December 8, 2014, Seattle closing talk; Aaron's love of the Dharma

December 8, 2014 Monday, Seattle Retreat

(This talk not yet reviewed by Barbara and Aaron)

Title: Closing Words, Seattle Retreat

Cat: (none)

Key: triple gem

Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron. Dharma basically means knowing things as they are. Things are not always the way you want them to be. When we allow things to reveal themselves as they are, we begin to see how literally everything arises out of conditions and passes away, and we stop taking our lives, and the objects that come up in our lives, so personally. Some things are pleasant, some are unpleasant, but we don't build so many stories around them. Then there's far less suffering.

This dharma is precious. People think of it as "buddha dharma," but the dharma existed long before the Buddha. Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, uncovered it, revealed it, and brought it out into the world.

We talk about the conditioned; these beautiful roses. They grew because there was fertile soil and a rose bush. There was sun, there was water, there was everything they needed to survive, so they flourished. If any of those conditions had not been present, the roses would not have thrived. We'd have blighted brown roses on the table instead of beautiful, alive roses.

When anger, fear, and other challenging emotion arises in you, it arises out of conditions. You don't look at the roses and say, "Oh, they are there because I'm a good person." The roses are simply there because certain conditions were present. They grew. Somebody bought them, brought them here and put them on the table. Thank you!

They grew because a gardener grew them. They grew in a multitude of ways;  the flowers on that table, the same thing. All of those flowers, the beautiful bouquets of flowers, they grew out of conditions, and out of somebody's love, who said, "I will bring them to the retreat." And then here they are, filling your room with their fragrance, color and beauty. But it doesn't make you good people that you have flowers brought to you. There's joy–thank you for the flowers, appreciation for the flowers, but you don't self-identify with it.

Negative thought may arise in you, and all of you as humans have so much tendency to become self-identified with the negative emotions and how to fix them. "I shouldn't have this anger or fear," or other kind of thought. But if the conditions are present, they will arise.

Through your practice, watching how objects arise into your experience out of conditions and then pass away, you finally start to trust this truth: it's all simply arising out of conditions and passing away. If I want more of this loveliness to arise, then I need to work to support the conditions for loveliness. If I want less of this negativity and pain to arise, then I have to work to release the conditions out of which it comes, which are all the old stories, the fear, basically the whole karmic patterning of most humans, which can be released.

Paraphrased from the Buddha: Abandon the unwholesome. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. If such abandonment led to suffering, I would not ask you to abandon the unwholesome. But such abandonment leads to happiness, so I ask you, abandon the unwholesome. Cultivate the wholesome. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. If such cultivation led to suffering, I would not ask you to do it. But the cultivation leads to good, to joy and happiness for all beings. Cultivate the wholesome.

This is the heart of dharma, and gaining the insight through the tool of your practice into what conditions do support the wholesome and what conditions lead to the release of the unwholesome. You simply watch this in your lives, and out of your strong commitment to live your lives with more love, you begin to find ways in which youcan abandon the unwholesome and are able to cultivate the wholesome. Then there's more happiness; then there's more peace.

It's as simple as that. What I love about this dharma is there's nothing to believe in, no rituals, no rules;  simply look within your own experience and see how things are. What brings happiness? What creates more unhappiness and friction? What am I doing to maintain that friction, and in what ways can I step back from it? What am I doing or choosing not to do to create more harmony and love? How can I invite that more? What fears prevent me from offering that invitation? We just keep watching, using ourselves; each of you using yourself as the ground for investigation. Insight arises, and the courage to live consistent with your choices.

I cherish this dharma. I'm very grateful for the tool of vipassana, which helps us live the dharma, and also the other practices we do, like pure awareness meditation; working with heart-centered practices, the Braham Vaharas, cultivating the loving heart. I love the practices we do with the akashic field, beginning to see how we bring things into manifestation, and that we do have a choice. Nothing is ever just dropped on us. We have a choice.

I am deeply grateful to the sangha that has gathered around me and Barbara in Ann Arbor and throughout the world, really, that is so deeply committed to cultivating the wholesome, releasing the unwholesome, living your lives with loving compassion and wisdom. I'm grateful to all of you and your commitment to this, and I love you all.

That's all I need to say.

(session ends)