Episode 4: Takeaways from "Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender" by David R. Hawkins

One of the people who has influenced me lately is Dr. David R. Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins passed away in 2012, but for much of his life he was Director of the Institute for Spiritual Research and he was the Founder of the Path of Devotional Nonduality. Dr. Hawkins was a clinician and a scientist; he wrote books, gave lectures, and served as an advisor to Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhist monasteries. He lived an interesting life and had a unique way of explaining spiritual evolution.

I've read three of his books so far: Letting Go, The Pathway of Surrender; The Eye of the I, From Which Nothing is Hidden; and Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self, which is a compact collection of Dr. Hawkins teachings from several of his books.

I'll talk about some of my key takeaways from Letting Go today, and discuss The Eye of the I in the next episode.

One key point that Dr. Hawkins drives home is that thoughts are driven by feelings. For example: When you feel slighted by someone, your response might be to think, "What a jerk!" Now you have the thought that this person is a jerk because of a feeling that you experienced and he will be forever defined that way for you. But what do you really know about this person's actual worth as a human being beyond how he made you feel in that moment?

Another thing I now understand is that my thoughts and feelings are driven by my life experiences and social conditioning. The same is true for every other person on this planet. Feelings become thoughts, which lead to other feelings and thoughts, and they feed each other until the real truth of a person or a situation becomes obscured by our own thoughts and feelings.

I've also learned that suppressed and repressed feelings can cause physical and emotional suffering. The feelings that we hold inside color our view of the world, and the world then reflects back to us our own fears and misgivings. When you are fearful, the world is a scary place. When you are hateful, the world seems full of hate. We also tend to blame our feelings on others. We say things like, "They made me angry." or "The news makes me anxious." In reality, nobody can "make" you angry. That is a feeling within you that you allow to well up in response to certain stimuli.

By letting go of emotional attachments and negative feelings, we can make room for the growth of love and understanding, removing obstructions for richer interpersonal relationships, creativity, and spiritual growth. This doesn't mean repressing these feelings, it just means letting them come and go without judging them or holding on to them. We can never be devoid of feelings, but we can decide to not let them rule over us. If something provokes a negative emotion, don't try to change it or make it go away. Let it come, observe it, and let it pass without giving it any extra thought or energy. Realize that it is just a feeling, and has no other meaning. Just this morning I found myself crying over the loss of my mother a year ago. I remembered how the last thing we did together was to listen to a playlist of her music, and how beautiful it was, and how much I miss her. In the past, I might have scolded myself for crying, being weak, not having control over my emotions. Instead, I let the grief well up, I experienced it, and I let it pass. What remained was the loving memory of my mother.

Something to remember is that the strength of your emotions can be felt by those around you. The stronger the emotion, the higher the vibration of your aura, the more you affect others. If you emit strong negative vibrations, you will receive the same from others, and vice-versa. Positivity will return positivity. I see this every time I walk somewhere and smile at someone, then they smile back. That simple action can promote a positive feeling in both of you that lasts for hours.

In the book Letting Go, Dr. Hawkins describes his scale of emotions. This scale gives numerical values to 16 different emotional states, with scores ranging from 20 to 600, which correlate with levels of consciousness. It also provides descriptions of each level and how one can move from one to the next. At the bottom of the scale is Shame, and at the top of the scale is Peace. It's quite revealing to see yourself in these descriptions, and to watch as you move through them as you deepen your spiritual awakening.

Much of the book is devoted to exploring each stage of the emotional scale in detail, with guidance on how to overcome blocks and move up the scale. There are also chapters on relationships and achieving vocational goals, and how to let go of the things that can hold you back from getting the most out of your personal and work relationships.

All in all, I found this book very valuable in my journey toward self-realization. I hope you will too.

If you are interested, you can buy Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD, from Amazon using this link: https://amzn.to/2NVI1Oo.