PRIME POST: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Surrender

Wee Willy Hackett-Davis surrendering to This As It Is

The Innocent Beginning

The few hundred of you who regularly follow my videos already know that two or three weeks ago I cut a video called “Surrendering to the Unit”. Had I been actively trying to draw a crowd, I would have labeled it something along the lines of “Conquering the Unit” or “Beating Down the Ego,” and it would have gotten a whole lot more views than it has. Nonetheless, surrender initially proved itself to be such an overwhelmingly successful strategy, and is now such a rewarding lifestyle for me, that I went ahead and used the dreaded “S” word anyway. You’ll notice I’ve used it again here, which surely dooms this post to be less popular than I could arrange for with more seductive language, but sometimes you just have to say what you need to say, and popularity be damned.

Yes, I publicly plead guilty to the charge of going along with God. I’ve found life too painful when I don’t. I have also discovered that what happens on this planet does not have to have been weighed and calculated in my head first. Ever since I gave God her job back, I have seen that, as incredible as it may seem to a big shot like me, the universe is apparently on its own path and its own timetable, so I might as well fall in line before I’m forced to fall in line. It’s kind of a “You can’t fire me, I quit” sort of thing.

I was not nearly so flexible for most of my life and I suffered accordingly. Yet even a blind squirrel can find a nut from time to time, and this blind squirrel stumbled upon the luscious nut of surrender quite a few years ago.

What I want really want to share with you today is what has happened in the wake of that little video. But first here’s a quick recap of what I talked about in that 7 minutes:

1. Everyone around me has long been indicating that I’ve been working way too much (80+ hours a week), and I had reached the same conclusion many, many times. (I know it’s hard to think about spiritual teaching as “work,” and yes, it’s a great joy and an honor, but it can still–upon reflection–look and feel a whole lot like something that closely resembles work!)
2. Every time I made the decision to cut my hours, especially cutting the number of my Awakening Sessions, which really take an energy toll, I noticed that my decision didn’t stick. I slid right back into the same work pattern almost immediately.
3. Since I’d seen this pointless pattern form and reform so many times without change occurring, I decided that apparently I was supposed to be working as much as I was working. There was no point in bitching and moaning about it. By unconsciously resisting Reality As It Is, I ended up working the same amount anyway, but I also had to endure my handy victim story that I “shouldn’t be” working so much, and thus suffer. If IT wanted to work this unit to death and then go get another, well then, damn it…okay. Why suffer when I can cooperate with the inevitable?
4. So, in the face of a unit that wouldn’t quit doing what it was doing, I gave up on trying to work less, and I willingly submitted to working long, late hours for as long as I did. End of victim story.

If you’re wondering who the “I” was that gave up its struggle, it was nobody. Struggling simply ceased. In order to talk about it, however, we could say that it was one impersonal metapattern (Fredness) surrendering to another metapattern (apparent manifestation). Fredness permeates this unit through and through in much the same way that the Sense of Being permeates universes and dimensions.

And Here’s What Happened

In the evening of the same day that I cut that video, I discovered that I was sitting in my favorite chair in the living room reading a book. That’s something I used to do one or more times a day, every day, without fail. Yet it was the first time I had done such a thing in several weeks, I am sure. I was mightily surprised, but my surprise quickly gave way to delight. I didn’t pay much attention to it.

The following morning I found myself in that very same chair. Once again I was reading for pleasure (and insight), rather than corresponding with clients on my iPhone or iPad, which is what that chair had become a way station for. I really began to wonder what on earth was going on. By that evening, when I once again found myself downstairs with a book in my hand and a cat on the arm of my chair, I knew what was going on. A blind pattern had been seen, seen through, penetrated, and was dropping away.

On that second evening I didn’t end up in my chair unconsciously. When I first thought about going downstairs, I suddenly remembered something I “needed” to do at the computer. I was right at the head of the stairs, and I had to make a decision–stay up and work or go down and read? I strongly considered going into the study and doing whatever little chore it was first, and then going downstairs to read later.

There’s the lie. Once I’d told that lie and believed it, I could kiss ever going downstairs goodbye. So I went on downstairs and did my reading. Whatever the other thing was, I notice it kept.

Over the next few days I noticed other lies (patterns within the pattern) as the whole victim story fell apart. I found out that there were Four Big Lies:

1. “I’ll do this first and then I’ll go take a break.” Is it true? No. There is always something else to do first. This was the first lie I became aware of, the one I just mentioned above.
2. “This is really important.” Is it true? Rarely. As a matter of fact, my feeling is that most of the time if something really is important, then the “This is really important” thought will not even arise. There’ll be no calculation or mental debate: a truly important thing just automatically gets handled.
3. “I need to do this now.” Is it true? Rarely. A session is something I need to show up for right on time. I generally do. My credo is that “I’m rarely late, but never early.” Almost anything on my To Do list other than a session can wait at least a little while, even until the next day. Noticing this lie keeps me from burning so much midnight oil.
4. “I’m going to do this work early [today, right now] so that I won’t be swamped tomorrow.” Is it true? No. Because come the morrow, I’m doing the next day’s work, and on and on, so that the cycle never ends.

I’m still working a lot. That’s fine. I love my work. I love talking to clients and volunteers, getting a new post or video put up, tweaking the website, answering mail (when and where I can) and doing the other thousand things it takes to make this teaching run smoothly on a large scale. I’m thinking 60 hours should do it. I’m not watching my watch, but I am watching my lies.

Working with Blind Patterns

1. SEE IT (consciously notice the unit is running an unconscious pattern)
   [Step 1 is really an act of grace or good fortune that occurs spontaneously via deepening clarity]
   
2. SEE THROUGH IT (acknowledge its unskillfulness–the deeper the better and don’t deny what you find)
3. BE WILLING (to be other than the way you are: this is the biggest part of your job)
4. PENETRATE IT (see it so completely that it begins to drop away by degrees or falls apart altogether)
   [Step 4 occurs spontaneously–you don’t have to do it–and you can’t anyway]

In the story above, I should make it clear that I had to see through each of the Four Big Lies individually. The grace, so to speak, was to be able to intuitively sense the movement of an unskillful pattern working through the unit so that I could become alert (conscious) enough to watch it work.

 VIDEO

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Surrender

Fred Davis
July 1, 2014