I enjoy Hawkins' books, but I just don't buy into the "calibrating" theory. It's impossible for me to truly know if someone else is enlightened or at what level they are enlightened. I can only know the story I tell myself about someone's enlightenment. Besides: There is really no one else out there, but the One. Which is why I think this is all immaterial, anyway. Only my ego is fascinated by this comparison stuff, because my ego loves to separating "them" from me, loves to figure out who is "better" or "worse," "levels," etc. So, while I enjoyed Hawkins' book, his theory isn't useful for me.
Unconditional love isn't something I believe "I" do. Instead, Love does me, when the noise of my mind/ego has dropped. Unconditional love is far beyond the personal "me." My experience of true unconditional Love is that it is Something beyond thought, emotion and desire --- all those components which comprise this identity called 'Michelle.'
Because Love is part of me yet that which also transcends me, it is beyond my ego to "acquire" it or "achieve" it. I'm not expert, but my few experiences with Love suggest it's known through Grace. Grace is mystery -- beyond my understanding.
I don't believe that any egos are capable of true Love. Egos actually block Love. There are always some attachments there to work through, always some hidden agenda, belief systems. The more honest I've become with myself, the more clearly I see this in myself --- and not try to judge it!
True love does occur, but it's not our doing. It's something which appears in this world, despite our blocks. Christians call this Grace, so that's the symbol I'll use to describe it, I guess.
My understanding of A Course of Miracles is that it is a mind training which aims to gently un-do the false ego structure which continually blocks our awareness of Love/God (our true nature). I really think the Course encourages us to embrace a state of ceaseless prayer/surrender, which creates the spaciousness/opening through which Grace/Love appears. So I view the Course as a path leading to personal surrender, not really a path of personal "doing." Anything I think I "do" or "know" would imply that I think I'm in control ... It would also imply a future, since if I must acquire something to get there, it's not Here Now .... and that has simply never been my experience with the divine, as much as the control freak in me would have loved to to have been! .... Gratitude, openness (not assuming we KNOW), humility (i.e., questioning our thoughts/assumptions) & joining are so important --- much more than acquiring more knowledge, more workshops, more books.
That's where I'm at today, anyway.
