Are You in Heaven or Hell?
Are you living your life as if you’re in heaven or hell? When we’re not in acceptance of what is, life can seem like hell. The truth is the calm, peaceful Presence of Awareness that we are is always here, just beneath the surface. This is the heaven that requires no waiting
The following story that you probably have heard before illustrates one of the ways this heaven can manifest in life if we are open to it…
A man goes to heaven and meets God at the Pearly Gates. God welcomes him and then asks, “Is there any last wish, my son, before you spend eternity in heaven?”
“Yes,” the man replies. “I’d like to see what hell is like, so I can thoroughly appreciate my good fortune.”
God says, “Fine,” snaps his fingers, and instantly they enter hell. Before them, as far as the eye can see, is a table piled high with the most wonderful delicacies anyone’s heart could desire. On both sides of the table, as far as the eye can see, are millions of unhappy people starving to death.
The man asks God, “Why are these people starving?”
God replies, “Everyone must eat from the table with 11 foot long chopsticks.”
“That’s terribly harsh,” the man replies compassionately.
God snaps his fingers and they return to heaven.
On entering heaven, the man is surprised to see an almost identical scene – a bountiful table stretching as far as the eye can see – except that everyone is happy and well fed.
He turns and asks God, “What do the people eat with here? They must have different utensils.”
“No, my son,” says God, “everyone here eats with 11 foot long chopsticks too.”
The man is confused. “I don’t understand, how is this possible?”
God replies, “In heaven, we feed each other.”
What if the collective consciousness focuses on helping each other, instead of starving each other?
Whoever wins this election is going to need the help of all of us in order to deal with the extremes that are occurring on our planet. Even if you can’t rally behind whoever wins, sending out negative energy is not helpful, it only feeds the collective consciousness with more negativity, which is what got us where we are.
Remember, to the degree we hate anyone, we hate everyone. If we feel darkness in our hearts, we tend to project and attract that into our world. We then feel like we have to fight with our world in order to accomplish positive change. The more we feel like we have to wage war for peace, the more we create the opposite in our experience.
It is critically important that we work on our own inner landscape in addition to working on the outer landscape to create lasting peace on earth. The best way to do this is to let go of fear, frustration, hate, doubt or whatever inner obstacles you may be facing personally as you strive to do good. As you let go, you will naturally uncover the peace that is at your core and you’ll find that the outer opposition melts away as well. Together we can all bring forth a new vision, a new way of being here on planet earth.
Love,
Hale
Sounds Like You're Having a Relationship
MALE3: The main reason I came here is to understand relationships more, and I'm talking about intimate love relationships, and to understand myself in relation to other people--one person in particular for me. There are all sorts of feelings that come up: fear, guilt, love, caring, all sorts of stuff.
HALE: Sure. It sounds like you’re having a relationship. [Everyone laughs]
MALE3: But it’s getting to a pinnacle point because she wants to be married and I don’t - [laughs] I’m not sure I want to marry her. And don’t tape that, or if you do, make sure a certain person doesn’t buy it.
HALE: We tape everything.
MALE3: Don’t forget my name’s Bill.
[Everyone laughs] Okay Bill… [laughs]
HALE: Let me simplify this for you. First of all, if there’s a conflict about marrying this person, while you’re here, I would do advantages and disadvantages in marrying her and advantages and disadvantages of not marrying her. What happens tends to happen in this environment which is a little different. Remember, I mentioned at the beginning, when we get together, one hundred and seventy six of us have a hundred and seventy six times a hundred and seventy six (176x176) power behind us to do our work. That’s the value of the group. So while you’re here, I would go back to the simplicity of what is the advantage of marrying this person, what is the disadvantage of marrying this person. So that’s one very practical suggestion.
MALE3: Okay, thank you. Now there’s something that came up that is a very sort of basic thing, that hopefully, everyone will feel like they’re gaining from – because I don’t imagine they’re all wondering about marrying someone or not marrying someone.
HALE: You’ll be surprised. [Everyone laughs] It starts before the first date.
MALE3: Oh okay. I thought you were going to say after the marriage.
ANONYMOUS: [Shouts out] That too!
HALE: That too… yes. “Will I do this again?” [Laughs] “Do I want to keep doing this?” So it goes on for a while… so don’t worry about it. That’s fine.
