Happiness
is Free
And It's
Easier Than You Think
by Hale Dwoskin,
Lester Levenson
ISBN
0971933405
196 pages, US$
10.47
Click
here to order
That
which every one of us is looking for in this world is exactly the
same thing. Every Being, even the animal, is looking for it. And
what is it that we are all looking for? Happiness with no sorrow! A
continuous state of happiness with no taint whatsoever of sorrow.
Now, if this be the Goal, why is it the Goal? The reason why it is
the Goal is because imperturbable happiness is our very basic
nature!, And what is imperturbable happiness? Complete and total
freedom, and that is freedom to do or not to do anything and
everything. This is the real natural state, before, we encumber it
with limitations.
Table
of Contents
Introduction: What Is Happiness?
How to Gain the Maximum Benefit from This Book
The Basic Goal and Ways to Attainment
Problems and How They Resolve
Spiritual Growth
Happiness
Love
Realization
Love, Giving, and the Christ Consciousness
The Next Steps
Guidelines for Happiness Is Free Support Groups
Excerpted from "Happiness is Free"
Copyright © 2002 Hale Dwoskin, Lester Levenson. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.
Quite simply put,
happiness is you being your Self. Not the limited self that you
pretend to be most of the time, but the unlimited Self that you
are and have always been. This is the Self that is always
effortlessly present before, during, and after everything else
that appears in your experience. You are the radiant yet
changeless background that allows for everything else to exist.
If that is true,
you may be wondering, why is it so hard to discover and why have
there been so many books written on the topic—including this
one? The answer to that is not as simple.
We have spent eons
pretending to be anything but unlimited. In fact, we have become
so good at this pretending to be limited that we have forgotten
that it is just a game, a pretense. We now spend most of our time
bolstering the illusion that we have created for ourselves,
leaving very little time for the inner reflection that can set us
free from this totally self-imposed and artificial sense of
limitation.
It takes tremendous
energy to maintain the illusion that unlimited Beingness is
actually limited to the particular body-mind that you call
yourself. No wonder we are so exhausted most of the time. We have
unlimited energy available to us, but instead of using this energy
for good or to discover who we truly are, we use this energy to
convince ourselves and others around us that we are limited—that
we have personal problems.
The late Lester
Levenson, my friend and the coauthor of this book, used to say
that extraditing ourselves from this situation in which we all
find ourselves is either “simple or impossible.” It is simple
when we allow it to be easy. We can allow our energy to flow
inwards towards self-discovery and for loving acceptance of what
is. It is impossible when we force our energy to flow outwards. We
fight against the world of our own creation and try to prove to
everyone, including ourselves, that our world and its problems are
real.
Are you ready to
make it simple? You probably are if you were attracted to read
this book. This book is designed to guide you experientially to
rediscover your ultimate happiness by uncovering the real
unlimited you.
The happiness that
is you is totally independent of what you have or do not have, yet
it improves your experience of whatever you have or don’t have.
This happiness that is you is also independent of what you do or
do not do, yet it makes your experience of whatever you do or
don’t do more enjoyable. This happiness really is who you are,
and you can experience it for yourself by reading this book and
following the simple suggestions contained within it.
I know that you
have probably heard promises like these before. And you may have
often been disappointed. Which, of course, could make you a little
skeptical. If you are in doubt, that is okay. I encourage you to
believe nothing that you read in this book until you can prove it
for yourself. But I promise you that this program is different. I
have the absolute conviction that you can uncover your ultimate
happiness and live it in every moment. This conviction is based on
my own direct experience over the last quarter century of working
with Lester Levenson and his teachings and then sharing them with
thousands of people around the world.
Yet I did not
always feel convinced. I met Lester Levenson in 1976. Back then I
was an ardent, although confused seeker who had gone to many
trainings and seminars led by teachers from both the East and the
West. I had studied various body-centered disciplines, including
Yoga, Tai Chi, and Shiatsu. I had actively participated in various
courses, including EST, Actualism, Theta Seminars, and Rebirthing.
