David R. Hawkins

Che cos'è l'Assoluto? Dio esiste?

Divinity is immanent as the Self and transcendent as the Unmanifest

Personale e impersonale insiemeLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins, a psychiatrist who reports having passed through states of enlightenment, speaks openly of God and describes Him in two registers. In The Eye of the I (2001) and I: Reality and Subjectivity (2003) he presents Divinity as the Unmanifest, the formless source of all existence, and at the same time as the Presence experienced as one's own Self when identification with the ego ceases: God transcendent and God immanent are the same Reality. He distinguishes this Divinity from images of a wrathful or judging God, which he attributes to low levels of consciousness and ego projections. His work keeps the vocabulary of devotion — grace, surrender, love of God — so that the divine has a face to which one surrenders and a formless ground in which the self dissolves.

Chi sono io? Esiste un vero sé?

The small self is the ego; the true Self is the divine Presence

Il Sé è l'AssolutoLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins distinguishes typographically between the self, identified with the body, the mind and its positions, and the capitalised Self, which he describes as the Presence of Divinity within. In The Eye of the I (2001) he recounts how, in his experience, the personal self vanished and a boundless awareness remained that belonged to no one. The ego, for him, is a set of programmes, attachments and positionalities that feeds on its own gratifications; it is not to be fought but surrendered. On his map of levels of consciousness, enlightenment corresponds to the dissolution of identification with the small self and the recognition of the Self as identical with Divinity. Unlike Buddhist non-self, he holds that behind the ego there is a real Self, and he unhesitatingly calls it God immanent.

Perché soffriamo?

The ego clings to positions and emotions; releasing them reveals the Self's peace

L'ignoranza di ciò che siamoLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins attributes suffering to identification with the ego and its contents. In Letting Go (2012) he describes how suppressed feelings accumulate — fear, guilt, anger, pride — which the ego holds on to and projects, and proposes a mechanism of surrender: allowing the feeling to be, without resisting or condemning it, until it is exhausted. In Power vs. Force (1995) he arranges emotions on a scale of levels of consciousness, from shame and guilt at the bottom to love, joy and peace at the top, and associates pain with levels dominated by contraction and positionality. The ego, he explains, even derives a secret gratification from its own suffering, which is why it clings to it. Release from pain coincides with the dissolution of that identification and the recognition of the Self.

Che cosa accade dopo la morte?

The Self does not die; only identification with the body dies

Ciò che sono non nasce e non muoreLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins recounts in his books several near-death experiences and a state of enlightenment in which, he says, the fear of dying vanished because it became clear that life cannot be extinguished. He holds that what fears death is the ego, which identifies with the body and its linear continuity; the Presence or Self has neither beginning nor end and is not affected by the disappearance of the body. In The Eye of the I and in I: Reality and Subjectivity he describes physical death as the leaving of a vehicle and the fear of it as one of the last attachments the seeker must surrender. At the same time, Hawkins accepts the continuity of the spirit and of karma: the level of consciousness reached in a life determines, in his view, the soul's destiny after death.

Come si raggiunge la liberazione o la salvezza?

Surrender the ego to God by letting go; the final step comes by grace

Con la devozione e l'abbandonoLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins describes enlightenment as the top of a scale of levels of consciousness he presented in Power vs. Force. Ascending it does not consist in accumulating knowledge but in letting go: surrendering, one after another, the ego's positions, desires and judgements. In Letting Go he sets out that mechanism of surrender as applied to emotions, and in his later works he speaks of a «devotional nonduality», in which humility, surrender to God and prayer are the driving force of progress. Hawkins holds that the final step, the dissolution of the sense of a separate self, is not carried out by the ego, which cannot abolish itself, and comes as grace when surrender is complete.

Serve un maestro?

The teacher helps through presence and teaching; one must discern his truth

Utile ma non indispensabileSi deduce dalla sua dottrina

David R. Hawkins attributed to realised teachers a real effect on those who approach them: in his scheme, the field of consciousness of a high-level teacher favours the raising of others. That is why he considered valuable the teaching of history's great masters and of anyone who has walked the path. At the same time, he warned against false teachers and proposed discerning their degree of truth, using his calibration method, before following them. His later works, such as The Eye of the I, present his own experience as teaching, but insist that truth is only realised inwardly, through surrendering one's own ego, something no one can do for another.

Il mondo è reale?

