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

Hello, we want to share thoughts and quotes from Dr. David R. Hawkins and his wife, Susan Hawkins. We will keep you informed of upcoming events, as well. For available books, CDs, DVDs, and the Map of Consciousness, visit the Dr. David R. Hawkins product page.  Find a Dr. Hawkins Study Group in your area.

Maturity and Humility

Maturity entails the capacity to live with the unanswered and uncertainty and take pleasure from the fact that it is a stimulus to learning and further growth and leads to progressive discovery.

The mature mind knows that it is evolving and that growth and development are satisfying and pleasurable in and of themselves. Maturity implies that one has learned how to be comfortable with uncertainty and has included it as a legitimate ingredient. Uncertainty leads to discovery…

… The most important quality necessary for true growth and evolution is the practice and principle of humility. … Humility, despite its negative public and social image in some quarters of society, is indicative of expertise, wisdom, and maturity.

The Most Favorable Approach

Spiritual practice in ordinary life in many ways is actually the most favorable and beneficial approach … It is a common observation that it is one thing to be pure and holy in an isolated, safe place, but another to remain committed in the world of endless temptations and confrontations.

Devotional Contemplation

Whereas the goal of the ego/mind is primarily to do, act, acquire, or perform, the intention of contemplation is to “become.” While the intellect wants to know “about,” contemplation seeks Knowingness itself and autonomous wisdom.  Rational thinking is time related, sequential, and linear, whereas contemplation occurs outside of sequential time.  It is nonlinear and related to comprehension of essence.  Devotional contemplation is a way or style of being in the world whereby one’s life becomes a prayer.

From  The Ego is Not the Real You, Part I, pg. 22

The Strength of Courage

The critical key to moving into the strength of courage is the acceptance of personal responsibility and accountability. This major move requires relinquishment of a victim/perpetrator dualistic fallacy that socially undermines integrity via blame and excuses based on dualistic, moral, and social relativistic fallacies and theories by which an external ‘cause’ or social condition replaces integrous personal autonomy and self-honesty. Thus, courage also includes rising above identification with the rationalizations that characterize social belief systems… that calibrate based on presumptions of blame and excuses. Even if there is or has been an external ‘cause’, it still behooves the individual to rise above it. Society is rife with well-publicized examples of such invocation of courage, even in the face of severe calamities… Courage does not mean absence of fear but the willingness to surmount it, which, when accomplished, reveals hidden strength and the capacity for fortitude. Fear of failure is diminished by realizing that one is responsible for the intention and effort but not the result, which is dependent on many other conditions and factors that are nonpersonal. 

Strong intention plus dedication assisted by inspiration surprisingly can bring success despite prior failures. This reveals the inner capacity for bravery and fortitude that greatly increases self-esteem and confidence. Many of life’s travails can only be traversed by ‘white-knuckling it’, which builds self-confidence.

From Transcending the Levels of Consciousness p.188-190