Susan Hawkins – Page 13 – David R. Hawkins

The ego is not ‘wrong’

Q: Is the ego ‘wrong’?

A: The problem with the ego is not that it is wrong; it is just that it is limited and distorted. To conceive of the ego as an enemy is to become polarized, bringing forth conflict, guilt, anger, and shame. Positionalities support the ego. By enlarging context, opposites are transcended and problems are dissolved. Humility removes the ego’s underpinnings of judgmentalism, positionality, and moralizing. In Reality, there can no longer be opposites any more than there can be winners or losers.
The Eye of the I, ch. 12, pg. 244

“It seemed like a good idea at the time”

Choosing the Positive
We can ask ourselves: “When was I ever trained in the techniques of emotional self-healing? When I went to school, did they teach me courses on consciousness? Did anybody ever tell me that I had the freedom to choose what went into my mind? Was I ever taught that I could refuse all of the negative programming? Did anybody ever tell me the laws of consciousness? If not, why beat ourselves up about having innocently believed certain things? Why not stop beating ourselves up right now?

We all did what we thought was best in the moment. “It seemed like a good idea at the time” is what we can say about our past actions and those of others. We’ve all been unwittingly programmed without our conscious assent. Out of our confusion, ignorance, and naiveté, we bought into the negative programs. We let them run us. But now we can choose to stop. We can choose a different direction. We can choose to become more aware, more conscious, more responsible, and more discerning.

from Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender, ch. 4, pg. 66-67

Give Up Guilt

Guilt is an attempt to purchase salvation, manipulate God, and purchase forgiveness by suffering. These attitudes stem from the misinterpretation of God as a great punisher. We think we will assuage His righteous wrath by our pain, suffering, and penance. There is actually only one appropriate ‘penance’ for wrongdoing, and that is change. Instead of condemning the negative, we choose the positive.

To make progress and to change takes more effort than feeling guilty, but, it is a more appropriate response. We note from the Scale of Consciousness that Guilt is way down at the bottom, whereas God is way up at the top. Consequently, wallowing around in guilt at the bottom of the field of consciousness does not get us to the top.

Humility means that we see our own life as the evolution of spiritual consciousness. We learn from mistakes. Maybe the most useful of all quotes to revise whatever the past behavior is, ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’. Later, of course, in retrospect, it becomes recontextualized and seems to be in error. However, if other people are intrinsically innocent because of the nature of consciousness, then so is the self of the spiritual seeker. The Eye of the I, ch. 9, pg. 193-194.

One level is not better than another…

I want everyone to remember what Dr. Hawkins said in this January 2002 lecture that I found in the Book of Slides and to not get caught up in “numbers”, but to realize that all that matters is that you are on the path:

“One level of consciousness is not better than another. Each level is suitable for that which it is. Somebody at 700 is not suitable as a carpenter, is not suitable to run a church, and is not suitable as a president. You do not want anybody at 700, as most of them cannot function at all. They just sit in their ashram and if they still survive, people come and say ‘hello’ to them and they smile happily at them and that is that. The 200s and the 300s, who are the builders of the world, the construction workers, the steel workers, the people who go to work every day, they are the backbone of our society. The 400s is the world of the intellect and reason that dominates America. 500 is rare, with 540 being extremely rare and upwards from 540 there’s practically nobody really.”