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

by David R. Hawkins

“The kingdom of heaven is within you.” Dr. Hawkins says frequently, “What you are seeking is not different from your very own Self.”

It may sound counter-intuitive to get somewhere by “letting go”; however, he certifies from clinical and personal experience that surrender is the surest route to total fulfillment.

What convinced me of the truth of his work, ultimately, were the transformations in my own physical and nonphysical consciousness. There were empirical

The major requirement for the journey is a willingness to let go of the attachment to your current experience of life.

One of the biggest hurdles to happiness, he tells us, is the belief that it isn’t possible: “There’s got to be a catch”; “It’s too good to be true”; “It can happen for others but not for me.”

“The Self of the teacher and that of the student are one and the same,” says Dr. Hawkins.

In this book, he reminds us of the law of consciousness that says: We are all connected at the energetic level, and a higher vibration (such as love) has a powerful effect on a lower vibration (such as fear). I feel the truth of this law whenever I am with him; his energy field transmits healing love and profound peace. As he explains in this book, these higher states are available to all of us at any time.

The mechanism of surrender that Dr. Hawkins describes is applicable to the entire inner journey: from the letting go of childhood resentments to the final surrender of the ego itself. Thus, the book is equally useful for the professional interested in worldly success, the client in therapy seeking to heal emotional issues, the patient diagnosed with an illness,

and the spiritual seeker devoted to Enlightenment. The important step for all of us, he advises,

is to acknowledge that we have negative feelings as a consequence of our human condition, and to be willing to look at them without judgment. The high state of non-dual awareness may be our goal. But how do we handle the persistently dualistic “small self” tha...

“We begin with the end.”

We must start where we are to get to where we want to go! 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. By thinking we’re closer than we are to the goal, we actually make the trip longer. As he explains in the book, it takes courage and self-honesty to see negativity and smallness in ourselves. Only when we can acknowledge the negativity that we’ve inherited from the human condition will we have the possibility to surrender and be free of it. We simply need to be willing to acknowledge and accept that part of our human experience. By accepting it, we can transcend it—and Dr. Hawkins shows us the way.

This state of inner freedom and unalloyed happiness is our “birthright,” he says. As we read, we draw encouragement and inspiration from the real-life clinical examples that he shares from his decades of psychiatric practice. In case after case, we see the power of surrender applied to nearly every area of life: relationships, physical health, work environments, recreational activities, spiritual process, family life, sexuality, emotional healing, and addiction recovery.

Other spiritual teachers have emphasized the cultivation of inner peace as the only real solution to personal difficulties, as well as collective conflicts: “Inner disarmament first, then outer disarmament” (The Dalai Lama); “Be the change you want

to see in the world” (Gandhi). The implication is clear. Because we are all part of the whole, when we heal something in ourselves, we heal it for the world.

Each individual consciousness is connected to the collective consciousness at the energetic level; therefore, personal healing emerges collective healing. Dr. Hawkins may be the first to attempt to understand this principle in light of scientific and clinical applications. The crucial point is: by changing ourselves, we change the world. As we become more loving on the inside, healing occurs on the outside. Much like the rising...

Beyond these clinical modalities were philosophical systems, metaphysics, a multitude of holistic health techniques, self-improvement courses, spiritual pathways, meditative techniques, and other ways to expand one’s awareness.

the mechanism of surrender

The letting go technique is a pragmatic system of eliminating obstacles and attachments. It can also be called a mechanism of surrender. There is scientific proof of its efficacy, an explanation of which is included in one of the chapters. Research has shown the technique to be more effective than many other approaches currently available in relieving the physiologic responses to stress.

Simply stated, it sets us free from emotional attachments.

It verifies the observation made by every sage, that attachments are the primary cause of suffering.

The mind, with its thoughts, is driven by feelings. Each feeling is the cumulative derivative of many thousands of thoughts. Because most people throughout their lives repress, suppress, and try to escape from their feelings, the suppressed energy accumulates and seeks expression through psychosomatic distress, bodily disorders, emotional illnesses, and disordered behavior in interpersonal relationships. The accumulated feelings block spiritual growth and awareness...

