Most of what circulates under Lester Levenson’s name is the Release Technique as it’s handed to beginners — notice the feeling, let it go. This is not that. Recorded over the summer of 1989, “The Way” is a set of late private sessions in which Lester drops the scaffolding and speaks only to those already committed to going free. He distills the whole path into a few blunt instructions — want freedom more than the world, release directly on the fear of dying, get everything by releasing only, be not the doer — and then refuses to add more, so as not to complicate what is already simple.
A word of warning: this is not for the beginner. Lester assumes you’ve done the groundwork and are ready, in his words, for the “post-graduate work.”
Continue from Part 2 (Tape 2)
Tape 3 – Side A: July 30, 1989
There's nothing you have to do to be totally free! How do you like that? Why? Right now you're
totally free. You're all-powerful, you're
all-knowing, you're everywhere present, you're whole, complete, perfect. Right
now, there's nothing you have to do for that.
So, says I, why all this effort to be
unfree, limited and miserable? Why, oh
why, oh why, oh why? All you need to do
is let up these suppressed energies. – “I am limited, I am in bondage, I am miserable.”
By letting up and letting out,
– ‘approval’ ‘controls’ and ‘security’. You've done it, but why don't you do it all
and be done with it? You'll be in a happy state
that you never dreamed existed, you've never tasted the ultimate state yet.
You don't have to do a thing
to be free because you're already free. You have to stop this asinine conviction that you're a suffering
body that's going to die, and you've got to keep trying to keep it alive until
it dies. You draw
a blank. You
don't win. So, let go of all
this concept of I'm a limited carcass.
How long should it take? A month or two, if you carry
out the six steps.
I think the steps that
you're lacking most in are the very first step.
Anybody know what the first step is? – “You've
got to want freedom more than you want the world.” None of you want freedom more than you want
the world.
Were it so,
you'd be free. It's that simple. To be what you are is so easy. But if any one of you wanted freedom more
than you want the world, you'd be free.
So, you're out on step
one. You can't get over the first step. You go the next five. But when the hurt is enough, you release
enough to get rid of the hurt so you can try going on looking to the world for
your absolute security, which you will never find in the world, which you will only find
in you.
So, get
smart. Be what you are. Why all this effort and misery to be what you
are not? There's a 100% loss in the
direction you're in. Where are all
these bodies going to be 100 years from now? Everything you're doing is trying to keep the
body going.
And if I were to wish you a curse, the greatest one I could think of is to be a physical body. I think the only other one who says that is Ramana Maharshi – That the worst curse would be to condemn you into being a physical body from here on. It's like condemning you into being in a straitjacket from here on.
So, I try to give
you, in
all those first meetings we had when we started this project, very practical things
that can get you free quickly. And the last
one is such a powerful one, I think I'm not going to give you any more
practical things to do, because it will confuse and jumble what you've already
gotten.
What have you
gotten? Those signs in your room.
Get everything you want only by releasing!
Has it worked,
Kevin? Are you getting everything
now. But everything you do want, you
should get by releasing. Do you have
that in place?
Student:
I do.
Okay, when you have
everything in place, you have the sense of not being the doer. When you're getting everything by releasing, you become a witness, whereas before you were a doer
of it.
You just witness your body going through its motions. With a complete sense of non-doership, which should be spelled with a T instead of a P. [doershit, Laughing]
See,
that makes it effortless. When you're not
the doer, there's zero effort in it, and it happens harmoniously and
immediately.
What are the other
three or four steps I gave you before that last one?
Develop the Behavior of A
Master. As a Master, you be successful in whatever you are
doing. Makes that your behavior, become a habit. Whatever you do,
digging a hole or putting up some rocks… Whatever it is, be successful. Whatever it is you do – be successful!
What was the another
one?
Student: You're quiet and you're just being, and that's
the joy you feel. There is no other joy.
Take All Your Joys From
Within By Releasing. Recognize that all the joy you get, is from getting your
mind quiet by satisfied its desire, and just being your Beingness.
There is only one single joy and that is being your Beingness. But you set up a lack, a want, a desire to
agitate the mind. And when you fulfill
your desire, the mind just went quite and you just being your Beingness – that’s that joy it
is. There is no other joy. So get all your joy from your Beingness.
Is there still one
more?
Release Directly On The Fear
of Dying.
I'm just wondering if
that isn't too forceful, bring up the fear of dying. That'll do it for you, if you'll do it.
But you're not free
now, so you didn't do it. See, all the
suppressed fear of dying right now is trying to push up and push out. If you just stopped holding it in, on its
own, it would all go out, pronto.
But I'd still recommend
using it, to the degree you can use it. When
you have no more fear of dying, your mind goes quiet, you're identifying with
your beingness and you're free.
