Self-Development Idea (39): The Way — Lester Levenson’s Last and Highest Teaching (2/3)

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 I (Tape 1)

Tape 2 – Side A: June 18, 1989

Maybe we ought to take off where we left off last night.  You guys got some deeper realizations.  I don't know whether you're aware of it…  It was real good…  

Be not the doer!  Who wants to be a doer?  So I say, be not the doer. [LOL]  

And in general, there was a lot of question on, “What does it mean, be not the doer?”  So I think I start off by saying, “Well, I told you to release, you get everything you want.”  When you are released, you have no sense of Doership.  Everything falls into line, right?  That's it.

When you are released, you experience the sense of being not the doer.  So that ought to connect for every one of you.  When you're completely released, it just happens with no effort.  And so you sit back and watch it happen.  It's the experience that you go through.  That's being not the doer. 

Now, you can't stop action.  You cannot go into inaction because of your karma.  But you should use the action to grow by the action.  And one of the big biggies is, be not the doer.  Watch it happen.

Your sense is, you're sitting in a theater watching a show go on.  When you be not the doer.  The newer ones to this idea have any question on it?  I think the three of you last night had a real good experience of what it means to not be the doer.

The three, do you have any question on the sense of being inaction and being not the doer? 

Student: I don't know why I have a question.  Because this is what I was working on last night.  

Stealing my show, huh? 

Student: Maybe I was hearing your show on the floor.

You could.

Student: But I got to the point where, and this is what confused me, where even my will seems senseless. 

It is.

Student: But at that point…

If you can be not the doer.  But if you cannot be not the doer, then will is usable.  Will is effort.  Efforting to undo the effort.  But there's a power in you.  It's a willpower where you can decree if you will.

[Willing would bring you to certain height, but it remains on the mind and effort level. ]

Now, willing is good.  Because you could will out the whole thing if you so decided.  I've yet to see the first one do it.  Okay, so what's your question now?

Student: You just answered it.  Thank you.

See, with Alan, I was able to explain it in relative to something that was going on.  He wanted to make a preparation for somebody to do something that he would like them to do.

And he asked me if I'd call that party.  And I said, “No.”  Well, in his idea, “You had to dah dah dah to get ready for it.”  My concept was, in a matter of 30 seconds, I'll have the whole thing completed when I see this person. Because I'm not the doer.  It happens right away.  If I continue to be not the doer. 

If I am the doer, then I got to make preparations.  I got to do convincing. I got to do asking.  A lot of roundabout stuff.  But when you're not the doer, it's the sense of letting go and letting God do it.  You actually sit by and watch the body action go on.  Just as you would a moving picture of your body.  

I think you've all experienced times when you were not the doer and you saw things happen.  Right?  Right!  So you've all experienced it.  

And experience is the main thing that we need to use to learn.  We cannot learn intellectually through the mind, through the head.  The mind is the enemy.  The mind is the obstacle.  The only way we can learn is through experiencing.

And each and every one of the six of you  has experienced being not the doer and watching the thing fall into line without effort.  All right.  Now, the thing to accomplish is to have that happen all the time.

When it did happen, was it miserable? [LOL]  But every time you effort, you're unhappy.  You're striving, you're struggling.  Every time you effort, you're not happy.

But the moment you let go of identifying yourself as being the body, things are effortless.  I say, add body-mind.  The opposite sides of the same coin, the mind and the body.  Mind says the body is there.

So experiencing is something you should know, the difference between the intellect and experiencing.  Everything you accumulate even now in the intellect, you're going to have to drop.

To get that intellect, that mind, totally quiet.  Everything you've learned in your lifetimes, you're going to dump.  After which, you're omniscient.

After which, you're in touch with your beingness – which is omniscient.  And what thinking would omniscience require?  Everything is known.  What is there to think about?  So you shift from using your head, which is your block, to quieting that head, so you just remain as your beingness.

And everything is effortless.  Everything falls perfectly into line.  And you're in the perfect happiness that there is  – That's really your basic nature.

You know, I feel like stopping there.  It's such an important, powerful point.  I feel if I talk on further, I just dilute it.  So let's stick to that as being the point of this meeting. 

Could you keep a record of what the major topic was of each meeting?  You've got the first four, have you not?  The first five.

And make this number six.   [Being Not the Doer!]  Because someday we'll want to do it again. 

Student: Also with Hale on the tape. [LOL ..]

I remember in the early days, they'd put a tape recorder on, and that's the odd, wish that worked…  When I'd replay it, it was blank.

Nothing out there but your picture. 

And for some years, when anyone took a picture of me, I wasn't on the picture.  And if it was a crowd, everyone would come out but me.  Until Nevadel came to town and had a national conference here.  She kind of put me up high, and, “Oh, I must be in the picture.”  And so I said, “Oh, Lord, let it come out this time.”

