What are you? From the “I am” to What You Will Become

Posted on November 20, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

I teach my patients and clients to watch what follows the “I am” in their speech. Interestingly, I heard the exact same statement in the Bible from two sources today, Joel Osteen and Elizabeth Thompson (you can find Joel by Googling his name, and you can listen to Elizabeth’s message here: Elizabeth Thompson.  Her message usually starts at about the 1/2 hour point if you want to get directly to the message.)

The quote they both referred to is from Joel 3:10 American King James Version: “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.”  The point of this is that we need to move from any negative “I am” statement to a positive, affirming statement. 

So “I am sick” becomes “I am well.”  “I am poor” becomes “I am abundant.”  Any slip from the higher place in consciousness, and the sick, poor, discouraged, and confused “I am” will chase us down.   In the midst of a crisis, if we say “I am confused,” we can’t  expect to find answers we need.  Affirm “I am intuitively guided,” and simply allow the answers to come.  You can adjust all these statements in a way that works for YOU.  If you are a religious Christian, you could say “I am intuitively guided by God.”

It is often tempting to state the negative.  Egos like to state the negative.  I completed a screenplay recently, and I’m selling it now.  Believe me, there are countless stories I could attach my mind to in regard to failures to sell screenplays.  Michael Hauge takes a different stance in his book about both screenplays and novels, “Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds.”  He points out that everybody, every single writer, was a nobody before they became a somebody.

So start from the place of “I am successful.”  People will tell you that you’ll never get a literary agent.  If that is so, who are the agents working for?   The answer is they are working for those who had the knowledge: “I am successful.”  Not success from the proud ego taking credit; successful from the point of being one with that which is the one power in the Universe.  It is success in Oneness with God, Beingness, Universe that we seek.  Success in harmony.

Being tempted by confusion, lack of money, fear, and anger is not a problem.  All we need to do when we see a “negative I am” statement arise is to make the switch.  Succeeding in life is an evolutionary process.

There is a further nuance I would like to share about writing goals.  Don’t be too specific.  Does it matter who buys my screenplay?  No.  If it sells to the first or the 20th reader, what does it matter?  So instead of stating “I am now successfully selling my screenplay to Joe Jones by 10 am tomorrow,” I say “I am now successfully sharing my screenplay with the world in a way that will serve the highest good of everyone and everything including myself.”  Why limit the amount?  First screenplays have been sold for anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to three million dollars or more.  I am not insistent that someone buy it either.  But I am fully allowing them to buy it, if they so chose.   See the difference?  One comes with a push; the other comes without the push.  They may even refuse to read it.  That’s their right.  But you and I can cast the bread on the water.

And what if the world doesn’t want what we have to offer?  For the first time writer of a novel, it may mean writing 6 more before everything clicks.  There is a highly successful romance novelist who did exactly that.  Her first 6 books were basically non-sellers and suddenly the 7th was a huge success.  Or maybe we will decide to direct our energies in other ways and make a greater contribution.  It is about giving in our unique ways, while abiding in the “I am.”

Abiding in the “I am” is about abiding in love.  As you’ve heard from me before, if you want great relationships, GIVE love to your relationships.  If you want a healthy body, GIVE  love to your body.  If you want a great job and be well compensated for what you do, GIVE love to your work.  If instead, you blame your partner, your body or your job for your lack, lack will chase you down.  Abiding in the “I am” requires that we take 100% responsibility for our relationships, our health and our work. It’s about going inside ourselves to find the truth (see prior post for more on that).

It is the case that some people who enjoy doing certain things are just not good at them, as hard as they try.  Would we want to write 100 novels before realizing we don’t write creatively as well as we do something else?  Perhaps you are the world’s greatest “XYZ” instead.  Take the feedback from the Universe and look inside yourself deeply before abandoning your goal of course, but there is a time to realign yourself to that which will be the source of your good.  Abiding in the “I am” will take you where you are going.

Imagine someone extremely talented in one way doing something completely different and demanding success from the world in a way the world did not accept.  Picture Lady Gaga serving as President of the United States.  That is the picture of massively misdirected talent. 

