April Satsang Gems (from our weekly online Sunday meetings)

• The fundamental problem in spirituality today is that we are taught to be awake or we are told that we are not awake. Neither of these are true. We are Awakeness.
• Act as if you have free will, but recognize that you do not. Who could have free will if there is no one here in the first place?
• Question everything. Then question who is it that is questioning everything.
• Concepts are born to embroider a tale of a personal me.
• Simply notice: this is happening and I am watching. You will be unable to find an “I”. The watching is from whatever place is prior to consciousness.
• First there is waking up to the dream, and then there is waking up from the dream.
• The way to come to see the truth is to pause – to be still and know that I am God. The cessation of seeking is the onset of awakening.
• Sometimes a spiritual experience accompanies a clear moment. The true gauge of clarity is how often you know who you are right now, and whether the perspective is from the character or as the absolute. When I change where I am looking from, that changes what I am looking at.
• Humans cannot tell the difference between a blessing and a curse because they are one and the same: the curse has a blessing built in. The funny thing is, I’m okay in either case.
• If you don’t know who you are, there is a belief in self-autonomy, self-control and resistance. But there is no one there to be autonomous, to have control, to resist or to surrender.
• Practice social distancing from your thoughts.
• Notice that the craving arises and falls. Ask yourself, who is it who wants to eat? Who is it who is craving food? Who is judging? If there is judgment, then accept that, too.
• Experientially, which feels more true: the sense of being or the feeling of I am? It appears that the “I am” is resting within the sense of being. “I am” implies its opposite, “I am not.” What you are is prior to opposites. If it’s got an opposite, it is not true.
• Prior to birth is emptiness, the void, in which there is no you to witness. There is no witnesser, no witnessed and no witnessing. There are two levels of emptiness. The first level is voidness. The second level is dependent origination: nothing exists on its own. There are not two; everything is dependent upon the oneness. All objects are empty. Each object is void of self and void of other.
• Brahman is not the truest state. Brahman is the I Am, Brahman is this world. Parabrahman is this indescribable highest state, not of the world, prior to I Am, beyond being an entity or non-entity. There is no experience within the void. In the absence of language, there is still experiencing. In the void there is no knowing itself or not knowing itself.

All quotes from Fred Davis.
Thanks to Gordon for collecting,
Kathleen for editing.

Come join us for satsang.  Now held Wednesdays as well as Sundays. All are welcome!