May 2, 2014 Friday Morning, Emerald Isle Retreat, Q&A Bardo states; human maturity in spirit; power of intention; karma and habitual tendencies, intention and the akashic field to release; “law of attraction” as karma; rip-tide metaphor; release of habitual tendencies that are grounded in emotions; jhana and insight;

Bardo states; human maturity in spirit; power of intention; karma and habitual tendencies,  intention and the akashic field to release; “law of attraction” as karma; rip-tide metaphor; release of habitual tendencies that are grounded in emotions; jhana and insight;

Barbara: Good morning. It's amazing to me that this is our last full day. The week just flew by. Impermanence. In one of the question periods a question was raised about the bardo states. I would like to bring that back into our vipassana practice.

Basically, and I'm not speaking here from my experience, I'm speaking from what I assume is the experience of those Masters who clearly remember moving through the bardo state, that as we're moving into this experience of transition, the end of this lifetime, and moving through this space into whatever comes next, there's a very clear statement in the Tibetan texts of what arises, both beautiful things that pull us off and frightening things that pull us back.

The way it's explained, if we have not resolved our relationship to something—I said to John, kiddingly but only half-kiddingly, earlier, chocolate is what's going to get me! As I move through the bardo state, if I see a big plate of chocolate, that's what's going to pull me out! When we contract around it and move into it, for example, this is a really hypothetical example, but maybe I'll see a man and woman coupling and eating lots of chocolate and I'll be really pulled to it, and this is the place where I will take rebirth.

If I have a strong tendency, let's say arousal toward, movement toward violence of some sort, if I've not resolved violent things that happened in this lifetime, or just to the degree... you're driving and there's an accident, do you turn and watch? We're all interested a little bit. ... So if in that state between lives there's a man and woman engaged in some kind of strong emotion, that could pull me out and I might enter rebirth in that state, in that lifetime.

Basically what happens is, whatever is not fully resolved in us is what pulls us into the next lifetime, because that's what we need to learn about. It's not punishment, it's simply, here's what I still have not understood. We contract around it. But that which is aware of contraction is not contracted; that which is aware of reaction is not reactive. The beautiful thing for me is we don't have to fully resolve it. Using that image again, when I'm driving and I see an accident—yes, I look. It's partly curiosity, not necessarily morbid curiosity. I have invited myself to do metta as I drive by an accident scene, and probably many of you do, to open my heart to that situation.

If I see a big spider, contraction comes up. A snake doesn't do it to me, a mouse or a rat doesn't do much, but a spider, yes. So the habit energy may still be there. There may still be a reaction. The question is not whether there is a first-level reaction but whether we stay with that reaction and elaborate it into stories. Then there is karma.

If I see a spider and my mind runs off into, “Oh, it's going to bite me again and I'm going to have another brown recluse bite. Somebody ought to destroy these things all over the earth!” then I'm energetically pulled in. However, if I see the spider and notice “contracting, fear, fear, contraction,” “breathing in I am aware of the contraction. Breathing out I smile to the contraction.” The contraction still arises but at another level, I don't contract around the contraction. I don't perpetuate or even believe in the stories.  This ariose, so that still arose.... That resolves the karma.

Then from what I understand from Aaron and from what I've read from the Tibetan masters, what happens in the bardo state is we see both these deeply beautiful things and these really hideous, frightening things, and if we've done our practice here, we're able to say, “Ah, beautiful.” Grasping-- “Ah, here's grasping.” Unpleasant, aversion-- “Here's aversion.” And we rest in that state of equanimity so that in the bardo state the arisen object has no power to pull us in, literally, into a new incarnation. And at that point there is no more rebirth.

The way Aaron explains it, and the traditional teachings also, we don't have to become fully realized in this lifetime. We have the opportunity for awakening in the bardo, in the transition, where everything is arising and passing away, and all our habitual tendencies are there. And if the habitual tendency toward presence and kindness, equanimity are there, then we really release the whole past, in that moment. That's the moment of liberation. And nothing pulls us into a new rebirth.

So we're practicing here both to live with more kindness and wisdom in this life, and also our practice is part of the whole flow of full liberation. That as we no longer are so pulled out, there's just equanimity and peace.

