Introduction

This is not a book so much as an invitation. Of course you're welcome to just sit down and read, but our hope is that you'll combine that reading with regular meditation and practice with the suggested exercises, so the understanding you may have from these words becomes experiential. It's very powerful material when met in that way!

There are many forms of meditation. That taught by Aaron is Vipassana or Insight Meditation. Unlike those meditation practices which foster one-focused concentration and encourage us to rest in the bliss of that deep concentration, Vipassana asks us to stay in this moment with a natural concentration that is as fully present as is possible with whatever is predominant in our experience in this moment. We learn to be more fully present in our meditation, in our lives, and without judgment but with an open heart which greets our life with a choiceless awareness. We learn that we are part of what we experience, not mere observer of it. We learn that we 'inter-are" with all that is, and in that learning, the illusion of our separation falls away.

Insight Meditation instructions are available in Appendix B. For those who want to pursue it further, many good books are available, and there are teachers throughout the country who offer instruction and meditation retreats. Reading about it won't teach you what practice will, so I encourage you to read the basics, and then just leap in and meditate. If you have specific meditation questions, please feel free to write and I'll do my best to answer.

These transcripts have grown out of Aaron's talks to the weekly study group. This group has been meeting with Aaron and Barbara for three years. Some of the group members have been involved for all three years; others have moved away or new people have joined. There were nine people in the class the semester of this present work.

Through these years we have pursued many areas of spiritual inquiry with Aaron. Transcripts are available for many of the sessions. In 1991 and 1992 his teaching was focused on deepening our meditation practices. Much of our work with Aaron has basis in Buddhist teachings, for example the practice of Vipassana meditation. The teachings in this book also stem from Buddhism. I want to emphasize that Aaron does not choose to identify himself as a follower of any one religion, but finds truth in all paths. These are not teachings of Buddhism, then, so much as ways of non-duality and non-delusion derived in part from the life and teachings of the Buddha.

There is an often told story of the Buddha. He was walking down a road after his enlightenment when a man stopped him, being struck by the deep peace and joy that radiated from him. 'Are you a God?" the man inquired. 'No," the Buddha replied. 'Well, what are you?" the man asked. 'I am awake!" came the answer. The teachings in No Chain at All are not offered to make us Buddhists or followers of any religion so much as to help us awaken.

Regardless of what spiritual path or religion we follow, there are certain basics which apply for all of us as we move through incarnation. As we come into form, we all experience at least some sense of fragmentation and separation, and perceive our world with some degree of duality. That illusion of fragmentation and duality originated with our birth, or even before, in the fetal stage or in past lives.

The first illusion of being alone, unsafe, and not affirmed in our being may have left us with deep pain. The baby pushed the pain aside and acted in ways that seemed appropriate to feel safe, denying its own truths where necessary to find the safety and comfort it thought it needed. Each time it acted in this way, it further buried truth. We can not fault the child, nor the circumstances. Taking birth into the illusion of self, we act as best we can to preserve ourselves and have our needs met. Often new layers of pain at feeling abandoned or moving into the illusion of unworthiness grew out of situations such as an ill parent, or even one taking a vacation, and were not offered as abuse. It is not what happened but how it was interpreted that deepens the illusion, 'separate, unsafe, unworthy."

Some of us have different issues that also grew out of the same illusion, fears that our needs wouldn't be met, leading to clinging and jealousy, for example.

We may have repeated those early separation experiences often in our young lives, through childhood abandonment, or just through the temporary departure of the caregiver. The reality of the situation ceases to be primary. We react, not to the parent who leaves us for three days to give birth to another child, but to the deeper fear of the unresolved primary separation. We all experienced the relative plane reality of separation at birth, and we all experienced that sense of separation when the original 'spark" (to use Aaron's term) first experienced awareness and moved into the illusion of separation from God, by whatever label we call that 'Unborn, Undying, Unchanging, Uncreated." These are the deep places of pain that provide fuel for the current conflagration.

This often situation-inappropriate reaction is clearly not reaction to the present circumstance but to what we call 'old mind." Such movement out of the present and into our past experiences, and the pain around those experiences, is what provokes most of our present rage, terror, jealousy and other heavy emotions.

We are all on a path to coming to know our true selves and our interconnection with all that is. The catalysts described above are not burdens we've been asked to carry, but are the core of the lessons of the incarnation. Most of us try not to hurt others. We also seek the cessation of our own suffering, the healing for which we took birth. And yet we do react to our thoughts and emotions, and thereby cause pain to ourselves, to others, to the earth. As we mature and aspire more to harmlessness, we begin to look at how the illusion of our separation has been the fuel which constantly feeds our fears and reactivity.

