Sedona Method Retreat Final Days

Written on June 29, 2008 by Tom Stine


While retreats can be many things, and can provide many different benefits to people, I often find that it is the little comments by the guy up front that really makes or break my experience. One simple change in wording of an oft repeated phrase or instruction can make all the difference.

While Hale Dwoskin, the head honcho of the Sedona Method and heir to Sedona Method creator Lester Levenson, is many things to many people, one thing he is for certain is a master at training and teaching. He can often find just that perfect turn of phrase that really makes a difference. I think the following items from Hale that made it into my notebook will suffice for almost everyone’s spiritual development:

  • Can you let the body-mind take care of itself? In fact, it already is taking care of itself. It doesn’t need “your” help.
  • Your patterns [conditioned behaviors that we repeat over and over] cannot survive direct examination.
  • How do you cut to the root of a problem [in your life or experience]? Ask, “who is it happening to?”
  • Another way to cut to the root of a problem is to ask, “Is the problem even here now? What is actually here now?” And whatever is here, does it need to change for you to be what you already are?
  • Everything you are seeking [via goals] IS what you already are? It is all presence/awareness, and so are you.
  • Discover there is no separation between what you want and what you are.
  • Everything always resolves itself.
  • All body-minds do is tell stories about what was. And that isn’t a problem.
  • Be open to the possibility that this time right now of looking at the truth of who you are may be the last time you ever need to do so. Identity may permanently drop away.

I hope you have enjoyed these reports on the Sedona Method Advanced Retreat as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. The retreat ended today, and while I had hoped to do a daily update, at least I managed to write to you 5 times. Tomorrow begins a 3 day Sedona Method coaching training, the 2nd in a series of 2 trainings that are being offered. I’m told over 100 people will be attending as this is the first time it is being offerred. I will try to do a report on it by the end of the week (probably while sitting in airports on Thursday).

In the coming weeks, I plan to do some additional articles on the Sedona Method, Hale Dwoskin and related topics. My original review of the Sedona Method audio program only tells a part of the fuller story of how the Method works and how far it actually goes along the spiritual path.

Namaste…. Tom


Creative Commons License credit: zpics

Related Posts:

  1. Sedona Method Retreat Days 4 and 5
  2. Sedona Method Retreat Day 1
  3. Sedona Method Retreat 2008 Summary
  4. Sedona Method Retreat Day 2
  5. Off to Sedona

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Comments

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on June 29th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

Thanks for the updates Tom. Nice to get an insiders view. And you’re so right about a turn of phrase. I’ve seen people awaken on just that – hearing something just a bit different or hearing it right for the first time. Onto fertile ground…

I will be attending 2 retreats next month but will not be able to do this for either. No Internet access at one (its remote), the other is silent. Perhaps a post summary. Its shaping up to be a remarkable month.

Davidya’s last blog post..Is God Real?

Albert | UrbanMonk.NetNo Gravatar  said
on June 30th, 2008 at 6:49 am

Can’t wait to read more bro!

Albert | UrbanMonk.Net’s last blog post..How Our Cravings and Attachments Cause Our Pain And Suffering, Part 2

Corinne EdwardsNo Gravatar  said
on June 30th, 2008 at 7:33 am

Been really enjoying your reports, Tom.

Looking forward to the summary!

Corinne Edwards’s last blog post..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! – One year old and counting

Anand DhillonNo Gravatar  said
on July 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

I really enjoyed your reports on the Sedona Method retreat.

Thanks!

Anand Dhillon’s last blog post..How to Master Money & Wealth | Create Multiple Streams of Income

Tim BrownsonNo Gravatar  said
on July 5th, 2008 at 4:53 am

I’ve been scanning your stuff in my reader this week Tom and enjoying what I’ve read, but I intend to catch up this weekend now I have a bit of free time.

I have to say those questions are stunningly powerful and yet at the same time simple (like all great things, huh?). I really want to do The Sedona Method and it’s going on my goal list today for when I have the finances to get myself out there.

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on July 5th, 2008 at 9:00 am

@Davidya Given that awakening is simply a realization of truth, it can be just a simple word that finally causes the letting go. “Arrows meeting in mid-air.”

@Albert I’ll have the final post up by tomorrow. A nice summary.

@Corinne Glad you’ve enjoyed the posts so far!

@Anand Glad to have you as a reader. I will have more on the retreat in a day or two.

@Tim The Sedona Method really works. I’m struck each time I attend a retreat at how well it cuts to the heart of everything. It isn’t the only thing that works, but it is a good one. It has literally changed my life. I think I might do a post in a few weeks on the gains I’ve had. :-)

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on July 6th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

Exactly Tom. Just the right word at the right time and suddenly we let go. Then its all over. For the ego that is (laughs)

Davidya’s last blog post..Poverty declining Worldwide

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Guru Quotes

The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a dream character, of course, unless it’s your goal to wake up, in which case the dream character must be ruthlessly annihilated. If your desire is to experience transcendental bliss or supreme love or altered states of consciousness or awakened kundalini, or to quality for heaven, or to liberate all sentient beings, or simply to become the best dang person you can be, then rejoice!, you’re in the right place: the dream state, the dualistic universe. However, if your interest is to cut the crap and figure out what’s true, then you’re in the wrong place and you’ve got a very messy fight ahead and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

—Jed McKenna

But beauty, real beauty, ends where intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of a face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don’t think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.

—Oscar Wilde

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not. And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

—Charlotte Joko Beck

Q: Since all is pre-ordained, is our self-realization also pre-ordained? Or are we free there at least?

A: Destiny refers only to name and shape. Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free. The cup is conditioned by its shape, material, use and so on. But the space within the cup is free. It happens to be in the cup only when viewed in connection with the cup. Otherwise, it is just space. As long as there is a body, you appear to be embodied. Without the body you are not disembodied — you just are.

—Nisargadatta Maharaj

So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.

—Eckhart Tolle


Buddhism stands unique in the history of human thought in denying the existence of a Soul, Self or Atman. According to the teachings of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities and problems. It is the source of all troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.

—What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula

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