SKILLFUL MEANS SERIES 1 Recordings

Fred Davis is a fully independent, global teacher of nonduality. He is not allied with any school, scripture, teacher, religion, or philosophy. Fred is very much a “regular” person, just like you. He wasn’t born awake or under a cabbage leaf beneath a harvest moon. He was a seeker for 24 years, thus he’s quite unable to declare himself a “quick study.” Fred is an ordinary sage, not a sacred saint. His life’s path is considered colorful by some and checkered by others. That’s probably true for you as well, which is the whole point. He woke up, so to speak, and so can you.

Teaching what is now known as The Living Method through the so-called Fred unit, began locally in 2010 and online in 2011. Over the last thirteen years, it has helped facilitate Realization for well over a thousand followers: perhaps closer to two thousand. The process has changed as experience has deepened, but the core of it remains precisely the same.

The Living Method is the very definition of “direct teaching.” It offers no path to Realization, which is the focus of most “sooning schools.”  There are many effective nondual teachers and methods; no one has a monopoly on Truth. For most of those using The Living Method, however, it is reliable and predictable; it usually takes about an hour to Realize. Once Awakeness itself comes out of denial, we start to focus on clearing. We are not trying to clear Awakeness up. Awakeness is always here and always clear. We use self-inquiry coupled with reason to clear the false ideas and behavior of an imaginary character out!

• Waking up is now or never, here or nowhere. Nobody in the history of nonduality has ever woken up “soon!”  That whole notion is seen to be ridiculous and woefully self-defeating upon the Recognition of True Nature.

Fred did many practices in his days of “sooning.” He spent endless hours in meditation, meditative silence, and quiet reflection. He offered prayers of centering, submission, and supplication and practiced hatha yoga, yoga nidra, japa, visualization, and deep Self-inquiry, culminating in complete burnout. Burnout saved the day and offered freedom, but it took two years of relentless-to-the-point-of-being-unhealthy nondual inquiry before the peace of abidance as Consciousness Itself could be experienced—by Awakeness Itself.