I had many nice experiences at these seminars, and heard and
understood—at least intellectually—many useful concepts. Still
I felt incomplete. I longed for a simple and powerful answer to
some important, yet vexing questions like: “What is my life’s
purpose?” “What is truth?” and “Who am I?”
Much
of what I had heard and experienced only added to my questioning.
No one seemed to have truly satisfying answers or have truly
satisfied him or herself about what their true nature was or what
was the ultimate truth. There was also a strong, almost universal
belief that growing was hard work and required baring your soul
and reliving painful, unresolved issues. However, that all changed
during a very fortunate encounter with a remarkable man.
I
met Lester at a seminar that I had organized for a well-known
speaker, which Lester attended as the seminar leader’s guest.
That day, a group of us went out to lunch together, where
Lester’s presence immediately struck me as special. He was in
total peace and equal-mindedness, very comfortable with himself.
He was unassuming and easy to talk to, and treated everyone as his
friend—even me, a complete stranger. It was obvious that he had
ended his search by discovering the answers I’d been seeking. I
knew I had to find out more.
When
I asked Lester what he did, he invited me to a seminar that was
being held the next weekend. All he would tell me about it was
that, “a group of people is going to sit around a table and
release.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I knew if it
could even point me in the direction of the qualities of which
Lester was the living embodiment, I definitely wanted it. I took a
leap of faith and signed up on the spot.
Almost
overnight I knew that I had found what I was looking for. In fact,
deep inside I knew that this process of releasing and Lester’s
teachings were what I had been born to do and share with the
world—and to this day I have never wavered.
Before
we move on to explore more of what you can expect from this book,
I would like to share Lester’s story with you in his own words.
The quote that follows is very similar to the story that Lester
unfolded for me shortly after I met him and started exploring his
teachings:
I
was born July 19, 1909, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, into a middle
class family as a very shy person. I tried to do things the way
they were supposed to be done—doing the right thing, getting a
good education, and being the best in my field. My natural
inclination was towards science, especially the science of the
world, and of man himself. I graduated from Rutgers University in
1931 as a physicist, after which I worked twenty-some years in
physics and engineering. In physics, I worked in research and
development on measuring instruments and automatic control,
connected with Brown Instrument Co., which later became a
subsidiary of Honeywell. And in the engineering field, I worked as
a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a construction
engineer, a heating and venting engineer, and a marine
engineer—actually, fourteen different fields.
I
also went into various businesses, including restaurants, lumber,
building, and oil, intertwined with engineering, wanting to make
money, wanting to make it in the world. At that time, I did not
know what I now know—that what I was seeking was actually the
answers to life itself. Nothing that I had worked at would give me
that answer, and as the years went by, I became heavy with
depression and with sickness.
By
1952, I had been through constant illness—I even had jaundice
three or so times a year. I had an enlarged liver, kidney stones,
spleen trouble, hyper- and hypo- acidity, ulcers that perforated
and formed lesions, and to top it off, I had at least ten years of
migraine headaches. This all culminated in 1952 when I had my
second coronary thrombosis.
After
the second coronary, I was told I would not live much
longer—that I might die any day and shouldn't make the effort to
take so much as a step unless I necessarily had to. I was
extremely fearful of dying, but I said to myself, “You're still
breathing, Lester—there is still a chance.” So I sat down and
began thinking on an “around the clock” basis. Having lived
forty-two or so years, and having reached the end of the line
without happiness, without health, I realized that all the
knowledge I had accumulated was of no avail. I had studied
Watson's behaviorism in the 30 's and Freud's in the late 30's and
early 40's. I had studied the philosophies. I had studied logic. I
studied economics. I studied all the major fields of man, and with
all that knowledge there, I was at the end of the line. This made
me realize that the accumulated knowledge of man was of no use.
So
I decided to start from scratch. Forget all that knowledge. Begin
from point zero and see what you can pick up. So, I posed the
questions, “What am I?” “What is this World?” “What is
my relationship to it?” “What is Mind?” “What is
Intelligence?” “What is Happiness?”