Find what the world wants from you and give it from your heart.  Pour out the love.  The circle of reciprocity will send back to you the same love you put into your unique and wonderful work, your health, and your relationships, as you move forth as the “I am” that you are.

If you just have a question or would like support, please give me a call or drop me a message through the contact box above.

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Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

Copyright © 2011 by Universal Ideas, LLC.  All rights reserved.

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Loving Others as They Are: Presence in Relationships

Posted on November 17, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

I love Byron Katie’s stance of “Loving What Is,” the title of her 1st book.  Applying it to relationships I would suggest loving and accepting each person in your life and everyone you meet as they are in the moment.  If we stop and think of a person and feel resistance to this or that, the issue is in us, not them.  This does not excuse them from their work.  They either know what their work is already and have begun their own process of realization, or the Universe will remind them in a way that causes them to awaken and grow at some point in the future.

All we can address is our reaction to the other person and our own growth.  Our relationships don’t need saving truly, we do.  That is where our freedom lies.  Our freedom is never in what someone else feels, although we will feel compassion for them.  Beingness is compassionate by nature.  Your freedom, however, is in your own sense of Presence.  What then happens to your relationship will become known to you.  Your work is done.   Congratulations for being loving in the midst of an experience your ego may have found challenging, because of it’s initial resistance to “what is” or “what was.”  Now with your ego at rest, you are at peace.

Look at them in your mind’s eye and simply say, “I love you and I am one with you as you are.”   Get to the point where you deeply mean it.  And if it’s a person who has hurt you, we are not talking about being in the person’s physical presence or saying that what they did wrong was right.  We are talking about Oneness from the spiritual point of view that understands that everyone is made of the same substance, cut from the same cloth.  If it brings you to tears to feel one with them, fine.  You have likely broken something loose that has been hurting you for a while.  Transcend whatever resistance you feel as you say it. 

You must mean it for there to be truth in it.  It is true that all is well.  The other person you are thinking of is on their own path, and whether it is a tortuous one or not, is not our business.  It is the business of the Universe/God and nature of the person’s role in it.  We are simply here to love them.  Facing our resistance and reactions, we find ourselves at peace with everyone in our lives.  Start with one person tonight. 

One day, you will be done with your resistance to “what is.”  You will feel very free and very alive.  (for more, please see the post below on forgiveness).  If you need support, please give me a call or drop me a message through the contact box above.

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Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

Copyright © 2011 by Universal Ideas, LLC.  All rights reserved.

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Be the Witness of Your Life: Witnessing Is a Bridge to Presence

Posted on September 18, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

Being present has to do with being aware of what is happening and what others are saying and then responding in a giving way from your heart.  Assuming everything is perfect even when the appearance in our world is otherwise allows us to respond rather than react to the events of our life and to the comments of others.  Assume at least that “it’s about me” even if you also believe “it’s about them.”

“Being aware” means that you are not only aware of the outside event or person, but of yourself as you move through the situation or conversation.  The ego is aware only of “the situation” or “them,” whereas the you that is present is aware of “the situation,” of “them” and of yourself.  Being aware of yourself in your life, is the secret of what it is to “be the witness.”

Whose life is it?  Mine.  So I can be aware of myself in my life.  I can be aware even as I live my life from one moment to the next to the next.

“Be the Witness” Exercise: To get a feeling of what it feels like to be aware of yourself in your life,  practice witnessing your life, even while you are having conversations.  Notice that you are aware of both your own words and those of others in those conversations.   In fact, the sensation of this is that you are watching the movie of your own life as it unfolds.  Words are coming to the characters as they speak.

Who is it that is aware of all the words of all these conversations and of all the situations in your life?  The real you.  The real you that knows the way to abundance, health, and love.

Once you get the hang of how to “be the witness” and have found how to turn your attention back toward the “real you,” you simply remain in presence when you’re there and return to presence when you are not.  One who is present does not need to return to presence.  Doing the “Be the Witness”  Exercise from time to time can be a useful reminder to remain present throughout our day.   And if we find we have lost our place, and we can catch ourselves “being reactive,” we have this “witnessing tool” to regain our place, which i s what I call on my website a “bridge to presence.”  Presence never leaves us; we leave it.  But when we return to presence we return to peace, love, and the goodness and joy of our lives.

