Category: Thoughts & quotes from Sir David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. & Susan Hawkins

Spiritual commitment simply means to recontextualize  the goal and meaning of one’s life.  This needs to be done totally, all inclusively, so that life does not become segmented into spiritual work versus ordinary life.  All life now becomes spiritual practice because context becomes the priority that encompasses every act, thought, or moment.  This poised point of view already results in a degree of nonattachment.

From this viewpoint, the emphasis in practice is to observe all the content of evolving life without making  any comment, criticism, or judgment.  The prevailing attitude can be stated as “That is how it seems to be.” The observer/witness becomes detached from commentary about life and is then capable of transcending opinionation, likes, dislikes, aversions, attractions, arguments, or objections.

Life unfolds of its own and does not need commentary.  The habit of editorializing about what is witnessed needs to be voluntarily surrendered to God.

I: Reality and Subjectivity: Ch. 17, pgs. 299-300, 2003 Veritas Publishing

Surrender…facilitates the basic teachings of all the world’s great religions.

The essential goal of these teachings is to surrender the “small self,” commonly called “ego.” The letting go technique facilitates the goal of dissolving the small self by using a simple inner process of surrender. When the small self is transcended, the true inner Self shines forth. Let us take, for instance, the most common short means of expression of this surrendering phenomenon as given by most religions. Typically, they follow this pattern:
Let go and let God.
Be still and know that I am God.
Turn your life and will over to the care of God as you understand Him.
Surrender to what is, for God is in all things.

It is obvious that letting go of negativity facilitates the very direction that all religions and spiritual pathways urge us to take. The process of letting go is concerned primarily with feelings, and we have seen that feelings have a profound effect on our thoughts and belief systems. The experience of most people who use the mechanism of surrender is that it facilitates their spiritual and religious goals. Those who do not consciously have any religious or spiritual goals have remarked that it facilitates their capacity for lovingness, which substantially increases their happiness and well-being.

Letting G0: The Pathway of Surrender, Ch. 21, pg. 313

…The willingness to let go the payoffs of the ego, the gratifications, the feelings of justification, the willingness to feel victorious at another person’s expense. What you have to remind yourself is, although what you’re getting out of this ego position has a certain pleasure, it is not happiness. You get pleasure out of turning the knife in somebody’s back, but you don’t get happiness out of it. So, if you let go of the pleasure of
revenge, let’s say, what you get is the happiness of being a freer,
more loving, and therefore self-loving spirit. So, there is an enormous payoff. You get back far more than you let go of.

The Evolution of Consciousness: Ch. 5, pg. 152

Note: This book contains the transcriptions from the 2002 lectures, March and April.

When faced with a  life crisis, …it does not seem like ‘Spiritual’ work.  Spiritual work is pictured as studying a textbook, looking at a picture of a guru, and singing songs.  Then an acute catastrophe occurs, and the spiritual work is bypassed.  It then resumes after all the various emergencies and tasks in one’s life have been handled.

It is as though we do not really see the essence of spiritual work.  We do not see that the spiritual work brings up these acute crises, brings us into them and that they are an opportunity.  This is where the spiritual work is happening.  The other was preparation, gathering of information and experience, deciding on direction, and accumulating spiritual knowledge. Then suddenly comes the moment of Truth, the time to do it.

Healing and Recovery, Ch. 8, pg. 249-250

Out of an unrestricted love for God arises the willingness to surrender all motives except to serve God completely.  To be the servant of God becomes one’s goal rather than enlightenment.  To be a perfect channel for God’s love is to surrender completely and to eliminate the goal seeking of the spiritual ego.  Joy itself becomes the initiator of further spiritual work.

Daily Reflections from Dr. David R. Hawkins, pg. 25.