The Presence

 is silent and conveys a state of peace. It’s infinitely

gentle and yet like a rock. With it, all fear disappears, and spiritual joy occurs on a quiet level of inexplicable ecstasy. Because the experience of time stops, there’s no apprehension, regret, pain, or anticipation; the source of joy is unending and ever-present. With no beginning or ending, there can be no loss, grief, or desire—and nothing needs to be done, for everything is already perfect and complete.
When time stops, all problems disappear, for they are merely artifacts of a point of perception. As the Presence prevails, there is no further identification with the body or mind. When the mind grows silent, the thought I am also disappears, and Pure Awareness shines forth to illuminate what one is, was, and always will be, beyond all worlds and all universes—infinite and beyond time.

Power vs. Force: the hidden determinants of human behavior
David R. Hawkins.
2012

 

 

Also, from PvsF

In the early 1930s, a prominent American business man (known to us as Rowland H.) who had sought every cure for his alcoholism without avail, went to see the famous Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung. Jung treated Rowland H. for approximately a year, by which time he had achieved some degree of sobriety. Rowland returned to the United States full of hope, only to fall ill again with active alcoholism.

Rowland went back to Switzerland to see Jung again and ask for further treatment. Jung humbly told him that neither his science nor his art could help him further, but that throughout man’s history—rarely, but from time to time—some people who had abandoned themselves completely to some spiritual organization and surrendered to God for help had recovered.

            The advice Dr. Carl Jung gave Rowland H.—“Throw yourself wholeheartedly into any spiritual group that appeals to you, whether you believe in it or not, and hope that in your case a miracle may occur”. PvsF pg 233

Rowland returned to the United States dejected, but he followed Jung’s advice and sought out an organization of that time called the Oxford Groups. These were groups of individuals who met regularly to discuss living life according to basic spiritual principles, very much like those adopted later by AA. Through these means, Rowland in fact recovered, and his recovery was a source of astonishment to another concerned party named Edwin T., or “Ebby,” who was also an alcoholic, hopeless beyond all help. When Rowland told Ebby of how he had recovered, Ebby followed suit and also got sober. The pattern of one person helping another with the same problem then extended from Ebby to his friend Bill W., who had been hospitalized frequently for hopeless, incurable alcoholism and whose condition was medically grave. He was described as hopeless. Ebby told Bill that his recovery was based on service to others, moral house-cleaning, anonymity, humility, and surrendering to a power greater than oneself.

Bill W. was an atheist, and found the idea of surrendering to a higher power unappealing, to say the least. The whole idea of surrender was abhorrent to Bill’s pride; he sank into an absolute, black despair. He had a mental obsession with, and a physical allergy to, alcohol—which condemned him to sickness, insanity, and death, a prognosis that had been clearly spelled out to him and his wife, Lois. Ultimately, Bill gave up completely; at this point he had the profound experience of an infinite Presence and Light and felt a great sense of peace. That night, he was finally able to sleep, and when he awoke the next day, he felt as though he had been transformed in some powerful, indescribable way.

The validity and efficacy of Bill’s experience was confirmed by Dr. William D. Silkworth, his physician on the west side of New York City. Silkworth had treated ten thousand alcoholics and, in the process, had acquired enough wisdom to recognize the profound importance of Bill’s experience. It was he who later introduced Bill to the great psychologist William James’s classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Bill wanted to pass his gift on to others, and as he himself said, “I spent the next few months trying to sober up drunks, but without success.” Eventually, he discovered that it was necessary to convince the subject of the hopelessness of his condition—in modern psychological terms, to overcome his denial. Bill’s first success was Dr. Bob, a surgeon from Akron, Ohio, who turned out to have a great aptitude for the spiritual and became a co-founder of AA. He never took another drink until his death in 1956 (neither did Bill W., who died in 1971.)11 The enormous power that was realized through Bill W.’s inner experience has manifested itself externally in the millions of lives that have been transformed because of it. In Life Magazine’s listing of the 100 greatest Americans who ever lived, Bill W. is credited with being the originator of the entire self-help movement.

The story of Bill W. is typical of individuals who have been channels of great power: the principles they convey in a brief career reorder the lives of millions over long periods of time.