Nice and simple, nice and easy.
The only difficulty is
trying to be a limited carcass. That's where all your difficulty is. All your
misery. Everything you do not want is
involved in trying to be a limited body.
“So discriminate, my
son.” Sri Yukteswar said to Yogananda
when he left him, after his return, "Recognize the world as a dream." That's all it is.
You're dreaming this
whole thing. Exactly like you'd be
dreaming a night dream. Wake up and see
it for the dream that it is. And be infinitely
happy.
Are there any questions
on what I just went through? It's really giving you the very top knowledge in
the most practical way you could ever get it.
Those different steps are very practical. Of course, being out here is another one of the steps. Living with people who release, living with people that you can
express on and both of you release.
As I said again and again – I'm convinced you'll never go free in the world. The world is too powerfully pulling everyone down into the worldly way of things. You need to get away from that pull. Work together as a group. Use your expressing for releasing.
In the world, any one of you go out there, you have to suppress,
otherwise you'll get killed. You express your anger to the wrong person, they'll shoot you, if
not beat you up. It gets
better that way every day. I got
hundreds of policemen in California patrolling the streets to stop the gang
slayings.
Yesterday there were three killings by the gangs in Los Angeles. You can't stop it out there. But you have a wonderful opportunity here of expressing, releasing
and moving onward and upward.
Again, any questions on anything I've said? Now that you all understand it so well, when I come back next week,
expect to see two, four, six, eight free people or else... Okay, if there's no more...
Student: There is a question. I'm not sure if I have to say it, this is a dream or just a memory.
It’s simply
this way, it’s only your mind that say there’s a Lester here and Stuart there,
right?
Student: Well, let me just back up a little bit. When you're in a night dream, you don't sense the materiality. But in a daydream, things have form. Touch them.
You have form
in the night dream. You got your body,
you got other bodies.
Student: It doesn't feel like that. I have an
image of them in my mind, but I don't feel like I am the material.
Wait a
minute. When you are in the dream state,
you’re in a dream body. Of course you
are not in the physical body as you’re not in that state. This is what you’re saying.
Student: That's why I have a problem seeing this as a dream
state. Because it has to depend on...
No. You do wake up in the night dream. You do not wake up in the day dream. This is
the problem. Because you're so convinced
that this daydream is real, that you're in it and won't let it go. Release it.
Then you'll see the dream nature of this physical world. Release it. If
you're holding on it for dear life, like you are, you're not releasing it. You're
doing the opposite. That's
why you don't see it as a dream.
The same in a night dream. When
you're struggling for your life, the dream is going on. It's real. It's only after you wake up from the dream
that you know it's unreal.
You've got to wake up from this dream by letting go of your tight
holding on to it, by releasing it. Then it'll be very obvious to you that this so-called waking state
is exactly as real as a night dream is real. But you've got to wake up. It will remain permanently.
Or release one thing, the fear of dying. That'll take care of everything. One thing only you've got to release, one thing only – the fear of dying.
But don't do it. Because you'll
discover your omnipotence, omniscience, can have anything you want from me,
your effortless thought of it. You
materialize, de-materialize, you can teleport, you can telepath, you can tell
anything you want.
Student:
That seems like it's in direct opposition to being the doer, which I'm
releasing towards being not the doer.
Okay, to be in
that state, you can only be in it when you know you're not the doer.
Student:
Okay, now, say tomorrow morning I wake up and I'm going to say, I can't say
“I'm going to be a witness to it,” or can I?
You can't say
it, you can be it only.
Student:
So...
See, to be your Beingness, the top state's being your Beingness only, you can't say it. Anything you say is in duality, is in a
dream.
Student:
In that day-to-day action that I might be in process of witnessing. There might be some goal that I might release
on totally, and it will come in without...
Yeah, you're
letting go of your attachments and aversions to the world, bit by bit by bit by
bit. What you need is a big bite,
instead of a bit of a bit. So you use
what you're doing for releasing. See,
the only effort you need is to get rid of your effort.
This is what you're
doing in the world. You're using effort
to get rid of the effort. But in your Beingness you need no effort. Things
materialize and dematerialize instantly.
But if you're trying to figure it out in your head, you cannot, because
your head, your mind, your intellect is the obstacle. It's an accumulation of concepts of
limitation.
So you can't figure it
out in your head. You can be your Beingness. You are being it right
now. But you don't have to be a limited
carcass. And this is what you're
releasing as you work and go through the day.
You release all attachments and aversions by getting rid of the emotion
connecting you to it.
Did I answer your
question?
Student:
Yes. I'm trying to figure it out, but I
can see I can't jump the puddle. You did
answer it.
No, you can't
figure it out.
Student:
By day to day, by releasing moment to moment, or I can shortcut the whole thing
by releasing a fear of dying. That's pretty much what it is.