In my experience – and check this out – when you really love someone, there is no separation. You feel like you are them.
MALE3: Alright, thanks. [Everyone laughs hysterically]
HALE: That scared the crap out of him – “We’re not talking about it anymore. Forget I brought it up.” [Laughs] That was adorable – “Okay, thanks. Goodbye.”
So what exactly were you running away from there?
MALE3: Two things: one seemed pretty clear.
HALE: That’s true. I noticed the clarity.
MALE3: And the second thing is that I don’t feel that Oneness… which is sad.
HALE: Right. So you’re wanting that.
MALE3: Yes.
HALE: So could you welcome that?
Could you just welcome it? And just notice what it’s appearing in or on.
MALE3: I feel um, a lot of compassion.
HALE: Uh huh. That often comes up when you’re more present with what is.
MALE3: And I already know that there are also feelings of guilt.
HALE: So are you wanting to punish yourself for something?
MALE3: Well I… I don’t know. I would say… for feeling that I’m not there for her.
HALE: Right. So could you let go of wanting to punish yourself for that?
MALE3: I can. My mind is saying I shouldn’t. My mind is saying I should not.
HALE: Right. You haven’t been punished enough. But you already thought of the perfect punishment – to keep yourself separate and keep suffering.
MALE3: Yeah, it’s pretty good isn’t it?
HALE: But can you decide you’ve done that enough?
MALE3: Yes. Well, I don’t feel it now. I used to feel a lot of fear and I would approach that, too.
HALE: I understand but it’s not here.
MALE3: No.
What’s here now?
MALE3: My reality.
And is there any separation there?
MALE3: From what?
HALE: Right, exactly. Exactly. There are no boundaries. So can you see how there’s no problem here and now?
MALE3: Yup. Thank you.
Please Note: This is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle Volume 4 Audio Program.
Want to Stop Feeding Your Monsters?
Addictions can be monsters, but you can overcome them. The first thing to know about addictions is that all addictions are merely coping mechanisms for a set of feelings that you don’t want to deal with. All addictive behavior is medication or compensation for a set of feelings. If you deal with the feelings and let them go, the addiction falls away. I’ve seen this work even with people who are chemically dependent on a substance. But, truly, you can be addicted to anything – food, sex, professional wrestling…
I’ve seen a lot of people try to quit smoking, for instance, and they just stop. But they don’t deal with all the feelings that were motivating them to smoke. They do patches and gums and all that kind of stuff, but they haven’t dealt with the feeling they think they get from the cigarettes, and the feelings they’re smoking to avoid, so the smoking doesn’t drop away.
If you deal with the emotion that’s behind the addiction, then you can follow through with the action required to stop doing it. It’s important to acknowledge you have an addiction – many people are in denial. If you’re in denial about it, you can’t deal with it. Later, it’s really appropriate to move beyond your identification as an addict. Otherwise, you’re going to carrying that story with you.
- The first step is to acknowledge there is a problem and release until it’s okay. Now, that may seem weird, but if you can accept that you’re still okay even with the addiction, and you can even accept the addiction itself, many times that alone will cause the addiction to fall away. Since you were so upset with yourself over being addicted, you couldn’t take any action about it – you’re too busy fighting the addiction. And, if you’re at war with something, you keep it alive. As I’ve mentioned many times, when you’re at war with the mind… that’s food for the mind. So if you’re at war with your addiction, it feeds the reality of the addiction. The first step is to allow yourself to accept that’s what is here now and accept yourself that way. That’s not an end point; it’s the beginning point.
- I also recommend you stop believing the addictive voice. All tendencies have their own voice, in case you haven’t noticed. If you just simply stop buying into that voice, it loses power over you. It’s only because you’re fascinated with it that you give it your power. You can simply let go of wanting to be controlled by the addiction, or by the addictive voice.
- Here’s a process you can do with food addiction. I recommend you give yourself permission to eat whatever you want as long as you release first. That might seem odd, but a lot of people try to avoid eating a particular food. You may succeed for awhile and then you slip. Once you slip, the perfect punishment is to eat more. If you’re on a diet and you have one cookie, you may get really upset with yourself and start to feel guilty. So, the perfect punishment is another cookie… and then you feel even more guilty. Pretty soon, you’ve finished the whole box.