I
began by asking myself, “What do I want out of life?” And the
answer was happiness. Investigating further, I went into the
moment when I was feeling happiest. I discovered something which
to me was startling at the time. It was when I was loving that I
was happiest. That happiness equated to my capacity to love rather
than to being loved. That was a starting point.
I
began correcting all my thoughts and feelings in that direction
from that of wanting to be loved, to that of loving. And in that
process, I discovered another major thing that kind of shocked me.
I saw that I wanted to change this entire world, and that was the
cause of my ulcers—or one of the major causes. In realizing how
much I wanted to change things in this world, I saw how it made me
a slave of this world, I made the decision to reverse that. And in
the process of following out these two directions—actually
unloading all the subconscious concepts and pressures in those
directions—I discovered I was getting happier, freer, lighter,
and feeling better in general.
As
I saw this direction was good, I made the decision that if a slice
of pie tasted this good, I wanted the whole pie. And I decided not
to let go of this direction until I got that entire pie of
happiness, and with it the answer to, “What am I? What is this
life, and what is my relationship to it?” This decision allowed
me, as I claim, to get the answer to life itself in a matter of
only three months. I believe if I can do it, anyone can do it if
they have that much “want to.”
In
that three-month period, all the ailments I had in my physical
body corrected. All my miseries dropped away. And I ended up in a
place in which I was happy all the time, without sorrow. Not that
the world stopped pushing against me, it continued—but I was at
a place where I could resolve things almost immediately. Having
cleared out the negative fears, all the negative “I cannots,”
I would focus right on the answer to every problem, and get it
very quickly. And so, my whole life turned around from being
depressed and sick, to being happy all the time, and being in
perfect health all the time.
One
of the things that happened in this process was my identification
with others. I saw that we are all related, we are all
interconnected, each mind is like a radio broadcasting and
receiving station; that we are all tuned into each other
unconsciously—that we are just not aware of it. As a lot of the
suppressed energies are let out, this becomes obvious to us and
once we identify with everyone else it is just natural that we
want everyone else to discover what we have discovered. That life
was meant to be beautiful... meant to be happy all the time with
no sorrow. And to be with perfect health. And so after reaching
that high point of understanding in 1952, I have wanted to help
others to discover what I had discovered.
I
was deeply moved by Lester’s story because it offered hope for
all of us who may not have had the good fortune to have an ideal
life. Lester was able to discover his true nature in a relatively
short time and despite extreme adversity. If he could do it, I
knew that I could too.
The
following quote is Lester expanding more about his actual
realization:
I
was at the end of my rope. I was told not to take a step unless I
absolutely had to because there was a possibility that I could
drop dead at any moment.
This
was a terrible, shocking thing, suddenly to be told that I
couldn’t be active anymore, having been so active all my life.
It was a horrible thing. An intense fear of dying overwhelmed me,
the fear that I might drop dead any minute. This stayed with me
for days. I went through a real, horrible, low, spinning period
there, in the grip of intense fear of dying or of being a cripple
for the rest of my life in that I wouldn’t be able to be active.
I felt that life would not be worthwhile any more.
This
caused me to conclude with determination, “Either I get the
answers, or I’ll take me off this earth. No heart attack will do
it!” I had a nice easy way to do it, too. I had morphine the
doctors gave me for my kidney stone attacks.
After
several days of this intense fear of dying, I suddenly realized,
“Well, I’m still alive. As long as I’m alive there’s hope.
As long as I’m alive, maybe I can get out of this. What do I
do?”
Well,
I was always a smart boy, always made the honor roll. Even got
myself a four-year scholarship to Rutgers University at a time
when scholarships were very rare through competitive examinations.
But what does this avail me? Nothing! Here I am with all this
brilliance, as miserable and scared as can be.
Then
I said, “Lester, you were not only not smart, you were dumb!
Dumb! Dumb! There’s something wrong in your intellect. With all
your knowledge, you’ve come to this bottom end! Drop all this
knowledge you’ve so studiously picked up on philosophy,
psychology, social science, and economics! It is of no avail!
Start from scratch. Begin all over again your search for the
answers.
And
with an extreme desperation and intense wanting out—not wanting
to die, I began to question, “What am I? What is this world?