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Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

Copyright © 2011 by Universal Ideas, LLC.  All rights reserved.

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Do You Truly Want to Love Everyone? An Exercise in Unconditional Love

Posted on August 19, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

Many of us seek to teach others, which is simply a code word for fixing our child, parent, spouse, etc.   If you come to someone with the intention of fixing them, what are you actually holding for them in your consciousness?  That they are “sick” or “broken.”

To effectively heal many have found that the best approach is to find our own internal peace in regard to the other.  Then the other can heal on their own in accordance with their free will to be or not to be exactly what they are, their highest self.

Take each person in your life where they are now, just the way they are, no more or less.  That means accepting and loving them exactly the way they are, even if they have traits or even if they’ve done things that you are still resisting.

The Exercise:

1. Go through each person who is prominent in your life at the moment in both negative and positive ways and think of them one by one.

2. Feel any resistance that you have toward them in any way at all.  You may even find you have resistance to the one you claim to love the most.

3. Agree that you are now finished with that resistance and that you intend to love them as they are today, not before when they were perfect or tomorrow when they’ll be better in your eyes, but NOW.  These words or whatever you prefer may suffice: “I am done resisting you (Bob, Sally, etc).”   I know this is a bit “dualistic,” so you may prefer this: “I am done with all resistance.”

In case your ego comes up and says “A little resistance is good,” remember that you can take plenty of action in your life, but it will all be easiest when there is no resistance to taking action.

4. Simply sit with that person in mind until you no longer feel any resistance to them, until you feel only love for them as they are.  From there, you will find that things can shift, because finally, there is true unconditional love.

Watch what happens.  ; )

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Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

© 2011  Universal Ideas, LLC  All rights reserved.

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Gentleness: A Facet of Presence

Posted on July 16, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

Growing up, I always wondered about the God depicted at times in the Bible.  Who was this Being who seemed very stern, not much fun at times, vengeful, judgmental, unforgiving, and certainly not gentle, when his son I was told, asked us to forgive seventy times seven?  Well, we all are the only begotten.   You are, whenever you look to see if it is true, in complete oneness with all that is.  So if you live from there, when you live in presence, what are you?

For one, I believe you are gentle.  On the other hand, the world is sometimes gentle, sometimes quite harsh with its words, its wars, its disease, its lack, and the suffering arising from the sense that all of those threaten us.  So where do we find this gentleness when it is at times lacking in the world “outside”?  As you guessed, inside.  Inside is an infinity of power, love and the gentleness that flows from us as we realize we cannot be touched by the world unless we choose consciously or unconsciously to believe that the threat is real.  If you believe you can be extinguished, and by that I mean permanently, you have no choice but to fight the outer forces that appear to be attacking you.

But if you see what you are in Presence, there is nothing that can touch you.  Oh, you will be aware of these things, for you are consciously present, not absentmindedly present off in a daze.  You know that you “are” – I AM THAT I AM – that you cannot be extinguished, and the reality of your oneness with all that is, is far more powerful than those outer tsunamis.

And from there, you will find that gentleness arises from your heart.  Although figures like Jesus were known to express outrage at times,  for example, at the merchants in the temple, we are led to believe that this arose from his love, and the transformative message he brought, as yet unheeded in full, is to love your enemy.  That is being gentle isn’t it?  An enemy is one who would attack you, yet you love this enemy?  Who would do this other than one who knows what they are, one who is gentle with the world and gentle with him or herself?

So practice gentleness with others and with yourself, and you will find yourself more in alignment with what you are.  This is not original.  I know Robert Adams recommended that we practice the qualities of Presence in “Silence of the Heart.”  But he was not the first.  It is referred to as “fake it until you make it” in popular culture.  Well, if you have to, fake it.  One day, you will find gentleness flows from your nature, from what you truly are, because it does.  But if you can get quiet for just a moment and ask the question Ramana Maharshi left with us, which was “Who am I?,” you will find that you are one with all that you previously felt was outside of yourself, that is no longer a threat to you, and then you will know that you can be truly gentle in your life.

