Talk 22 - Sedona Method, Like Vipassana

Somewhere after WWII, a man named Lester Levenson had a heart attack, and facing mortality, asked himself some hard questions.  He ended up with his own process of coming to terms with reality and finding happiness and peace that came to be known as The Sedona Method (book).  The bullet points of the vipassana-like process are:

• Feel what you are feeling
• Ask "Could I let this feeling go," allow this feeling to be here, welcome this feeling
• Ask "Would I be willing to let this feeling go?"
• Ask "When?"
• Repeat as necessary

Very much in line with the overall process of awareness and letting go that we see running through all successful meditative practices.  The technique is explored in the book linked above, also the Sedona Method company has a lot of pricey CD based instruction and retreats as well.

It's been a while since I was exposed to this.  I believe Lester had a thing where he would go beyond the basic feelings and further subdivide things into "wanting approval" or "wanting control".  More opportunities for noting/labeling, like submission/dominance or craving/aversion.

Also as I recall, Lester described first a level of happiness where he emphasized dissolving one's need to change things and leaning in the direction of love (perhaps like metta), and then "beyond" that a level of peace where he described letting go of trying to find happiness and giving support to other people.