What is my relationship to it? What do I want from it?”
“Happiness.”
“Well,
what is happiness?”
“Being
loved.”
“But
I am loved. I know several very desirable girls with beauty,
charm, and intellect who want me. And I have the esteem of my
friends. Yet, I’m miserable!”
I
sensed that the closest thing related to happiness was love. So I
began reviewing and reliving my past love affairs, looking at the
points where the little happiness that I had were. I began to pull
up and dissect all my high moments of loving. Suddenly, I got an
inkling that it was when I was loving that I had the highest
feeling!
I
remembered one evening, a beautiful balmy evening in the mountains
when I was camping with my girlfriend. We were both lying on the
grass, both looking up at the sky, and I had my arm around her.
The nirvana, the perfection of the height of happiness was right
there. I was feeling how great is love for my girlfriend! How
wonderful is knowing all this nature! How perfect a setting!
Then
I saw that it was my loving her that was the cause of this
happiness! Not the beauty of the setting or being with my
girlfriend.
Then
I immediately turned to the other side. Boy it was great when she
loved me! I remembered the moment when publicly this beautiful,
charming girl told the world that she approved of Lester, she
loved Lester—and I could feel that nice feeling of approval. But
I sensed that it was not as great as what I had just discovered.
It was not a lasting feeling. It was just for the moment. In order
for me to have that feeling continuously, she had to continue
saying that.
So,
this momentary ego approval was not as great as the feeling of
loving her! As long as I was loving her, I felt so happy. But when
she loved me, there were only moments of happiness when she gave
me approval.
Days
of further cogitation gradually revealed to me that this was
correct! I was happier when I loved her than I was when I got that
momentary ego-satisfaction when she loved me. Her loving me was a
momentary pleasure that needed constant showing and proving on her
part, while my loving her was a constant happiness, as long as I
was loving her.
I
concluded that my happiness equated to my loving! If I could
increase my loving, then I could increase my happiness! This was
the first inkling I had as to what brings about happiness. And it
was a tremendous thing because I hadn’t had happiness. And I
said, “Gee, if this is the key to happiness, I’ve got the
greatest!” Even the hope of getting more and more happiness was
a tremendous thing, because this was the number one thing I
wanted—happiness.
That
started me on weeks and weeks of reviewing my past love affairs. I
dug up from the past, incident after incident when I thought I was
loving, and I discovered that I was being nice to my girlfriends,
trying to get them to love me, and that that was selfish. That was
not really love. That was just wanting my ego bolstered!
I
kept reviewing incidents from the past, and where I saw that I was
not loving, I would change that feeling to loving that person.
Instead of wanting them to do something for me, I would change it
to my wanting to do something for them. I kept this up until I
couldn’t find any more incidents to work on.
This
insight on love, seeing that happiness was determined by my
capacity to love, was a tremendous insight. It began to free me,
and any bit of freedom when you’re plagued feels so good. I knew
that I was in the right direction. I had gotten hold of a link of
the chain of happiness and was determined not to let go until I
had the entire chain.
I
felt a greater freedom. There was an easier concentration of my
mind because of it. And I began to look better at my mind. What is
my mind? What is intelligence?
Suddenly,
a picture flashed of amusement park bumper-cars that are difficult
to steer so that they continually bump into each other. They all
get their electrical energy from the wire screen above the cars
through a pole coming down to every car.
The
power above was symbolic of the overall intelligence and energy of
the universe coming down the pole to me and everyone else, and to
the degree we step on the gas do we use it. Each driver of the
cars is taking the amount of energy and intelligence that he wants
from that wire, but he steers his car blindly and bumps into other
cars, and bumps and bumps.
I
saw that if I chose to, I could take more and more of that overall
intelligence.
And
so I dug into that. I began to examine thinking and its
relationship to what was happening. And it was revealed that
everything that was happening had a prior thought behind it and
that I never before related the thought and the happening because
of the element of time between the two.
When
I saw that everything that was happening to me had a thought of it
before it happened, I realized that if I could grab hold of this,
I could consciously determine everything that was happening to me!