If you “liked” this post, would you mind “Liking” it below by clicking on the blue plus sign?  Thanks very much.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

© 2011  David B. Durand, M.D.  All rights reserved.

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What is the Greatest Good in Health, Wealth and Relationships and How Do I Serve It for Others and Myself?

Posted on June 11, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

I believe that all goals that are met are aligned with the greatest good of everyone and everything.  Everyone happens to include you.  I say that for those who are attached to suffering.  You are not meant to suffer.  You are meant to live.

Those things in our lives that are achieved without such alignment with the greatest good may be lost.  Why is that?  Because we can achieve some things in life by force.  We all have known such people or we have been such people who worked too hard, pushed too hard etc. to achieve what we felt our goals were if not to the detriment of others, then to ourselves.  We may have stopped doing this in major ways, but rooting out the energies of attachment and aversion from our goals in more subtle ways is the key to true alignment with that which is perfect in our lives.

Isn’t life always “perfect”?  Yes, in a sense.  We will always be the beneficiary of perfection, because if we hold any attachment or aversion in regard to any goal, perfection includes those energies, and they will help direct the outcome.  So what we get in those cases where we have not transcended our desires and fears is what I call “a less than perfect perfection.” 

If we are not in harmony in regard to relationships, the relationship we create, whether business or personal, will be lacking in perfection in proportion to our lack of harmony.  But don’t despair if you find yourself in dissonance.  If you decide to be loving in a relationship “no matter what,” you will find your way to harmony.  Dissonance in close relationships is a simply sign of where our own work lies.  This does not mean the other person does not have their work to do as well.

Harmony in relationships is a reflection of our overt decision to be loving and to transcend anything that binds us through attachment or aversion.  Whether that dissonance is something we can grow through with that person is ours to find out.  By taking responsibility and achieving harmony within ourselves, we may find the relationship is also transformed into a state of harmony.  The other person in it will choose whether they move up in consciousness with us or not.  If they do, the relationship will prosper both involved (and likely many others!).  If not, a person will come into our life who is harmonious and loving in his/her relationships.  No worries, because as we do our work, as we seek to give love in our lives in all dimensions, perfection will chase us down.

Facing the dissonance within ourselves brings harmony to all our relationships and to our relationships with money and our body as well.  One area of life spills over to other areas of life.

If we are not in harmony with money, we will tend to create lack in our lives.  What the dissonance of lack means to us is ours to explore.  Freedom and abundance lie beyond it.  Fears over money may contaminate our relationships and even our health, so it is important to face the dissonance within ourselves, transcend it and realize our true selves in the world in which we live.  That’s right, self-realization or full realization is about THIS life.

If we are not in harmony with our bodies, we will tend to create disease in them.  Smoking is a good example of self-imposed dissonance.  Smoking clearly does not serve the good of anything or anyone because it damages the user as well as bystanders.  Not moving the body around at all (zero exercise) is another form of self-imposed dissonance.

What is harmony?  My definition is “no attachments or aversions to any outcome or goal.”  That does not mean sitting on a mountaintop with your palms raised to the sky (unless that is your true calling!); it means to love and live joyously without attachments and aversions in regard to whatever you are intuitively called to do and to be.

So knowing how the greatest good is served is an important part of considering your goals.  One way to do this is to list all the ways in which that good is served or not served as in this exercise:

The goal of ______________

serves the greatest good because _________

does not serve the greatest good because __________

serves the greatest good because _________

does not serve the greatest good because __________

serves the greatest good because _________

does not serve the greatest good because __________

etc.

 Do this to the point of being mentally quiet.

Remember that the greatest good includes YOU, so please include thoughts specific to YOUR greatest good being served or not served in this work.  If you tend to forget your own needs, then do the exercise twice, first focusing on yourself and then on “everything and everyone.”

