FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is awareness or clarity according to the Great Freedom Teaching?

What are short moemtns of  awareness or short moments of clarity?

What is a point of view?

What are the benefits from relying on awareness?

How can I gain confidence in awareness?

How can I rest with my negative thoughts, emotions and experiences?

What does it mean to let everything be as it is?

How does relying on the clarity of awareness affect my relationships?

What are the Four Comforts?


What is awareness or clarity according to the Great Freedom Teaching?
What are short moments of awareness or short moments of clarity?

What is a short moment of awareness? To know the answer to that question, stop thinking—just for a moment. What remains? A sense of alertness and clarity remains. This is what awareness is: clarity and alertness that is open like a cloudless sky.

Just as a rainbow appears within space, thoughts, emotions, sensations and other experiences appear within the clarity and alertness of awareness. Just as space and a rainbow are inseparable, thoughts, emotions, sensations and other experiences are inseparable from clarity.

When we stop thinking for a moment, we introduce ourselves to the clarity of awareness, and before long we begin to notice that the clarity that is present when we are not thinking is also present when we are thinking. All thoughts appear and vanish naturally like the flight path of a bird in the sky.

The peaceful clarity and alertness that is identified when we stop thinking is the basis of all thoughts. It saturates all thoughts without exception. This is truly amazing! This is similar to the vastness of space being present regardless of what appears within it.

 

What is a Point of View?

A point of view is anything that occurs within the all-encompassing view of awareness. It can be a thought, emotion, sensation or other experience, and it can relate to inner or outer events. Points of view within awareness can be likened to a breeze blowing through the air. The breeze and the air are inseparable. Both are air.

 

What are the benefits from relying on awareness?

When we look at the results of short moments of unending clarity, we find that they are very powerful indeed. We as a global human culture have tapped into a form of knowledge that can give us complete mental and emotional stability, insight, compassion, natural ethics and beneficial skillfulness in all situations.

 

How can I gain confidence in awareness?

Everyone already possesses awareness. It is not that we don't have it and hope to get it at some point in the future. We already are aware. Briefly acknowledge awareness, again and again, and it becomes obvious all of the time. We can enjoy crystal clear awareness because awareness is always already present. We don’t have to find it. That is why we can always rely on awareness.

Because of the habit of emphasizing points of view, the initial brief moments of awareness may not last long at first. In other words, there may be no real stability. It may almost immediately slip away. This is perfectly fine. That is why short moments are relied on, many times, until awareness becomes automatic. This is the key point in gaining confidence in awareness.

By relying on short moments of awareness, clarity becomes increasingly automatic. This may happen slowly or quickly. To see how you are progressing in short moments, simply rely on awareness for short moments, repeated many times, until it becomes automatic. This gentle approach is guaranteed to make awareness obvious at all times.

We come to know that we will have the ongoing support of the Four Comforts/Four Mainstays, including written teachings, free downloads, videos and a forum on the www.greatfreedom.org web site, as well as formal teachings available throughout the week via teleconference or face-to-face. We also have support for relying on awareness available to us 24 hours a day via the worldwide Great Freedom network available through the internet, telephone and email.

 

How can I rest with my negative thoughts, emotions and experiences?

For many of us, it is most challenging to rely on clarity when there are disturbing thoughts, emotions, sensations, or other experiences. It is important to see that even very disturbing states arise within ever-present clarity. Please acknowledge that the basis of all points of view is clarity.  

We choose for clarity to be obvious to us or not. Moment-to-moment clarity is the most important choice we will ever make.  

Practically, this is how it works: When disturbing states arise, rely on a short moment of unending clarity. Over time, by the power of the short moment growing longer, there is instinctive clarity regardless of what type of thought, emotion, sensation or experience arises. Much to our surprise, we find that all of these disturbing states rest in clarity!

The Four Comforts always support us in gaining confidence in awareness while reminding us to be gentle with ourselves.

 

What does it mean to let everything be as it is?

Awareness is in harmony with points of view. There is no fighting with viewpoints anymore. This is the best well-being. Open, spacious awareness naturally allows point of view to be as it is. There is no need to save or delete viewpoints. Everything happens very simply. Since there is no need to change the flow of experience in a short moment of clarity, antidotes and remedies come to a complete stop.

How does relying on the clarity of awareness affect my relationships?

We may find that we have used intimate relationships as a clearinghouse for personal issues. Personal points of view are our own, and are best addressed when we take responsibility for them by using the Four Comforts, and not imposing them on our intimate partner. We find that the purpose of intimacy is to bring joy, love and generosity to every detail of the relationship. Relationship is avoided and misused when it becomes a personal sounding board for viewpoints. Discussion of our points of view is best addressed with the teacher and friends in the Great Freedom community, who can contribute to our commitment to rely on awareness.

What are the Four Comforts?

There are many resources available for anyone who is interested in knowing more about the Great Freedom Teaching. The main information source is the Great Freedom website, www.greatfreedom.org. Posted there are numerous public talks, videos, books and a forum. The forum is a place where people all over the world share their experience of relying on awareness in daily life. All video and audio talks are free and can be easily downloaded in mp4 and mp3 format.

Also listed on the website is a schedule of Great Freedom teachings offered by trained teachers around the world. Venues range from face-to-face teachings and public open meetings, to teachings and meetings offered via teleconference bridge.

The mainstay of Great Freedom—the Four Comforts—supports everyone interested in gaining confidence in awareness.

When confidence is inspired by Great Freedom’s Four Comforts—1) short moments of awareness, 2) the teacher, 3) the teaching, and 4) the worldwide community—there is increasing instinctive recognition of awareness until it is continuous at all times. Then there is no longer the possibility of being fooled by appearances of points of view, not during life and not upon death.

Go to the Four Comforts Page





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