Happiness Is Free: And It's Easier Than You Think

Session 1
The Basic Goal and Ways to Attainment
by Lester Levenson

That which every one of us is looking for in this world is exactly the same thing. Every Being, even the animal, is looking for it. And what is it that we are all looking for? Happiness with no sorrow! A continuous state of happiness with no taint whatsoever of sorrow. Now, if this is the goal, why is it the goal? The reason why it is the goal is because imperturbable happiness is our very basic nature! And what is imperturbable happiness? Complete and total freedom—and that is freedom to do or not to do anything and everything. This is the real natural state, before we encumber it with limitations.

Why is it that most of us do not have this continuous happiness with no sorrow? There is only one reason: being this infinite Being, we have done away with this happiness by thinking, “I am an individual, separate from the all, ” and thereby we have assumed limitation. To make myself separate from the all, I must set up a means to accomplish this. The means is my mind, and, with my mind, I create my body and the external world. Then I proceed, looking for the all in the external world, creating more and more thoughts and matter until the thoughts and matter have me so involved that I have forgotten my real identity as the infinite Beingness that I am.

The original thought of, “I am separate from the All” necessarily creates a feeling of lack and loneliness. I am only satisfied when I am the All. Seeking fulfillment of desire in the world therefore cannot undo the lack, as lack is not there in the first place; lack is assumed in my mind. Our totality is in our Beingness only, and we go on and on trying to satisfy desire externally, and we never, never succeed. If we could succeed, we would be able to satisfy desire, and, therefore, all desire would disappear!

The real purpose of being here on this earth is to learn, or to re-remember, our original natural state of totality of Beingness, which allows imperturbability with complete freedom and no limitation. Once we are led to see that this is our natural state, then we begin to let go of all the limitations.

The prime, the very first, limitation is the feeling, “I am an individual separate from the All.” Eliminate that and you eliminate all loneliness, all limitation.

To say this in another way, “God is all! Let go and let God be. It is not I but the Father who worketh through me.” We must let go of the ego sense, which is the original sense of our separation—from the All—and allow our natural Being to just be, and then everything will fall perfectly into line. However, even after this idea is accepted, we do not find it easy to accomplish. We don’t find it easy because of habits that have been established since the beginning of time. And, for some reason, we like these habits, and so we continue them. We call them subconsciously directed behavior, and we go on and on and on behaving automatically, as though we are a victim of our subconscious mind.

Now, the subconscious mind is only that part of the mind that we refuse to look at. When our desire for freedom is strong enough, we will dig up these subconscious habits, look at them and begin to let go of them.

There is no growing into the natural Being that you are. That Being is whole and perfect, here and now. There is only letting go of the concepts to the contrary—that you have limitations, that you have troubles. Anyone who says, “I have trouble,” has it in his mind. That is the only place where it is, because you can’t see or conceive of anything anywhere else but in your mind. Whatever you look at, whatever you hear, whatever you sense, is in and through your mind. That is where everything is. Change your thinkingness and you change your world for you. Do this and you have the proof!

So, the way to freedom—the path—is simple, but the method of undoing the limitations is not easy because of habit. We need a very strong desire to begin to let go of these habits. Without that strong desire, there is no growth. This desire must be stronger than the desire for the world—to control the external world or to have its approval.

The world as you now see it is really an imagination. When you see the Truth, the world turns out to be a dream, a fiction in your mind. First you will see it as a dream, and then you will see it as a dream that never really was. It is exactly as what happens with a night dream. While you are in the night dream, you have a body. There are other bodies, there is action, interaction, there is good and there is bad. And so long as you remain in that night dream, everything there is real to you. When you awaken from the night dream, you say, “My gosh, it was just a dream! It never really happened! This dream was all in my mind!” And in exactly the same manner you will awaken from this dream called the waking state. You come to see that it was only a fiction of your imagination; it was only a dream. And then you let go of it—lock, stock, and barrel, and what is left over is the infinite you! Then you are called fully realized, totally free.

Actually, we are fully realized all the time. We are fully realized Beings saying that we are not. So, all we do is let go of “we are not,” and what is left over is the fully realized and free Being that we are.

Are there any questions on what I’ve said so far? No? Then everyone understands this, at least intellectually.

