Spring Washam, Meditation and Dharma Teacher
Spring Washam, a meditation and dharma teacher, shares her journey from depression to founding the East Bay Meditation Center for diverse communities. She also discusses her controversial work with ayahuasca, viewing it as an accelerator for healing and self-discovery.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
Introduction to Spring Washam and Her Background
Spring's Early Struggles with Depression and Self-Help
The Life-Changing 10-Day Meditation Retreat
Defining 'Awakened State' and Skepticism
Founding the East Bay Meditation Center
Addressing Diversity in the Meditation Community
Humor and Perspective on Personal Criticism
Spring's Journey to Ayahuasca and Plant Medicines
Ayahuasca as a Healing and Truth-Revealing Medicine
Leading Ayahuasca Retreats and Navigating Controversy
4 Key Concepts
Awakened State
This refers to a state of moment-to-moment awareness where an individual is not identified with the 'psychopath in their head' or the 'insane part of our mind.' Living from this state leads to more freedom, happiness, love, compassion, and altruism.
La Purgea
This is a nickname for ayahuasca, referring to its purging effect. It is believed to remove toxins from the body and negative energy, especially during the reliving of traumatic memories, helping to 'get it out of you'.
Shamanism
This describes a different level of consciousness or state of reality, distinct from our normal state of mind. In this realm, plant spirits like ayahuasca are perceived as 'living doctors' used for healing, understanding, and divination by indigenous communities.
Ayahuasca as an Accelerator
Ayahuasca is described as something that can accelerate one's path towards understanding and removing blocks that are not being seen. However, it cannot liberate or enlighten a person, as true liberation requires individual choice and effort.
8 Questions Answered
Spring started meditating around age 23 due to suffering and depression, initially studying psychology and self-help. Her path significantly shifted after attending a life-changing 10-day retreat that provided direct instruction on being present.
While traditions like Self-Realization Fellowship focused on love and God, Spring found they lacked direct instruction on how to work directly with the mind and cultivate moment-to-moment awareness and mindfulness, which she later found at her first retreat.
EBMC is a meditation center founded by Spring Washam in downtown Oakland, aimed at serving the local community. It offers teachings applied to real-life struggles such as heartbreak, terror, depression, and trauma, rather than lofty philosophical concepts.
Both Spring and Dan agree that diversity is significantly lacking in the meditation world, with traditional centers historically having less representation and broader cultural portrayals often showing a narrow demographic. While efforts are being made, it remains a painful and complex issue.
An awakened being, according to Spring, is someone who doesn't lose track of an awakened state and is not identified with the 'psychopath in their head.' They live from a state of moment-to-moment awareness, leading to more freedom, happiness, and compassion.
Despite accumulating at least 2.5 years of silent retreat time and engaging in various therapies, Spring still experienced deep-seated suffering and trauma that traditional methods couldn't fully address. Ayahuasca helped her confront and remove these deeper 'demons' and 'residue' that had emerged.
Indigenous communities view ayahuasca as a 'living doctor' or sacred medicine, used for healing physical and emotional illnesses, understanding divinations, and gaining insight into the root of problems. It is often referred to as a feminine, grandmother spirit.
Spring Washam believes ayahuasca is an 'accelerator' that can help remove blocks and show many things, but it cannot liberate or enlighten a person. True liberation, she states, requires individual choice and effort.
13 Actionable Insights
1. Work Directly With Your Mind
When experiencing mental distress or suffering, recognize the need to directly engage with and understand your mind, rather than just accepting its state. This realization led Spring to study psychology and seek self-help.
2. Cultivate Moment-to-Moment Awareness
Engage in practices that teach you to live in the present moment and develop moment-to-moment awareness and mindfulness. This approach helps calm the mind and can lead to “awakening experiences” and increased happiness.
3. Seek Guided Meditation Instruction
When learning meditation, seek out teachers and structured instruction rather than attempting to meditate for long periods without guidance. Clear instructions, like “follow your breath,” are crucial for effectively calming the mind.
4. Practice Breath & Walking Meditation
Actively follow your breath and engage in walking meditation for extended periods. These practices can help quiet the mind, leading to peaceful states and emotional release.
5. Engage in Loving Kindness Meditation
Practice loving kindness (Metta) meditation, even if it initially feels “syrupy” or annoying, as it can be very effective for cultivating positive emotional states and well-being.
6. Address Deep-Seated Trauma
Recognize that after addressing initial, more obvious levels of suffering, deeper, habitual ways of thinking, belief systems, and unresolved trauma may emerge. Be prepared to continue working with these “demons that are really dug in.”
7. Ayahuasca for Deep-Seated Blocks
For individuals who have exhausted traditional therapies and meditation for deep, persistent trauma or suffering, consider Ayahuasca as an “accelerator” to remove unseen blocks and process difficult energies. This practice is controversial, not for everyone, and should be approached with respect for its healing potential, not as a party drug.
8. Build Inclusive Meditation Communities
To foster diverse meditation communities, open doors to all without heavy advertising and offer teachings directly relevant to the community’s real-life experiences, such as heartbreak, trauma, and violence. People need to see themselves mirrored in the teachers and teachings.
9. Mindful Language in Teaching
As a teacher, be highly aware of how language and framing create inclusion or exclusion within a community. Tailor teachings to resonate with the specific experiences and references of the audience.
10. Embrace Humor in Practice
Cultivate a sense of humor about the meditation community and the spiritual path itself. This can help prevent taking oneself or the practice too seriously, and allows for self-reflection on projections.
11. Don’t Take Criticism Personally
Practice not taking criticism or negative descriptions personally, recognizing that sometimes it represents an archetype or a projection rather than a direct attack on your individual self. Meditation can help with this detachment.
12. Trust Difficult Experiences
Cultivate faith that even challenging or difficult experiences, like a “dark night of the soul,” are ultimately supportive for personal growth and evolution.
13. Support the Podcast
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6 Key Quotes
I will follow these teachings until the very end.
Spring Washam
It's hard to – once you wake up to this thunderous truism that you're happier when you're aware of what's happening as opposed to the lost and delusion and rumination and rejection, it's hard to turn back.
Dan Harris
When I say someone is awakened, okay, let me just clarify that. I mean someone who doesn't lose track of that awakened state, someone who's not identified with the psychopath in their head.
Spring Washam
There is a total craziness in our minds. That's no doubt about it.
Spring Washam
It's a grandmother spirit, not gentle at times. We're talking Quan Yin and Kali mixed.
Spring Washam
It's an accelerator. I would for sure say it's an accelerator. It cannot liberate you because only you can do that.
Spring Washam