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