PART 1:

The goal of ______________

serves my greatest good because _________

does not serve my greatest good because __________

serves my greatest good because _________

does not serve my greatest good because __________

serves my greatest good because _________

does not serve my greatest good because __________

etc.

Again, do it to the point of mental quiet.

Then do it for everything and everyone.

PART 2:

The goal of _________:

serves the greatest good of everything and everyone because________

does not serve the greatest good of everything and everyone because _________

serves the greatest good of everything and everyone because________

does not serve the greatest good of everything and everyone because _________

serves the greatest good of everything and everyone because________

does not serve the greatest good of everything and everyone because _________

etc.

Do this to the point of quiet.

After each statement, transcend the feeling that arises.  If you know how to do that, good.  If not, I’d recommend taking my basic course to learn this.  The three options to take the course are on my home page here: Ways to Take the Course.  Simply scroll down about a 3rd of the way.

I know that as you see the challenges in your life as an opportunity to achieve greater harmony and the greatest good of everything and everyone INCLUDING YOURSELF, that your life will unfold in perfection.  It must, so it will.  Sometimes facing our deeper selves is challenging, but I truly know you can do it.  We all can do it.  Your commitment will guarantee your success and given that commitment, I know that you will achieve harmony in all aspects of your life and in doing so experience health, wealth and loving relationships, or what I call “the byproducts of harmony,” the gifts of these lives we live.

If you “liked” this post, would you mind “Liking” it below by clicking on the blue plus sign?  Thanks very much.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

© 2011  David B. Durand, M.D.  All rights reserved.

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Bin Laden’s Death

Posted on May 2, 2011 by David Durand

Would you choose to live in presence today?

I was living on Long Island when the attacks occurred.  My family stood on top of the Twin towers several years before the attacks. What a beautiful view that was. A classmate of my twin girls lost her father, a fire fighter, in the attacks in New York City. Many of those killed on 911 were from Long Island and worked in NYC. Besides the workers from the investment business, some of whom were killed in the Twin Towers, many NYC fire fighters and police officers have lived for years on Long Island.

My view is that killing may be justified in instances like these, where Bin Laden’s followers would have likely terrorized the world to secure his release by killing thousands more.  At times, the greatest act of love can be the act of bringing evil to its end, though, if possible, perhaps not by killing.  And importantly, Bin Laden had the chance to surrender as long as our troops were not placed in harms way despite earlier reports that the operation was a “kill” mission.

Some may argue that no one should take another life even for the sake of self-preservation.  I would not go to logic or someone else’s dogma for an answer.  Better to go to the heart and know what serves the highest good, the highest love.

President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan claims that we would have taken him alive if the opportunity to do so had presented itself.  It did not, as Bin Laden apparently took hostile action and used one of his wives to shield himself as you’ve heard.

Regardless of whether it is agreed or not that Bin Laden should have been killed, he was killed, and it is important now to forgive and as Jesus taught, to “Love your enemy.”  Bin Laden clearly “knew not what he was doing.”  We forgive him, though perhaps love has been served through his death.   If killing him was done solely out of fear, at best it serves as an example to the unconscious of the world that their evil will not succeed in the end.  It is a very primitive form of communication.  One day, we will do better.  We  really don’t know for sure what happened in that room in Pakistan.  We need to forgive not only Bin Laden, but those who killed him if judgment arises in us.  The Navy Seals did what they felt was correct.  People always do.  If you want an exercise of forgiveness, please see this prior post: Forgiveness Exercise

Look for any remaining anger, grief, fear, pride, or any other negative emotions you may feel in regard to Osama Bin Laden or terrorists in general.  What we fear, we strengthen in our experience.  Being in resistance to anything strengthens it.  Pride takes us down in the end. It makes us smug and judgmental. When we transcend our fear, anger and pride and simply take necessary actions to ensure our safety and the safety of those we love, we can live in peace and will always overcome terrorism.  The power of love so far surpasses the energy of hate and terrorism that “Bin Ladens” and “Hitlers” never stand a chance. They will be defeated in the face of our Presence and our love.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

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The Resurrection of Your Life

Posted on April 23, 2011 by David Durand

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

What is the message of the resurrection of Jesus or any other that was resurrected?  (Did you know that it is said that Peter resurrected three people after Jesus’ passing?)  This is not a religious matter.  Resurrection is for people of all faiths.  Even the surgeon, Bernie Siegel, in “Love Medicine and Miracles” describes how he aided the resurrection of a man who had been written off as dead by the anesthesiologist after surgery.  If a dead body can be resurrected, so can you be resurrected in your own life!