Aaron, described the dream I had, or maybe I did—so much has gone on this week I don't remember who said what—but, driving in traffic and suddenly there was a dense fog. “What should I do?” There's nothing I can do. Just relax. Now, if I can carry that mind of equanimity into the bardo state, I'm not going to get pulled into a new rebirth.

So I'm just explaining this to help us understand the value of understanding the teachings on the bardos. It's not something about some future, it's right now, because as I accomplish this now in my practice, it stays with me, and I carry it into the transition.

If there are questions about that specifically, I'd be happy to answer them. If not, John and I would like to hear any specifically practice-related questions. Aaron also will speak if it would be useful.

Q: This is kind of a practice question. I still feel strong current from yesterday in my arms, my hands, and my chest. I was aware of it through the night. It gives me courage. So I wondered if there are things, or I suppose meditation, that could encourage or continue to foster the current.

(Aaron incorporates)

Aaron: Good morning. I am Aaron. Gratitude fosters it. Just awareness, “This is helpful for me. I invite this. I stay open to it.” Awareness of resistance is helpful because sometimes this may be supportive and feel good, and yet a part of you is saying, “What is happening to me? What if this takes me too far? Am I ready? Am I ready to let go of long-held contraction and open in this way? Am I ready to feel this energy?” So just the mindfulness. Noting resistance. Noting any fear. Present with the open heart.

Finally, it seems like you see me because you see Barbara's body. But are you seeing me, Aaron? Who is Aaron? All of your guides are here. All of these high entities are here. The Mother assured you she is here. Just pausing, either to ask for help or to say thank you. When you feel the energy moving through you, just stop and say, “Thank you.” You're not specifically thanking an entity who's giving you something, you're thanking your own highest self and the connection with all that is, and your ability to bring awareness to that connection and allow the flow of that divine energy. You nare thanking Divinity, in which you participate.

Other questions? I'm curious—how many of continued to feel some of that energy through the night? Barbara did. It's strong energy. And it's loving energy.

John: I suppose that trust plays a part in this.

Aaron: Trust is the antidote to resistance. When we note that energy flowing through and we say, “What's this? Am I, ego, losing control?” Now I can trust, “This is my own highest core of light, connecting to All that Is, in the most positive and beautiful sense, and I can trust this because of the power of my intention to live with love and to do no harm. I can trust that what's coming to me is good, based on that intention.” You can also consecrate this energy, saying, as you feel the energy, “Whatever of this energy is useful to me, I accept it with gratitude. And anything that remains I offer out for the highest good of all beings.”

Other questions?

Q: May I presume that the more often throughout the day I pause and breathe into spaciousness, even for moments, that these singular moments will multiply?

Aaron: Absolutely. But that pause doesn't have to interfere with the flow of your work and day. The flow of movement and taking care of and such is part of this pause.

John: One thing that may be helpful is at the beginning of the day, to state this intention, to pause, to become increasingly aware of spaciousness. Perhaps state the intention several times a day. I find that if I state the intention, it's more likely to happen than not.

Aaron: I spent over a year with Barbara with the ongoing instruction, where is rigpa? Each time that she lost track of this light and spaciousness, lost track of pure awareness and got caught up in what she was doing, I would just put a gentle “non-hand” on her shoulder and say, “Stop. Breathe. Where is rigpa? Reconnect.” It was just a matter of a moment, but getting into the habit of doing that so you never lose that awareness and spaciousness.

Q: And we too can ask our guides to help us and remind us throughout the day.

Aaron: They will help and remind you. They will not do it for you. If they remind you and you just push on and say, “No, I'm busy,” they'll step back and let you be busy.

Q: When the Mother was incorporated yesterday, she was trying to get me to experience my spirit guide. She asked me to hold up my hands and ask if I felt the spirit. I felt something, but between my hands I had a very clear image of the baby horse.

Aaron: Spirit comes out through everything. That baby horse, I'm not saying he is your guide, I'm saying that your guide can take any form—a flower, the air blowing in the window, a baby horse. Your guide is not a thing, it's love and thought and energy. So if the image of the baby horse is what comes to you, there's something powerful there for you about that image. And for now temporarily that image can serve as a replica of your guidance.

