Excellent process for Releasing and also a summary of basics from The Letting Go Movie

In The Letting Go Movie above, at position 58:17, is a hospice chaplain using this process:

1. So you have this fear in your body?
2. You like to keep that fear or would you like to get rid of it?
3. So, would you sit with me and answer some questions?
4. Where do you find that fear in your body? How would you describe it?
5. Ok, so you feel some ... here. Is that something you want to hang on to or would you like to let it go?
6. Could you let it go?
7. Would you be willing to let that go?
8. When?

[ Then, repeat the process again... ]

Summary of Sedona Basics:

At position 1:00:15, Hale summarizes the entire Sedona method basics and also the 3 basic methods;
1. Asking could you, would you , when? (Basic method)
2. Welcoming what is (good for active releasing) (Active Releasing)
3. Triple welcoming, i.e. Welcoming the feeling, welcoming wanting to fix it, welcoming sense of identity (sense that it is who I am or about me, or that is is personal) (Triple Welcoming)

My take on this is as follows:
When going about in daily life, use general welcoming (active releasing). When sitting, or lying down in meditation, use asking questions, or, triple welcoming.

Fastest way to peace

The Buddha's 2nd noble truth states that craving is the cause of suffering. Therefore, we only need to let go of craving in order to be happy and at peace. Craving is the weakest link in the the links of dependent origination and therefore is the easiest to let go off.

Craving comes in two forms:

1. wanting (attachment, urges to do/ to achieve / to change something/ to control/ to desire )  and
2. not-wanting (resistance/aversion)

As such, in releasing, we only need to release wanting and not-wanting.

Example:

[ Release the main issue ]
Could I welcome wanting to ....
Could I let go of wanting to....
Would I?
When?

[ Release it's opposite polarity ]
Could I welcome resisting, or  not wanting to...
Could I let go of resisting or, not wanting to...
Would I?
When?

Sometimes there is both wanting and also not-wanting in a single issue. For example, you feel you should wash the dishes. There is not-wanting to wash the dish and also a wanting to wash the dish.
Whenever there is a should, there is usually a not-wanting to do something but you feel you must do it. It's like driving a car with the brakes on.

To solve this problem, we release both the wanting and also release the not-wanting.

Releasing wanting to wash the dishes does not mean you will not wash the dishes. It just removes the suffering involved in washing the dishes.

When you release the resistance, your actions become friction-less and easy-going.

Other examples of should statements:
1. I should work to earn a living
2. I should do a good job
3. I should make my boss happy
4. I should improve myself

The should indicates you are doing something you don't want to do. Therefore, just release on both sides:

Let go of wanting to earn a living, let go of resisting or not-wanting to earn a living
Let go of wanting to do a good job, let go of resisting or not-wanting to do a good job
Let go of wanting to please your boss, let go of resisting, or not-wanting to please your boss.
Let go of wanting to improve yourself, let go of resisting improving yourself.

Craving is easy to let go of, but it is very persistent, it may keep coming back, but if you keep releasing on it, eventually it goes away for good.

So, releasing on wanting and not-wanting (resistance) will lead to impertubability (hootlessness)

Releasing fear

An excellent video on Hale's latest technique incorporating a new step 3 script, i.e

Step 1:  Welcoming the stories of fear you tell yourself
Step 2: Welcoming wanting to fix it
New Step 3: Welcoming any sense that it's personal, that it's about me, that it's who I am.
Step 4: Could  I let it go.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GdeQz5V40&t=58s

Quick and easy way to get instant joy

Hale Dwoskin's The Bliss Mini Retreat audios Track:  Beyond Attachment and Aversion is the best track so far.  It guides you to repeatedly release alternating between should' s and have to's on the one hand and something that is repulsive on the other hand.

I was able to bring up joy repeatedly each time I did it. Joy on Demand! If this is easily reproducible each time. That in itself is all I need. The confidence will bring peace of mind.

Hale has unwittingly came up with the ultimate method to release craving. According to Buddha, craving is the cause of suffering. And the way to end suffering is by eliminating craving. Craving is the weakest link in the chains of Dependent Origination. Awesome!

In Bhante Vimalaramsi's 6R Method, step 2 and 3 is also on releasing craving. But Hale's Method is much more effective. Bhante does not show you how to release craving, all he says is relax the tension in the head. But that does not work very well.

Welcoming and allowing Peace and Calm

After doing some releasing in the morning, whilst in bed lying down, I felt a tinge of joy. I then did this:

1. Could I welcome this peace and calm

I then felt my head relax followed by other parts of my body relaxing. Then, I did:

2. Could I allow this peace and calm to be present here

And I felt again, more relaxation.

For the next 1/2 an hour, whenever, i did the above 2 steps, the peace and calm arose accompanied by relaxation and calm.

