There is, however, a growing segment of the population that is admittedly spiritual and embraces the practice of spiritual values in daily life without the necessity of formal religion per se. … friendly to religion but at the same time may keep a formal distance because they see it as too sectarian, restrictive, or decisive. Spiritually-oriented people tend to become familiar with the tenets of a variety of religions and seek to identify the inherent truth that is essential to each. Thus, the most common search in today’s world is for universal, practical spiritual principles that are self evident, have intrinsic value, and do not depend solely on ecclesiastical authority or dogma. To be kind, supportive, and compassionate to all of life is a common, overall prevailing attitude.
Category: Thoughts & quotes from Sir David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. & Susan Hawkins
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Dickens’ Christmas Carol
Question: What can you do in this lifetime to negate any karmic responsibilities that you may have acquired? Do you have any shortcuts?
Answer: “Do good at all times to all people and cross your fingers, hahahaha. I guess one follows one’s spiritual direction to the best of one’s ability, which is all that’s required, you know what I’m saying?
That’s all that’s required. It’s not that God is a cruel taskmaster. See, God is not arbitrary. God is completely non-arbitrary. One earns one’s way out by one’s own good intentions. And you watch Dickens’ Christmas Carol every year. It’s worth watching every year because I think it’s a great spiritual treatise. I think that Dickens’ Christmas Carol is one of the greatest spiritual treatises ever written. The “Ghost of Christmas past”- we see where it would take us in the future and now, we have the chance to choose differently, that’s all. He was a great spiritual teacher.”
From Jan 2002 Causality: The Ego’s Foundation, DVD Disk 3 01:27:35-01:28:53
Decline the Ego’s Programs
What really varies from individual to individual is the degree to which one is enslaved by its programs. The degree of dominance is therefore determined by the extent to which one identifies with it. Inherently, it has no power, and the power to decline the ego’s programs increases exponentially as one progresses spiritually.
… When we see how people are dominated by the ego’s programs, we realize that, without awareness or insight, they are relatively unable to help themselves. We say they are ‘driven’ by greed, hate, fear, addiction, or pride. … To be unconscious means just that; thus, ‘sin’ can be seen really as a limitation in the evolution of consciousness. This limitation was termed ‘ignorance’ by both the Buddha and Jesus Christ.
Limiting Postulates
It can also be observed that many basic postulates have such wide acceptance that they are automatically uncritically subscribed to. … To the spiritual student, this awareness is of critical importance because each postulate establishes a context that is a constraint and limitation, with the resultant dualities of perception and belief.
Some common examples that illustrate the principle of limiting postulates are:
1. There is a right side and a wrong side to every conflict.
2. There is a cause for everything.
3. Someone is responsible for everything.
4. Someone is to blame for unfortunate events and accidents.
5. There is an answer to every question.
6. Everything has an opposite.
7. Everything has a meaning.
8. Everyone is capable of reason.
9. Everyone’s reality is really basically the same.
10. Some things are better than others.
11. Time marches on.
12. Some things are more valuable than others.
13. Reason is a reliable tool.
14. Logic is proof.
15. There is a self-existent, discoverable, objective reality ‘out there’.
16. Man is superior to animals because he can think.
17. Everyone knows right from wrong.
18. The guilty deserve punishment and the good deserve rewards.
While these postulates may seem different, they are actually inherently all the same in that they create a restrictive structure and limitation to transcending the dominion of form and the ego of structure itself.
… Everything reveals the miracle of existence and therefore, everything without exception, is equal to everything else by the virtue of its existence.
… Mentation, reason, logic, and language are all structured dualistically based on the axiom that there is a subject and an object, that there is a ‘this’ doing or causing a ‘that’. Reason strives to find a connection between a witnessed phenomenon and some antecedent that is most commonly located in prior time. Logic then concludes that which precedes an event must somehow be the ’cause’ or explanation. It confuses temporal sequence with causation.
The ’cause’ of anything is always the same. It is the totality of all that exists now or ever has existed in history. Context is the total universe.
What Kind of Future do We Want?
We have the opportunity to choose whether we want to hang on or let go of emotional upsets. We can look at the cost of hanging on to them. Do we want to pay the price? Are we willing to accept the feelings? We can look at the benefits of letting go of them. The choice we make will determine our future. What kind of future do we want? Will we choose to be healed, or will we become one of the walking wounded?