And
above all, I saw that I was responsible for everything that had
happened to me, formerly thinking that the world was abusing me! I
saw that my whole past life, and all that tremendous effort to
make money and in the end, failing, was due only to my thinking!
This
was a tremendous piece of freedom, to think that I was not a
victim of this world, that it lay within my power to arrange the
world the way I wanted it to be, that rather than being an effect
of it, I could now be at cause over it and arrange it the way I
would like it to be!
That
was a tremendous realization, a tremendous feeling of freedom!
I
was so ill when I started my searching; I had one foot in the
grave. And when I saw that my thinking was cause for what was
happening to me, I immediately saw my body from my chin down to my
toes as perfect. And instantly, I knew it was perfect! I knew the
lesions and adhesions of my intestine due to perforated ulcers
were undone. I knew everything within me was in perfect running
order.
And
it was.
Discovering
that my happiness equated to my loving, discovering that my
thinking was the cause of things happening to me in my life gave
me more and more freedom. Freedom from unconscious compulsions
that I had to work, I had to make money, and I had to have girls.
Freedom in the feeling that I was now able to determine my
destiny, I was now able to control my world, I was now able to
arrange my environment to suit me. This new freedom lightened my
internal burden so greatly that I felt that I had no need to do
anything.
Plus,
the new happiness I was experiencing was so great! I was
experiencing a joy that I had never known existed. I had never
dreamed happiness could be so great.
I
determined “If this is so great, I’m not going to let go of it
until I carry it all the way!” I had no idea how joyous a person
could be.
So,
I began digging further on how to extend this joy. I began further
changing my attitudes on love. I would imagine the girl I wanted
most marrying one of my friends, or the boy I would want her to
marry least, and then enjoy their enjoying each other. To me, this
was the extreme in loving, and if I could achieve it, it would
give me more of this wonderful thing that I was experiencing.
And
so I worked on it. I took a particular fellow, Burl, and a
particular girl, and I wouldn’t let go until I could really feel
the joy of their enjoying each other.
Then
I knew I had it—or almost had it.
Then
later on, I had further tests of this in talking to people who
were opposing me no end when I was trying to help them. I would
consciously feel the greatest love for them when they were
attacking me. And the joy of loving them was so wonderful, I
would, without any thought, thank them so profusely for having
given me the opportunity of talking with them, that it threw them
into a dither.
But
I really felt that. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart for
having given me the opportunity of loving them when they were
making it as difficult as they possibly could. I didn’t express
that to them. I just thanked them for the opportunity of having
been able to talk with them.
That
I was able to do this was good news to me because, like other
things, I was able to carry loving to the extreme. I could love
people who were opposing me.
And
I would not stop until I could see the end of the line of this
happiness I was getting. I would go higher and higher and higher
and say, “Oh, my gosh, there can be nothing higher than this!”
But I would try. And, I would go higher. Then I would say, “Oh,
there can’t be anything higher than this!” But I would try,
and go higher! And then say, “Oh, there can’t be anything
happier than this!” until I realized there was no limit to
happiness!
I
would get incapacitated. I could look at my body, and I couldn’t
move it I was so top-heavy with ecstasy and joy. I was actually
incapacitated. I would do this for hours, going higher and higher
and then I would have to work for hours to keep coming down and
down and down until I could start being the body again in order to
operate it.
Contemplating
the source of intelligence and energy, I discovered that energy,
as well as intelligence was available in unlimited amounts, and
that it came simply by my freeing myself from all compulsions,
inhibitions, entanglements, hang-ups. I saw that I had dammed up
this energy, this power, and all I had to do was pry loose the
logs of the dam which were my compulsions and hang-ups—and that
was what I did. As I let go of these things, I was removing logs
and allowing this infinite energy to flow, just like a water dam
flows if you pull the logs out, one by one. The more logs you pull
out, the greater the flow. All I needed to do was to remove these
logs and let the infinite power and energy flow.