From that time on, my picture comes out now when people shoot it.  But it's just another example.  There's nothing out there but your consciousness. 

I know what did it.  “Oh, I'm not that body. That body's just an imagination.”  So it didn't come out on the negative, nor on the positive.

Student Hale: I have a question.  This is going to sound like a funny question, but how do you get yourself into the place of not being a doer?

Me? I just say I'm not the doer, and that's it.

Of course, the very best way, as I said before, is releasing.  When you're released, you're not the doer.  That bothers you sometimes.

Student: Well, it seems like things happen.

That's it.  Things happen.  You don't have to do them.  They just do you in.  But the sense is that release sense.  You let go and it happens.

You have a sense of letting go and letting God.  You don't have to do a thing.  You just watch it happen.

You're not the doer.  Did that answer your question?  It's experiential. You're not going to get it in the head.  You're going to get it in your experience.

So you get it in the experience, not in the head.  If you want to understand it, come back in a million years and you still won't understand it. 

Student: Well, I don't understand it, but I have experienced it, so I'll just keep going.

That's it.  It's the experience.  I had to tell you a friend told me that she said, “It's understanding.” I said, “No, understanding will keep you from being free.”  Boy, did she look at me.  This was two times ago.  So yesterday she said, “I think I understand what you mean.” [LOL]

She wasn't positive, but she thought so.  Anyhow, understanding is in the world of duality in the realm of Maya.   I understand something.  When you're in the realm of beingness, there's no understanding.  Everything is known.  That needs to be known. 

But what needs to be known?  One thing only.  One thing only. –  How long would it take you to know one thing?  That you are your beingness.  That's all you need to know.  That you'll just only be your beingness.

That's the experience that covers everything.  And you say, “Oh my gosh, I've always been omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.”  You are so right now.  So,  spread your wings and be not the doer. Just fly high.  Any questions?

Student: It was just the sense of, it feels like I try to make myself be the doer. That's still control?

So let go.  It's not a make yourself to.  It's a sense of letting go and letting it be.  It's experiential again.  You've experienced it.

See, trying to explain an experience would be like trying to tell you how to fly an airplane, or even drive a car.  You've never been in an automobile.  I say, “Just put the key in.  Put the shift into drive, step on the gas, and you go.  You want to go right, you turn the wheel right.  You want to go left.”

Could you drive?  I've told you everything you need to know just now about driving a car.  But could you drive it?  No.  You need the experience.  A little stronger would be an airplane.  I can tell you how to fly an airplane.  Go up there and come down here quickly.

Experience is what counts.  You can do it on a bicycle.  I can tell you how to ride a bicycle, but you'll never know how until you experience it.

And once you experience it, you can't intellectually transfer an experience to someone else.  They must experience it for themselves.  So there's a distinct difference between experience and intellectual understanding.

The intellectual understanding will not give you the ability to experience.  It will lead you toward the experience, but it will not give you an experience, because it isn't.  It's in the head.  It's thinkingness.  It's not experiencing.

Student: I've been recently just looking at all the concepts I have up here, including the spiritual ones, like I'm not the body. 

And one thing, a way of working on it, I want to make sure I'm going in the right direction, is you wouldn't let go of that belief.  Because when I let go of the belief, I very often get more of an inner experience of that concept as opposed to just the concept.

I am not the body.  Is it admitting a body?  Isn't it?  So that's the trickiness of the mind, we're into.  The mind will just trick you, prick you, shove you, keep you believing you're an infinitesimal body.  The function of the mind is limitation.

So when you let go of the mind, what's left over is your beingness.  And that's it. And it's there right now.  Unlimited.  Maybe we need a banner, unlimited, on it and wave it.

Student: One of them says, I'm not the doer. [LOL] I didn't do it. He's the doer. I'm not the doer, he did. [LOL]

 

 Tape 2 – Side B: June 25, 1989

I got the feeling that I shouldn't, at this point in time, give you any more.  I'm giving you too much.  How do you feel about it?  How do you feel about what I gave you so far? 

Well, here's the points:

The first one was on You Must Want Freedom More Than You Want The World.

The second, take all your joy from within by releasing.

Next, make the decision to go free and then do it.

The next one, release directly the fear of dying.  Now, that's a tough one for you because you think if you release it, you'll die.

The next one is get everything you want from here on by releasing.  Now, I think that's the one I like best.  Practically, it'll do more for you than anything else.  Can you see why?  You'll be releasing every moment because you're overloaded with wants, want and wants.

How successful have you been on getting everything you want from here on by releasing?  Is it working for any of you that everything you want now, you let go and let it come into your experience?  Who's experiencing getting everything you want by releasing?  Anybody?   Oh, everything. Everything means everything.

Student: Seems like things happen.

That's the way you should sing.  “Things just happen.”

So I left out the last one, be not the doer.  Because if you do that, you're not the doer.

