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Freedom & Resolve: The Living Edge of Surrender
Following a deep experience of awakening comes the challenge of being true to that experience in everyday life. This distinctive little book cuts to the heart of the ego's most subtle strategies for control. Through the gift of self-inquiry and your own deepest desire to live a true and authentic life, Gangaji invites you to discover the effortless simplicity of a resolve so total, every aspect of daily life is used naturally for deepening surrender.
- GenresSpiritualityCanon
73 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1999
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166 people want to read
About the author
Gangaji
58 books94 followersGangaji is an American born spiritual teacher and author. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, with her husband, fellow spiritual teacher Eli Jaxon-Bear.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 27, 2015
A beautiful, compact book that addresses "who one is."
Gangaji talks about vigilance in discovering the truth of one being. She touches on the entrapments of mind, the "telling of stories", and how the mind has a way of grossly and subtly attempting to "know" that which is unknowable, unimaginable, cannot be thought, forgotten, or remembered.
This powerful text conveys with clarity the subtle games and strategies we as humans play to try and "understand" truth. Gangaji cuts right through these games with this book confirming that we are already "That." All it takes is the resolve to stop.
Here's an excerpt where she describes meeting her teacher, Papaji, in India:
"It was very good for my Western mind to be stopped in that way, and I can remember the subtlety of then attempting to make myself over to fit the new image. I stopped wearing all makeup. I didn't look in mirrors. I liked the new humbleness and wanted to be finished with all Western ideals. One day Papaji looked at me and said, "Why don't you fix yourself up?" He saw so clearly how I was attempting to grasp an image of truth and to look like that image. Then I saw that I had done that all my life. When a certain era would come in, I would attempt to fit into the image of that era, whether it was to look like a hippie, or to look spiritual, or to look like an intellectual--all the time knowing it was not quite the truth. Truth cannot be "looked like." It is wherever you are, in whatever form. It wears no lipstick and it wears bright-red lipstick. It wears no clothes, and it is clothed in golden robes.
Attempts to model truth are continual entrapments of the mind, which knows only images, concepts, and ideas. When we speak of freedom, we are speaking of what is inherently free from any image, concept, or idea. That is who you are. However you have imagined yourself in the past, whatever you hope you will become in the future, this is who you are already. You can immediately discover this by discovering what has never been touched by any of it. Truth is alive within you right now. There is nothing you have to do to get it. Since it is who you are, you are in this moment fully capable of realizing the inherent truth of your being. All that is required is to give up every notion of who you are for one instant."
*end*
Here she explains how the arrogance of the human mind is to think it knows itself or to attempt to "achieve" what it already is. In this attempt, the truth of what we already are is overlooked.
Her message is simple and clear: All that is required, most paradoxically, is to stop for one instance the searching, achieving, imagining, knowing, conceptualizing, running towards, running away from, doing, etc... and directly experience the boundlessness of Being.
Gangaji talks about vigilance in discovering the truth of one being. She touches on the entrapments of mind, the "telling of stories", and how the mind has a way of grossly and subtly attempting to "know" that which is unknowable, unimaginable, cannot be thought, forgotten, or remembered.
This powerful text conveys with clarity the subtle games and strategies we as humans play to try and "understand" truth. Gangaji cuts right through these games with this book confirming that we are already "That." All it takes is the resolve to stop.
Here's an excerpt where she describes meeting her teacher, Papaji, in India:
"It was very good for my Western mind to be stopped in that way, and I can remember the subtlety of then attempting to make myself over to fit the new image. I stopped wearing all makeup. I didn't look in mirrors. I liked the new humbleness and wanted to be finished with all Western ideals. One day Papaji looked at me and said, "Why don't you fix yourself up?" He saw so clearly how I was attempting to grasp an image of truth and to look like that image. Then I saw that I had done that all my life. When a certain era would come in, I would attempt to fit into the image of that era, whether it was to look like a hippie, or to look spiritual, or to look like an intellectual--all the time knowing it was not quite the truth. Truth cannot be "looked like." It is wherever you are, in whatever form. It wears no lipstick and it wears bright-red lipstick. It wears no clothes, and it is clothed in golden robes.