The Buddha statue here, this is not the Buddha. The Buddha's been dead for over 2,500 years. What is this? It's a replica to remind you of your buddha nature. So the baby horse is a replica to remind you of something, and you'll have to investigate what it is.

Q: I was going to say that over the past year, since last year with the Mother, I find myself at work where there is a very tedious and difficult procedure that I have to do. There are several. I can only describe it as diving into the dark and having to pull something out. When I get caught in the self, I can't get it, I can't grab onto it. The patient's in front of me and I can't get it done. Inevitably I sit back, take a big deep breath, and ask the spirit guides to help me. Once I figure that out I can go right after it, in the dark. And then when I get in a very difficult painful situation with a patient, I often will even leave the room, take a big deep breath, ask for help, and it's amazing. I feel like I know what to do. And I'm so thankful. And my patients are, also.

Aaron: I don't hear a question there. I thank you for sharing.

All the help you need is available to you, but it's up to you to ask. It doesn't mean that you aren't fully competent in yourself. You are co-creators. There is not a “Somebody” coming to do it for you, but supporting your co-being with the patient, with spirit, for the aspired-for results to arise, to support those results arising. Our work with you is not to disempower you by saying, “Hey, look at us! Look how powerful we are!” but to empower you to know your own strengths. We don't want a humankind of little children who are helpless. You are of an age to know your own maturity and power, and to claim that power, balanced in the wisdom of the loving heart and the deep commitment to do no harm, to do only good.

Others?

Q: My question has to do with the akashic work. I had a good group experience along with the others, and would like to continue that practice. So I'm curious if it's possible to set up a teleconference akashic meeting once a month, or once a quarter or something, that people who are interested would be willing to commit to. Is that possible?

Aaron: I have two seemingly different answers to that, but they are compatible. First, you don't need others to do this. It's helpful to have the support of others, especially as you're first beginning to trust your entry into the field, but you don't need it. So you can simply sit with the intention and hold your hands out and invite spirit to help you stabilize in that space. Second, yes, it is helpful to have others. It is helpful to do this with a group.

Amy Koch, who was here at the retreat last year, is looking at this idea to help people form some kind of connected groups to practice together in the akashic field long-distance. If you don't have her email address, Barbara can give it to you. So speak to Amy.

John: I don't know much about the akashic field, but I have some inkling that it relates to resolution of karma. In regard to the resolution of karma and habit energy, it seems like one aspect of the release of that habit energy is a readiness to let go, an intention to let go of the habit energy. The practices, the tools, that help us to release old patterns, is there any other element, is there anything else that is a factor in this process of the release of habit pattern energy?

Aaron: Your statement is very clear, first of all, and you do understand the akashic field. One of the primary reasons we move into the akashic field is to find that place where we're not pulled cyclically back into the same old karma. We see the possibilities.

Let's use a simplistic example. There are some yellowjacket nests near your back porch. Every time you go out there with an apple or peach, yellowjackets start swarming around it. Anger comes up. You start to swipe at the yellowjackets and they sting you. Eventually you decide, “I can't go out on my back deck anymore, even without fruit.” Tension.

Now we take this all into the akashic field, including the yellowjackets and the fruit. We see the yellowjackets attracted to the sweetness of the fruit. We see that they are simply following their habitual tendency. This is what they feed on. So we see the “But they'll be there anyhow” tension. We see the place where the yellowjackets aren't. We see the place where they may be flying around us, not stinging us, not bothering us.

You may handle it either of two ways. Either to wash your hands well and go out there without fruit, or to take a piece of fruit and put it at the furthest end of the deck, go in and wash your hands, and then sit at the other end of the deck, making it a love offering to the yellowjackets. And then sit and meditate, and then if one starts to fly around you, just observing tension, tension. The whole fear, “I could be stung.” Habitual patterning. And go to the place where the yellowjacket isn't. Go into the akashic field where you and the yellowjacket connect in that spaciousness, heart open to each other, and with the clear intention, “If it stings me it's going to kill the yellowjacket and it's going to hurt me. I do not choose that.” Rest in the clarity of that intention. It has to be done with spaciousness and ease, not, “I've got to control the yellowjackets so I'm going to do this,” which is coming from the ego, but truly to move into the akashic field and that spaciousness and co-create the new alternative.