The Letting Go Movie

One of the most enlightening movies I have ever watched:

The Letting Go Movie

In addition to the usual standard letting go technique in the original Sedona Method technique, Hale Dwoskin adds a new technique called The Triple Welcoming Technique at position 4.25


Triple Welcoming Technique:

1. Allow yourself to think of a situation in your life that you've been wanting to change, improve. As you focus on this situation, could you simply allow yourself to welcome whatever thoughts, whatever feelings, whatever beliefs. Anything at all associated with that particular issue. Could you simply open and welcome as best you can.

2. Could you also allow yourself to welcome any wanting to fix it, any wanting to change it, any wanting to improve it, any wanting to do anything at all with it, any wanting to push it away or to hold it close, any sense of attachment or aversion. And remember, simply do this inside [opening arms wide], just simply open, and relax, and welcome.

3. And could you also allow yourself to welcome any sense that it's personal that it's about you or who you are, any sense of identity. And then, remember, just do this inside [opening arms wide] ...

4. And then, could you just just simply let go...


Notes:
Step 3 in purple above is the new script.

 In the original Sedona Method,
Step 3 is Could you let it go?
Step 4 is Would you?   and
Step 5 is When?

Words for goal setting

Courageness = I allow...

Acceptance = I have ...

Peace = I am ...

Felt immense peace and lightness from Sedona Method

For the first time in my life, I experience immense peace and lightness after doing Track 9, Release on Wanting of the Sedona Method Course 6. I released on wanting security and wanting to control relating to my job and my feelings.

I lay down in bed and the joy arose. I asked: Could I welcome this happiness and joy and it flooded my entire mind and body. I felt the tightness in my chest completely disappear for the first time in my life. It felt so light and easy to breathe.

Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin

I first read the above book in Nov 2005, i.e. about 13 years ago. At that time it made little sense and does not seem to work. However, coming back to Sedona method again on Sept 24, 2018, it made more sense and seems to be effective.  I guess in 2005  I was not ready for releasing, but after 13 years, I may be finally ready to release.  

I have also started listening to these audios again:

I find that I can easily release on almost anything. For example:

Can I welcome wanting things to be different and allow it to be here?

Can I let go of wanting things to be different?

Would I?

When?

It also spontaneously brings smiles.  When I was practising Bhante Vimalaramsi's 6R, I was suppressing my emotions without knowing it. Everytime a bad feeling arises, I automatically suppress it by smiling. Which works, because the smile brings up a warm glowing feeling whilst feeling the bad feeling at the same time. This causes the bad feeling to fade away, but actually is being suppressed. Deliberately bringing up a smile to generate good feeling would cause tension in the head and sometimes chest pains. It is better to let the smile arise spontaneously, which the Sedona Method seems to do.

Glimpse of Awakening

For the past few days I have feeling panic attacks again. And each time, I use Bhante Vimalaramsi's smiling method to overcome it. I have also been revising on Echkart Tolle by watching his youtube videos.

This morning whilst lying down in bed, my mind was racing with very negative thoughts of fear about my health after waking up from a dream about visiting a shop and driving a Honda car. Then, suddenly awareness arose that I am personalizing the thoughts of fear. And there was immediate relief.  I then remembered what Eckhart Tolle says about spaciousness around negative thoughts. That we suffer because we identify with it as me. A few times after that, negative thoughts tried to surface but each time, I manage of become aware of taking the thoughts personally, remembering Bhante Vimalaramsi's words about "taking things personally".  I also remembered Sadhguru's Isha Kriya meditation about: "I am not the body, I am not even the mind".

This was a glimpse of awakening. Prior to it, the method of meditation I used was a mixture of smiling and awareness of breath and relaxing and some remembering of Sadhguru's I am not the body and not even the mind and also Eckhart Tolle's teachings on trying to become aware of unconscious thoughts that try to pull awareness into it.

The immediate thought that struck me after the awakening was:  "Now I understand why Eckhart says that intense suffering can be your teacher and it will cause awakening". Because the pain was too intense, the awareness stepped back and saw that taking it personally was causing all the suffering. Awareness also saw that it was not the sufferer and it was already free from it. What a relief.

Throughout the day, whenever I felt negative thoughts begin to arise, I ask the question:  "Who does not like it?" to borrow Bhante Vimalaramsi's phrase, and the negative feeling subsided.

Muse

I bought a muse headband from Amazon for RM1200 including dhl and tax.

It arrived in Sept 6 and I started using it since then. It is basically focussing on breath.

Sadhguru's Isha Kriya Meditation

Sometime in Aug 2018, I experimented with Sadhguru's Isha Kriya Meditation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxgD9En6Vso

Basically you remind yourself that:

"I am not the body. I am not even the mind."

And you chant "ah" from the navel to suffuse the body with that.

Bhante Vimalaramsi's Lovingkindess Meditation

In February of 2017, I registered for an online Meditation Retreat to learn Bhante Vimalaramsi's teaching on Loving Kindness Meditation. Below is the confirmation email from David, the facilitator of the online retreat.

Bhante's website is:  https://www.dhammasukha.org/

That is my start of Bhante Vimalaramsi.