The perceived world is the ego's projection; in its essence all is perfect

Apparenza sull'unica realtàSi deduce dalla sua dottrina

David R. Hawkins distinguishes between the world as the egoic mind perceives it and what it is in its essence. The perceived world, with its conflicts, causes and evaluations, would largely be a projection of the ego's positionality: by labelling and judging, the mind builds a scene it takes for reality. When that positionality dissolves, as he describes in The Eye of the I on the basis of his own experience, the world is revealed as an expression of Divinity, in which everything is perfect as it is and nothing happens by linear causality. Ultimate reality is consciousness itself, and the world is its apparent content.

Che cos'è l'amore?

Love is a level of consciousness that arises when the ego is released

Ciò che appare quando l'io cessaLo dice espressamente

In the map of consciousness he proposes in Power vs. Force, David R. Hawkins places love at a high level of his scale, above reason, and unconditional love somewhat higher, as the antechamber of joy and peace. He distinguishes this love from the romantic or dependent feeling that the culture calls love and which, in his view, belongs to lower levels, mixed with desire, pride or fear of loss. True love does not centre on an object: it is a way of being in the world that perceives what is essential and valuable in everything, forgives easily and does not judge. Hawkins holds that it is not reached by effort but by surrendering the ego's positions, judgements and attachments; what remains when they are released is love, which at higher levels is recognised as the very nature of Divinity.

Siamo liberi o è tutto determinato?

Nothing causes anything: everything arises spontaneously and the deciding self is an assumption

Non c'è un agenteLo dice espressamente

In his mature works, *The Eye of the I* (2001) and *I: Reality and Subjectivity* (2003), Hawkins holds that linear causality is a construct of the mind and that, from enlightened consciousness, everything happens spontaneously as an expression of the whole. The personal self that believes it decides is an assumption of the ego, which claims authorship of what in fact emerges of itself. At the same time, in *Power vs. Force* (1995) he speaks of choosing between attractor fields of higher or lower consciousness, and encourages that choice as a path of growth. In his scheme both statements belong to different levels: choice holds for those who identify with the self; for the awakened, there is no one who chooses.

Perché meditare o pregare?

Surrendering every feeling and thought until the Presence is revealed

Essere presentiLo dice espressamente

Hawkins proposes a path he called «devotional nonduality», set out in *Discovery of the Presence of God* (2006). Rather than a concentration technique, he recommends a contemplative attitude sustained throughout the day: observing the arising of each thought and feeling at the very edge of the present instant and surrendering it, neither resisting nor pursuing it. In *Letting Go* (2012) he systematises that mechanism of surrendering emotions as a practical method. When the mind stops clinging to its contents, he holds, the Presence is revealed, which is not something attained but what has always been there. Prayer, understood as humble surrender to God, is part of the same movement.

Può la ragione conoscere l'ultimo?

Reason calibrates at 400: necessary, but a ceiling below love

L'ultimo è al di là della menteLo dice espressamente

In his *Map of Consciousness*, set out in *Power vs. Force* (1995), Hawkins places reason at level 400, above pride, fear or acceptance, and credits it with the great achievements of science, philosophy and medicine. But he also presents it as a limitation: reason works with concepts, linear causes and data, and cannot step beyond its own domain. The leap to love (500) and beyond, to peace and enlightenment (600 and upwards), requires giving up the primacy of the intellect. In *The Eye of the I* he adds that ultimate reality is subjective and cannot be proven, only known by being it. Thought points; realisation is a shift of context, not a conclusion.

Ritirarsi dal mondo o trasformarlo?

Raising one's own consciousness changes the world more than force does

La rivoluzione è interioreLo dice espressamente

David R. Hawkins holds that social and political problems are poorly solved from the level of consciousness that produced them. In Power vs. Force he distinguishes power, which springs from true principles and sustains itself, from force, which must impose itself and generates a counterforce; movements that fight something out of hatred or pride, even when pursuing just ends, reproduce the conflict. That is why the most effective service to the world is to raise one's own consciousness: according to his model, each person who moves towards love and truth counterbalances the weight of many others at lower levels, and humanity advances as a whole. Hawkins does not propose withdrawal: he values work, family and ordinary commitments as a field of surrender. But he distrusts militant activism and places inner transformation before any institutional change.

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David R. Hawkins study groups

Veritas Publishing (directorio)

Veritas Publishing, the Sedona publisher of David R. Hawkins's work, maintains a directory of study groups devoted to his books and his Map of Consciousness. Groups are listed by their own organisers, can be searched by country or postcode and include online options by video call; the same website explains how to start a new one. These are not retreats led by the organisation but gatherings of readers. Veritas also offers a streaming video library with the lecture series, dialogues and satsangs Hawkins gave between 2002 and 2011, the most direct record of his teaching.