So, allow yourself to eat whatever you want with the pact that you’ll release first. Whatever the emotion is that’s motivating you to eat -- including lust, hunger or craving -- let those go. If you still want the food, let yourself have it. From time to time, you still may eat some of those foods that you shouldn’t have, but you’ll eat them less and less because you’re letting go of that motivator, the craving, or the fear, or whatever it is. Some people are fearful eaters, some people are angry eaters, some people are stressful eaters… if you let go of the motivator, the desire to overeat drops away. I’ve seen people literally – in a very short period of time – break the addiction using only that process. They simply gave themselves permission to eat whatever they wanted as long as they released first. Again, it works because each time you do that, you’re weakening whatever it is that’s causing you to overeat. And very quickly, you will lose weight that way. Okay?
Love,
Hale
Please note: This is an excerpt from the Inner Circle Volume 4 Audio Program.
What Are You Lusting After?
When you work on goals you’re actually doing a balancing act. What I mean by that is, if you let go completely, you may or may not continue working on the goal. What I recommend you do with all goals is keep letting go until you’re okay whether or not you get the goal – what Lester termed “hootlessness.”
You can still have the goal as an intention. But if you’re really lusting after something, that’s always associated with a sense of lack. There still could be some sense of lack with your intention, but it’s not as extreme.
Lester actually created the goals process because he knew human nature. The process is like a carrot on a stick to keep us motivated to work with some of our goals and intentions. People in the Self-help/New Age Community were denying and suppressing all their desires because they understood that the end state of the goals process is desirelessness. This is not how it works.
So Lester created a process where you could take your desires and use them to make yourself aware of all your attachments and aversions to a particular topic. Then, whether or not you achieved the goal, you gained a lot of freedom, and at the same time, hootlessness.
If you want to create anything or consciously create, hootlessness is the most powerful place from which to create -- not super passion like a lot of people tell you. Passion is just lust. And lust is a feeling of “I want it, but I can’t have it;” “I want it but I shouldn’t have it;” “I want it but it’s not right to have.”
There’s always a hold back in lust. There’s a craving, but there’s a hold back which is why just being passionate about your goal isn’t enough. And that’s why, often, you can be really passionate about a goal and still not attain it.
What I recommend you do with all your goals, including weight loss, is release until you’re okay whether or not you get it. If you stay hootless about it, in my experience, one or two things will happen: you either get the goal or you simply let go of wanting it completely and move on to something else. The best way to do that is to keep releasing until you’re okay whether or not you get it.
Sometimes, when you’re hootless about something, no action is required and it just simply happens. In my experience though, getting into action is often required. If you’re simply going to release to avoid taking action, it’s not going to work.
If you’re going to keep releasing and be open to action if it’s required, and then take action towards the goal, you’re much more likely to get it. In addition, the actions themselves are useful for releasing. If you get into action, then all the other feelings you have about getting the goal or not getting the goal also arise.
For example: if you’re working on losing weight and you want to just release and not have to exercise or eat less, then you’re probably not going to lose any weight, because you’re not dealing with the problem. That’s magical thinking.
On the other hand, if you want to lose weight and you’re releasing on the goal, you’ll also release on the action steps… so you’ll feel okay about exercise, you’ll feel okay about modifying your eating habits. It’s a combination of releasing and action.
Action also stirs up feelings. So, the actions themselves are incredibly useful because they bring up all your remaining attachments and aversions. In fact, sometimes you’ll take an action which has nothing to do with getting the goal. For instance, say you’re working on making more money… if you just sit in your apartment and release on it and take no action, you’re probably avoiding something.
However, when you combine it with action – say you go out and look for a job – in the process of looking for a job, you may decide that instead of working for a company, you want to start your own. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You could go looking for a job and pass a store and be motivated to go in and buy a lottery ticket, then win the lottery. It’s not necessarily a straight line.
I highly recommend avoiding magical thinking and I also recommend that you work on the goal, release until you’re okay whether or not you get it, and then follow through with action and release on the actions as well. Okay?
Love,
Hale
Please note: This is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
Want to be Free with Your Mind?
Many people have the misconception that once you recognize who you are, the mind is always going to be silent and you’ll never have a feeling again.
Instead, what happens as you discover the truth of who you are, is you’re less interested in the thinking and in the feelings, and you’re less identified with them so you don’t have the extra reaction.
