This is the Deep Spring Center Correspond page. An email link on this page can be used to correspond with Barbara and Aaron.

Barbara and Aaron’s comments to inquiries of a general interest will be posted, when possible, to the Talking with Friends section on this page.

Aaron has said the following with regard to the types of questions that he speaks to:

My greetings and love to you. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to so many of you … no two of you are identical in your paths and your needs. Yet certain questions and issues do recur frequently. As is familiar to those of you who know me, my first choice of subject is not the myriad metaphysical questions of the curious seeker, but the basic issues that relate to living this incarnation with greater love, faith and wisdom. There is nothing wrong with those metaphysical questions. I respect your curiosity and there are many fascinating areas to probe. But many of you move off on such intellectual sidetracks and neglect the main focus of the incarnation, or perhaps choose to escape that focus because it has been painful. You are here in human incarnation, not to deny the incarnation but to embrace it. How do you learn to love this imperfect body, and the emotions and thoughts which are often uncomfortable? How do you open the heart that has been closed? How do you move in the direction of deepening compassion for all that you are and hence to unconditional love and non-judgment of others? With apologies to those who are dissatisfied, these are the questions on which I choose to focus in these pages.

As you read my words, please remember that I am not omniscient. I do not claim my teaching to be Truth with a capital T but only to be truth as I understand it. If it rings true to you and helps you gain understanding, use it. If not, throw it away. I thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts. My love to each of you as we walk this path together.

Aaron

Please click here for an email link to correspond with Barbara and Aaron.

Talking with Friends

Going it Alone

Dear Barbara and Aaron,

I have been driven for some time now to seek the Truth. I know there are many paths and I have tried many of them from yoga, Buddhism, Christianity and have apparently not found my way yet. I enjoy my yoga practice and meditation but there are also different paths within each of those. I was raised a Christian but know that that is not the only way as I believe God is not secular. It has been difficult on top of everything (independent study, reading, trying to practice, etc.) because I do not live in a community of like minded people. I am just plain confused and unable to commit to one way. I know all of our purposes are to become more aware and compassionate toward others and ourselves. Is this our only purpose? I need another human to communicate with about this stuff of life and death. I feel like I am on a mission but don’t know what it is and where I am going and have been trying to find it through these different practices but no light bulbs have gone off. Can you help me to see the light and find my way?

Love, Sue

Dear Sue,

I hear your confusion. I don’t think confusion is a bad thing at all; it shows us that we’re awakening, coming to see that there’s far more than we dreamed to this experience we call life. We may continue to be confused, but e don’t have to relate to that confusion as our identity. Beyond the confusion, as yet beyond your conscious awareness, is an aspect of being which is NOT confused. As you pointed out, there are many paths to that not-confused, but first we need to know where we’re going. Most of us don’t realize we’re looking for something that exists already, inside of us, this not-confused, so we look all over the world, try different practices, try to fix this and that in ourselves. It doesn’t work.

Meditation is the only doorway I know to this already awake in ourselves. But not just any form of meditation. We don’t want to practice preference in meditation, i.e., liking this state and wanting to hold on to it; disliking that state and wanting to push it away. We’ll never develop real wisdom that way. So the meditation that can help us most is pure presence. It goes by many names. In Buddhism it’s called vipassana (meaning deeper seeing). Mindfulness meditation is another name.

Why not try sitting in meditation with “confused.” Just know the direct experience of confusion in mind and body. If it’s unpleasant, know it’s unpleasant. If there’s a craving to escape it, know the craving as craving. Don’t try to fix anything, just see what’s there and what are the habitual reactions to these experiences. Then wisdom can develop. For instance, if you stick your hand in a hole and get burned, you may stick it in again thinking the fire had gone out. But if you look and see the hand is touching a hot coal, no one has to tell you to drop it. In the same way, when we see the effect of grasping and aversion, we naturally develop wisdom and let go.

Meditation and spirituality is NOT to create some special mind or body state. We can’t stay there. So the first step is just to become more present in our experience and see what’s what. Try it and let me know what happens. There are some good instructions for this meditation on the web site.

With love, Barbara

The questions and answers that follow are from the book Aaron.

Question: Are you real?

Aaron: I am as real as you are. And NO, I am not “dead,” thank you! I simply exist on a different plane. You are made of light and substance; I am only made of light. When you move beyond the substance of your human form, then you also will be only light, until your next human incarnation. You call this death. I call it just a step in the process of our evolution to maturity.

Q: Can you talk directly to God?

A: We can all talk directly to God. Do you think He hears you less because your human form fogs your clear perception of Him?

Q: Do you feel pain where you are?

A: I feel no physical pain; I have no body to ache. I do feel pain at times, but do not personalize it as you do. Instead, I allow it to flow through me, as part of the energy of the universe. I feel the pain of all beings who suffer, and send them love.

Q: All religious systems claim to be truth. How do we tell which is really truth?

A: There is a Buddhist teaching that one must not mistake the finger pointing to the moon for the moon itself. All religious systems of thought are fingers pointing to the moon. The Dharma is not the Truth; the Bible is not the Truth; the Koran is not the Truth. To bow, chant, bind one’s head and arm or face east in prayer are not Truth. They are all fingers pointing to the moon.

As you regard these “fingers,” these paths, one will speak to your heart. It will call you to focus your attention in such a way that you finally begin to look beyond the finger and clearly see That to which it points. Then you will have found Truth. You will continue to have deep love and respect for the religious path that allowed you to see Truth, but you will know the difference between the path and the destination.

Q: Sometimes I feel a push to work on spiritual things; other times I feel lazy. Does it matter?

A: You are always working on “spiritual things.” Each moment of your life, each thought, feeling, or event, is part of your path and planned to teach you. You have free will, and you decide whether or not you will utilize these opportunities to learn what you came to learn.

There is no time schedule here; you have all the time you need. But you must recognize that each moment is precious. There is only one “now.” Learn what you can in this moment and you will be a wiser and more compassionate person in the next “now.”

Copyright © 2000 by Barbara Brodsky