Bears Remix: 3 Favorite Quotes from Barry Neil Kaufman

From David:

"By giving away what we want most (love, money, gratitude), we create a greater abundance of the very commodity we seek. What goes around comes around."

~ Barry Neil Kaufman

Bears titled this quote "Amplification" in his book of pensées, "Out-Smarting Your Karma and Other PreOrdained Conditions". I trust in these words as if they are like a law of nature, something we can always count on. If I am happy, easy, with a desire to be useful (loving) to every person I spend time with, I see a remarkable response from each of those people. If I really listen to and fully visit the world of whoever I'm with, no matter how foreign the climate and scenery of that planet may seem, I am greeted with commonality and openness. Turn up the volume on love in your life: amplification. Big love!


"Don't cut yourself just some slack... cut yourself all the slack you need."

~ Barry Neil Kaufman

Ahhhhhhh. What I find so useful about this idea is that it is like a recipe for feeling ease, a shortcut to taking off self-induced pressure (stress). Others can try to pressure us to do what they want us to do, to do it faster, etc., but we decide whether to work ourselves up about it. I can work more efficiently, creatively, effectively, faster without the stress. ALL the slack you need. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Love it!


"When I attend to my fears and discomforts, it seems as if I no longer know what I'm wanting."

~ Barry Neil Kaufman

Also from "Out-Smarting Your Karma and Other PreOrdained Conditions", entitled "Losing Touch". I love the "seems as if" because it brings home the point: when we are living in our "negative emotions", we act from a consciousness that is not keyed into what we want to be doing. The result is "losing touch" and we find ourselves acting in a way we're actually trying to avoid in our lives. Staying in touch with what we're thinking may seem like it should be unnecessary, but I think it absolutely is, for the reason Bears gives here. I know that if I feel discomfort or fear and don't pay attention, I go involuntary, my brain stops working cross-hemisphere or something, and all the internal drama gets staged and turned into a huge production, distracting and often sabotaging what I want to be doing.


If there's a book that Bears has written that you haven't read, I recommend it to you! There are gems like these throughout his writings.