In other words, something in life is appropriately causing anger, and in addition to that, you’re angry at yourself for feeling angry or judging yourself for feeling angry or punishing yourself for feeling angry, or all the other things we add to it.
When you don’t make up a whole story about it, when you don’t resist it, and don’t engage in whatever the mind’s doing, your thoughts simply arise and disappear. Feelings arise and disappear… which is natural.
This is just like a young child – it’s not that young children never get angry. I’ve never seen a child younger than the age of two hold a grudge. If you let take this in, it will make things a lot easier for you. You won’t have to keep judging yourself for absolutely no reason.
Sometimes the mind is silent and sometimes it’s not. The only difference is your interest level in the contents of what the mind’s saying. Before discovering what you are, you’re fascinated by every individual thought, and you’re making up a story about each one – “Oh, this means I’m good; that means I’m bad.”
Or we’re doing that to someone else – “You’re bad, you’re good.” This tendency to judge drops away and what is left is simply the natural spontaneous livingness that includes thoughts and feelings.
In my experience, it’s not about being free of the mind… it’s being free with the mind. You don’t have to get rid of it.
If you’re attacking the mind, it loves that – in case you haven’t noticed. Basically it’s the mind attacking itself. It’s fighting with itself.
The mind has many voices. There are many tendencies that have their own conglomeration of stories behind them. Their energy and everything attached to them has its own momentum.
That’s part of the reason we do the technique – where you welcome all the energy around a particular thing, and it just simply dissolves when you welcome it.
If you notice, often these energies conflict with each other. Everyone has a good boy and a bad boy inside them; and a good girl and a bad girl – and they’re usually fighting.
It depends on the day what side we’re on. Some days the good girl is in favor of this and the bad girl is in favor of the opposite, and the next day it switches. We don’t even notice this conflict.
We make up all these rules about the way we’re suppose to live life and they’re just that: made up. I’ll tell you the way you’re supposed to live life: exactly as you are… because you’re not doing it; you’re being lived.
Let me clarify that: it doesn’t mean you’re a victim. Most of us pretend to be the victim all the time because we think we should be controlling every thought and feeling, so we’re victimized by that all the time. Be easy on yourself. There’s no reason to get out the whips and chains and beat yourself… it’s not going to help. Okay?
Love,
Hale,
Please Note: This blog is excerpted from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio program.
Suffering is Optional
One of the places where a lot of us get caught up is that we think the state of the body-mind is a reflection of our freedom. If freedom is always here, always now, and always has been, then the body-mind has nothing to do with it. A lot of unnecessary suffering comes from judging ourselves because we haven’t perfected the body-mind.
People have made up a whole story about every single disease and what it means about you, and every single pain, where it is in the body and what it means about you. This adds another level of suffering onto the suffering that’s already there. You’re suffering and then you’re suffering because you’re suffering. Most of us are suffering because we’re suffering because we’re suffering because we’re suffering.
Sailor Bob Addison said, “The only difference between one who’s discovered their true nature and one who hasn’t is the one who has knows there’s no difference.” I really agree with that.
When the mind is calibrated to constantly measure and look for differences, it misses that which is always here, always now. Does that mean that there’s no benefit in discovering who you are? If you think not ever suffering is beneficial, then yes, there might be a little benefit in that.
I’ve also noticed that the more you’re self-aware, the more you’re aware of the truth of what you are. The more the body is relaxed, the more it heals itself. It’s not a guarantee – Lester died of cancer; Ramana Maharshi died of cancer; Nisargadatta Maharaj died of cancer.
It doesn’t mean I don’t remember what stories are made up about people who have cancer and what that means about them. Yes, as you release, you are more likely to create whatever you choose in life. Yes, as you release, your relationships straighten out because you’re more fun to be around and you’re not blaming your partner for every feeling you have. Just those two things are enough to heal most relationships.
Also, as you release, because the body-mind is more relaxed, that natural aliveness that you are flows more naturally through the body-mind. Is that a guarantee the body will never get sick? No. The body is still going to run its course. What The Sedona Method does and discovering who you are does, is if the body does get sick, there doesn’t need to be any suffering.
Love,
Hale
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio program.
Is Your Mind Helping?
