Would you rather be right, or free? You can’t be both.

7 Comments

1. Christopher Warnock
   March 8, 2015 @ 12:19 pm

   Oh. man you’ve nailed me in this one! Chris always insists he’s right, but is deathly afraid he’s wrong. Let’s see if awareness of this can get beyond recognizing the concept and getting flashes from time to time, to dropping it altogether.

   • Fred Davis
     March 8, 2015 @ 12:21 pm

     Hey, Chris! In my opinion, which might not be accurate…I nailed ALL OF US in this one. It’s only a matter of degree and duration. All is well. 🙂

2. Kathleen
   March 8, 2015 @ 3:25 pm

   You said recently in an article that it’s okay to have egoic thoughts, but we don’t have to believe them. That has helped me step back from my BOPs, and in particular to recognize that I don’t know the future. An epiphany of the obvious! But I thought, based on all the evidence and my previous experience in life, that my future was bleak; no doubt about it. Things are bad and they will only get worse.

   So it’s been wonderful to recognize that I don’t actually know ANYTHING about the future. And an awareness of this carries over to the realization that I know very little about the past or present. I can hear my thoughts in my head. But those are not a clear reflection of my experience (which would be before, or beyond thought). My BOPs are distorted by fears and hope and entrenched patterns of thinking and feeling.

   So I don’t have to cling to that stuff!! That is freedom.

   Thank you!

   • Fred Davis
     March 8, 2015 @ 9:27 pm

     You are SO welcome! Again, very clear, Kathleen.
     I have a client who is suffering mightily. She thinks she might get some money, but it’s worrying her to death. I wrote her the other day asking, “If you had your choice between enlightenment and the money, which would you choose?”
     She wrote back saying she’d choose enlightenment, but that she’s sure of the money too. I wrote back to say that this was the key difference between she and me, because I wasn’t sure about ANYTHING. This unsure place is wonderful, because we don’t then know what “should happen.” Make it easy to accept what DOES happen!
     This client has woken up clearly at least twice, but every time I help her get clear, the money thing hijacks her back into the dream. So my question to her was not entirely hypothetical.

     GROUP QUESTION:
     Is there something in YOUR life that’s more important than awakening AND living in clarity? If this is NOT the most important thing, odds are you’re not going to find it, or if you do, you won’t be able to abide in it.
     I got an song via email this morning from a client of mine. She recorded it 20 years ago. It’s called “Waking Up.” Awakeness has been functioning for some time, but only now, as we work together intensely–several hours last week alone–is she really getting clear. I imagine that she may become an important voice for nondual spirituality–perhaps in more ways than one.
     But look at that: 20 years ago this thing was already important enough to her to help her look beyond a very successful career, and into the idea of providing service through her particular strength and talent. Two decades later she’s still in the thick of it. THAT is commitment. THAT is making this the most important thing, even if it’s not the thing you put the most time into. Everyone has to make a living; we may have to put the bulk of our time into that in order to do so. Okay! Do the best you can, but don’t do any less than the best you can. 🙂

     All love,

     Fred

3. Kathleen
   March 8, 2015 @ 10:09 pm

   Thanks, Fred. Sometimes I long for good health BEFORE enlightenment, so that I’ll be comfortable in my body while enjoying enlightenment. After all, when I wake up, won’t I want to dance, or leap and run, and won’t it be sad if I can’t?

   Deluded, I know. Probably just as your client might feel enlightenment would be a drag without financial freedom.

   It helps me to remember that in awareness, I won’t want to be any way other than exactly as I am, or have anything I don’t already have, since I am manifesting myself and my reality to perfection right now.

   • Fred Davis
     March 9, 2015 @ 8:36 am

     Hey, Kathleen. Let’s assume for a moment that there is just One Thing Going On here. That’s what teachers tell us. If there is already only Oneness, then where can the Kathleen character be appearing? Inside the One Thing Going On as a ‘part’ of the One Thing Going On, yes? If that’s the case, then you are already fully aware–there’s no waiting. Waiting IS the dream. A story of future enlightenment IS the dream. The Attention (focused Awareness) that’s reading this sentence is the very same Attention which if it stops looking for itself and simply NOTICES itself will discover that it’s already awake.

   • Fred Davis
     March 9, 2015 @ 8:36 am

     Hey, Kathleen. Let’s assume for a moment that there is just One Thing Going On here. That’s what teachers tell us. If there is already only Oneness, then where can the Kathleen character be appearing? Inside the One Thing Going On as a ‘part’ of the One Thing Going On, yes? If that’s the case, then you are already fully aware–there’s no waiting. Waiting IS the dream. A story of future enlightenment IS the dream. The Attention (focused Awareness) that’s reading this sentence is the very same Attention which if it stops looking for itself and simply NOTICES itself will discover that it’s already awake.