“Safeguards against being programmed by society are (1) emotional detachment, in which all information is viewed as provisional, (2) awareness that ordinary mentalization is unable to discern perception from essence, and (3) knowing that the wolf often hides beneath sheep’s clothing. This suspension of belief is the practical application of the basic dictum to ‘wear the world like a light garment.’ To ‘be in the world but not of it’ is a mode of attention that nevertheless still allows spontaneous interaction and function in society.” – David Hawkins
“The source of joy is always present, always available, and not dependent on circumstances. There are only two obstacles: (1) the ignorance that it is always available and present; and (2) valuing something other than peace and joy above that peace and joy because of the secret pleasure of the payoff.” – David Hawkins
“There is no piece of creation without the hand of the creator operating in it.” -Sadhguru
“While the ego/self routinely takes credit for survival, its true source is the presence of Divinity as Self. It is only because of the Self that the ego is capable of being self-sustaining. It is just a recipient of life energy and not its origin, as it believes. The ego is the main hero/heroine in the inner movie of one’s life.” – David Hawkins
“If we examine much of what the world traditionally calls evil, what we discover is not evil, which is an abstraction, epithet, and label; instead, we see behaviors that could be described as primitive, infantile, egotistical, narcissistic, selfish, and ignorant, complicated by the psychological mechanisms of denial, projection, and paranoia in order to justify hatred.” – David Hawkins
“Thinking proceeds from lack; its purpose is gain. In wholeness, nothing is lacking. All is complete, total, and whole. There is nothing to think about nor any motive to think. No questions arise, and no answers are sought or needed. Totality is complete, totally fulfilling, with no incompleteness to process.” – David Hawkins
“Mentalization is of egocentric origin, and its primary function is commentary. Unless requested, thought is a vanity, an endless procession of opinion, rationalization, reprocessing, evaluating, and subtle judgment by which the thoughts are given value or importance via presumed significance because they are ‘mine.’ The ego is enamored of its life story and its central character.” – David Hawkins
“The mind is like a television set running its various channels for selection, and one does not have to follow any particular temptation of thought. One can fall into the temptation of feeling sorry for oneself, feeling angry, or worried.” – David Hawkins
“The secret attraction of all these options is that they offer an inner payoff or a secret satisfaction, which is the source of the attraction of the mind’s thoughts.” – David Hawkins
“The mind naively assumes for that it is the real ‘me’ who is searching for truth because it assumes that its ego/self is primary and is the sole author of intention as well as action, and therefore the arbiter of reality.” – David Hawkins
“One is not ‘forced’ to feel resentment by a negative memory, nor does one have to buy into a fearful thought about the future. These are only options.” – David Hawkins
“Even the decision to turn one’s life over to God brings joy and gives life a whole new meaning. It becomes uplifting, and the greater context gives life more significance and reward. One eventually becomes unwilling to support negativity, within or without. This is not because it is wrong, but merely futile. Although the journey to God begins with failure and doubt, it progresses into certainty. The way is really quite simple.” – David Hawkins
“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.” – David Hawkins
“Whether you take the pathway of the heart or the mind, it is a hindrance to consider that there is a personal self or an ‘I’ or an ego that is doing the striving or seeking or which will become enlightened. It is much easier to realize there is no such thing as the ego or an ‘I’ identify that is doing any seeking; instead, it is an impersonal aspect of consciousness that is doing the exploring and seeking.” – David Hawkins
“What gives the sense of ‘I’ its subjective quality of reality is the radiance of the true Self, which is the source of the Reality that emanates as the Presence. To clarify the pursuit, it is helpful to search for the innate quality that accords the subjective experiential sense of identity itself. It may be more fruitful to search for the source of the quality of subjectivity, which is not a ‘who’ but an innate quality of sentient life (a ‘what’).” – David Hawkins
“The ego/mind is attracted to novelty and therefore searches frantically for interesting form and sensation. This can be refused and replaced by interest in the silent, formless substrate that is always present and merely has to be noticed. It is comparable to the silent background without which sound could not be discerned.” – David Hawkins
“Through self-examination and inward focus, one can discover that all states of consciousness are the result of the execution of an option. They are not unchangeable certainties determined by uncontrollable factors at all. This can be discovered by examining how the mind works.” – David Hawkins
“When carefully examined, one finds that all opinions are worthless. They are all vanities and have no importance or intrinsic merit. Everyone’s mind is loaded with endless opinions, and when seen for what they are, opinions are really only mental activity. What is of more importance, however, is that opinions stem from and reinforce positionalities, and it is these positionalities that bring on endless suffering. To let go of positionalities is to silence opinions, and to silence opinions is to let go of positionalities.” – David Hawkins
“Radical humility can be arrived at only by confining thoughts and opinions to their verifiable validity. This means the willingness to let go of all presumptions of thought. With persistence, the vanities disappear as truths and are now seen as the basis for errors. In one final, glorious crash, one realizes that the mind doesn’t really ‘know’ anything. If anything, it knows only ‘about,’ and it cannot really know because to really know means to be that which is known, e.g., to know about China doesn’t make one Chinese.” – David Hawkins
“Just as the physical ‘I’ registers images and objects like a camera, the mind is the ‘I’ of the self, which perpetuates the illusion of a unique, separate personal identity that becomes hypothecated to be the originator of thought, intention, desire, and so on. With relinquishment of this narcissistic illusion, it becomes apparent that all aspects of supposedly personal life are actually occurrences that are autonomous and spontaneous.” – David Hawkins