One of the things the mind does is, it constantly goes on a treasure hunt. Except it’s searching for trash instead of treasure.
When things are fine, what does the mind think about? “What’s wrong now?” “What could go wrong now?” “Doesn’t this mean something’s wrong?” “I know there was something wrong yesterday. I’m sure there’ll be something wrong tomorrow!”
If you are on a treasure hunt, give the mind something else to look for. Instead of looking for trash, look for what’s actually here. You don’t have to do that, but if your mind likes to have something to do, give it something constructive to do as opposed to letting it chew up your life.
One of the ways the mind chews up your life is by looking for trouble so it can help. That’s what it tells you: “You just need to prepare for this disaster.” “You just need to prepare for this problem.” One of its favorites is – “Let me help you deal with this problem that I’m actually creating.” This is what the mind does. You don’t need to feed it.
A simple way to not feed it is to examine the assumptions. Let me qualify what I mean by ‘examine the assumptions’. I don’t mean analyze them or want to figure them out. You’re already doing that. Analyzing assumptions only creates more assumptions. You just make assumption sandwiches.
The delis back East have ten-layer sandwiches. Most of us have sandwiches as tall as the Empire State building filled with all sorts of assumptions. The way to examine assumptions is just to see if it’s what’s actually true now, what’s actually here now, and is the assumption really about anyone. Is there anyone for the assumption to be about?
The other thing you can do is lose interest in the contents of your mind. Most of us are more interested in our mental world and the stories we are making up about the past than in what is actually here now.
Most of us are saying – “Oh yeah, that’s just what’s happening. Who cares about that? I’m more interested in my theory about why it’s happening,” or “where it’s coming from” or “what it means” or “where it’s going” or “what it means about me” as though there actually is a “me.”
What you’ll notice, as you lose interest in all of the mind’s stories, what’s there is this exquisite presence that you are, and the richness of experiencing.
The less there’s an enjoyer, the more there’s enjoyment. The less there’s an experiencer, the more there’s direct experiencing. There’s actually only enjoyment… actually, only experiencing. But we create these artificial, completely made-up barriers to direct experiencing.
There’s never actually any barrier. It’s all mind generated and it has no reality, no independent nature apart from the presence that you are. And it’s very simple… just simply focus on what’s happening here now. That cuts through all of it. Okay?
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio program.
Can You Just Welcome What Is?
There is only now. The apparent problem is that most of us are wanting something different. The now always takes care of itself. So in this moment, whatever happens, is what’s appropriate – even if there’s apparent conflict. Sometimes, the apparent conflict comes up first for us to realize that there’s been miscommunication; there’s been a misunderstanding or whatever. In my experience, there are no mistakes; there is no right or wrong. There’s just what is.
How do you respond to any particular situation? The way that you do. The tools that you’re using with The Sedona Method are all very useful in the moment. If you’re feeling tense and you respond, you’ll probably create more tension. If you’re feeling relaxed when you respond, you’ll probably create more relaxation. If you’re feeling angry and you respond, you’ll probably create more anger. If you release the anger and respond, you’ll probably create more resolution.
The best way to release is to simply welcome what is. If you’re in the middle of a conversation with someone, especially if they don’t know this process, you can’t say, “Wait a minute. Hold on a second. I need to release before I strangle you.” (Smile). That doesn’t work. But, if you feel any kind of energy coming up in this moment, simply allow it to be here. Welcome it.
Welcoming can be done without any kind of thought process. It’s simply opening up inside and allowing what is, to be. You can do that in action, in the middle of a conversation, because it’s not a doingness. It’s what’s natural.
Welcoming is what’s natural. What is unnatural is all the other stuff that we add to it – the resistance. And even though it’s not natural, it is what it is, so what? This is always a place you can welcome from… even if it’s welcoming the fact that there’s conflict; welcome the fact that you don’t like the conflict.
Most of us, most of the time are trying to make the now different than it is, and we never succeed. No matter how hard we try, what is, always is. Can you just welcome that?
Love,
Hale
Note: This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
Are you Putting a Happy Face on the Iceberg?
In my experience, what causes us to either push things away or pull them towards us is all about how we feel.
In the movie The Secret, they say it’s not so much what you’re thinking, but how you feel about it. If you don’t really feel what you’re wanting to attract, then you’re not going to attract it. In my experience, the Sedona Method helps you let go of whatever it is inside of you that feels like you can’t have it, or you shouldn’t have it. The Method actually gets into the feeling of “I have it now.”