Where do you feel stuck, tired, confused, overwhelmed, or dead in your life?  Just pause for a moment and see what thoughts come up when you ask yourself:

“Where in my life do I need resurrection?”

That sense of feeling “dead” in an area of your life or immobile, unable to move forward, change, or forgive and renew your life simply requires your presence.

The question is “Are you willing to experience for a moment those areas of your life with these deep feelings of deadness behind them and allow for your own resurrection?”  This is the true resurrection.  It is total forgiveness of everything you feel is wrong in your life now or that was wrong in your past.  If you feel your situation or past is “wrong,” then you are in resistance to what is or to what was.  Either way, you are putting off your own resurrection in consciousness.    You can now choose resurrection.

Getting to the point of being willing to look at certain events from the past may take time, because we feel “too raw” and we feel we need to sit a while with past situations and points of “deadness,” before we are willing to transcend them.  But the critical insight that allows for resurrection is that YOU ARE NOT THESE FEELINGS OF DEADNESS.   You are experiencing, witnessing them, but you are NOT THESE FEELINGS.  You never were a feeling.  You had them.  Yes, had, because all feelings relate to your past and NONE OF THESE FEELINGS OF DEADNESS has anything to do with THE PRESENT MOMENT.  So the feelings are not what you eternally are.

Here is the way out.  Feel these feelings of deadness, of immobility, of loss, and simply declare your choice to live a resurrected life in joy and happiness.  How?  The word “Yes” is sufficient, but you could also say “Yes, I will now allow the resurrection of my life.”  Or “Yes, I will now allow the resurrection of my life in regard to ___________(fill in the blank).”  Then just sit quietly with that until you feel transcendence.  What you find underlying your imagined pain and suffering that you have until this day held to be your truth is the simple truth of what you are.  You are beautiful, whole, healthy, and complete.  Everything you need is provided for your life.

Welcome to your own resurrection!  Welcome to your own joyous life.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

If you need support with the process of transcendence, please feel free to contact me at 424-234-6401 (10 – 6 pm ET) or send me a message through the contact box at the top of this page.

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© 2011 David B. Durand, M.D. All rights reserved.


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The Reason for Your Birth: Full Realization and a Joyous Life

Posted on March 13, 2011 by David Durand

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

The reason for your birth was for your full realization in consciousness and so you could live a joyous life. We are a beautiful gift of consciousness for others and for ourselves.  Others represent that same gift for us.  In being that gift, we alternate between being a conscious or an unconscious gift to all beings in proportion to our full realization of Presence .

As I’ve said so many times, it is not important when or how often we are unconscious.  None of us can avoid her/his unconsciousness, because otherwise s/he would. What we can do is thankfully accept our moments of clarity, of consciousness, one at a time.  When given that gift, pause a moment and just say “I am grateful for this gift, for this moment of clarity in which I am now seeing the untruth behind my prior thinking and feeling.  I was in judgment and now I am not and for that I am grateful.”  Once you’ve said that once, the next time, simply say “Thank you.”  Feel the full realization of gratitude and the Presence in that statement.  It is not a mantra.  Say “Thank you” once and then know it deeply.  Or use whatever words suit your practice.

When we take this step to recognize and appreciate our moments of consciousness, we will naturally find the other moments in which we are, and let’s say it gently, less than fully conscious. We are gentle, because the purpose of being fully realized is love, not to chastise ourselves for forgetting to live that way.

How can we spot these moments of unconsciousness? Whenever we feel reactive to anything or anyone, we are more or less unconscious. Whenever we are resistant to “what is,” we are more or less unconscious.