Right. Releasing approval control is also short
cutting it, instead of going through all those emotions below approval and
control. When you have no more either
approval or control, all the emotions below that are gone.
But you'll still have
approval or control until you release the fear of dying. The only reason why you want everyone's
approval is so you'll be safe and survive.
If you can't get that, you want to make them approve of you so you'll be
safe, and that's control.
But when you let go of
approval or control, all the feelings underneath it are out. Then left is just approval or control, which
is let go of by letting go of the fear of dying. But when you're that far, it's easy to let
the fear of dying come up.
You reach a point where
it'll just push up and push out, and you'll sit back and watch it complete
itself, discharging itself. And you'll
laugh your head off. What a silly joke
you played upon yourself, to think that
you were limited when you never were.
Okay? Any other questions? Okay, so we'll call it a day of eternity.
Tape 3 – Side B: Aug 13, 1989
The basis of our philosophy is very simple and is: – Each one of us has no limits whatsoever except those that we hold on to mentally. If we release the mental restrictions, limitations, bondages, we discover we have always been unlimited.
We have always been all-powerful, all-knowing – perfect. And because our basic nature is perfect, there's nothing we can do about it, except look away from it all the time.
"Where is it? Where is it? Who am I? Who am I?" We're like a bunch of drunks trying to
discover who and what we are.
However, the part of
us that's blinding us from seeing this unlimited being that is inherent and
natural is what we call our mind. Which 24 hours a day unconsciously is looking
for the absolute security out there in the world where it is not.
So everyone's engaged
24 hours a day subconsciously in a wrong direction looking for what am I, who
am I, where am I, where's my security in a 100% hopeless, fruitless, but very
frustrating direction.
If your basic nature is whole, complete, eternal, why do
you spend every day scratching for a living? Well,
the kind word would be ignorance of the factual stuff that I gave you
just before this.
Any smart one would
say, “Gee, if I'm all that, I'm going to be that, pronto.” It doesn't need to take time to be what
you are. It takes zero effort to be what
you are.
But to be what you're
not – to be limited, takes endless effort, struggle,
unhappiness, frustration, etc.
Now all of you have
probably heard what I said. How many smart ones do we have in this room who
have let go of struggling for it where it is not, and have just allowed the
infinite beingness that you are to be so that you have an effortless, extremely
happy life every moment? How many of us
have done it?
You're preferring to be
miserable. You're
preferring to be, in my eyes, as stupid as you
can be. If you could have anything for a mere
effortless thought, why all the struggle?
I'm calling you stupid because I think it
might help you. Is there anyone
here who does not want to be smart?
So
get smart. If you need the world, work it by effortless
thought. Allow it to drop into your lap. Let go of all your misery.
It's
easy, it's simple, and it's quick. If
you do it. If you don't do it, it's complicated,
extremely unattainable, frustrating, miserable.
But the choice is
yours. You
could be the being that you are right now – whole,
complete, perfect, or you can choose to look away from it all the 24
hours of the day. So what are you going
to do in the next month or two? Be smart
or be stupid?
I'm going to give you
the answer. I hope I'm wrong. I think you're going to be stupid. But I cannot figure out why you choose to be
stupid.
Because the first thing
I recognized in me was, when I was looking for the answer, that I was
stupid, but I said it not once. I
said, Lester, you are stupid, stupid, stupid, three times. And I meant it.
So
you hear me talking about stupidity. I
didn't want to be stupid. And that was
the bottom line of turning me around.
Of course, the next thing
is looking in the right direction. I
knew it wasn't out there. I spent forty-some years trying to get it out there. Ended up at the bottom.
So there was only one
way left to go, inward. – “What am I? What's this world? What's my relationship
to it? What's it all about, Alfie?” And
without the method, the answers came to me.
However, after it was
over, I could see the steps I took, packaged it into the method, which is a very effective
technique. But you use it partially, minimally,
instead of fully, maximally.
If you used it
maximally, it'd only take you a few months, and you'd have no more suppressed
feelings. The only thing between you and the ultimate happiness
is suppressed feeling.
So it behooves
you to make the decision to stop being stupid and
getting smart and releasing all these suppressed feelings in a month or two.
I don't think I could
give you a better message than that. I
could say you could do it in a century or two.
But why not now? You are this
unlimited being right now. Why not just
let go of, release all the blinders, which are all held together in the
feelings?
Okay, are there any
questions on what I've said? I'm
terminating what I have to say to you right there.
Student: You said people act like they're
spiritual rather than being spiritual.
Do you have a sense of what you mean when you say that?
Yeah, I walk
around with a nice smile on my face, and everybody I meet I give a hug, and I
say I belong to a spiritual organization, and da-da-da-da-da-da. And that's it. It's all that acting. It's pretense.