Often, what we’re consciously thinking about is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a small fraction of our sum total thinkingness about anything in particular.
People who only change their thinking; who just think positively are simply putting a happy face over the tip of the iceberg. So, you have this happy looking iceberg from the surface, but the entire body of it, under the water, is still unhappy.
And then people wonder why they haven’t attracted what they want. It’s because they haven’t dealt with the whole rest of the iceberg -- all the feelings of ‘I can’t,’ ‘I don’t know how,’ ‘I’m afraid,’ ‘It’ll never happen to me.’
When you deal with the iceberg, it melts. This frees up all that energy that was tied into the iceberg of ‘I can’t, I don’t know how, I’m afraid.’ All that energy is now available for you to get into action and hold the mind what you want.
Also, the Universe is not separate from you. It IS you. It isn’t a catalog. There is no magical genie. In my experience, what happens is as you let go, harmony happens between what you’re consciously wanting, and what’s appropriate for you to begin with.
So the more released you are, the more present you are, the more open you are, the more your conscious thinking aligns with what is for your highest and best good. And it’s not you doing it because there isn’t a YOU separate with your checklist saying, ‘I’ll take one from column A and one from column B and why isn’t it here yet? I put in my order five minutes ago.’ It doesn’t work that way.
There’s no you here separate from the Universe. The more you let go, the more you find things that are healthy and right for you, and these things persist. Everything else falls away until you’re simply in harmony with what’s appropriate for you in this moment.
You’re not actually doing that though. All of us are being done. We are not the doers. Yes, there’s the appearance and you have to act as though there is a chooser, a thinker, a doer -- that’s how we function in life -- but in my experience there’s not two, there’s only one.
Lester used to say, “Even the most impossible becomes completely possible when you’re fully released on it.” But he added something to that: “You know you’re fully released when you don’t give a hoot -- when you’re okay whether or not you get it.”
When you’re okay whether or not you get it, then you either get it or you don’t. But either way, you’re okay. That place of the natural acceptance of what is, is the most powerful place to create from.
But remember, you’re not actually the creator – you’re the creation. Can you tell me with certainty what your next thought is going to be? You can’t. No one can. Thoughts simply happen.
Have you ever said ‘I’m definitely going to do this’ and not done it?’ Have you also conversely said ‘I’m definitely not going to do this’ and done it’? Yes, all the time.
This is the thing that happens most: have you ever done something without thinking? The thinking actually always comes after the fact. We make up a story about why we just did this – “Oh I just did this because…” No, you were just done in that particular way and then you’re making up a story about it after the fact.
As you release, you discover the hootlessness that you are. You don’t release to become hootless. Hootlessness is what’s there when you uncover or let go of all the other stuff. It’s already what’s here now… and it’s natural.
The most powerful way to attract what you want is to let go. Just simply trying to hold positive thoughts, without getting rid of everything to the contrary, doesn’t work
What most of us identify with is the creation. But what you are is that presence of awareness that allows for attraction and aversion. It allows for having and not having, doing and not doing. It allows for all of it.
Love,
Hale
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
“Nots” got you tied up in Knots?
Peace is what you are. The more you discover that, and uncover that and live as that, the more things just smooth out. Does life stop? No. Life continues, except the suffering disappears. There’s only one difference between the before and after picture. It doesn’t have anything to do with the intensity of what happens in life. Life continues as it always has.
But in the ‘before’ picture you are being dragged behind a bus. And in the ‘after’ picture, you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. Make no mistake – you’re still not driving the bus; it’s driving itself. But it’s a significant change that you’re not being dragged behind anymore.
Life actually becomes a lot more interesting, a lot more fun, a lot more dynamic and exciting and enjoyable. In my experience, the less there is an imaginary enjoyer, the more enjoyment there is. Enjoyment is what we want, because that’s what feels good. The enjoyer is only a filter.
I remember the very first time I started getting a glimpse of what this was all about. It was when Forrest Gump first came out. I was sitting in the movie theater, watching the film open – I don’t know if you remember the film – but in the very beginning, there’s this feather falling.
