Clear understanding

I was always trying to make sense of my experience of life. I read so many books and accumulated all kinds of different ideas, from philosophy to physics, via psychology and spirituality. Yet none of these books actually helped me to definitively come to understand what was going on. I really felt like I was swimming in a huge ocean of confusion and nothing I did seemed to help.

Through gradually gaining confidence in the fundamental physical law that whatever appears is inseparable from the basic state of awareness, it is like a veil has been lifted. Without needing to study or practice any particular technique I now have a clear, level headed understanding of my life. I now have the context that without which there was indeed no way to make sense of anything.

Natural Perfection

While we are all caught up in the need to rearrange our experience, to try and get rid of the "bad" and get more of the "good", it is impossible to recognise that all experience rests naturally in the basic state of natural perfection. This basic state effortlessly pervades all experience whatever label we may impose upon it. When we begin to rely on this ever-present basic state then we can approach life from the openness of awareness and not from the very narrow perspective of all of our innumerable thoughts and ideas. From this space of open relaxed clarity we know exactly how to be in every situation and are empowered with direct spontaneous responsiveness that is full of love and wisdom.

Present Perception

There really is no need to look for awareness other than in the present perception, always right here, always immediately accessible. We have a choice in every single moment. To spiral down into a world of hope and fear or to just relax and acknowledge the pure presence of awareness. It really is that simple.

Immediate

The relief from believing that our points of view have the power to affect our well-being is immediate in a short moment. In the instinctive recognition of awareness we see everything clearly , exactly as it is. By repeating this instinctive recognition we become more and more familiar with the already unified field of awareness that effortlessly cradles all experience within its warm embrace. This is not a difficult recognition as we already know who we are. Everything that is offered by Great Freedom from the free books to the free Mp3 downloads supports us in this growing familiarity.

Even simpler

The beauty of short moments of awareness repeated many times until it becomes continuous is that we can practice this right now. Nothing needs to change for us to make the one simple change in the way that we use our minds. This also means that short moments is a completely practical approach. We don't have to remove ourselves from our normal everyday life to recognise awareness. In fact it is in our normal everyday experience of life that we have the perfect opportunity to become familiar with the clarity that pervades every single perception.

Simplicity

By keeping it simple and just relaxing again and again as the wide-open space of awareness we can easily see everything exactly as it is. We clearly see the true nature of all phenomena for ourselves and come to a conclusive understanding of the nature of reality.

Freedom

True freedom is being at ease with whatever occurs. This can only happen when we leave everything just as it is and do not try to change the flow of phenomena. By relying on awareness we become familiar with the unchanging nature that is at the root of every perception. When we become confident that this ground of absolute ease and openness is always already the case then we are no longer a victim of our unpredictable thoughts. Instead we can allow them to be whatever they are, secure in the recognition of their inseparability from the basic state. It is quite a relief to know that your thoughts and emotions are already perfect for this recognition to take place.

Responsibility

With the simple practice of short moments of instinctively recognising our own innate clarity we can finally take responsibility for ourselves.

I know that I had always wanted to make a difference with my life, that I wanted to really be of benefit to humanity and the planet. With a growing confidence in the innate clarity that is the source of each and every perception I am finally able to actually see how I can best contribute my time and energy in a way that makes an immediate difference. At first we see the way that clarity is more and more the case with the effortless ease and decisive action in our personal lives. This very quickly expands to become evident in all of our interactions and actions.

We see through the way that we have limited ourselves and what we are capable of by buying into all the descriptions and labels about who we are. All the energy that was caught up in trying to maintain and live up to the endless ideas and concepts of what we can achieve is immediately released. The natural outlet for all of this energy when we are no longer obsessively focused on our own already assured well-being is in how we can help others and what we can contribute.

Clarity

By relying on the clarity that is necessary for every perception to be known we gain access to an amazing resource of hyper-intelligence. When we are no longer restricted by viewing the world through the arbitrary filters of all of our ideas we allow incredible spontaneous responsiveness and true innovation. This is true in every part of our lives, from all of our everyday interactions with people we live and work with to the most complex of technical problems. It encompasses the entire range of human activity but we will never know whether this is true unless we test it out for short moments in our own lives, with all of our own thoughts, emotions, sensations and other experiences.

The community

I have seen how beneficial spending time with the Great Freedom community has been. It makes the recognition of the inseparability of each and every perception from the basic state of awareness far easier when we are surrounded by other people also committed to this one simple change. Instead of people who will feed or encourage our indulging, replacing or avoiding of points of view we find a group of open minded, emotionally stable people, totally dedicated to grounding themselves in the ease of natural perfection. I feel incredibly lucky to have found such a wonderful support network that is so full of smiles, laughter and complete clarity.

The Basic State

Spending time with texts like the "Basic State" makes the instinctive recognition of the inseparability of phenomena from a ground of relaxed openness very easy. Written texts like these help to evoke the recognition of natural perfection in our own experience. It is only when we see that every single perception has as its essence an unchanging basic state that we clearly come to understand the nature of reality. This recognition does not require an intellectual approach as we are simply recognising what is already the case.

The evidence of natural perfection

Once we begin to gain confidence in the inseparability of whatever is appearing from a ground of ease and stability we begin to see how everything is evidence of our own natural perfection. By taking short moments whenever I was naturally reminded, I saw that awareness was the source of every single perception. It was very important that I came to this definitive understanding for myself. By looking at my own experience and allowing everything to be exactly as it is, awareness effortlessly became more and more obvious. I began to recognise that whatever thought or sensation was appearing it was also evidence of awareness, evidence of the super-complete ground that unifies everything in natural perfection.

Short moments of awareness

When enjoying a short moment of awareness we recognise the inseparability of whatever is occurring from the basic state of natural perfection. It is only when we delve into the description of the appearance that we lose sight of this fundamental truth. This is so with all experience no matter how we choose to describe it or what label we attach to it. The short moment always cuts straight through this compulsive commentary on our own lives and allows us to be truly relaxed in any situation.

Easy

Why make the recognition of awareness difficult by trying to figure it out all by yourself? Once I saw that there was an amazing 24/7 support network that was solely there to help me become stable in the recognition of awareness at all times, it became so much less of a struggle. Once I recognised that my ideas of being on "my spiritual path", or of "doing it all myself", were also just points of view appearing in awareness then I was able to take full advantage of everything being so generously offered.

Warm Hearted

By relying on short moments of awareness we clearly see the nature of all phenomena. We recognise that there are no special phenomena that we have to rearrange to find well-being. Very naturally our focus then shifts from a life that is self-centered and concerned with how to make ourselves happy to a life where we are open and naturally warm hearted. When we no longer need to fix all our imagined faults then we effortlessly have more time for everyone else.