Our five- and eight-year-old grandchildren approach the top of the Lake Michigan/ Sleeping Bear Dune
Climb for the second year! Running down is exhilarating; I remember that cooling splash in the lake
from 50 years ago!  Climbing back is exhausting, but what a kick to do it!

Continuing from Floating Nonduality

We began with Karen’s questions drawn from the last session.

Question: Can the “uncreated” manifest itself?

Aaron: I am Aaron. It did not manifest itself but manifested unlimited expressions of itself. 

Once upon a non-time there was energy. It did not begin, it simply was, is and will be because it is infinite and unlimited. It contains the attributes of infinite intelligence, infinite light, infinite love. It contains no self-directed will, it simply is.

Awareness and non-awareness are nondual. One may conjecture that non-awareness was part of the experience of this energy. It opened into the experience of awareness. Its non-awareness rests within its awareness, rests within its non-awareness.  Nondual. When the paper is wrinkled, the perfect, unwrinkled sheet still exists within the wrinkled sheet. (Aaron often used to wrinkle up a sheet of clean paper, toss it out into the room and ask someone to catch and  unfold it, and ask, can we see the perfect paper page, there with the wrinkles?) When non-awareness is predominant, awareness rests within non-awareness. Awareness is!  Awareness became aware of awareness and offered this awareness the tool with which to manifest multitudinous expressions of itself.

Can you see the perfect unwrinkled paper here?

Because it is nondual, everything, change and non-change for example, reside within it.  It manifested infinite expressions of itself. One distorted but useful expression that it manifested is relative reality, the world we see around us. To phrase this another way, what we could, for simplicity’s sake call God, manifested an expression of itself, by which I mean it offered its energy to that particular bias of experience which we label relative reality.  Because That-Which-Is extended all attributes of itself to relative reality, it extended the free will for this relative reality to create itself further. Here is where we move into dependent origination.

Any bias depends for its sense of direction on the distortions of that which chooses to manifest within the bias. Humans have chosen to manifest within the bias of relative reality because it provides them a useful catalyst for expansion. Specifically, it provides them the pathway by which each mind-body-spirit expression may expand into pure-awareness understanding of its true nature and thereby begin to manifest its energy in the same way as did that which we have called God.

Barbara today: joy and sorrow; fear and freedom from fear; the illusion of limitation and freedom from that illusion, while still acknowledging that the human lives mostly within the illusion…

Our son Peter Rothbart, who is a fine musician and songwriter with many albums out there, wrote these words in his song “You Are What You Dream”  (and album of the same name)

You still think of your dreams as separate from yourself
Polished to a sheen up on the shelf
Where you can hide in the tallest weeds
The parts of you that nobody ever sees
But you are what you dream

It’s wonderful what we can learn from our children!!!

Put in different words: from the Broadway show “South Pacific”:

“You’ve got  to have a dream; if you don’t have a dream;
how are you gonna have a dream come true?”

What dreams have I put on the shelf, out of fear of the pain if I cannot manifest them? What are my dreams? I’m 83; my mom lived in good health to 98. No guarantee I will, but I could. But I see myself putting my dreams on a shelf, not believing in myself.

I choose to keep sharing the dharma for many more years
I choose to keep living in this home of 55 years with my beloved Hal.
I choose to continue to be able to care for myself well, to keep walking, swimming, singing (only to myself!)and and growing a garden!
I am what I dream!

I see ways I was shutting down, afraid to invite beautiful possible futures because of a fear of failure and the pain of that failure. But what if??? What if I can live a fulfilling and joyful life for many more years? What if Hal can too. It’s been 8 ½ years since his stroke, when we were told he couldn’t live more than a day or two.  Yet here he is with our son Davy at a Michigan basketball game 6 months ago, possible because he had the courage to dream. Yes, there’s sometimes pain but he loves his life and doesn’t give up.

It’s easy to shut down our dreams, to say “impossible” and not risk anything. One can push too hard too, with grasping. Much as I’d love to ride a horse again, I recognize the dangers to myself and others. I don’t need to do that.

But I’ve also been shutting down mine and Hal’s dreams to stay in this home together for as long as it best supports us both. Rather than saying “we can’t; there’s no money”, with despair,  it’s time to start further exploring & inviting how we can. Hal will be 90 September 13. My gift to us both is “ “We can.” With love and imagination, we can find the money, the caregivers, all that we need.

Remember this mulberry tree and my tiny chainsaw, (that really did cut a lot)?

 

With great thanks to the people who made this possible, here’s that tree now, drying, waiting to be split,  so it can heat our home this winter.

Co-creating this for the highest good.  And what joy it gives me to sit here in my beautiful office, writing these blogs, meeting with students on Zoom, preparing for the fall’s classes.  I’m not done yet!

I’m taking a step, with joy and faith. One challenge this year has been a lack of a service (hearing) dog. My old collie (and my ears), Banner, is almost 11.  He’s slowed down a lot this year, has arthritis and also no longer hears well, although he remains his deeply sweet, loving self. For 8 months I’ve been in touch with Collie rescue organizations  throughout the Midwest/eastern states, looking for a new collie to train as a service dog. It takes a special dog to be trained as a hearing-ear dog, 2 – 4 years old, gentle (and not being rehomed after having been traumatized), intelligent, able to learn commands AND to understand I’m deaf, to think for himself as well as obey….  Of course, the dog will need some professional training too. I’ll find the money for that. Many organizations have been looking for such a dog for me. Now I have heard from Ohio Collie Rescue, and they finally have the right dog (or so they hope). Meet Willow who will come to live with us in mid-August. We have a 2 week trial with her. Who knows what is possible. I’m not grasping (also fear) but dreaming that Hal, Willow (and Banner and Joey) and I will live here for many more years! Please dream with us: imagine, envision, and help us co-create this life we’ll share together.

What we know: Willow is a beautiful 4-year-old tri‑colored rough Collie with a soft, loving nature and an easygoing spirit. She’s being rehomed as her owner has been moved into hospice care. Willow can be a bit hesitant when meeting new people, but she warms up quickly and soon shows her affectionate, gentle personality. She gets along wonderfully with other dogs, is comfortable with cats, and absolutely adores children. Willow is fully housetrained and can be trusted in the home outside of her crate. She currently lives as a kennel dog but transitions well into a home environment. She travels nicely in the car, and she handles new experiences with calm curiosity. She knows several basic commands — off, down, stay, and stand. Her laid‑back temperament makes her a joy to work with, and she’s eager to please. At her core, Willow is extremely loving, steady, and gentle. She would make a wonderful companion for families of any age — from young children to older adults. Her calm presence and warm heart make her the kind of Collie who fits beautifully into almost any home.