Of great importance is the progressive diminution of dependency, the bane of all human

relationships. Dependency underlies so much pain and suffering; it includes even violence and suicide as its ultimate expression. As dependency diminishes, there is also a diminution of aggressiveness and hostile behavior. These negative feelings are replaced by feelings of acceptance and lovingness toward others.

Consciousness/ Awareness/ Spirituality: This is an area that opens up by continuous use of ...

The letting go of negative emotions means that the person experiences ever-increasing happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. There is an expansion of awareness, progressive realization, and experiencing of the real inner Self. The teachings of the Great Masters unfold from within as one’s own personal experience...

true identity. Letting go is one of the most efficacious tools by which to...

Anyone can accomplish all of these ends, with gentleness and subtlety, as one silently surrenders throughout daily life. The progressive disappearance of negativity and its replacement by positive feelings and experiences is pleasurable both to watch and to experience. It is the purpose of...

You go to India. Find a new guru. Take off your clothes. Swim in the Ganges. Stare at the sun. Shave your head. Eat with your fingers, get really messy, shower in cold water.

Intuitively, we know that somewhere there is an ultimate answer. We stumble down dark byways into cul-de-sacs and blind alleys; we get exploited and taken, disillusioned, fed up, and we keep on trying. Where is our blind spot? Why can’t we find the answer? We don’t understand the problem; that’s why we can’t find the answer. Maybe it’s ultra simple, and that’s why we can’t see it.

Throughout history, a few individuals have reached great clarity and have experienced the ultimate solution to our human woes. How did they get there? What was their secret? Why can’t we understand what they had to teach? Is it really next to impossible or nearly hopeless? What about the average person who is not a spiritual genius?

Multitudes follow spiritual pathways, but scarce are the ones who finally succeed and realize the ultimate truth. Why is that? We follow ritual and dogma and zealously practice spiritual discipline—and we crash once again! Even when it works, the ego quickly comes

What’s in the book? It tells of a simple method to reach great clarity and transcend your problems along the way. It’s not by finding the answers, but by undoing the basis of the problem. The state reached by the great sages of history is available; the solutions are within us and easy to find. The mechanism of surrender is simple and the truth is self-evident. It works during daily life.

It follows the dicta of “Know thyself”; “The truth shall set you free”; and “The kingdom of God is within you.” It works for the cynic, the pragmatist, the religionist, and the atheist. It works for any age or cultural background. It works for the spiritual person and the non-spiritual person alike.

You will find out for yourself what is real and what are just the mind’s programs and belief systems. While all of this is going on, you will become healthier, more successful with less effort, happier, and more capable of real love. Your friends will notice a difference; the changes are permanent. You aren’t going to go for a

“high” and crash later. You will discover there is an automatic teacher within yourself.

Eventually you will discover your inner Self. You always unconsciously knew it was there. When you come upon it, you will understand what the great sages of history were trying to convey. You will understand i...

The purpose of sharing this approach is merely to put you in touch with your own inner feelings and experiences. In addition, there is much helpful information that your mind will want to know. The process of

surrender will begin automatically, for it is the nature of the mind to seek relief from pain and suffering and to experience greater happiness.

letting go consciously and frequently at will.

You are then in charge of how you feel, and you are no longer at the mercy of the world and your reactions to it. You are no longer the victim. This is employing the basic teaching of the Buddha, which removes the

pressure of involuntary r...

It is not thoughts or facts that are painful but the feelings that accompany them. Thoughts in and of themselves are painless, but not the feelings that underlie 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...

Thoughts are filed in the memory bank according to the various shades of feelings associated with those thoughts.

when we relinquish or let go of a feeling, we are freeing ourselves from all of the associated thoughts.

The great value of knowing how to surrender is that any and all feelings can be let go of at any time and any place in an instant, and it can...

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. To be free of inner conflict and expectations is to give others in our life the greatest freedom. It allows us to experience the basic nature of the universe, which, it will be discovered, is to manifest the great...

We have three major ways of handling feelings: