The following recordings were made by Lester Levenson in 1974. And the Original title of the tape was "Attachment and Aversion".
Continue from Part 1: -> Looking for Happiness
Re-titled as:
Waking Up to Your Infinite Nature: Lester Levenson on Truth and Oneness
☞ The Single Goal of Life — Constant HAPPINESS with no sorrow
This subject is sometimes called truth, religion, or psychology. As I see it, these are all the same subject. I should say the same subject, but the approach to it is from different angles, and therefore it gets different names. But it is the thing that every one of us is looking for, either consciously or unconsciously. It's the actual goal in life for everyone, for every being.
And so few of us in the world today are in this right direction. Everyone is looking for happiness, but they're looking for it in the wrong places. They look for happiness where it isn't, and therefore we have this unnecessary and unusual condition today—where we have almost everything we want in a material sense, and yet we have less happiness now than we had 30 years ago, when we didn't have the things that we have today.
My object is to try to give to you what I have seen, to point out to you the direction which, if you will take it, you will find this happiness. The best way for me to get this across to you is to have you ask questions. In the process of your asking questions, I try to point out the way, or the direction, in which you should look for you to find the answer.
☞ The Do-It-Yourself Path
As I know it, this is a strictly do-it-yourself thing. I point out the way; you get the answer. Unfortunately, it cannot be taught as an intellectual subject as we learn things in school. If it could, everyone could be given this wonderful state of constant happiness with no sorrow just by being spoken to.
So the method comes out to be one of evolvement where it evolves from within outward. The place where we find this happiness is within our very own self. So most of my answers, if not all, try to get you to go within to look there for the answers.
☞ Responsibility and Creation
We should take full responsibility for whatever happens to us because we are the cause for everything that happens to us in life. Everything that happens is initiated in a thought prior to the incident. But because we have put in a thing called 'time,' we forget that sometime, and sometimes long before the thing happened, we had that thought. Someone comes along with a thought of theirs, and when the two thoughts complement each other, two people meet.
But again, we have to go within to discover that our thinking determines everything that happens to us. That thinking is conscious and unconscious also, and it's the unconscious thinking that is the habitual way in which we do things. And that's why it appears as though we are victims, when all the time we are not—we are caused.
Mind is only creative. Mind creates the things that we hold in mind. The quickness of the thing materializing depends upon the conviction as to whether you will or not get it. The conviction is also a thought.
If my thought is "I will get this instantly" and there is no doubt whatsoever, whatever you had in mind would appear instantly. But that takes an absolute conviction with no doubt whatsoever. Now, if you can't get the absolute conviction, the thing to do is to hold in mind that which you want, then let it go with the feeling it is already accomplished. Because the attitude it is already accomplished is an acceptance of the fact that it is.
Now, the biggest mistake of all that is made by people who are consciously trying to create things is expecting it in the future. We must expect what we want now. We have to take the attitude that it's here right now and then dismiss it.
Because when we put things in the future mentally, it's always kept in the future. So to create something, to demonstrate, we should always demonstrate in the present. Anything you want, you must accept that it is already yours, otherwise it's just ahead of you all the time.
☞ Overcoming Unconscious Obstacles
Now, the things that prevent us from getting the things that we want are the unconscious thoughts to the contrary. Concepts we have had since childhood: I can't do it, I can't have it, it couldn't happen to me, you must work hard to get things. Of course, everyone must work for a living, and therefore everyone does.
So, the biggest obstacle is the accumulation of subconscious or unconscious thoughts to the contrary—that we can't have it, we can't get it. So if you consciously start demonstrating, if you succeed once, you become more convinced that you can. If you succeed twice, conviction gets stronger and stronger until someday you have the absolute conviction. Then you have to watch your thoughts—whatever you think will come to you right away. That can be a problem too.
☞ A Personal Demonstration
Let me tell you one that's hard to believe. When I started proving this law, it worked in small ways. One day I said, "My gosh, it's working. All I need to do is to dare to think big!" And so I said, "What's the biggest thing I can think of? A Cadillac car, special built body." I had a picture of it, I was driving it already, and I let go of it.
Well, in about two weeks, an acquaintance came to me. He said, "Oh that's right, I just bought you the most beautiful Cadillac, special built body. A friend of mine bought it, my friend doesn't want it, and I got it for only $4,000." He said, "Thanks, you owe me $50." He said "$4,000?" I looked at him. He said, "Don't worry about the money, I'll pay for it."
Honest, that was a conscious thought. I was proving the operation of the law. I said, "Gee, I can have a Cadillac." Just by thinking Cadillac. I pictured the Cadillac, I saw it, I was sitting in it. I could feel the pulse rate in the car when I was driving it. It was mine, and I let go of it as already accomplished. I was in that car, I was one with it. The feeling of 'already accomplished' is a big part of doing it. Does it help to identify yourself with that which you want!
Now, anyone can do this if he or she will, but it takes a thought uncluttered with other thoughts. Or to express it another way, it takes the conviction. If you're absolutely convinced, that'll do it. That's conviction.
You don't have to know metaphysics. You don't have to be good. You just have to have a conviction, that'll bring it about. Because the mind is an instrument of creation only.
By trying it first in small ways. It's not too hard to dare to demonstrate a very small thing. When that works, that gives you more confidence in it. Try it a second time, a third time, and it builds up. Eliminate the concept of limitation and you're back to your natural, unlimited state.
☞ You Are Already That
Someday you'll laugh at all these efforts you're going through now because that which you're going to find out you are in the future, you are right now, and always have been. You may be kicking up a big fuss trying to become that which you are.
Where can you see something that isn't in your mind? Can you? Everything you see, where do you see it? Look, everything that you perceive, where do you perceive it? What happens to this world when you tuck your mind away to sleep at night? What happens to this world? You put your mind to sleep, there's no more world. The morning you awaken, the mind comes out and there's a whole world.
You are a being with no limitations, identifying wrongly as being a limited being. But since you're unlimited, and that's an infinity, that's a perfection that never changes—you are that infinite perfect being, here and now. What changes is your letting go of concepts to the contrary. Like the unlimited being that we are, we are here and now. The object is to get to see it.
☞ Quieting the Mind to See Infinity
The way you can see it is by quieting the mind because just behind the mind is that infinity. By turning the mind inward, you quiet the mind. You let go of all the external distractions. The more you quiet the mind, the more you'll see this infinity that you are. The more you see the infinity that you are, the more you'll shed the limitations. The more you do away with the limitations, the more you'll see the infinite being you are. And you keep doing this until there's no more limitation left. But the method is—go within, turn your mind back upon the mind.
It seems that way otherwise because you're looking at it through ego eyes. But the more you see this infinite being that you are, the more humble you'll become. It's only the ego that's arrogant and proud, thinks it is, that's it. The higher an individual goes, the more humble he becomes. Someday you'll see that the word 'I' is used by apparently many people, later on turns out to be the exact same 'I'. This is seeing the truth, the reality behind the apparency.
☞ The Reality of Oneness
The world is an apparency right now; it's not real. When you see the reality, you'll see a singular ONENESS throughout everything. Which people call God, truth, self—it has several names. But that's the thing we have to strive for: to see this singular ONENESS everywhere. And it's changeless, it's perfect, it's infinite, and it's you. Is the way it turns out when you see it.
The false concept of being a limited being disappears, but the I, when you say I, never disappears. That's eternal. When you say "I am Harry, the body," that'll disappear, and you'll see that I am the infinite I am.
You don't give up anything, you don't lose, you just gain more and more and you expand into the infinity. You see, the mind cannot comprehend the ultimate because the mind is an instrument that's limited. Stop thinking and you'll see and be. It's infinity. This is the real way of doing it. Every thought is a thing of limitation.
☞ Waking Up from the Dream
Someday you'll see that thought is matter. It's very subtle; it's the subtlest of all matter. It's the matter that determines other matter. So what matters is to get rid of the thinking, and then you'll see. You see, as you let go of thoughts, the sentiment of being is there all the time. The thoughts are covering it over. So as you let go of thoughts, you're letting go of the cover that covers over this infinite being.
But when you have a thought, like in the demonstration, you have the thought and the demonstrating is not in the infinity—that's in the dream.
And someday you'll see that this waking state is just as real as the night dream state is. Like when you're in a dream at night. While you're in it, it's real. While you're dreaming, you're in trouble, you're suffering, or if it's a very pleasant dream, you're really enjoying it and it's real, right? It isn't until after you awaken that you say, "My gosh, it was a dream, it never was, right?" You'll do the exact same thing with this world when you wake up.
What we call a waking state is really a fast asleep state. When you wake up out of this thing, you say, "Oh my gosh, it never was, it was just a dream. I was always this infinite, unlimited being." But until you do it, don't buy it. But if you're interested in attaining it, it's something worthwhile striving for. Because, I'd say, if you accomplish it through the method, you gain an infinity.
You also gain a complete satisfaction of anything and everything which you will never have in the dream. Realizations of the satisfying of all desires, and no more are left. You attain the desirelessness state. But every pleasure you have is experiencing your real self a bit. The more the pleasure, the more you experience your real self. That's all that happiness is. And if you can get to see that your struggle with the world is at an end, then you go directly for your joy. You go right to where it is and you can maintain it all the time.
Continue from Part 1: -> Looking for Happiness
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