And you'll find it
almost solidly throughout the metaphysical community. And Sedona is a good gathering in place for
that community, but you have it everywhere.
It really comes under one word, pride.
Metaphysical spiritual
people get hung up on pride. – “I know more than the others. I have a closer tie to God. I know where the vortexes are of energy.”
[Laughter]
And that's wrong. The vortex of all energy is in the ‘I’ of you. I asked somebody to take me to the Bell
Rock Vortex. I'm walking around with
Zora here, and I said, “Well, where is it?”
She says, “You're on it.” I said, “Where?” She says, “The rock.”
And I said, “Oh my
gosh.” I wanted to experience, and I couldn't get any feeling of any lift from
the rock. And I said, “Well, you've got
to have rocks in your head to believe that.”
And it's true. All the power in the universe is in the ‘I”
of you when you say, “I AM.” Don't give
it away to rocks. You'll be between
the rock and the hard place. Did I
answer your question?
Student: You know, I guess after having been
releasing for only six months, I think that how that was for me in terms of how
I thought about loving. And I can see a big difference, I'm sure, after that.
Right. Releasing your non-love feelings. See, your basic inherent nature is Christ-like. That's the nature of every one of us. And it's covered over by the veils of non-love feelings. Every feeling about love is a non-love feeling. So you must let go of all those feelings. And what's left over is pure love.
And you don't need a
PhD to understand it. Actually, the thuds become duds because they're trying to get it
via the head. And the mind is the
obstacle.
It's the mind that
holds all the limitations. But in your
beingness, you're unlimited. I say, “Are
you?” You say, “Yes.” I say, “That's
it.” Why all this trouble being an
extremely limited carcass? Did I answer
your question now? Any other question?
Student: So, as I listen to you say that, I get
this tense feeling in my stomach.
Don't release
it. [Laughter] You see what I'm doing to
you? You should have released it. Why didn't you release it?
Student: I guess because you surprised me or
because you didn't tell me to release it.
Okay, you want
to be miserable and hold on to feelings.
God bless you. It's the only thing I can say. But that's the answer. Whatever question you're going to ask, and
now ask me.
Student: Actually, that's the answer to the next
question. I was thinking about the... Sometimes the wording just... My mind
grabs it and I don't release it because of the wording.
Words are in
your way. Talking about it is in place
of doing it. And this is what you are
about to do. So I said, “Don't
release.” Suffer. It feels awful. Suffer.
He smiles at me when I
say ‘suffer’ instead of getting angry and wanting to kill me because he knows
what I mean. It's a choice to suffer or
to be in the ultimate happiness, which is your basic nature.
Your beingness is God
beingness. God's the infinite beingness
of the universe. Therefore, it must
include your beingness.
So when you
identify with your beingness, you are identifying with the God part of
you. And that being God, can God do
anything you wish?
I've got a secret for you. He's got a big bank, bigger than the Fed.
Student: Yes, that's... Just talking about that
goes back to my original question. Because I spent a long time affirming my
true being, who I am, and coming from that place of my er.., but doing so from
my head, doing so from an intellectual standpoint because I don’t know how to
do it from the other way.
You've had
the... release technique?
Student: Just recently. I just took it recently…
When did you
finish the course?
Student: In January.
Okay, you should
have been free by now. I say it should
take you three months or less if you carry out the six steps. I know that because it took me three months
and I didn't have the six steps.
They evolved as I went through it. I think I could have possibly done it one month's time had I the six steps to begin with, not to end with. It doesn't need to take time because you are that unlimited being.
Where is it? It's your Beingness. Yes, but I'm totally involved in being a
body. Use the method, get the mind quiet
and yourself obvious to yourself as to the fact that you are unlimited.
It's only the feelings
that gather in the I cannots. Now
affirmation is trying to program further good stuff on top of bad stuff. Give you more programs to get rid of. It doesn't work anyhow except for maybe
5%. Has it worked for you?
Student: It did for
physical healing. I used it all the
time. I never went to a doctor for 25
years.
Okay, well
physical healing of course is better than physical ailment. But what are you dealing with? The most limited vehicle possible in the
universe, a physical body and validating it and keeping yourself imprisoned.
So that affirmation
work was excellent to keep yourself bound and around. And then round and around you go. Releasing the body by a mere effortless
thought, will be perfect if you want a perfect body.
The body is an exact
copy of the mind. The mind is something
you set up. It's a sum total collection
of all your thoughts and feelings. So
rid yourself of all your feelings. Your
mind goes quiet and you will remain in the infinite beingness that you
are. Conscious of it.
Simple. Easy if you do it. If you don't do it, it's impossible.
Any other question? Okay, so the sermon is over — the vermin remains. All we have to do is release it.
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