Attempts to model truth are continual entrapments of the mind, which knows only images, concepts, and ideas. When we speak of freedom, we are speaking of what is inherently free from any image, concept, or idea. That is who you are. However you have imagined yourself in the past, whatever you hope you will become in the future, this is who you are already. You can immediately discover this by discovering what has never been touched by any of it. Truth is alive within you right now. There is nothing you have to do to get it. Since it is who you are, you are in this moment fully capable of realizing the inherent truth of your being. All that is required is to give up every notion of who you are for one instant."
*end*
Here she explains how the arrogance of the human mind is to think it knows itself or to attempt to "achieve" what it already is. In this attempt, the truth of what we already are is overlooked.
Her message is simple and clear: All that is required, most paradoxically, is to stop for one instance the searching, achieving, imagining, knowing, conceptualizing, running towards, running away from, doing, etc... and directly experience the boundlessness of Being.
February 7, 2020
My teacher, My life
I have looked forward to the opportunity of writing a review of my dear teachers book, FREEDOM AND RESOLVE.
Gangaji found me, some 28 years ago, in a small rental property I shared with my six year old son. He and I were growing up together, living a good life.
One day, on the television, a blond woman showed up and changed everything. She told me the truth....the truth that set me free.
I have been lucky enough to sit with her many times since, and I can tell you honestly, I hear her voice in this book.....(and it's not the Audible edition).
Take the time to risk a life changing read, and enjoy this precious window into the Truth of my teacher and her teachers.
I have looked forward to the opportunity of writing a review of my dear teachers book, FREEDOM AND RESOLVE.
Gangaji found me, some 28 years ago, in a small rental property I shared with my six year old son. He and I were growing up together, living a good life.
One day, on the television, a blond woman showed up and changed everything. She told me the truth....the truth that set me free.
I have been lucky enough to sit with her many times since, and I can tell you honestly, I hear her voice in this book.....(and it's not the Audible edition).
Take the time to risk a life changing read, and enjoy this precious window into the Truth of my teacher and her teachers.
August 8, 2017
This was a perfect companion to a vacation on the beach where one can inhale the ocean and hear Gangaji's words in the sound of the waves, feel each word resonating - short-to-the-point quotes about what IS and what appears...
May 27, 2015
A simple, small book that try to capture the essence of truth and freedom. It takes time to assimilate the truth of this small book. What is truth and how to be awakened from it? Guess it takes effort and time. Even now, I have no idea what is truth and how to be free from all thoughts. We should have own freedom.
February 27, 2014
I was little bit hard to understand for me, but the key I guest to do all of this is meditation.
April 22, 2017
When she said no one is lost. It turned me away. I already knew where the book was heading. Then she say find yourself and wake up, well if you are not lost why find yourself and wake up. She is teaching people to stay asleep but putting it in pretty words to fool someone. I don't know if it is unintentional or intentional; I hope it is unintentional. I don't like this book. It was well written but not something I would teach someone.
People are lost. I see so many lost souls a day. I am a lightworker and empath. I was once lost.
Arm yourselves with knowledge and wisdom fore you will need both to survive.
People can learn the wrong things which is why you need wisdom.
Wisdom can only be attained from one who knows all, God.
You may not like Him. You may think you are a god but at the end of the day there is one higher than you that you must answer to.
People are lost. I see so many lost souls a day. I am a lightworker and empath. I was once lost.
Arm yourselves with knowledge and wisdom fore you will need both to survive.
People can learn the wrong things which is why you need wisdom.
Wisdom can only be attained from one who knows all, God.
You may not like Him. You may think you are a god but at the end of the day there is one higher than you that you must answer to.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews