Session 1: The Ultimate Goal (28 September 1964)
Introduction:
In 1952, a physicist by the name of Lester Levenson
discovered a way to free himself from all limitation. Prior to that time he had been very
successful, but he suffered from the physical and emotional ills that so often
accompany worldly success. But, since
his discovery, he's enjoyed perfect health, peace, and happiness right up to
this day. His peace and joy are very
evident to those who know him. His
mastery of life has become legendary and his compassion for others has led him
to help many people toward achieving the same peace and happiness that he
enjoys.
Between 1964 and 1972, Lester's spoke to many groups. Some of whom recorded his talks. This special cassette program includes eleven
of those talks. The delivery style of
the talks is deliberate. By the time
these talks were recorded, Lester had learned to speak in a manner that would
draw attention not to him, but to his message.
As you listen to his message and begin applying it in your everyday
life, you will discover it to have a quality and power well beyond even your
highest expectations.
The thing that every one of us is looking for in this
world is exactly the same thing and what is it that we're all looking for? Happiness with no sorrow — a continuous happiness with no
taint whatsoever of sorrow.
All right, this being the goal — why is this the goal? The reason why this is the goal is because unlimited
happiness is our very basic nature.
This is the real natural state before we encumber it with limitations.
Now, why is it that most of us don't have this continuous
happiness with no sorrow? There's only one reason, being this infinite being with infinite
happiness, we do away with this joy, this happiness by saying first “I am an
individual.” then “I have a mind.” Then with this
mind which is nothing but thoughts, we start accumulating
thoughts of limitation, “I have a limited
mind body with all sorts of troubles.”
In this manner, we take our unlimited beingness and we limited to the
extreme.
Now, the only real purpose of being here on this earth is to
learn, or to re-remember our original natural state of no limitations. Once we are led to seeing that this is our natural state, then we
proceed to let go of all the limitations.
The prime number one limitation is “I am an individual separate from the all.” Eliminate that and you eliminate all trouble, all
limitation, all sickness, all poverty.
Saying that on the opposite side is saying, “Let go and
let God. It is not I but the father will
work it through me.” We must let go of the
ego sense and just allow our natural being just to be, and that everything
falls perfectly into line.
Now, this is all very very simple. If you want complexity, you'll never see
simplicity, but this must first be accepted.
Once this is accepted as the overall way, we do not find it easy to
accomplish it — we don't find it easy
because of past habits that have been established over thousands and thousands
of years, and for some silly reason we like these past habits of
trouble, and so we continue them. We do
it in a manner that we refused to look at — we call it unconscious behavior, unconscious or subconscious.
We go on and on and on repeating all this behavior of
limitation automatically, calling it unconscious. Now, the
unconscious mind is only that part of the mind we refuse to look at. When our desire is strong enough, we will take up this
unconscious habit, and begin to let go of it.
There is no growing into the natural being that we are — that being
is perfect, here and now.
There is only letting go of concepts, to the contrary that we have troubles, we have limitations. Anyone who says “I have trouble,” is just in their mind, that's the only place where it is. Because you can't see anything anywhere else but in your mind. Whatever you look at, whatever you hear, whatever you sense, — it's through your mind — that's where everything is.
Change your mind and everything out there changes, change
your thinkingness, and you change the world for you.
So the way, the path [to the Ultimate Freedom] is simple, the
method of undoing it is not easy because of past habits. We need a very strong desire to begin, to let go of these
wrong habits from the past. Without the
[strong] desire, there is no growth.
This desire must be stronger than the desire to make this
world real rather than it's a fiction of our imagination.
It really is a fiction when you see the truth. It turns out to be a dream that never was. But first, you'll see it as a dream, then you'll see that this dream never was, exactly as happens in a night dream. While we're in the night dream we have a body, there are other bodies, as action and interaction, there is good and there is bad. And so long as we remain in that night dream, everything there is real to us. When we awaken from the night dream, we say “My gosh! It was just a dream! It never happened!”
And exactly the same way, [when] we awaken from this dream called
the waking state, we see that it was only a fiction of our imagination. It was only a dream, and we let go of it —
lock, stock, and barrel, then we caught
ourselves fully realized.
Actually, we are fully realized all the time. We are
fully realized being saying that “we are not.” So, all we do is let go of “we are not”,
what's left over is the fully realized Being that we are.
Are there any questions on what I've said so far? Everyone understands it, at least
intellectually. All right, if you
understand it intellectually and you are not able to use it, it's because
you're not looking at yourself honestly, truthfully, with deep desire to see
yourself. In the process of which
you have set up as the eye conscious mind, all the things you don't want to
look at. However, it's not necessary
to dig into this unconscious mind.
In fact, it's much better to try to quiet the mind. When we were able to get the mind totally
quiet, what's left over is the infinite Self.
Every thought is a thing of limitation, therefore we'll
be quiet the mind, this infinite Being that we are becomes self obvious to us. We see it, we recognize that we never were
that mind, that body, and from that moment on, the mind and body has no
influence upon us. It just goes its way,
it just keeps floating through life, and sort of a hazy dream, that has no
effect upon us.
So, the very best method of all method is to quiet the mind,
to seek the being that you are, to pose the question “Who am I?” and if other
thoughts come in, ask “To whom are these thoughts?” and the answer is “To
me. Well. Who am I?” and you're back on the track.
“Who am I?” is the final question that everyone answers,
so why not begin with the final question.
All methods get to be the same as
we move toward the top — we simply quiet the mind, eliminate thoughts, get the
mind quieter, until the mind gets totally quiet, what's left over is our
glorious infinite Self.
[Note: In the later stage of Lester Levenson teaching, he
recommended to change the question from “Who am I?” to “What am I?”]
There are two ways of growing, one is eliminating the negative [known
as release method] — going into the mind, seeing the cause of the problem which
originates and the thought, sometime in the past, or many thoughts, and while
we see this thought, when we bring it up into the consciousness, we naturally
let go of it — we see how silly that’s to hold it, and correct that behavior.
However, the better way is to quiet the mind and to see
who and what you are. “I AM THAT I
AM. I am he.”
Alright now, I'll take up the step below, where I was talking
this so called apparency called the world.
The
world was only an illusion that we created, someday you'll discover that you
created this entire universe.
The method of creating is by first creating what we call a mind.
We create our mind, which is nothing but a composite of all our
thoughts, and thoughts create the material world — every little thing that happens to each
and every one of us is created in our thinking.
We set up a thing called ‘time’ which
make it even more difficult to see things, because we think now and things
might happen years later. But the only
creator there is — is the mind, your mind.
Is God a creator?
Yes because you are. “Thou Art
that.” You set up a mind and the mind creates. It is good to discover that everything
happening is caused by our thinking.
Everything that happens to us is created in our own thought. It's a stepping stone toward realizing that we
are the creators. First you discover
that you created your trouble, when you discover that you can't create good
things, then you discover that you can create anything you desire. After you discover that there is nothing that you
cannot create, you're still unhappy. The
reason being that you have separated yourself from the one.
So
then you try to control the mind, you have already gained control over the
matter, you control the mind in ways like — if you have pain, you don't feel
it; if it's cold outside, you feel warm; if it's hot, you feel comfortable. This can be done mentally. This is in the line of getting mental
control, when the mind is really controlled then you will
eliminate the mind. When the mind is
eliminated, there's nothing left over but the infinite Self that you are.
So we start by becoming masters over matter, then we become
masters over mind, then we become masters.
So if there are any problems
that remain, they only remain because you are holding onto them. The moment you let go of them, they are gone. If you tell me that isn't so for you, that
isn't true. The truth is you're still
holding onto it, telling me that it doesn't work.
Now, trying to
get rid of a problem is holding onto it.
Anything we try to get rid of, we are holding in mind, and therefore
sustaining that problem. So, the only way
to correct a problem is to let go of it.
See not the problem; see only what you want. If you would only from this moment on, see
what you want — that is all that you would get, what you want. But you hold in mind the things you do not
want, very strongly, you struggle to eliminate the things you don't want,
thereby sustaining them.
You should have only one desire — a desire for complete
liberation, complete realization. Any other
desire will keep you in trouble. We should try
to let go of all desires, we should not try to fulfill any desires. Every time we fulfill a desire, we
strengthen that desire rather than weaken it, which I believe is obvious to
all of us. Now we never satiate desires.
The more we try to satisfy them, the more we want of them. So it's better to not
satisfy desire and by doing so the mind gets quieter.
When the mind is quieter, we
have a better chance to see the truth.
When we see the truth we scorched the desire. And this is the better way — actually, the only really effective way of
getting rid of desire.
When you see the truth, desires are scorched because a
desire is trying to be your own real Self through some indirect means, with
some person, through something. When you see this, in
fact all of these silly desires, because why struggle through an indirect means
to be that which you are? The indirect means cannot
make you what you are, so it is fruitless and extremely frustrating. Therefore we have this frustrated world, of
all trying to satisfy desires, which is absolutely impossible to do it, may go on and
on, lifetime in lifetime out, until we recognize that desires are our enemy.
Desire is an admission of lack. If I am the infinite One, I desire nothing; I
am the All. You must get back to that
state by behaving as one would in that state.
The greatest behavior that we can perform is living as a
fully realized being would live. Try to
attain the desirelessness state, try to attain the state of dispassion, no
attachments, no aversions.
Trying to attain the state of equanimity, a feeling of
equal mindedness toward everything, everyone. Acting this way will push us
toward being that way by eliminating the effects out there - we help eliminate
the court.
[Transcripted on 22
Sep 2018]
Note:
1. You may find the MP3 source from the web
simply by click on this link -> “Lester Levenson, The Ultimate Goal."
2. The reason for having a transcript in black
and white is...
“Momentum is very important in getting realizations. You stay with something, it becomes clearer
and clearer as you stay with it. But if it starts getting clear and you move
off, when you come back on to it, it's more difficult to get into it again.
And so, I am anti-talks, tapes, because of
that. I can see it doing harm in that it
doesn't let you stay with something, because the conversation goes on and on
and you move off one thing onto another — to another without getting a
realization of any one of them. I believe
you got much more good out of reading the book…” - Lester Levenson.
Bless You
KH Tang
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