This month, I had the honour of attending Dr. David R. Hawkins‘ last lecture. It was incredible. I was moved to tears on a number of occassions. The subject was, “Love” and that was a perfect and very powerful note to end on. Because, really, “all you need is love”. As long as you are working on your capacity to be loving then you are doing the greatest work that world could ever need.
As a devoted follower I am very familiar with his work and I’ve listened to lectures from many years ago. This lecture didn’t offer anything new as far as content. But, he’s not really about the content, anyway. His words are extremely important for helping the mind to shift but this event was pretty much just our last chance to be in the same room as him. And what a room it was. So much incredible loving energy.
In the lecture portion someone read out the slides point by point about love and lovingness. Then Susan would stop and ask him questions to clarify the points. Susan is his wife who always sits up on stage with him to either help with muscle-testing or to repeat something that he wasn’t able to hear on his own. As he’s gotten older and less physically able to hear and speak as he has in the past, she’s taken on more of the role of fascilitator in lectures and question periods. Doc is in his mid-eighties and his health is not that great. He couldn’t stand unassisted, he couldn’t hear anyone except Susan (I also have this with my hearing-impaired girlfriend. She needs her hearing-aid with everyone but me.) and the lights also impaired his vision. These two were also being very cute as they talked and gushed about how much they love each other. They showed a DVD of photos of their life and opened themselves up to the audience more than they’ve done before. I could tell the audience was very appreciative.
The main focus for the lecture was, Be Lovingness. That’s all. Just be it. And everything you do and say and think and feel will come from a place of Love. Over and over this was reiterated in various different ways.
For the second half of the day, I stood in line for 2 hours to ask a question, but in the hour that they did the Q & A the line barely moved. It was nice chatting to the people in line though. I was being a bit shy and spent most of the time reading my book but a few forward people got me talking. It was a bit frustrating listening to the questions and non-questions from the people who made it up on stage. But, then as I mentioned to the people around me, it was a great chance to practise being loving and to surrender negativity. We laughed.
In the past, like 10 years ago, when Doc first started doing lectures the questions were generally applicable to every else in one way or another and it was interesting to hear what answers came from the various inquiries. These days, all sorts of spiritual zealots know about how amazing he is and most people who went up on stage would ask him for a blessing. It seemed a little selfish, if you ask me. They were taking up the time of 3000 people so that they could get a personal blessing from this Master. One person kept asking him to send her back into the silence like he did the last time she saw him. He was quite frustrated by the questions and by not being able to see or hear them properly. Other questions that kept coming up were either about a personal need (health, school, work) or some vague question like, “how to I get rid of doubt” or “tell me how to overcome obstacles to God”. He’s say, “what doubt?”, “what obstacles?” Again, the best part about the Q & A was letting it be what it was and surrendering my own frustration. There were some good questions. But, I don’t actually remember them. It’s entirely possible that some of the questions and answers resonated with a large portion of the audience. To me, it was just one long gong-show. One of the most entertaining parts was when Doc called a 40-something victim of childhood abuse that she was lazy for not resolving her issues with the trauma by now. He certainly has a way with words. But, he clarified that forgiveness takes a split second and if she hasn’t forgiven her abuser by now then she’s simply choosing not to.
After the questions they did testimonials. Which was actually quite good. It gave Doc a chance to check out and to come in and out to hear the stories and their expressions of gratitude for everything he’s done. And for the audience, it was nice to hear all the positive experiences his work has had on people. Lots of love. Then at one point Doc hit the wall and couldn’t sit there anymore. This began the ending of the lecture, the most incredible part of the whole day, his blessing to the audience.
He stood up, as did everyone else and said his blessing, then returned to his wheelchair with Susan close by as bagpipes came out and onto the stage. He loves the bagpipes and he said they calibrate at 500, the level of Love. I was pretty much bawling my eyes out the whole time. The energy of Love that was emanating from the stage and the whole event center was overwhelming. I gladly took it all in. I didn’t feel sad or even particularly joyful, the tears just kept streaming. It was simply a consequence of being in the presence of such love. It was beautiful. Music played and Doc poured out his love to us. He stood up for one final goodbye. And then he was gone.
I was left reeling and totally blissed out from the experience. I didn’t want to go home (to my friends place where I was staying). So I went for a scenic drive through the mountains, saw some incredible views, and wound around intense turns on a beautiful mountain road. I was heading towards Sedona but by the time I got there it was dark. I saw the beautiful surroundings and then darkness. So I hit the highway and headed home. Amazing amazing day. I was tired, but so so happy. I look forward to always be striving for lovingness in everything I do. Thank you Dr. Hawkins.
