Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender (Power vs. Force, #9)

by David R. Hawkins

arduous,

axioms

What would it be like to utilize the mechanism of surrender instead of the mechanism of effort?

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior.

acknowledge that we have negative feelings as a consequence of our human condition, and to be willing to look at them without judgment.

If we want to go from here to there, we don’t get there faster if we fool ourselves and say we are starting from nearby.

pragmatic

vicissitudes

dogma

It is not thoughts or facts that are painful but the feelings that accompany them.

It is the accumulated pressure of feelings that causes thoughts.

One feeling, for instance, can create literally thousands of thoughts over a period of time. Think, for instance, of one painful memory from early life, one terrible regret that has been hidden. Look at all the years and years of thoughts associated with that single event. If we could surrender the underlying painful feeling, all of those thoughts would disappear instantly and we would forget the event.

What is the surrendered state? It means to be free of negative feelings in a given area so that creativity and spontaneity can manifest without opposition or the interference of inner conflicts.

Because of guilt and fear, we repress the impulse or feeling, and we deny its presence within us. Instead of feeling it, we project it onto the world and those around us. We experience the feeling as if it belonged to “them.” “They” then become the enemy, and the mind searches for and finds justification to reinforce the projection.

Blame is placed on people, places, institutions, food, climatic conditions, astrological events, social conditions, fate, God, luck, the devil, foreigners, ethnic groups, political rivals, and other things outside of ourselves.

The expression of a feeling, first, tends to propagate that feeling and give it greater energy.

“like attracts like.”

Letting go involves being aware of a feeling, letting it come up, staying with it, and letting it run its course without wanting to make it different or do anything about it. It means simply to let the feeling be there and to focus on letting out the energy behind it.