DAVID HAWKINS

DESPAIR   What is the inner experience of hitting bottom? It comes out of the feelings of hopelessness and despair; the person’s small self is saying, “I, of my own self, cannot handle this.” The person surrenders out of the hopelessness, and from that comes the willingness to let go, to surrender to something greater than oneself. At the very bottom, in the pits, one realizes and accepts the truth that “I, of myself, my own individual personal self, my own ego-self, am unable to handle this. I am unable to resolve it.” It is out of this defeat that victory and success arise. The phoenix rises out of the ashes of despair and hopelessness. It is not the despair and hopelessness that are of value but the letting go and the realization of the limitation of the small self. In the middle of the catastrophe, the person says, “I give up. I cannot handle this,” and then may consciously or unconsciously ask God for help. Due to the law of free will and the nature of consciousness being what it is, it is said that the great beings that are willing to help all of us are waiting for us to say “yes.” It is the sudden turning from the bottom of the barrel to the willingness to accept that there is something greater than ourselves that we can turn to. When the person says, “If there is a God, I ask him to help me,” then the great transformative experiences happen that have been recorded throughout history from the very beginning. The beginning of the great worldwide organization of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) came out of such an experience. Bill W., the famous founder of AA, had hit bottom. He was in a state of total despair and hopelessness and gave up the personal self. At the time, he was a nonbeliever, but he said, “If there is a God, I ask him to help me.” At that moment came a great transformative experience, the spiritual power of which is evidenced by the millions of lives that have been affected by the energy that flowed out into the world as the result of this man’s sharing his spiritual experience.

Hawkins M.D. Ph.D., David Hawkins. Healing and Recovery (Kindle Locations 3425-3440). Veritas Publishing. Kindle.

DAVID HAWKINS

Wanhoop. Wat is de innerlijke ervaring van het raken van de bodem? Het komt voort uit de gevoelens van hopeloosheid en wanhoop; het kleine zelf van de persoon zegt: "Ikzelf, kan dit niet meer aan". De persoon geeft zich over vanuit de hopeloosheid, en daaruit ontstaat de bereidheid om los te laten, om zich over te geven aan iets dat groter is dan zichzelf. Helemaal onderaan in de put, beseft en aanvaardt men de waarheid: "Ik zelf, mijn eigen individuele persoonlijke zelf, mijn eigen ego-zelf, kan dit niet aan. Ik ben niet in staat dit op te lossen." Uit deze nederlaag komen overwinning en succes voort. De feniks herrijst uit de as van wanhoop en hopeloosheid. Niet de wanhoop en de hopeloosheid zijn van waarde, maar het loslaten en het besef van de beperking van het kleine zelf. Midden in de catastrofe zegt de persoon: "Ik geef het op. Ik kan dit niet aan," en kan dan bewust of onbewust God om hulp vragen. Vanwege de wet van de vrije wil en omdat de aard van het bewustzijn is wat het is, wordt gezegd dat de grote wezens die bereid zijn ons allemaal te helpen, wachten tot we "ja" zeggen. Het is de plotselinge overgang van de bodem van het vat naar de bereidheid te aanvaarden dat er iets groters is dan onszelf waartoe we ons kunnen wenden. Wanneer de persoon zegt: "Als er een God is, vraag ik hem mij te helpen", dan gebeuren de grote transformerende ervaringen die door de geschiedenis heen vanaf het allereerste begin zijn opgetekend. Het begin van de grote wereldwijde organisatie van Anonieme Alcoholisten (AA) kwam voort uit zo'n ervaring. Bill W., de beroemde stichter van de AA, had de bodem bereikt. Hij was in een staat van totale wanhoop en hopeloosheid en gaf zijn persoonlijke ik op. Op dat moment was hij een ongelovige, maar hij zei: "Als er een God is, vraag ik hem mij te helpen." Op dat moment kwam er een grote transformerende ervaring, waarvan de spirituele kracht blijkt uit de miljoenen levens die beïnvloed zijn door de energie die de wereld in stroomde als gevolg van het delen van deze man zijn spirituele ervaring.

