What does “Surrender to God” really mean?

It means to surrender control and the secret satisfactions of the ego’s positionalities.  Turn only to love and to God as the source of life and joy.  This choice is available in every instant.  When finally chosen, the reward is great.  By invitation, spiritual awareness illuminates the way.  The key is willingness.

How can God be recognized unless one is already well along the path?

A: The first evidence of the presence of God is an awakening curiosity or interest in spiritual matters.  That is the crack in the ego’s dam.  When the person begins to desire or practice spiritual goals or pursue spiritual information, the Presence is already taking hold of one’s life.

If the desire arises to surrender all obstacles to love and to God, then God is already present in the form of willingness.  When one reaches devotion, there is already quite an advanced Presence that is dissolving the ego and illuminating the way.  Spiritual progress and discovery and accompanied by joy, which is the radiance of the Self, and quickly replaces the surrendered ego’s positionalities.  Spiritual inspiration increases in intensity each step along the way.  When the self stops looking to the world or to the ego, it discovers that its source has been the Self all along.

“I”: Reality and Subjectivity, Ch. 18, pg. 313-314

 

Behind All the Sound of the Universe…

Behind all the sound of the universe, the silence is forever there. Behind the sounds in the woods, the woods are silent. The sound of the bird doesn’t have anything to do with the silence. You see, the silence is maintained even though there’s sound above it. But the only reason you can hear the sound is because it’s against the background of silence. The silence is there right in the middle of sound.

Focus on the silence, which is ever present, in the middle of cacophony and catastrophe, as the bullets are flying around and the planes are crashing and all hell’s breaking loose, and there’s nothing but the infinite silence. Identify with that silence and just maintain the awareness. Go about your daily life and do everything that you need to do, and at all times still be aware of the presence of the silence.

That gives you a centering. A centering kind of prayerfulness is you’re always aware of the silence, which is the infinite context. The reality of the presence of God is an infinite silence. And then that which you hold in mind in that silence tends to manifest, not as a result of causation but potentiality manifesting.

“And we thank thee, oh Lord, for thy divine presence as the infinite silence out of which arises our existence. Amen.

And we finish with the same that we started, Gloria in Excelsis Deo. We thank thee, oh Lord, for thy divine presence.

The Wisdom of Dr. David R. Hawkins, pg. 192-193

All Spiritual Progress is a Gift

How Can One Prevent the Development of a Spiritual Ego? Each success seems like it would feed into it.

Realize that there is no such entity as the doer of deeds or actions. There is no doer/self to take blame or credit.  Progress is the result of a quality of consciousness that has been activated by the assent of the spiritual will. Spiritual inspiration becomes the energy that is operating. It does not emanate from the ego/self.

The Self, like the divinity of God, does not ‘do’ anything, nor does it ‘act’ or ‘perform’ or ‘intend’ or ‘choose’, for it is beyond all volition.  The manifestation of God as Existence is void of conditions or positionalities.  The purity of Divinity is beyond comprehension by the ego because the ego is limited by form and always assumes a duality of subject and object.

That which is the Ultimate nonlinear Reality is not divisible and is beyond the subject/object duality of the ego’s conceptions based on positionality.  All spiritual progress is a gift, and humble gratitude precludes pride.

“I” Reality and Subjectivity, 2003, Ch. 19, pg. 338-339

The Discovery of the Self

To look within for the actual source of love leads to the discovery of the Self. Like the sun, the Self is ever present, unconditional, and not subject to thought, opinion, or attitude.  The Self can only love because that is its essence.  The love of the Self is not earned, deserved or subject to limitation.  The Self the source of life and the subjective awareness of existence…It is beyond all dualities; there is no duality between the Self and existence. The Unmanifest and Manifest are one and the same.  Consciousness may include content, or it may not.  By analogy, space is not dependent on the presence of planets or universes, yet it includes all of them.

The Ego is Not the Real You, pg. 134

In Spite of Desire

Desire, especially strong desire (e.g., cravingness), frequently blocks our getting what we want.

Why is this so?  Actually, the way something comes into our life is because we have chosen it.  It was the result of our intention, or we made a decision for it. It has come into our life in spite of desire. The desiring was actually the obstacle to its achievement or acquisition.  This is because desire literally means, ” I do not have.”  In other words, if we say that we desire something, we are saying that it isn’t ours.  When we say that it isn’t ours, we put a psychic distance between ourselves and what we want.  This distance becomes the obstacle that consumes energy.

The impossible becomes possible as soon as we are totally surrendered.  This is because wanting blocks receiving it and results in a fear of not getting it.  The energy of desire is in essence, a denial that what we want is ours for the asking.

Let’s compare the arduous lower consciousness way of achieving goals with a higher state of consciousness in which we have acknowledged and let go of the desire and are in a freer state.  In a freer state, that which is chosen manifests in our life effortlessly.  We surrender the emotion of desire and, instead, merely choose the goal, picture it lovingly, and allow it to happen because we see that it is already ours.

Why is it already ours?  In a lower state of consciousness, the universe is seen as negative and denying, frustrating, and reluctant.  It is like a bad, stingy parent.  In a higher state of consciousness, our experience of the universe changes.  It now becomes like a giving, loving unconditionally approving parent who wants us to have everything we want, and it is ours for the asking.  This is creating a different context. It is giving the universe a different meaning.

Although the world may be stingy and hostile to other people, there is no reason why we should buy into this paradigm.  When we buy into it, we make it that way in our own life.  As we experience the letting go of desires, we begin to see that what we have chosen will come into our own life almost magically.  “What we hold in mind tends to manifest.”

Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender, Ch. 7, pg. 108-109