David R. Hawkins - Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender

ALSO BY DAVID R. HAWKINS, M.D., PH.D.

Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self

Along the Path to Enlightenment

Healing and Recovery

Reality, Spirituality, and Modern Man

Discovery of the Presence of God: Devotional Nonduality

Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment

Truth vs. Falsehood: How to Tell the Difference

I: Reality and Subjectivity

The Eye of the I: From Which Nothing Is Hidden

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

Dialogues on Consciousness and Spirituality

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis and Calibration of the Levels of Human Consciousness

Orthomolecular Psychiatry (with Linus Pauling)

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Copyright 2012 by David R. Hawkins

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Previously published by Veritas Publishing (ISBN 978-1-933885-98-8)

Library of Congress Control Number for the printed edition: 2013947046

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-4501-5

16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
1st Hay House edition, 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to removing the blocks to the Higher Self on the path to Enlightenment

CONTENTS

This book provides a mechanism by which to unlock our innate capacities for happiness, success, health, well-being, intuition, unconditional love, beauty, inner peace, and creativity. These states and capacities are within all of us. They do not depend on any outer circumstance or personal characteristic; they do not require belief in any religious system. No single group or system owns inner peace, as it belongs to the human spirit by virtue of our origin. This is the universal message of every great teacher, sage, and saint: The kingdom of heaven is within you. Dr. Hawkins says frequently, What you are seeking is not different from your very own Self.

How can something innate to uspart and parcel of our true beingbe so difficult to attain? Why all the unhappiness if we were endowed with happiness? If the kingdom of heaven is within us, why do we often feel like hell? How can we get free of the sludge of non-peace that makes our journey to inner peace seem so arduous, like molasses running uphill on a freezing cold day? Its nice to hear that peace, happiness, joy, love, and success are intrinsic to our human spirit. But what about all of the anger, sadness, despair, vanity, jealousy, anxieties, and daily little judgments that muffle the pristine sound of silence within us? Is there really a way to shake off the sludge and be free? Dance with unimpeded joy? Love all living things? Live in our greatness and fulfill our highest potential? Become a channel of grace and beauty in the world?

In this book, Dr. Hawkins offers a pathway to the freedom that we long for but find difficult to attain. 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.

Many of us have been raised to correlate worldly and even spiritual accomplishment with hard work, keeping our nose to the grindstone, living by the sweat of our brow, and other self-stringent axioms inherited from a culture steeped in the Protestant ethic. According to this view, success requires suffering, toil, and effort: no pain, no gain. But where has all the effort and pain gotten us? Are we truly, deeply at peace? No. There is still the inner guilt, the vulnerability to someones criticism, the wanting to be assured, and the resentments that fester.

If youre reading this book, youve probably already reached the end of your rope with the mechanism of effort. Perhaps youve seen that the more you pull on the rope to hitch yourself up to where you want to be, the more frazzled and frayed it becomes. Possibly, you might be wondering, Isnt there an easier, better way? Are you willing to let go of the rope? What would it be like to utilize the mechanism of surrender instead of the mechanism of effort?

I can share what it was like for a highly educated person who had already tried many different methods of self-improvement. Despite professional success, there were physical and emotional problems that never seemed to improve and, eventually, reached a breaking point. The encounter with Dr. David R. Hawkins and his writings catalyzed a healing effect that was unexpected and dramatic.

At first, there was skepticism. Having explored various spiritual, philosophical, and religious avenues with unfulfilling or only temporary results, I approached my study of Hawkins with the thought, It will probably turn out like the rest. However, the conscientious seeker in me said, Ill check it out. What have I got to lose? So, I read Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior. When the book was finished, there was the inner realization, Im a changed person from the one who picked up this book. That was in 2003. Now, many years later, the catalytic effect is still operating in all areas of life.

What convinced me of the truth of his work, ultimately, were the transformations in my own physical and nonphysical consciousness. There were empirical facts that I could not deny: the healing of an addiction that had been previously impossible to overcome, despite many sincere attempts; freedom from several allergies (pet dander, poison ivy, mold, hay fever); letting go of long-standing resentments, with a capacity to see the hidden gifts within the various life traumas I had been through; alleviation of several life-long fears and an anxiety disorder that had severely limited my career and personal life; resolution of several inner conflicts related to self-acceptance and life purpose. These major breakthroughs at the physical and nonphysical levels were concretely observable not only by myself but by those around me. They would ask, How do you explain the transformation? Now, if faced with that question, I will suggest that they read this new book,