This is not a judgment of “what is” as being right or wrong; it is a recognition that the condition of “what is” cannot change until we transcend our need to have it otherwise. We still see what others call “evil.”  We choose to see it with love, and think, speak and act from love rather than from hate.  We transcend the energy of the word “evil,” and we choose love even when we lock someone away for the rest of their life.

We can fully realize our birth for the highest good by being a good patient and taking our medicine whenever we feel reactive. No, not that sort of medicine.  We take the medicine of transcendence.   The secret of full realization is simple, but it’s up to you whether you pick up this gem:

If we simply transcend any reactivity that arises each time it arises, we will fully free our consciousness.

It is when we think, say, write, or do things that are untrue that we need to take the medicine.  Anything coming from reactivity/resistance is untrue.

What if we mess up? If we miss something, but see it later in the day or the next week, that is great, because our freedom is still there for the taking when we choose to live in presence.  Freedom comes with transcendence and is delayed every single time we think, speak, write, or act from “untruth.”

Freedom is re-established every time we transcend the untruth (reactivity) and fully realize truth. The hurts and unforgiveness that we bury in our past often return in our next business, community, relationship, or health situation.  We have established our thinking and feeling about a subject and it continues to have its own life in us.  It is the cause of all our suffering.

Yes, we must transcend our buried reactivity from our past.  Why?  Because if we do not, it will come and find us one day. That is all karma is.  Karma is simply the fulfillment of our prior thinking and feeling.  Good thoughts result in good harvests and reactive thoughts result in negative harvests.

Karma means that the buried reactivity pops up again, sometimes with surprising forcefulness, in another situation where that previously buried resistance/reactivity plays out. Our birth was given to us so we could work out our prior reactivity (karma) in the present moment.  And we do not have to believe in so-called past lives to benefit from this principle.  If we go back to an hour ago, back to a day ago, back to a month ago, back to a year or more ago, what we will find is our buried reactivity and in that buried reactivity lies our unforgiveness and our lack of freedom.

I received a card recently with a saying on it that read: “What you withhold imprisons you.” When we withhold forgiveness from anything or anyone from our past in any way, we imprison ourselves.

So we take our time to remember whom we have not forgiven and list all the ways we don’t forgive them – we must do this exhaustively to the point of mental quiet. That means until when we ask: “For what have I not forgiven her/him?” there is a series of thoughts.  Until they stop, we still have work to do to fully realize our love and the joy of our life.

Finally, we will have exhausted the energy of the past with that one person and then we move to the next.  That identifies our buried reactivity.  As you go through the thoughts, for each sentence of unforgiveness, transcend the feeling associated with the thought of unforgiveness/reactivity in whatever way you have been taught transcendence.

Please don’t make the mistake of believing that people do evil or non-loving things consciously. They may seem superficially conscious to some, but no act of unlove is EVER done from a place of Presence.  It is by definition impossible for unconscious acts to be done consciously!  Think about it!  ; )  This misunderstanding that is often stated as “S/he should have known better!”  Really?  Many teachers have pointed out that no one “should anything.”  People do the unloving things they do in unconsciousness.  There are no shades of grey in consciousness, only in human thinking.  So forgive them for they did not know what the heck they were doing!  And neither did you when you messed up now and then.  Forgive yourself and them.

Forgiveness Exercise:

Things I have not forgiven her/him for:

1. S/he…..(fill in the blank)

S/he did not know what s/he was doing.  S/he did her/his best with her/his understanding at the time.

followed by transcendence…

2. S/he….(fill in the blank)

S/he did not know what s/he was doing.  S/he did her/his best with her/his understanding at the time.

followed by transcendence…

etc.

Transcend the feeling of unforgiveness in whatever way you have been taught. Feeling the feeling is the simplest form of transcendence.  As you feel a feeling, it vanishes on its own. Simply put, Presence causes feelings to vanish.

Repeat the process until completely quiet and if any unforgiveness pops up when you inquire again, repeat this process again until you are quiet again. Just as a physician must check the patient for additional layers of infection as the debris is scraped off the wound (debridement), we must check to see if we are truly clear before we are done with our work and have completely forgiven them, for they knew not what they were doing.