All right, if you understand this intellectually, and you are not able to use it, it is because you are not looking at yourself honestly, truthfully, with a deep desire to let go of your limitations. You have set up in your subconscious mind all the things you will not look at, and they have culminated as inhibiting and compulsive feelings. It is necessary that you release all the inhibiting and compulsive feelings. You are now run by them, you are a victim of them. By releasing them, your mind quiets, and you become free. Therefore, undo these limiting feelings and thoughts, quiet the mind and this infinite Being that you are becomes self obvious. Then you see that you never were subjected to that mind, that body, and from that moment on, the mind and body have no influence upon you. You then determine for the body as you would a puppet, and it has no more effect upon you than a puppet would.

So, the very best method of all methods is to quiet the mind by releasing all subconscious feelings and thoughts, and there remains the Being that you are.

“What am I?” is the final question that everyone answers, so why not begin with the final question? If you can, all good, all wonderful. But there are very few of us who are capable of using this method of just holding on to “What am I?” We have gotten ourselves so habituated with subconscious thoughts and feelings that we cannot let go of them; therefore, we need other methods, other aids. The other major methods from the East are called Jnana Yoga, Raja or Kriya Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. The path that is best for you is the one that you like best.

Each path includes all the other paths. The only difference is the emphasis. If we are intellectual, we emphasize the Jnana path, the path of intellect and wisdom. If we are of devotional nature, we emphasize the Bhakti path of love and devotion to God. If we like to be of service to mankind, we use the Karma Yoga path. Each path leads to the quieting of the mind, enough so that we may see the infinite Being that we are.

Since all the above paths aim to achieve the quieting of the mind, why not go directly to the mind itself? That would be direct and practical and the most efficient of methods. If we examine the mind, we will discover that it is simply the totality of all our thoughts, conscious and subconscious, and that all our past thoughts on particular things have culminated in feelings. The feeling now motivates the thoughts. If our thoughts are motivated by our feelings, all we need to do is release our feelings, the motivators of the thoughts. Then our mind will be quiet. When the mind is quieted, the infinite Being that we are is what is left over and is self obvious. Simple, is it not?

Following the above, there fell into place a simple method that anyone can understand and use. It is called the Sedona Method, and information about it is available to anyone who will write for it.

Let us now take a look at this so called apparency: the world. The world is only an imagination that we created mentally. It is not external, but in reality is within us, within our mind. Someday you will discover that you created the entire universe that you see. Creation began by first creating what we call a mind. The mind then imagined the world. Thus we created our mind, which is a composite of all our thoughts and feelings, conscious and subconscious, and in which is our world.

Every little thing that happens to each and every one of us is created in our thinking. We mentally set up a thing called time that makes it even more difficult to see the creation process, because we think now and the effect of that thought happens much later. But the only creator there is is mind, your mind. Is God a creator? Yes, because you are. Thou are That! You set up a mind and, through the mind, create.

It is necessary and good to discover that everything happening to us is caused by our feeling and thinking. Everything that happens to us is created first in our thought. When you discover that you created your trouble, then you realize that you can create anything you desire and will create only good things.

After you discover that there is nothing that you cannot create, you are still not satisfied. The reason is that you have separated yourself from your infinite Beingness, your Oneness, and only upon recognizing and being your infinite Beingness are you perfectly satisfied. So if there are any problems that remain, they only remain because you are holding on to them in your thought. 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 are still holding on to them, telling me that it doesn’t work. Trying to get rid of a problem is holding on to it. Anything we try to get rid of, we are holding in mind and thereby sustaining it. 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. But you hold in mind the things you do not want. You struggle to eliminate the things you don’t want, thereby sustaining them. So, it is necessary to let go of the negative and put in the positive if you want a positive, happy life.

This subject cannot be learned intellectually; it cannot be learned in the mind, because Truth is perceived just behind the mind. We can use the mind to release the mind so that by getting it quieter we can see behind the mind. If it were possible to get this subject through the mind intellectually, all we would need to do is to read the books on it and we would have it. But it doesn’t work that way. We have to concentrate in order to seek our Self that is just behind the mind. Turn the mind back upon the mind to release the mind, and then you may go beyond the mind to your Self. To understand, each one must experience it, realize it, make it real by going to the place just behind the mind and perceiving it there, and then you know and know that you know. Then you operate intuitively, from the realm of all knowingness.

Now, the very highest state is simply Beingness, and if we could only be, just be, we could see our Infinity. We would see that we are the All. We would be in a perfectly satiated, permanent, changeless state. And this state is not a nothingness, it is not a boredom, it is an Allness, an Everythingness, a total satiation that is eternal. You will never, never lose your individuality. The feeling “I” as you use it to mean your individuality will never, ever leave you. It expands. What happens as you discover what you are is that you begin to see that others are you, that you are me, that there is only one, that you are now and always have been that one and glorious infinite Being.