a clear talk from Aaron on DSC vision and purpose 160625C

Aaron: My blessings and love to you all.

You are spirit. There is a physical body, mental body, emotional body, all grounded in spirit. If you try tofix the physical, mental, and emotional bodies, it doesn't work; it's just more contraction, more ego, more suffering. If you simply rest in this ever-perfect pure spirit body and say, "Everything's perfect," this is denial. You do experience body pain; you do experience mental anguish. The human experiences these things.

I hope that Deep Spring can finally become a place that holds it all together – mundane and ever-perfect – and helps each human to do so: working with the vipassana, pure awareness, and clear light practices, and also all the other supportive practices such as the Brahma Viharas, energy and chakras, elements, sound, clarification of intentions, and so much more, with the intention of raising consciousness in ourselves and through the whole earth, really through the whole universe. And while I phrase this as "raising consciousness, it is really coming to know and rest in the already present awakened consciousness. You are that!

I said recently, many beings are watching what happens here on the earth. You are what your politicians would call a "swing state." Somewhere between positive and negative polarity. There's a lot of negative polarity on the earth. There's a lot of positive polarity. Beings deeply committed to learning love, to expressing love in the world and in their lives, and also beings deeply committed to bringing forth fear and hatred.

Those of you who are herehave the deep commitment to do no harm, to do only good, a deep commitment to service, to loving kindness. You are committed enough to do the hard work of your practice and to share it with others in whatever ways are appropriate, not necessarily a formal classroom, maybe just talking to a friend, or an angry person in the supermarket line, screaming at her baby. You see how upset she is. You say, "Why don't you let me hold the baby for a minute while you pay." The baby is screaming because the mother is screaming. This is sharing the dharma. So there are many ways to share the dharma.

But I repeat, the earth, is a swing state, and many beings are watching to see if you're going to swing toward negativity or positivity. All of you hold the intention that that swing be toward the positive. So what are you going to do about it? I'm not going to say, "Are you doing enough?" Clearly all of you are doing all that you are able. And I don't want you to come to this from a place of "I should." But rather, ask in this moment, in what ways could I be more loving? In what ways could I be more present? In what ways can I be not so hooked into the old habitual patterns? All the range of practice helps: vipassana, pure awareness, loving kindness, connecting with your guidance, hugging trees as we did earlier and sharing light in that way. All of these things help.

There is no one right practice. There is no one right spiritual path except one that is grounded in presence, in loving kindness and intention to non-harm. Beyond that, I hope that at Deep Spring we can build on each of your strengths, helping each of you to more fully become the teacher of your heart, bringing forth whatever is deeply in there, that wants to be expressed, to help bring light into the world. This is all we're doing in teaching. And then we offer support, helping you learn how to share this core of your heart, each of you working in the ways that feel most appropriate, based on your own interests and skills.

That's basically all I wanted to say, so not a long talk here. But I'm happy to spend a few minutes answering questions.