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

With a shift of focus from the subjective participant to the observer, one sees the narcissistic emphasis on expectations as an ego positionality that makes the individual a petulant or anger-prone person. The angry person secretly feels entitled to its wants and desires and has impossible expectations of life. Anger can also be an attitude and a vulnerable ego positionality. It leads to aggression rather than the healthier alternative of self-assertion.

The basic antidote to anger is humility, which is the counterbalance to the egotism that feeds it. The infant within the angry person rails against the unfairness of life, which is actually the perception of the petulant, spoiled child. Narcissism engenders the belief that one deserves to get what one wants, for the narcissistic core of the ego is concerned only with an inflated self-importance. When it dawns on the infant that the universe is indifferent to the ego’s wants, it goes into a rage that transposes into patterns of interpersonal conflict. Anger then becomes the futile attempt to control others who become objects to be manipulated or blamed for frustration.

From I: Reality and Subjectivity p. 196-197

Willingness supports intention and facilitates the purification process of spiritual evolution, which often requires the willingness to face inner discomfort for the sake of reaching a higher goal.  Willingness summons forth the extra energy required for the effort of overcoming obstacles and resistances.  It also requires commitment to periods of endurance to reach the higher goal.  It includes a positive attitude toward the process of learning itself and the acquisition of necessary spiritual information and commitment.  Willingness is a positive attitude as contrasted with the attitude of willfulness, which is a form of resistance.  Surrender of positionalities is a consequence of willingness and is therefore an important quality of serious inner spiritual endeavor.

From Transcending the Levels of Consciousness,  Ch. 11, pg. 212  

Acute catastrophes are the times when we make great leaps, when we face them directly and fixedly say, ‘I will not veer from this spiritual work.’ Now we are really confronted with truly spiritual work. It is not reading some pleasant-sounding phrases in a book or looking at some happy picture. Instead, we are right in the thick of it, in the teeth of it. The teeth of spiritual work occur when we are confronted with that which we cannot avoid. It is the direct confrontation that requires a leap in consciousness.

These are the golden opportunities that are priceless if we see them that way, if we are willing to be with them and say, ‘Okay’. The willingness to go with them, no matter how painful it may be, enables a giant leap in consciousness, a real advance in wisdom, knowledge, and awareness. That which we read about in the books then becomes our own inner experience.

… The trick of the mind is to not see that. It tries to change what goes on ‘out there’, tries to figure it out, and then falls back on the intellect and finds that the intellect is not going to resolve this kind of problem.

… There is the awareness in acute overwhelm that we really can handle the experiences. Part of the panic comes from the realization that what we think we are – our powerless, limited self – is no match for the power of this experience. That is precisely what is going on – the limited, individual, personal self cannot handle the overwhelm. This is the precise spiritual value of it.

From Healing and Recovery p. 250-251

Harsh viewpoints are not conducive to spiritual growth. Even if they are ‘right’ or ‘justified’, a spiritual seeker cannot afford them. One has to give up the luxury of revenge or enjoying that ‘justice has to be done’ when a supposed murderer is executed. One cannot violate basic spiritual principles without paying a price. The spiritual seeker sees through the illusions and therefore gives up the role of  judge and jury. Nobody goes ‘scot-free’, as people indignantly protest.

From Eye of the I, pg 193

A useful approach is to let the love for God replace the willfulness that is driving the seeking. One can release all desire to seek and realize that the thought that there is anything else but God is a baseless vanity. This is the same vanity that claims authorship for one’s experiences, thoughts, and actions. With reflection, it can be seen that both the body and the mind are the result of the innumerable conditions of the universe and that one is at best the witness of this concordance. Out of an unrestricted love for God arises the willingness to surrender all motives except to serve God completely. To be the servant of God becomes one’s goal rather than enlightenment. To be a perfect channel for God’s love is to surrender completely and to eliminate the goal seeking of the spiritual ego. Joy itself becomes the initiator of further spiritual work.

From  The Eye of the I p. 37