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

Success can’t be had “out there.” No amount of effort will accomplish it, because it doesn’t exist “out there.”

True strength and power comes from the ability to stick by one’s principles no matter what.

…If we love the whole book of our lives and don’t get enamored with one sole chapter, our lives will be equally successful. The rule is: no compromise with that which benefits and supports the lives of everyone, that which inspires, that which uplifts, that which validates, and that which honors life. Success comes from understanding the nature of life. Once it is comprehended, nothing but success is possible. This doesn’t mean that struggle may not ensue; in overcoming old ways of being and adopting new ones, there may indeed be a period of struggle.

Special Quote:  “With one little shift of the heart, the whole movie changes. The best the head can do is change the scenario or improve the quality of the production. But no real change takes place until one changes the heart of the matter. That is where the power exists.” pg. 98

Success is for You: Ch. 8, Pg. 95-96

The limitations of Love have to do with perceived qualities and differences. By inner self-honesty and examination, these areas of limitation are revealed, usually as residual judgments or as the impact from prior experience. A key to making Love unconditional is the willingness of forgiveness to undo past reservations, experiences, and viewing people as unlovable.

By the willingness to forgive and surrender one’s perceptions, they may be recontextualized and now seen simply as limited or influenced by programming as spiritually underprivileged and reflective of the ego’s proclivity to be blind to falsity. By intention, awareness may be changed from the perceptual duality of good/bad to witnessing ‘desirable’ versus ‘less desirable’, or even just preferable or less preferable.
Forgiveness ensues from the willingness of humility to surrender the world and its events to God.

Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, Ch. 14, Pg. 253-254

So, love, then, is a style, a way of being, and it’s a way of being with yourself. Out of compassion for yourself, you’re willing to let go of the things that bring you pain. So, instead of going from the bottom up, we can just start from the top down on the Map. Out of compassion for yourself, then, you’re willing to let go of that which brings you pain, suffering, guilt—brings it to yourself and others. Out of love for yourself, out of love for oneself, out of compassion for oneself. Out of compassion for myself, I am not going to allow myself to fall into the pit. Not being so linked to something, that if it leaves, I will then go into grief. Out of compassion. So, that lovingness now takes the form of an attitude toward yourself and your own life and those around you. So out of compassion for everything, then, I have the willingness to let things go.

We do it all the time as a style of life. One expression of love, then, is devotion, and in spiritual work, that devotion becomes more and more intense. It finally reaches the point where it’s willing to let anything go that stands in the way. We may think it’s the small things that we’re letting go of. We say, “Well, I let go of my favorite sneakers and it seems trivial.” Oh no. The capacity to let go of your favorite sneakers and not grieve about them or be angry at somebody stealing them or something. The capacity to surrender your sneakers is going to be one of the last things right before enlightenment. Why is that? It’s because you have that capacity to let go, huh?

Karma and Devotion: The Sacred Path to God Through the Heart: Ch. 1, pg. 20-21

(This book contains the transcriptions for the Sept. and Oct.  2002 lectures presented by Dr. Hawkins.)

All spiritual pathways and religions emphasize the need for expanding our capacity to love, and this is essentially what the process of surrender is all about. By removing the blocks to love, the capacity to love self, others, and God is expanded.

Surrender also 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 Go: Ch. 21, pg. 313

One surprising effect of the willingness to let go of our inner negativity is the discovery that the polar opposite of the negative feelings exists. There is an inner reality that we can term our “inner greatness” or “Higher Self.” It has much more power than the inner negativity. In return for letting go of the payoffs that we were getting from the negative position, we are now surprised by the positive payoffs that stem from the power of our positive feelings. For example, when we let go of blame, we experience forgiveness.
Our Higher Self, which we might say is the composite of our higher feelings, has almost unlimited capabilities. It can create employment opportunities. It can create situations for the healing of relationships. It has the power to create the opportunity for loving relationships, financial opportunities, and physical healing. As we stop giving authority and energy to all of the negative programs that stem from our own thinking, we stop giving away our power to others and begin to own it back again. This results in a rise of self-esteem, the return of creativity, and the opening of a positive vision of the future that replaces fearfulness.

Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender: Ch.4,Pg. 63-64