Hawkins M.D. Ph.D., David Hawkins. Genezing en herstel (Kindle Locations 3425-3440). Veritas Publishing. Kindle.

Stukje gechreven door Jon Mundy, vroeger christelijk predikant en nu interreligieus predikant. Zelf vertalen, via DeepL translate (hele goeie) of Google of andere vertaalmachine.

 

The Attraction of Guilt

and 

The Attraction of God

 

God does not believe in retribution.

 His Mind does not create that way. 

He does not hold your "evil" deeds against you.

T-3.I.3:4-5

 

I worked as a traditional Christian minister for twenty-eight years before becoming an Interfaith minister with a primary focus on A Course in Miracles. One of the differences between the Course and traditional Christianity concerns ‘the forgiveness of sin.’ Simply put, God (Love) does not forgive sin because (Love) God does not condemn.

 

The major difficulty that you find in genuine forgiveness

 on your part is that you still believe

 you must forgive the truth, and not illusions.

W-134.3:1

 

Traditional Christianity is dualistic. It posits the existence of Heaven and Hell. Yet, the Course is clear, ‘There is no Hell.” There cannot be an opposite to that which is all-encompassing and God’s Love is all-encompassing. 

 

“Guilt is the thought that I have done something that is beyond forgiveness. I deserve to be punished and there is no way

 of eradicating this guilt from my mind.”

Dr. Ken Wapnick

 

Choosing the ego as our teacher, instead of the Holy Spirit, is simply a repetition of the original choice for separation we find in the story of the Garden of Eden. It is inevitable. We always feel guilty when we harbor and/or act out attack thoughts. A friend who was subject to outbursts of anger once said, “I hate myself when I do that.” Seeing ourselves as ‘sinners,’ guilt is inevitable. Guilt says, “I am awful and terrible.” And, God says, “You are now, always have been, and will be my blessed child.”

This you must remember;

the attraction of guilt opposes the attraction of God.

His attraction for you remains unlimited,

but because your power, being His, is as great as His,

you can turn away from love.

What you invest in guilt you withdraw from God.

T-15.IX.6:2-4

 

Having ‘split’ minds, we try to follow two masters, sometimes giving our attention to God (love); sometimes we are seduced by the attraction of guilt – and we allow the ego to guide our way. Jesus in both the Gospels and the Course tells us we cannot serve two masters. We cannot follow God and mammon (the ways of the world). Trying to do so places us in an ambiguous position and leaves us feeling guilty, anxious, unfulfilled, out of sorts, and clearly – not the Self we want to be. Put simply, we never lost Heaven. We never can and we never will. 

 

The Grab Bag of Guilt

Ken talked about what he called ‘the grab bag of guilt’ we carry with us through this world. My mother, Milly, was with consistency one of the most loving people I ever met. One day when she was already in her 80’s, we were talking on the phone; and she said, “I feel so guilty.” And I said, “About what, Momma?” and she said, “I don’t know.” What she was feeling was the unconscious existential guilt that we can ever now and then dip into. It is a feeling of the wrongness of being separated – i.e., being an ego/body outside of the Mind of God.

Guilt comes as a defense against the truth of who we are. As we practice the principles of the Course and seek to become ever more right-minded, our egos become afraid that our special separated self is going to disintegrate – i.e., that we will lose our ego identity. Our ego identity will indeed be lost because there is no eternity (no Reality) in it. This is, however, nothing to be afraid of, quite the opposite. The loss of the ego and all of its fears is a blessing and never a curse. 

The purpose of guilt is to keep us from remembering that we are Mind. The good news is, we can always choose once again and see things differently. The issue is not what is in ‘the grab bag of guilt.’ The question is why are we so often seduced by the attraction of guilt? Simply stated, “We feel guilt when we decide to join with the ego – we feel great when we join with God.”

 

God or Guilt – You Choose

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