as, in my words, friends of Deep Spring Center, and will support Deep Spring Center in the ways that feel appropriate to you, through you energy, your finances, your time, your love, your commitment to your practice; in all of these ways.
Please come to the meeting on the morning of June 11 and let us hear your thoughts, share your insights. If you live far away, join us via the conference phone. Let us know how Deep Spring Center can best support your spiritual path, and how you can support Deep Spring Center, because we cannot exist without your support. We do need money. We do need volunteers. We do need your love and commitment to practice.
You’ve heard me use the term, “Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Light.” Deep Spring Center is part of that Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Light. Each of your guides is part of that. Your higher self is part of that. You are part of that. What does it mean to truly be part of this Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Light, committed to the awakening of all beings and the end of suffering, not just on earth but throughout all the universe? Are you ready to make that commitment?
And for those who walk in the door new and say, “I don’t know about that. I’m not ready to do that. I just want to take a meditation class,” or hear a talk, that’s fine. We don’t push anything on people. We welcome them and know that as they grow they will be more and more ready to make this commitment, what we call the “bodhisattva commitment.” Here is another useful term, another dharma word. Some of you might find it an awkward one. But what it really means is, bodhi, awakened. The one who is awakened into the highest commitment to love and serve. The one who is in service to awakening. We can talk about it in many ways, but it’s a simple term. To be one who is deeply committed to service, to love, to awakening, not just for oneself but for all beings.
Bodhi, again the word means awakening, and citta means consciousness. Bodhicitta, awakened consciousness. Well, we can say that in English, awakened consciousness, so the word bodhicitta is not essential. But it means the same thing: the consciousness that is not only on a path to awakening but that knows itself already to be awake and is committed to living that awakening, for the highest good of all beings.
That’s enough from me tonight. I’m going to return the body to Barbara. I’d be curious to hear how this year has gone for you. What questions you have. How can Deep Spring Center and our classes and work best support your future growth? What kind of class would most interest you for next year? Share whatever you like from your heart.
I love you all and I deeply appreciate your being here in this class this year,. I see the enormous growth that each of you has made, each in your own ways. Some of you are saying, “Who, me?” Yes, you! Yes. You may not believe it fully, but yes.
Thank you. My blessings and love to you all.