Student: That's the one that I've been doing a lot of work. [Be not the doer]  I've been releasing the work that I'm involved in.  I always feel that I have to do it.  So I catch myself, and that's the one that's...

You let go, and you be not the doer.  It's releasing wanting to be the ego…  Let the doer goes out the door...

But these are powerful things, very powerful.  If you can make a constant habit of one of them, any one of them will get you all the way.  

… Oh this is the one I almost forget it...  Make your behavior that which a master would do. Is that correct English?  Make your behavior that which, any way you understand it,  a master would behave like or do.

Yeah, it's direct. Make your behavior, should I say, like that of a master? 

Student: You also said that in regards to the word perfection, that kind of process communicated, or you added, whatever you do, do it successfully.

Yeah, well, that's the way a master does things.  That's one of the things I would apply to doing it as a master would do it.  The more imperfectly that we work, the lower down the scale we are, no matter what the thing is that we are doing.

So the one you like best is... Which one?

Student: I didn't say I liked it best, I just said that was one... Using most.  The one that is most is “Getting everything You want from here on by Releasing Only...

I like that the best too.  Because it does make it more possible.  Because, you can see why, it's the action required to go free.  The most directed action to go free is releasing all the obstruction. 

Freedom 101 & 102

1. You Must Want Freedom More Than You Want The World.

2. Take All Your Joys from Within By Releasing.

3. Make the Decision to Go Free and then Do It.

4. Release Directly On the ‘Fear of Dying’.

5. Get Everything You Want From Here On By Releasing ONLY.

6. Be Not the Doer. (Cast the Burden.)

7. Develop the Behavior of A Master.

So today we're going to have releasing 102.  The first time it was releasing 101.  If you've gone to college, you know what that means. I don't know whether they did it in your college, but...

Even back in my days, the first course was 101, and the second course 102.  They never let go of it.  So today, releasing 102. That means, by next time, everyone has to release 102 times, or gets put back one grade.

Can you suggest anything that would keep you reminded of that dictum? Get everything you want by releasing...

Student: I like the name of this better. [Releasing 102]

Do you all have in your room the sign?  It is a most effective way of going free…

All right, now, is it working for all of you that you're getting things without effort?

Student: It's stepped up.

The effort's stepped down, but you're getting it stepped up.  Was there any time you got it effortlessly?  No effort at all, just dropped into your lap?

Student: It's not constant.

Okay, now, that's the experience of being yourself, with a capital S, of being your Beingness.  It has to be effortless when you're being your Beingness.  But recognize these things because it will help you and encourage you to do it more so until the whole world drops into your lap effortlessly.

Wouldn't that be nice?  And now, once that gets to be your habit, then you discover you can create anything by mere effortless thought, and it drops into your lap. 

Well, we'll set out a pad out here where everything can drop into.  We've got lots of acreage here.  Right. But we'd better call it a lap pad, so we can lap up the world. It's a tremendously delightful experience when you do it that way. Have you noticed that?

Student: It brings up more feeling.

Yeah.  Because as you go free, your resistance to allowing the rest of it to come up gets less.  As you get freer, your resistance to allowing the remaining garbage to come up gets less, until someday all the fear of dying will come up and run out on its own push. 

But you have to open the door, press the button, ask it to come up, because every piece of suppressed feeling is under pressure to expend itself.  So the higher you go, the less you're resisting the remaining suppressed energy, AGFLAP, and the more it'll come up.

But when it starts coming up, please let it go.  You could sing that song, “Let it go, let it go, God bless it.” 

You catch these things, which means you might complete the journey, which consists of getting right back to where you are right now, which means you'll really stop journeying away, and you'll stay in the nice place all the time, the best place.

Wouldn't it be a nice world if you didn't have to work and scratch for a living and depend on air, water, food?  Just sit back and be, and be, and be, and be.  So we will be the four be people.  We will just be, and be, and be, and be.

When Shakespeare, who was a very high individual, said “To be or not to be.” that is the question, he had it upside down.  “To be or not to be” is the answer, and the answer is “to be, and be, and be, and be.”

And that's the ultimate state, you're just being, which you're doing right now, but using tremendous effort to look away from it and trying to be a limited body-mind.

So mind you, let go of the mind, let go of the body, and just be, and be, and be, and be.  If you hear the buzzing, that's the OM sound.  It won't bumble, it'll be nice and smooth.

Now I feel as though I ought to stop here, because what I'm saying is so deep and so powerful, and you're feeling it.  And for me to talk further would just take you away from your just being, and being, and being, and being.  And that's where the word bingo comes from.

When you're just being, bingo, that's it.  So I'm going to conclude with saying keep it up until you can just only be, and be, and be, and be.

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Self-Development Idea (37): A Fireside Chat With Lester Levenson - Part 2 (Your Infinite Nature) (Edited)

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