Transcendence is forgiveness is the medicine.

Would you choose to live in presence today?

If you have transcendence medicine that works for you, good. If you do not, or if you’d like to have additional “tools for the full realization of Presence” please feel free to sign up for the next teleconference presentation of the FullyRealized™ Course OR check out the other Telecourse option  (See “Ways to Take the Course” on that page one third of the way down).  It is only $119.95 when taken in the group setting. 

The individual Telecourse option is $147.70, but you receive one-on-one attention for 1.5 hours in addition to taking the Telecourse.  In both courses, there are 5 1.25 hour sessions followed by two free follow-up teleconferences.  The follow-up teleconferences alone have an $80 value.  The course fee includes a course book mailed to you anywhere in the US.  (If you live outside the US, you will be responsible for any additional postage but you can simply email me with your exact address and I’ll let you know the total price.)

Choose freedom by signing up here:
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© 2011 David B. Durand, M.D. All rights reserved.


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The Law of Abundance: The Flow, Sources and Effort

Posted on March 5, 2011 by David Durand

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my book on raising consciousness that will be further edited prior to publication. If you have any feedback, please send me a comment via the “Contact Me” page above. Thank you.

Where should you expect abundance to flow from and in what amount according to the law of abundance?

It’s best to allow abundance to flow to you rather than attempting to beat it out of the world. To “beat it out of the world” means to use your ego to get it. It’s a lot of work to do it that way.  You’ll feel like you are working hard either physically or mentally or both.  If you are in management or sales, you’ll have to convince people to accept your point of view. You’ll  have to have countless meetings to win them over. In presence, you’ll have far fewer meetings!

So is there another way? Yes. Do it in presence where everything is effortless. Now you say “Please! You don’t mean to say I won’t have to work for it?” The point is that work becomes something you do without effort when you are present. You only experience a task as work when you are not in the moment. You may do what appears to others as a lot of work, but it sure doesn’t feel like it to you. You are in your element, doing what you choose to do and what you love doing.

“What about all the lousy little jobs I have to do to get the overall job done? I hate that stuff!”  Well, to the extent that you hate, you are in resistance, so if you  continue to hate those jobs, you will experience effort.  Only by becoming present with the little jobs that my paternal grandmother called “dummy work,” can you transcend your resistance and find joy in every task.  Simply feel and transcend your hatred of the “dummy work” you have to do.

Now that you are willing to let your abundance flow to you without resistance by remaining in presence even with the little tasks required, where will the abundance come from? That is not up to you. The Universe will show you if you remain present.  Abundance could come in the form of increased cash flow, increased net worth, a computer given to you for free, or free help from a friend. What do you care where it comes from as long as you are well taken care of, which is the promise we have all heard?  “All these things will be given unto you.”

But I cannot eat a computer! Well, if you had to, you could sell it to convert it to cash as you can your increased net worth. Warren Buffett has not made any income to speak of in many years.  He takes a comparatively tiny salary from Berkshire Hathaway and the rest of his “pay” comes in the form of the return on his investment in Berkshire.  He pays no tax on that until he sells the shares to buy what he needs.  The vehicle through which and the way in which your abundance flows will be unique to you.  Warren has his way.  Yours will be uniquely your own.  It’s part of the beauty of YOUR particular life.

And how much will I receive? What I’ve found is that the Universe does not withhold wealth from us unless 1) We don’t ask in the first place (many people never even ask) and 2) We don’t know how to ask (95% of people don’t know how to ask, so only 5% or so are considered rich).  The Universe could generally care less whether you have a million dollars or not.  If you do not follow the sub-rules of the law of abundance, abundance will not follow you.  So learn how to ask correctly!  That way, you will allow for the highest good for both you and others.

What is correct asking? That you can learn in my FullyRealized™ Course. The course is a 5 teleconference series (1.25 hours each; two per week).  The price at the moment is only $197.   Here is the page: The Course

Would you choose to live in presence today?

You can read my archived material here: My Blog Archive

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© 2011 David B. Durand, M.D. All rights reserved.

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