Seeing
this, the power that was right behind my mind was allowed to flow
through like it had never flowed before. There were times when
I’d get this realization of what I am that would put so much
energy into me, I would just jump up in the air from my chair. I
would go right straight out the front door, and I would start
walking and walking and walking, for hours at a time—sometimes
for days at a time! I just felt as though my body would not
contain it, that I had to walk or run some of it off. I remember
walking the streets of New York City in the wee hours of the
morning, just walking at a very good pace, and not being able to
do anything otherwise! I had to expend some of that energy. It was
so tremendous.
I
saw that the source of all this energy, of all intelligence was
basically harmonious, and that harmony was the rule of the
universe. And that was why the planets were not colliding, and
that was why the sun rose every day, and that was why everything
functioned.
When
I started my search, I was a very convinced and absolute
materialist. The only thing that was real was that which you could
feel and touch. My understanding of the world was as solid as
concrete. And when some of these revelations came to me that the
world was just a result of my mind, that thinking determined all
matter, that matter had no intelligence, and that our intelligence
determined all matter and everything about it. When I saw that the
solidity that I formerly had was only a thought itself, my nice,
solid, concrete foundations began to crack. Twenty years of
buildup began to tumble.
And
my body shook, and shook so much; I just shook for days. I shook
just like a nervous old person. I knew that the concrete view I
had had of the world was never going to be again. But it didn’t
drop away gracefully, with ease. For days, I actually shook, until
I think I shook the whole thing loose.
Then,
my view was just the opposite of what it had been months
previously, that the real solid thing was not the physical world,
was not my mind, but something, which was much greater. The very
essence, the very Beingness of me was the reality. It had no
limits, it was eternal, and all the things that I saw before were
the least of me, rather than the all of me. The all of me was by
Beingness.
I
saw that the only limitations I had were the ones that I accepted.
So, wanting to know what am I? And looking for this unlimited
Being that I had had an inkling of, I got insight of this
tremendous unlimited Being that I am.
And
on seeing that, I right there and then realized, “Well, I’m
not this limited body and I thought I was! I am not this mind with
its limitations that I thought I was!”
And
I undid all body limitation, and almost all mind limitation, just
by saying, “I am not it! Finished! Done! Period! That’s it!”
I so declared.
It
was obvious to me that I wasn’t that body and mind that I had
thought I was. I just saw that’s all! It’s simple when you see
it.
I
let go of identifying with this body. And when I did that, I saw
that my Beingness was all Beingness. That Beingness is like one
grand ocean. It’s not chopped up into parts called drops of
bodies. It’s all one ocean.
This
caused me to identify with every being, every person and even
every atom in this universe. Then you are finished forever with
separation and all the hellishness that’s caused only by
separation.
Then
you can no more be fooled by the apparent limitations of the
world. You see them as a dream, as an appearancy, because you know
that your very own Beingness has no limits.
In
reality, the only thing that is, is Beingness. That is the real,
changeless substance behind everything.
Everything
of life itself was open to me the total understanding of it. It is
simply that we are infinite beings, over which we have
superimposed concepts of limitation (the logs of the dam). And we
are smarting under these limitations that we accept for ourselves
as though they are real, because they are opposed to our basic
nature of total freedom.
Life
before and after my realization was at two different extremes.
Before, it was just extreme depression, intense misery, and
sickness. After, it was a happiness and serenity that’s
indescribable. Life became so beautiful and so harmonious that all
day, every day, everything would fall perfectly into line.
As
I would drive through New York City, I would rarely hit a red
light. When I would go to park my car, people sometimes two or
three people would stop and even step into the street to help
direct me into a parking space. There were times when taxi cab
drivers would see me looking for a parking space and would give up
their space for me. And after they did, they couldn’t understand
why they had done it. There they were, double-parked!
Even
policemen who were parked would move out and give me their parking
place. And again, after they did, they couldn’t understand why.
But I knew they felt good in doing so. And they would continue to
help me.
If
I went into a store, the salesman would happily go out of his way
to help me. Or, if I would order something in a restaurant and
then change my mind, the waitress would bring what I wanted, even
though I hadn’t told her.
