Guy Finley - The Courage to Be Free: Discover Your Original Fearless Self

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 47

CHAPTER 57

CHAPTER 63

CHAPTER 69

CHAPTER 75

CHAPTER 79

CHAPTER 83

CHAPTER 91

CHAPTER 97

CHAPTER 105

CHAPTER 113

Do You HAVE the courage to be free? Not to just wish for freedom, but to meet every moment knowing that you have the right and the spiritual might to live without fear, worry, and doubt?

If you've ever really tried to shake off what's shaking you in some moment of unwanted change-then you know what you're up against. To cherish and long for the idea of freedom is one thing; but to find the courage it takes to let go of all that's keeping you from being free ... seems that's another story altogether! Yet, freedom can be yours. Of this there's little doubt, provided you're willing to learn the truth about yourself-about who and what you are not.

For instance, you are not that sense of inadequacy that wants you to quit or give up on your life's dreams.

You are not that compulsive feeling that causes you to fawn before others in order to win their favor.

You are not any of those dark memories that swarm and sting you with sorrow and regret.

The truth is that you are not any of the defeated thoughts and feelings that try to drag you down and drive you to seek yet another new "power" by which to save yourself-again! And when you see the truth of these facts, your eyes are opened to a holy order of truth: You don't need new powers to find freedom. All such "paths to power" lead nowhere. Realizing the spiritual freedom you long for appears by itself once you stop agreeing to seejourself aspowerless in the face ofpunishing thoughts and feelings!

In The Courage to Be Free, you will make the glad discovery that who you really are, your original fearless Self, can no more be made a captive of some unwanted situation-inward or outward-than sunlight can be made to stand in its own shadow.

EVERY SAINT, SAGE, and wise man or woman from every timeless tradition-East or West, past or present-has a special message for you:

You have been left agreat inheritance.

A treasure chest of spiritual gifts awaits you; you need only claim it for your own. But this is no ordinary treasure; within this great chest lie others-chest within chest within chest-each one holding a prize that increases the value of the one before it! But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. We'll talk about what's in the other chests once we've examined the contents of the main one.

Here's what awaits you in the first great chest:

Your birthright to be free.

Let's pause to consider the magnitude of this gift, keeping in mind how often we step, unaware, into the small prison cell of some self-compromising thought or feeling.

One thing we already know is that worry, doubt, resentment, and fear-whatever their shape or form-hold captive anyone unwary enough to fall into their web of woe. But your reclaimed birthright authorizes you to be as naturally free of these negative states as it is for you to be full of "grace under fire," regardless of how dire circumstances may seem. And there's more.

Yours is also the right to effortlessly recognize and release anger and frustration, to be able to see them for exactly what they are-false powers disguised as helpful guides in times of duress. And taking their place-as flowers replace weeds in a well-cared-for garden-are new powers of kindness, patience, and love. These characteristics are born of a living light that gently sweeps away whatever remains within you to oppose your liberation.