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.

There is No Happiness Outside One’s Self

There is anger and resentment, as well as fear at loss of control when loss is involuntary and unexpected. Disruption of life by the unexpected also creates anxiety at the forced readjustment, which may require major decision-making. … all suffering and emotional pain result from resistance. Its cure is via surrender and acceptance, which relieve the pain.

… A basic truth to be realized in the process is that there is no possible, actual source of happiness outside one’s self. Loss really brings long-standing illusions to the surface, along with opportunities to lessen its dominance in the psyche. The ego has a multitude of attachments to beliefs, slogans, objects, people, titles, money, conveniences, entertainment, furnishings, sentimental tokens, and memories of all the above. The ego/mind cherishes that which is temporary and transitory because it is valued as ‘special’ and therefore sees it as a ‘source’ of happiness.

Paradoxically, loss is simultaneously freedom and the opening of new options. Loss services inner adaptations and qualities that represent opportunities for growth. Simultaneously, the mind regrets and would like to undo change and return to the comfort of former circumstances, but evolutionary developmental growth is insistent. 


… All forms of loss are a confrontation to the ego and its survival mechanisms. All aspects of human life are transient; therefore, to cling to any aspect eventually brings grief and loss. Each incident, however, is an opportunity to search within for the source of life, which is ever present, unchanging, and not subject to loss or the ravages of time.

Grief or loss, like any stressful situation in life, can be seen as a valuable growth opportunity and a time for reassessment of values and goals. If this is followed, eventually it is possible to let go of all attachments, including belief systems, and experience the source of happiness that emanates from within.

From Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment p. 94-96

Grist for the Mill

The person who is involved in spiritual work is always looking at what is occurring in life, seeing it as the teacher, as the grist for the mill. What is happening represents that which is being worked on, so an acute catastrophe would just be a continuation of the process that is going on anyway. As a result, the person who is intensely involved in spiritual work would then see it as a golden opportunity, painful and regretful perhaps, but one of great benefit. The essential nature of spiritual work is to remain focused on what arises from instant to instant and become aware of ‘what’ is experiencing and where it is being experienced.

… Out of this experience comes an ever greater willingness to rely on that inner Presence, with less and less reliance on the small self. Less frequently, then, does the person look to the small self to handle life’s problems, as there is a progressive willingness to surrender to one’s higher Self. The progressive loss of identification with the small self and the increasing identification with the Presence, along with the willingness to surrender life and all of its aspects to the will of God, become the very core of the person’s spiritual exercise and experience.

The acute catastrophic experience is a key learning opportunity that teaches us to go to the very core, to the very essence of the experience, to see what it is and handle it at the level of experiencing within the energy field of consciousness itself. There is the willingness to surrender and to let go of wanting to change what happened ‘out there’. There is the letting go of wanting to control by thinking about it and trying to handle it with the intellect and the emotions. There is the willingness to surrender to the essence of the experience without calling it anything, or labeling it, or putting names on it. There is the willingness to handle the energy field of it and go directly to the inner experience. The surrender to the inner experience is the open doorway to the experience of something greater than the small personal self.

From Healing and Recovery p. 258-259

Attachment

Q: Is it the all-pervasiveness of attachment that is the obstacle, no matter where one starts self-inquiry?

A: All serious inquiry eventually uncovers the obstacles to realizing the Self.  To examine attachment or its corollary, aversion, is a time-saver; it is ubiquitous, pervasive, and the core element of every obstacle.  We can look at it and ask what is the intention of attachment.  There is an illusion or fantasy associated with all of them–security, survival, success, pleasure, and so on. That pervasive quality of attachment has an origin or root that can be uncovered.  The mind is attached to or identifies with what it values, including its hopes, dreams, and illusions.

Attachment is a very peculiar quality of the ego.  It can be totally undone in all its pervasive and multitudinous forms of clinging by simply letting go of one’s faith in it or belief in its value as a reality.  This one giant step is a confrontation to being unaware of one’s attachments.  The attachment to ‘self’ or ‘me’ or ‘I’ is a basic trap.  One can seek out its fantasy value–the self gets attached to what it values.  We note that attachment requires and is sustained by an energy and an intention.  The mind is attached to the very process of attachment itself as a survival tool.  Letting go of the ego is based on the willingness to surrender attachment to it as a substitute for God and just another illusion.

From I: Reality and Subjectivity, ch. 18,  “No Mind”, pg. 422-423

The Game of ‘Victim’

Q. What does it mean to be a victim?
A. To be a victim, is to be a victim of the ego.

The ego gets a grim pleasure and satisfaction from suffering and all the nonintegrous levels of pride, anger, desire, guilt, shame, and grief. The secret pleasure of suffering is addictive. Many people devote their whole life to it and encourage others to follow suit. To stop this mechanism, the pleasure of the payoff has to be identified and willingly surrendered to God. Out of shame, the ego blocks out conscious awareness of its machinations, especially the secretiveness of the game of ‘victim’.

… That is the secret about secrets. The payoff is a gain of a pleasurably satisfying reward. The ego has learned to be very clever in order to survive. It is capable of resorting to any lengths or ruse of self-deception and camouflage. The world we witness is merely the drama of the collective egos acting out on the perceptual stage of form and time.

From I: Reality and Subjectivity p. 244-245

Stay with Holy Company

Spiritual endeavor starts with taking responsibility rather than depending on naïve impulsivity or prosely­tization. It is important to realize it is not just a literal wording of teachings but also the entire energy field of a teacher or organization that has a subtle, unseen field effect upon students. There is wisdom in the old dic­tum to “stay with holy company” and avoid that which is nonintegrous. Just on the face of it, it would appear to be foolish to disregard the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Buddha, or Krishna… and substitute for them the pseudo-deification of the teachings of atheistic anarchists whose false teachings have brought on the death of literally hundreds of mil­lions of people just in this lifetime.