I experienced it totally differently than I ever had. I was actually the feather falling at the same time as being the imaginary person sitting in the audience – the filters were gone.
Most importantly, the enjoyment of that film was like no other film I’d ever experienced my entire life. Every film is like that for me now, but at the time, it was like, “Wow, that’s neat!”
So, you don’t have to give anything up. All these filters that you think you need in order not to suffer is what’s causing the suffering. Let me repeat that: All these filters that you live life through in order not to suffer – like “I don’t want to experience this, I don’t want to feel that, I don’t want to see that, I don’t want to do that,” – All the ‘nots’ that get us tied up in knots, keep us suffering.
All the things we do to protect ourselves from suffering, is what’s causing the suffering. Our filters hold in the suffering and keep out the exquisite joy and pleasure that comes from just being with whatever’s happening in the moment.
Love,
Hale
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
Whatever You Let Go Of Is Gone for Good
If you are struggling with getting in touch with how you feel, one of the things you can do is put your hand over your heart and focus on your heart as you do the releasing instead of focusing in your head. If you focus with the sounds in your head, they have no substance. So you can move them around a lot, but you might not see any substantive change in your life. But if you focus on the energy that generates the thoughts, and you let go from your heart, the shifts are much more profound.
If you have been releasing more intellectually than on a physical level, don’t worry about it; even that produces very profound results in your life, they are just more gradual than when you’re releasing from your heart.
No matter hoNo matter how you’re releasing, if you’re letting go on a particular topic and there’s more feeling about that topic, it will continue to come up until it’s gone. Sometimes, it will even get a little more intense before it gets better because most of us spend our time suppressing our emotions, and have a long history of doing this.
So in the begSo, in the beginning, as we get into releasing and we start opening, there may be a temporary --and it’s usually very temporary -- sense of it’s getting worse or it’s getting more intense. That’s only because you’re finally letting yourself feel it. You’re stopping that tendency to suppress it. In my experience, whatever you let go of is gone for good. But if there’s more about that particular topic, it will come up until it’s all gone.
So what I recWhat I recommend you do is, keep your focus on your heart as opposed to in your head… and just simply open. Let it pass through. Let it go. And if you just practice that, work with that and get comfortable with it, everything will start to shift. But again, things do come up in layers. If more comes up about a particular topic, it does not mean that you didn’t just let go. It just means there’s more. Okay? Good.
Love,
Hale
Hale
This blog is This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
Are You Apathy, Grief, Fear, Lust, Anger or Pride?
Most of us live as though we are apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger, and pride… not that we’re even having those feelings, we ARE them. As you let go, you start to see through that illusion and that seeing through is quite normal and natural. In the beginning, because there’s such momentum behind our belief that we are apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger or pride, we keep going back to those feelings even when they are not there. We generate more of this suffering. We look for more trouble.
Most of us don’t accept that’s what we truly are courageousness, acceptance and peace. We think that these feelings may come from time to time if we’re really good or really lucky or we’ve done a lot of good work, or some other story like that. But what you’ll discover as you keep letting go and as you explore all the exercises and perspective that we’ll be doing together this week that those positive energy states don’t require maintenance.
Apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger, and pride do require maintenance. It takes a lot of energy for unlimited Beingness to confine itself to those particular points of view, those particular body-minds that most of you think you are. Why do you think you’re exhausted at night? Because it requires so much energy to constrict unlimited Beingness into one particular point of view.
I recommend you just stay open to the process. Also, I suggest that no matter how good or how bad it has appeared so far in “your” life, or with any particular process including releasing, have the attitude of so what? Be open to how it is now… and now… and now. Okay? Good…
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
What You Are Is Causeless
In my experience, what you are is causeless, you are beyond effects. In the realm of cause and effect, you’re always at the effect. If you’re buying into that, you are always behind the eight ball. You are always at the effect of that whole system. Because no matter how much you try to do the right thing, you believe that the slightest mistake is going to cause the wrong thing and that’s what you get. So, the solution to the whole question of how to deal with that is to go beyond it, discover both cause and effect are made up. Another way of saying that is there are no independent causes or independent effects. Everything in the entire Universe has to be exactly the way it is for anything else to be the way it is. There are no separate parts. When we think we’re causing something, that’s based on the assumption that we’re the doer, that we’re making conscious choices from moment to moment. And if that’s true, then show me the chooser. No one’s been able to do that yet.