In the same way, this can be done in a situation where there's a lot of human tension, and violence could erupt. If you go in there armored, tense, glaring, you're inviting increased negative tension. If you go in there with an open heart, meeting people's eyes, smiling at them, even as they're glaring at you, and you see their fear, heart open to their fear, holding space to their fear, it helps to defuse the situation.

Now there is no promise that it will completely defuse the situation. But you are doing your part to defuse it, and karmically you're freeing yourself from the situation. If violence arises, you're no longer a part of it.

John: That is helpful. I would like to bring the same question into addictive tendencies. For example, the chocolate, which is also a favorite of mine.

Aaron: It comes back to the basic vipassana practice. One notes the almost lustful energy, “I need that!” Grasping. All the little practices we've done, like “Ah, is that so?” Just relaxing and watching how this pull comes up. Clear comprehension, noting that to follow this tendency is not in accord with my highest purpose: clear comprehension of purpose; clear comprehension of the dharma, seeing how I perpetuate this by the energy that's grasping after it; sila, the strong intention to do no harm to myself and others. So I come back into that spaciousness. And I think that the core of it is, let me phrase this very carefully, you can gradually shift the focus and find more spaciousness with a strong addictive energy through mindfulness, but the karmic tendency is still there. The karmic tendency is only released when you come out of the ego self and rest in that spaciousness of the akashic field, and literally see, “Oh, this is compounded on that, is compounded on that,... (pointing) on that,... on that. Enough!” And there's a certain moment of insight that says, “That is enough. I let it go.” You may have to come to that point a number of times before it truly releases, but each time it releases another layer or two. It becomes less and less sticky. Most of you have experienced this with some strong karmic tendency. For example, you remember,  “I don't need to slap the mosquito.”

John: So as long as long as I am relating to the craving from the place of ego, I understand that initially it's going to keep it going. It's only at the point where I'm able to relate to the craving from my pure mind that I'm able to work with it effectively within the akashic field. Is that right?

Aaron:  Yes, but let me take that one step further. In the beginning, if ego is there, you can't say, “Oh no, I can only work with pure mind.” What invites pure mind is recognition of the ego and the co-existent spaciousness. Relaxing with equanimity into “yes, the karmic pull is so strong, the habit energy is so strong that this is still arising, still triggered by the habit energy.” Ask for help; work with the Four Empowerments practice. Hold the deepest intention in your heart. Open to spaciousness and see the real possibility of the place where that strong habitual pattern is not there. Relaxing into, “Right now I'm still sucked by it,” knowing it simply as arising from conditions, not necessarily an ultimate truth.

We have riptides in the ocean. If you get pulled into a riptide, I'm sure you all know the instruction not to fight it. It will keep pulling you for as long as it keeps pulling you. The ego's reaction is, “Oh no! I'm getting sucked out to sea!” and to try to fight against it until you're exhausted and you drown. But that current is impermanent. Eventually its energy wears out. If you just lie on your back and float and try to swim a bit across the current, into the place where the riptide isn't, eventually you can swim back to shore. These old habitual tendencies are really just riptides.

John: So it may only be riptides, but riptides are powerful. Craving can be powerful. I can see the importance of working with the arising of attachment and aversion, aversions that are not so powerful. Working with them, moment to moment, seeing the absence of the craving and the clinging while still being aware of the craving and the clinging, and therefore effectively working in the akashic field. So when the stronger riptides have the energies arise, I'm better able to work with them.

Aaron: Eventually you see the ongoing “Every time I get in the water, I'm pulled off by a riptide. Why am I swimming in this water here if it's so filled with riptides? ‘There's a reef I want to reach on the other side.' Or,  ‘But this beach has the big waves'—I want this! Ah, but I'm getting sucked out to sea. I'll go swim on the other beach.”

