A Year with Fred by Gavin Sneddon It’s been about a year since I signed up for Fred’s Continuing Student Program, following an awakening session and two clarity sessions. Filled with quirky experiments in self-reflection, the awakening session was not what I expected (it never is, apparently). No sudden immersion into a headless way. […]
A few months ago, a former student of mine from Howard Community College enrolled in a Johns Hopkins research study called “Psilocybin for Major Depressive Disorder.” This study is evaluating the antidepressant and psychological effects of psilocybin in people ages 21 through 75 who have unipolar depression, including treatment-resistant depression. Robert is 23 […]
This article was originally published in January of 2018. I thought it dovetailed nicely with Fred’s recent video, Living with Illness and Injury. Surrender to What Is! ❤️ Kathleen This world can be a hard place to live. Fortunately, I can slip into paradise at any moment, which certainly lightens the load. Before I discovered […]
Living in the now, there is no need for patience. Now is like a bridge over the river of events. We stand on the bridge and watch the events flow by. We see future events coming, the past events behind us. Mesmerized by their flow, we think that we are moving, that time is moving, […]
For our practice for August, Joyce and I took on a simple suggestion of Fred’s: Observe the character; be the witness. I am the Seer, Kathleen is the seen. I began thinking of myself in the third person: Now she’s in the grocery store, now paying, now driving home. Now taking a walk. Now she’s […]
Intention is everything. The most important prayer you can utter is, “Help me to see!” I remember Jesus advocating this in A Course in Miracles. It stuck, and has been a constant prayer for me ever since. You cannot do this. You cannot awaken. It can only awaken to Itself. Personally, I am thankful this […]
It’s now been just on five years that I’ve been hanging out with Fred, and, oh, what a five years they’ve been! As time passes and grounding in Awakeness broadens, I count my life as blessed beyond my wildest imaginings. If life is happy to continue to play over here, I count myself lucky to […]
This was Terry’s note to the ACN Continuing Students Forum this morning. The biggest change I notice this past year since meeting Fred for the first time… is that…whilst suffering definitely still arises in the form of old patterns…often with far more intensity than I remember before … the things that … I thought … […]
In Buddhism, the spiritual and material realms are commonly referred to as the absolute and the relative, respectively. The relative is form. It is what is perceived through our senses. It is the world of thought, feeling, differentiation, and consciousness. It is the world of objects. It is the world of duality: you and me, […]
Some years ago I spent a year with a Buddhist sect in Johannesburg. I would meet with them once a week for meditation, and followed their directive to meditate twice daily for 30 minute sessions. The promise (the carrot!) was that after three months of following the sect’s directives, someone from the main group (from […]
Today I let that which follows, follow, having noticed the suffering that comes from imagining that the “I” leads, decides and is responsible. A Course in Miracles teaches, “I will step back and let Him lead the way,” and “I merely follow, for I would not lead.” These resonate more deeply now than when I […]
Fred woke me up a few years ago. Had I been dreaming peacefully, I would have been annoyed. But as it was, I was very glad to awaken from the fitful, troubled sleep I was having. Fred said, “Wake up. You’re having a nightmare!” Thank you, Fred. I’ve nodded off routinely since that initial awakening, […]
This is a collection of the last four posts Julee Bergstrom has posted on the regular-students-only Living Method Forum. Julee has found clarity over the last few years, and has a natural gift for excellent writing. Julee is a member of the Continuing Students Program. She lives in England and contributes to ACN on a […]
Hi Fred – I wanted to send you my regards. Thank you so much for the satsang on 11/19 (I’m a little behind). It included Joel, Andrew, Vince, and Amber. I loved her “Friends” story — how she absurdly watched the TV show “Friends” because a therapist said she needed to learn how to experience emotion. I heard her saying that on […]
Are you a finger (body/mind), or are you the hand (oneness)? Why not both? Do distinctions have any inherent reality to them beyond just perspective? Thanks to Lucas!
Julee posted this article in the private forum chiefly reserved for members of the Continuing Student Program. I liked it so much that I wanted it to have a broader audience. I noticed recently that I no longer had any internal feedback going on about feeling ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Wonderful or uncomfortable. There is just […]
We’ve all heard the term “the extraordinary ordinary,” used to describe the ordinary waking state experienced by awakened mind. Before even experiencing this personally, we can comprehend it as a pointer. We know that everyday reality is quite strange. After all, where did all this “stuff” come from? Who or what am “I”? After awakening, […]
Each of us is a particular focal point of unity consciousness. The focus is so acute that I, as Oneness, have forgotten how vast I really am, and I experience myself as a separate human being, delineated by the contours of the body. We experience a similar phenomenon within the dream when we focus […]
My friend Kelly brought this quote to my attention, and also provided the commentary above and below it. I’m a Thomas Merton fan from way back. Kelly is a member of the Continuing Students Program and lives in Switzerland. There’s a famous passage from Thomas Merton where he describes being struck, on a busy […]