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

Q:  If practically everything in one’s life depends on the evolution of the level of one’s consciousness, it would seem that, aside from mere survival needs, developing that level of consciousness would eclipse all other endeavors in importance.

A:  That would seem to be so, but that has to be integrated into the overall context of one’s life.  Endeavors and activities can remain the same but need to be recontextualized and repositioned within a spiritual framework.  To spiritualize one’s life, it is necessary only to shift one’s motive.  To constantly be aware of one’s actual motive tends to bring up positionality and the pairs of opposites, such as gain versus service or love versus greed.  These then become visible and are available for spiritual work because one is now conscious of them.

…In spiritual work, there is no tangible worldly gain to be acquired, but there is instead an inner reward of pleasure, satisfaction, delight, and even joy.  Goals replace gains as motives.

from I: Reality and Subjectivity, Ch. 5, pg. 155-156

I thought all you folks would enjoy this great technique from one of Dave’s lectures on how to eliminate fears:

“In surrendering a stack of fears, you can use the technique of “And then what?” You take a fear and say “And then what?”:

I lost my car. And then what?

I won’t have transportation. And then what?

I will lose my job. And then what?

I will have to walk to work. And then what?

There aren’t any jobs like that and I won’t have any money. And then what?

Then I’ll be poor. And then what?

Then I will starve to death.

So at the bottom of every stack of fears is the fear of death, physical death. So once you’ve accepted physical death, then, most of the fears that we have which are focused on the body and loss of possessions and things disappear. You do that by acceptance.”

from “Serenity”, August 2005 lecture, disc 2 and “Book of Slides”

Choosing the Positive
We can ask ourselves: “When was I ever trained in the techniques of emotional self-healing?  When I went to school, did they teach me courses on consciousness? Did anybody ever tell me that I had the freedom to choose what went into my mind? Was I ever taught that I could refuse all of the negative programming?  Did anybody ever tell me the laws of consciousness?  If not, why beat ourselves up about having innocently believed certain things? Why not stop beating ourselves up right now?

We all did what we thought was best in the moment.  “It seemed like a good idea at the time” is what we can say about our past actions and those of others. We’ve all been unwittingly programmed without our conscious assent.  Out of our confusion, ignorance, and naiveté, we bought into the negative programs.  We let them run us.  But now we can choose to stop.  We can choose a different direction.  We can choose to become more aware, more conscious, more responsible, and more discerning.

from Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender, ch. 4, pg. 66-67

Dave was so right on with this passage and his humor came out with every lesson he taught, allowing us to laugh at ourselves in the smallest detail.

Susan: I don’t know, I look at people and I see that so many of them, their wants are so large. Their wants are more than what their earnings are. “I have to have that car and I’ll be happy”. “I have to have this house and then I’ll be happy” and then “I have to have this pool for the house and then I’ll be happy”, but then when they get all that, it’s always another thing that they’re not happy with.

Dr. Hawkins: Yes, that’s the error of seeing happiness as something outside of yourself, something to be gained. The value of things is purely a projection, each and every thing of its own, you know. If you were starving to death in the middle of the desert, the Hope Diamond wouldn’t do you much good. So it’s desirability, then, and it’s called glamour or the energy of glamour is projected onto things. We think the attractiveness is out there. There’s no attractiveness out there. All attractiveness is in here. It’s because you desire that, want it and value it that it looks desirable and attractive to you. Pickled beets look very good to you, if you like pickled beets and if you don’t they aren’t attractive, you know.

So that’s the projection of value onto the external world and that of course is the basis of materialism and the whole economy is based on wanting this and wanting that and wanting something else and to instill such wants if you don’t want something then you’ll get programmed to wanting it. Better burial benefits! They’re out to sell you something. Prepaid funerals, I mean they are right down to the very last thing. Better coffins, you know what I mean. So, there’s no end to programming people to wantingness. So wantingness is the backbone of our economy, the backbone of our economy is wantingness. And when people stop wanting things, it all comes to a halt. But when you let go wanting the physical, then you want the emotional and you want the spiritual. What you’re looking for the world cannot provide. What you’re looking for is the return of love. A glance of love is all that you really wanted that entire day.

—from the “What is the World?” Feb 2009 lecture