Giving a simple example, Barbara does not allow herself to walk into a chocolate shop! It brings up too much craving. She knows better. It's not a suitable place because that craving has not fully been released. So it's better, if she walks past the chocolate shop and she's looking for something to eat, and sees a place selling vegetable smoothies, fruit smoothies—ah, this is more suitable for my body's needs. I choose this. I do not choose to launch myself into that habitual energy.

You've probably read somewhere of a New Age phrasing called “Law of Attraction.” This is just a more modern phrasing for the laws of karma. If one says, “No, no more chocolate,” or no more this or that, and mind is daydreaming about it all day, you're inviting it to you. It seems every corner you turn there's another chocolate shop, because you have not resolved your relationship with chocolate. If in your workplace you're constantly finding angry and abusive people, you're attracting them to you because your intention is to release the habitual pull-- seeing yourself as abusive in some way, seeing the other as abusive, not knowing how to say no to abuse. At some level you're attracting this energy to you because there's something you seek to learn. You don't want it, but you want to learn even more than you don't want the abusiveness, so you keep attracting it.

What I find beautiful with the akashic field teachings is that instead of having to work through the constant abuse in the workplace or the home or wherever it might be, find some compassion, some equanimity. This can happen in an instant, because one sees the whole, “This person's abusive, that person's abusive,” and gathering this, “I have had enough. I no longer choose this. I enter into the space of light and clarity and love, and I release all of this old karma, all of these old tendencies.” Just letting it go.

I'm not saying it happens instantly. You'll probably have to practice with it several times, and balancing must still happen. But it's nothing like the years of saying no to abuse and wondering, “Why do I keep getting it back?” The akashic field teachings give you practice. The akashic field practice gives you a way to find right there with the abuse, or right there with the lust for chocolate, that which is not contracted. And because the heart is so drawn to it with love, saying, “Ah, this has a sweet fragrance. This is beautiful. I choose this.” and your energy field moves out into that, you immediately see how wholesome and beautiful it is. And eons of old karma can fall away like that.

John: At that point, right there, that you just described, where there is the pull towards what is attractive, pleasant, and at the same time recognizing the akashic field and the spaciousness, clarity, and love within the akashic field, they are side by side, but there's still the habitual tendency to move out into and to grasp hold of what is pleasant at the same time. They're both there.

Aaron: Then not the sweet chocolate but the experience of grasping itself becomes the focus. Is “grasping” seductive even while unpleasant. Who grasps? What keeps this grasping going? Desire for power? For safety seen as attainable through power?

Remember, the akashic field contains everything-- the pleasant and the unpleasant, both light and darkness. The ego cannot use the akashic field to escape unpleasant experience. Rather, the pure awareness mind, the pure heart mind, sees the eons of old suffering and, based on the strong intention to the end of suffering for oneself and all beings, one finally has the freedom to make a different choice. And each time that different choice is made it becomes easier the next time. But it's no longer an, “I'll be deprived if I don't have this.” It's a, “Thank you.” A sense of infinite space and light.

The old ego tendencies fade away slowly. I don't think Barbara told you this. At Stone House retreat, one night she pulled back the covers to climb in bed and there was a spider there, a fairly large spider. “AH!” Your room light was already out. Perhaps it was in the middle of the night and she had gotten up to use the bathroom, and when she came back she found it in her bed. “What am I going to do?!”

She did not want to close her eyes and meditate. She said, “I won't know where it went.” Just sit and look at it and do metta with it. Find the place where the spider isn't. The spider is just being a spider, and it was drawn to this warm dark place. And then she went out in the kitchen and found a suitable container, and scooped it up. She didn't hold it in her hands. She didn't hold it in a container without a lid. But she put it in the container and she carried it outside.

The tendency—seeing the spider, “EEK!”—is still there. But that movement, instead of taking a shoe and swatting the spider, inviting kindness to herself and the spider and the intention to release this habitual aversion to this small creature. Just opening her heart to it and seeing it as another sentient being. Wishing herself and the spider well. Finding that light and clarity. Gradually she was able to move herself into the akashic field, into a place of real openheartedness. And it was the open heart that was able to pick up the spider. There was no flow of, “Ah! This monster!” Just, “Ah.” She was able to look at it in the container. She could not have looked at it in her bare hand or on a piece of paper from which it could fall. But from the safety of the container she could look at it and wish it well and take it outside.