Einstein used to say, ‘You can’t solve a problem at the same level it was created," or something very close to that. I agree with that. Where a lot of us get stuck is we are trying to solve the problem at the same level it was created. The assumptions that make the problem appear to be a problem are all flawed. They’re based on a separate individual struggling through life totally at the effect of the entire environment. And to me, that’s all fictional.
Love,
Hale
Please note: this blog is an excerpt from the Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.
Life Happens Now
Most of us live under the mistaken assumption that life is a linear process moving through time and space. We never stop to examine our direct experience to discover whether or not that is actually true.
Allow yourself, in this moment, to check if you can actually experience any time except now. You, of course, can have memories of the past and anticipation of the future, but when do you actually experience this memory and anticipation? That’s right -- now.
If you have at least an intellectual understanding that now is all there is, you have also probably tried to get into this moment. In my experience this does not work either. Any efforting to be is a denial of that which you already are. Another way of saying this is: All efforting to be, is moving your perception away from what is already here now, instead of towards it. Indeed, my mentor Lester Levenson used to say, “Efforting is ego in action!”
Instead of trying to get into the now, right now, see if you can actually get out of the now. Can you? You may have thoughts about the past or the future. Didn’t even they merely happen now?
Let’s examine the now again. Notice how alive it is. How seeing, hearing and feeling are all happening on their own in this aliveness that you are now. Even the thoughts that you are now having gain their aliveness from the presence that you are. This moment is where all life happens. Even the thoughts and memories that you have are only alive now. In fact all phenomena gets life or energy from the aliveness that you are now.
Simply notice that now is all there is. Observe further that you don’t need to do anything to be the presence of awareness that is now. These observations will help your body/mind relax so that you can allow this aliveness to live life through you.
Enjoy!
Love,
Hale Dwoskin
CEO Sedona Institute
Freedom from Thinking
As you know, The Sedona Method is a tool for emotional and mental freedom that shows you how to tap your natural ability to let go of any unwanted thought or feeling in the moment. It is based on the premise that we are all already whole, complete and perfect, just as we are, in our Beingness. The only thing that prevents us from recognizing and living as if this were true is our suppressed thoughts and feelings that we give more credence to than the wholeness that is actually always shining forth in clear view right here and now.
One of the big mistakes many of us make, as we move into the realm of examining our thoughts and feelings, is attempting to control how we think and feel, rather than allowing ourselves to acknowledge the perfection or freedom that is here now—before, during, and after every thought and every feeling.
Rather than trying either to control or to be free of thoughts and feelings, it is much more practical and helpful to be free with your thoughts and feelings. After all, do you even know with certainty what your next thought and feeling will be? I have yet to meet anyone who can predict his or her next thought, much less be in total control of it.
If you have tried either to control your thoughts and feelings or to get rid of them, you probably have noticed that this can often simply lead to more suffering. In addition to the suffering that comes from identifying with the stories of woe that are generated by these thoughts and feelings, we add another layer on top of the suffering when we do this. We add a layer of judgment about the amount or quality of these thoughts and feelings we don’t want to have, which simply generates even more story and more suffering.
Here’s how you can use the newest form of The Sedona Method, called The Fifth Way, to expose the lie of the “thinker.” In this very moment, if you examine your direct experience, you will discover sensations, pictures, sounds… experiencing.
If you delve into this even further, and actually look into your direct experience, you will discover the absence of any “thinker.” What you will see and know directly, if you are open, is that there actually is no thinker, there is only thinking appearing in, or on, the background of being that you are. On discovering the absence of the thinker, the suffering attached to thoughts and thinking naturally dissolves.
Explore the following to make this perspective more available to you:
In this moment, notice that there is seeing, feeling and hearing happening, without the need for effort and thinking.
Do you need to say “I see” in order to see or “I hear” in order to hear? In fact, can the thought “I see” actually see or the thought “I hear” actually hear?
The senses actually function just fine without our help. If we add concepts and stories to this experiencing, we can miss the simplicity of what is—the presence of awareness that is already here now that is aware of and allows for all seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking, yet is unchanged and unaffected by any of it.
As you let go using The Sedona Method, your mind naturally will get quieter, and more importantly, you will be much more at peace with whatever is being experienced.