Actually
everyone moves to serve you as you just float around. When you are
in tune and you have a thought, every atom in the universe moves
to fulfill your thought. And this is true.
Being
in harmony is such a delightful, delectable state, not because
things are coming your way, but because of the feeling of
God-in-operation. It’s a tremendous feeling; you just can’t
imagine how great it is. It is such a delight when you’re in
tune, in harmony—you see God everywhere! You’re watching God
in operation. And that is what you enjoy, rather than the time,
the incident, the happening. His operation is the ultimate.
When
we get in tune, our capacity to love is so extreme that we love
everyone with an extreme intensity that makes living the most
delightful it could ever be.
When
I found the quote above I was deeply moved, and as I worked to put
this book together I knew it was important for you to be exposed
to it as well so you could appreciate the point of view from which
Lester did his teaching.
Lester
dedicated the rest of his life, from 1952 through his death in
1994, as he put it, to “helping the rest of him discover what he
had discovered.” He joyously lived for others without any sense
of sacrifice, tirelessly working to help them to discover their
true nature or at least let go of their suffering. Despite his
best intentions he was not always understood. He used to say,
“You only hear ten percent of what I say.” Which, in my
experience working with him and watching how others related to
him, was quite generous. In fact, the very people that he helped
the most often vehemently opposed him. But this never deterred
him, nor did it ever shake his unqualified happiness and peace.
He
worked with people on a one-to-one basis and in small groups,
teaching sessions very much like those you will experience in this
book. Until, around 1974, with the help of some of his closest
students, he summarized his teaching into a do-it-yourself system
that we now call the Sedona Method. He did this to take himself
out of the teaching loop. No matter how often he protested to the
contrary, his students would often attribute their gains and
realizations to him because they felt so elevated in his presence.
He wanted everyone to know that they could discover just what he
had on their own without needing an external teacher.
As
you read this book and work with the material contained with in
it, you will have a direct experience of Lester’s teaching style
through his words and their import. This is significant because it
is something that very few people were lucky enough to experience
during the last twenty years of his life. You will also have the
benefit of seeing how his teachings have evolved since the
creation of the Sedona Method and in the work of his students
since his passing.
Before
Lester died, he asked me to continue his work and to continue to
find ways to make the experience of letting go more readily
available to those who are interested. That is why I have added
some commentary and suggestions at the end of each session. I hope
you will find these as helpful as I did.
I
urge you to treat this book as a home study course in discovering
your true nature and uncovering your innate happiness. You can
benefit from this book even if you only read it casually. But if
you dedicate yourself to using it to the fullest, the results you
can achieve will astound you.
End
of Excerpt
About
the Author
Hale Dwoskin Hale Dwoskin is the CEO
and Director of Training of Sedona
Training Associates
, an organization headquartered in
Arizona that he co-founded in 1996 to teach courses based on the
Sedona Method and other mental and emotional releasing techniques
originated by his mentor Lester Levenson. For the last quarter
century, he has been regularly teaching the Sedona Method to
individuals and at corporations throughout the United States and
the United Kingdom, and leading instructor training and advanced
retreats since the early 1990’s. Lester Levenson Lester Levenson
was a man who mastered life's greatest challenge.
In
1952 at age 42, Lester, a physicist and successful entrepreneur,
was at the pinnacle of worldly success, yet he was an unhappy and
very unhealthy man. So unhealthy that after having a second
coronary, his doctors sent him home to his ritzy Central Park
South Penthouse apartment in New York City, to die. Lester was a
man who loved challenges, so instead of giving up, he decided to
go back to the lab within himself and find some answers. Because
of Lester's determination and concentration, he was able to cut
through his conscious mind to find all the answers. What he found
was the ultimate tool for personal growth - a way of letting go of
all inner limitations. Lester was so excited by his discovery that
he used it intensively on himself for a period of three months. At
the end of that period, his body became totally healthy again and
he entered a state of profound peace that he never left through
the day he died on January 18, 1994. After Lester's awakening, he
dedicated the remaining 42 years of his life helping others
discover what he had discovered including inspiring the creation
of the world renowned Sedona Method Course.