John : So that moment of doing that relating to the spider that way is what releases the karma.

Aaron: That's what releases the karma, and in this situation, having access to the akashic field where she was able to see the thousands of times in thousands of lifetimes where she and karmic ancestors have reacted with malice, fear and separation to some small insect. To know, that's enough. It's time to release this, not just to change the habitual pattern by saying, “Okay this time I will scoop it up and take it out.” But truly to make the shift. To see all the suffering sentient beings all over the world, including this spider and herself. To really open her heart to them. To open into that peace of the akashic field where there's truly no separation.

And at that point, this, we call it the Law of Attraction, shifted. She's not attracting this experience so much  anymore. She attracted the spider to her bed energetically in some way because she needed to practice with it.

(Barbara returns for a 10 min discussion about retreat schedule and continuing or breaking silence, not transcribed)

Q: (smiling) My name is Q and I'm a recovering chocolate addict. I have worked successfully with this addictive tendency, but for me it has involved mindfulness and investigation of mind states, emotions, that underlie and drive craving. So to me the problem is not so much the chocolate or the object of the addiction as the distortion that the emotion will be satisfied, or the emotion will be comforted, soothed, by chocolate. In looking within, often for me it was loneliness, shame, sadness, anger, emotions, that resulted in aversion to the emotion, grasping of the quick fits of pleasure, with chocolate being immediately available and temporarily effective. In working with the true foundation of craving, I was able to stop turning to chocolate, and last night I ate one of those wonderful chocolate cookies very mindfully and was fine with having no more.

I am a bit confused about how the emotions fit into the idea of resolving addictive tendencies in the akashic field.

Barbara: All of the bodies are active in the akashic field: physical, mental, emotional, spirit. The spirit body is not really pulled. If we're in balance spiritually there's nothing sticky. But the physical, mental, and emotional bodies get pulled. When awareness sees that pull, whether it's physical, mental, or emotional, and simply notes it with compassion and the fact, “Here we go again. I do not choose to re-enter this whole stream of suffering,” we step back . And stepping back, we see the vast spaciousness of the akashic field, and we literally see the wholesome flow of events and the emotions such as sadness or fear or whatever triggered the physical craving, we see the place where that emotion is not predominant. Right there with sadness or feeling of unworthiness or whatever it might be is the spaciousness and the spacious heart.

So stepping back, I see how many options are open to me and I've been wearing blinders and just seeing this. Ahhh... Then within the akashic field I find this deeply balanced, openhearted aspect of myself, and I shift the self-identity temporarily. Eventually all self-identity goes, but in the beginning I shift the self-identity from a self that's going that way, feeling the push of these emotions or to get away from these emotions, to a self that knows its ability to rest in spaciousness. That becomes a stepping stone to the release of the whole sense of self, and the emotions go at that point. They don't go instantly and permanently, we keep working with them and they become thinner and thinner, they have less and less holding power.

As they have less holding power, the physical movement that's based on the emotion, the craving or whatever it might be, thins. We keep seeing it get thinner and thinner until finally there's just a vast field of everything. The akashic field holds everything. But we're able to see where we want to go in that ‘everything'.

Aaron says he used an example of a riptide. If the riptide could be dyed red, so from shore you could see it, you'd look at it and say, “No, not going there.” Over here it's blue. But what is in us that's pulled? “Oh, need some excitement, some drama! I'm going this way.”

Are there any specific practice questions?

Q: When we work with non-duality, we see the opposites like anger and non-anger come together like two sides of a coin. When we are the observer watching the non-duality, there is the observer and the observed, which is a duality. And that is vipassana?

Barbara: That's vipassana at one level, though eventually the duality goes. This is why we bring together the vipassana practice and pure awareness practice; this is one place where that duality ends. So first we become grounded in the vipassana practice and learn how practice skillfully with a sense of observer or self. Then we see how trapped we are in the observer or self and release that duality, resting in awareness and spaciousness. So there's a progression.

Q: That was my question. As soon as the self is no longer there, then are we in pure awareness?