Where is wholeness to be found? It is never found in denial of the ways we've needed to hide from our pain, but it also is not found in brutal uncovering of our pain through the ripping away of our armor. Rather, it's a gentle process of moving increasingly into this moment and learning to be courageously present with what we find there.

There are many ways to learn to be present, many ways to explore old mind and see that what we thought happened is not the way it seemed. We look at a moment of felt rejection, for example, and at our response of 'unworthy" or of anger at the other for rejecting us. When we look in this moment, we see that there is no rejection, just someone else feeling pain who can't give us what we want. We may then begin to see how we jumped to that conclusion, how it was conditioned by prior misunderstandings. We begin to know that there has never been acceptance or rejection, worthiness or unworthiness, for example, nor good or bad, right or wrong. These dualities were all born of our illusions and fears. They are the products of conditioned old-mind fear.

Work may be done on many levels-body, mind and spirit. The path that Aaron has chosen to lead us in the following transcripts is a very ancient one, a path of meditation and deep awareness. As you read and work with the following transcripts please be aware that they aren't offered as the path, but as a path, a very viable one. On this path, we first use mind as tool to deepen wisdom and compassion, and then these qualities become tools to cut through the illusions which have caused us such suffering.

In September, 1992, the study group began to work much more intensively with karma and with watching the arising of fear and the ensuing reactivity to fear. Aaron's focus was on experiential, not intellectual understanding. We closely observed the habitual and ownership characteristics of karma in our lives. We learned to consciously identify the active moment, when there was shift from neutral response to whatever arose in our awareness, to positive or negative feeling, or when there was consciousness of resting in neutral. We watched the arising of fear and the arising of reactivity to fear as two separate phenomena. We worked with fear in what Aaron calls 'lucid dreaming." In lucid dreaming, one knows one is dreaming while still within the dream. Here he asked us especially to be aware of the arising of fear in dreams-as we dream and experience fear, to move to a state of awareness so as to know, 'This is a dream." Knowing the physical body is safe, we may re-enter the dream and practice non-reactivity to fear, in Aaron's words, 'sending love to fear."

In January, 1993, we began a deeper study of a teaching called Dependent Origination, or Paticca Samupadda, derived largely from a Buddhist scripture called the Maha Nidana Sutta (A sutta (in Sanskrit, sutra) is a Buddhist scripture). This was not an intellectual study. Aaron's focus was to introduce these teachings as they apply to our lives.

We offer the transcripts for any who wish to follow our sessions. They are not modified and 'prettied up" to make a neat book, but offered intact. The order of the transcripts has not been changed. There are times when Aaron repeated himself from week to week, to strengthen our understanding. Even those repetitions have been left intact! I trust they will serve you as they served the class. The only changes have been to correct typographical or occasional grammatical errors for clarity. Those sessions which did not deal with dependent origination are deleted to save space, as are any discussions of a highly personal nature. The remainder is as Aaron presented it.

As you read these notes, it is our hope that you'll join us not only to seek intellectual understanding, but will read slowly, meditate, and live the material, experiencing the ways it moves through your own life. Please join us in the exercises or homework at the end of each class. For those of you to whom this is all new, Aaron has added some exercises which are a little more introductory in nature to the homework of the transcripts. These are written in italics. Aaron doesn't mention work with the energy body here, but most of us also worked in these ways, opening the chakras and balancing the body's energy, as we went along.

When you begin on the January 14 transcript, you may find new terminology. Be patient with yourselves; it will all unfold and be explained through the following weeks. At first glance some of the material may seem technical or unrelated to life. Again, please be patient. If the first two transcripts feel heavy with new words, just read through them, go on, and come back to them later for more detail as it's useful. Aaron's approach has been to offer us the tools we need first, including a vocabulary. I have known of NOTHING more directly related to our lives than are these teachings. Give yourself time to become acquainted. If you're new to this, a review of karma and meditation instructions in the Appendix may be of help.

You will notice occasional boldface type. This has been done at Aaron's request, for emphasis.

It is my understanding from Aaron that he intends this as part one of a two volume series. We are presently at work on part two.

As you read the notes of our sessions, please begin each session, or reading period, as we did, with some time of silent meditation and the inner affirmation that the work we do is for the alleviation of suffering of all beings, and not merely for ourselves.

Barbara Brodsky