Barbara: Yes. But we may not stay there. Maybe the yellowjacket comes back up and lands on our nose. “AH!” Suddenly I'm back to ‘me' observing ‘that', and maybe a strong aversion.

Aaron is the one who gave me the yellowjacket image. He's saying, but at that point, pure awareness can return, just seeing, “Mind is creating separation between me and yellowjacket.” Love chooses spaciousness for all sentient beings here, and skillful action, which might mean stepping back or gently brushing it off my nose? It's not from a place of fear, just, “Time to go.”

Q: Can we enter spaciousness directly through a jhana?

Barbara: Give me a minute for that...(pause) No, we cannot. I'm speaking only from my experience. I am not an authority on jhana. But for me, having attained some stability through 6th and into 7th jhana, my experience is that there is always a subtle contraction holding concentration to maintain the jhana, even in the formless jhanas, so that I cannot completely open to spaciousness and non-duality. I cannot support that through the jhana. There's a thread of contraction that blocks it unless there is total equanimity with the contraction. That takes me back to spaciousness. But I cannot arrive at the equanimity through jhana. Maybe some people can. This is simply my experience. Does that make sense to you?

Q: Yes. The question would be, if we quickly go into jhana, what's the best way to access spaciousness from there?

Barbara: Back up. Note that one has entered jhana and back up into access concentration; spaciousness will be found in the access concentration. We back up simply by noting the move into jhana. In this case, noting it as not a suitable choice, just an old habitual response. Not what is most suitable..

John: The difference between the formless jhana of infinite space and spaciousness of pure awareness, the open heart, I find that the jhana of infinite space is a spaciousness that is like this, that goes on and on and on and on and on infinitely. But there seems to be a limit to the spaciousness, or a difference from that spaciousness to the spaciousness of pure mind, which truly has no boundaries to it.

What Barbara is talking about, in terms of some subtle contraction within the spaciousness of the jhana, is because it's not totally spacious but spacious in this way. That's how I experience the difference between the two.

Barbara: Using this rip-tide image again, if there's rough surf and a riptide pulling out, if I had the ability to put a fully transparent barricade on either side of me, just a narrow channel body-wide, all the way from above the surface down to the bottom, and create a place of stillness, I could swim the rip-tide through that channel. But I must use a certain kind of energy to maintain the barrier. It's just here. So there's an illusion of spaciousness. And it can go for miles; it can go for an eternity.

But pure awareness, because it's our natural state, resting in that spaciousness, there's no effort needed to maintain it. Or let's call it “effortless effort, not from a self, just presence. Suddenly the sea is calm, forever, and we rest in that spaciousness of the innately calm sea. It's not a perfect metaphor because the sea does not always express itself as calmness. But if there was no condition creating turbulence in the water, it would be calm. So we can see that the sea expresses motion and has the quality of fluidity, but it also has the innate core of stillness. The water is still and it only moves when certain conditions arise to cause it to move. So with pure awareness, we're resting in that innate stillness of being.

Q: I'd like a yes or no answer, I think. Can you experience nada and luminosity while moving about in your everyday life?

Barbara: Yes. Not only you can, but hopefully eventually it will be your frequent experience.

Q: I experience nada whenever I turn my awareness to it...

Barbara: That's it: turning the awareness to it. Dark room; now, where is the light? Oh, back there! I forgot that there was a window.

Q: Can I talk and think and plan a menu with nada?

Barbara: The dzogchen teachings are taught at three levels—view, meditation, and action. View is just seeing the space of pure awareness. “Oh, that's it.” Getting a glimpse of what it is. Then the meditation that stabilizes the experience. Once we have some stability in it, not perfect stability but some stability, we take it out into the world. Action.

I want to give one example. I have very loud tinnitus in my ears. I've had it for 40 years. It's part of my deafness. Do you know what tinnitus is? It's a ringing inner-ear sound. It changes. It's not just a quiet tone; it's all kinds of sounds. In some ways this has helped me to hear nada, because I need to pay attention to hear the nada because there's always all this noise.

Okay, please bring your attention back to practice, either sitting here in the meditation or down the beach or wherever it is you want to sit. Have a good morning.

(session ends)

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