Chap 3

Surrender

There seems to be some idea that spiritual surrender is about giving up our attachments

This seems more like acceptance, where we accept life “as it is” Then, we sit in our Divine knowledge and whatever happens is Prarabdha. (A Sanskrit word for the accumulated force of past karma). This where a Brahma Gyani sits. (Knows themselves, as one with the Cosmic Soul, the Brahman). Hence the word Gyana, which is knowledge of the Brahman, the Cosmic Soul. (The individual soul is called the Atman).

When you surrender spiritually, you stop making or seeking solutions to the uncontrollable. In the 12-step model its: “my life became uncontrollable”. (Hence then the need to surrender to a Higher Power). To stop seeking solutions also seems to be about acceptance.Surrender is willful acceptance and yielding to a dominating force and its will. Acceptance helps you accept the good and bad equally.

However surrender also is to become aware of the Divine as oneself, with the Higher Power’s energy within, and to accept it. It involves a shift in belief or approach to the spiritual journey, and is about “Who am I?”

Is this a catalyst for enlightenment?

Trust, and faith that there is a Divine Force seems to be a pre-requisite for surrender. “I believe that God will help me through this”. This requires some awareness of options generated by the usual questioning that goes until a belief in the Divine co-exists with faith in your spiritual teachers.

Not just: What is this all about?

But also: What do I do (as service)?

The act of surrender requires some practical substance also. Mediation, prayer, chanting, using a mantra etc. What is the single most powerful tool you use on your spiritual journey? You can’t think “I don’t have to do anything else”, and not do the practice required.

By turning your awareness away from normal activity and settling the mind, you can reconnect with your inner space. In the silent spaces beyond thoughts, you surrender to a Sound, the Cosmic Sound. Just as there is noise in life, so there is noise in realization. It very different though and can’t be explained, only experienced.

You submerge your ego, which remains, but is transformed into identity as the Divine, where there is the bliss of Oneness. (When you can hear then the Cosmic Sound).

If all else fails, just pray for surrender. It doesn’t matter who or what you pray to, it matters only that you are willing. The intention to surrender will allow its own release, and who knows, maybe there is an old man up there sitting in the clouds! (For me it’s the Goddess, but I’m not saying my beliefs are any less “naïve”)! Anything that helps with the letting go of fear and unending desire is worth a try.

Again the small self, the individual “me,” is not capable of dropping its own sense of ego, even though the Atman is intertwined with the Brahman. (Just as water is water, whether in a drop or in a sea). Maybe the “rock bottom” of the addict or a state of impasse, or “the darkest night”, triggers some transcendence. It a pity that it may have to occur this way! A realization “I simply cannot do it, can’t win, can’t complete, can’t change the situation”.

Something has to change, even if is occurring within a state of mental disorder. Someone will come to attend to you even if temporarily, involuntary, as when mental health becomes life threatening.

If however you trust the Divine then the Divine Grace leads from darkness to light.

When we agree to participate in the process of surrender to our Higher Power or place our lives in the hands of God then we are met by the Divine Force. The change occurs when there is willingness to access and seek the Truth. This makes us available to be witnessed and to witness. We can then stop hiding, and leave the past shames and fears behind. The Divine Self as the individual soul can then be healed by Divine Grace.

Maybe medication, therapy, rehabilitation, or other treatments will work.

Maybe

Or rather all the healing opportunities in the world may be helpful “to a point’. Maybe

The issue finally is about being at another level. This is not just about praying to seek the god, the higher power, or ones deity. It’s about being in one’s own Higher Power, being in the Divine Self and experiencing Divinity in human bodily form.

We have been claimed by a situation where we may live very fearful human lives, whilst at the same time seeking redemption, solutions to suffering within and without our personal lives.

There is a necessity, or a choice, or we are pushed to move “past the past”. To release all of life in a higher way through the encounter with one’s own Divine Self. The rubbish or garbage is put out, and there is no need to check and go through it all. Just throw it out! Let it go to leave the darkness behind. Freedom from self-condemnation, anger or righteous action, becomes grounded and light, and only then is the darkness absent.

Some would say that the material reality is an illusion. The Sanskrit word for this is Maya, the delusional dreamlike transitory life experience. The true Maya though is that we believe there is happiness all around us. In success, money, and even relationships.

The Buddha indicated that “all life is suffering”. Thus life and free will at a high level seeks not to totally alleviate personal strife, but to see the Truth of life’s journey as having an ultimate benefit for all. Cancer is not eliminated. Mental health disorder is not eliminated. Poverty is not eliminated. War is not eliminated. We just don’t participate from the same angle any more, we have a radically different perspective and understanding of what is the universal Divine Consciousness. Which cannot be in truth separate from anything or anyone.

Either this “consciousness” is homogeneous, or it doesn’t exist for a benefit, (as it would not then be anything of spiritual value)! The ending of delusion, the end of the chase of dragons and dreams, can be celebrated. Accomplished by agreeing and participating in the spiritual journey, and that can be accomplished by being on a path of one’s personal choice.

There are signposts, teachers, and guides to help us. Even that the parts of religion that have not been corrupted can serve a purpose on this journey. It’s all available if we seek it, but more than that it will only work if we let it.

That is where the challenge of surrender lives!

Acceptance

The problem with surrender is that there then follows acceptance.

Our God, Higher Power or Divine has a plan with exactly what we need to be given when we need.

This seems scary!

What if it’s not true!

What if I don’t like what I get?

It’s a bit like going to a restaurant having to eat what is placed in front of oneself, instead of ordering.

What if I get non-vegan?

Or fish?

The good thing is that confusing choices can be released. What do I do about my marriage? What do I do about my job?

The Divine ensures that each step is revealed to one who makes the surrender and waits.

Answers come with surety as the inner voice, which only makes good sense it’s a true voice.

Thus a word of warning. Those who are mental health professionals are well aware of the delusional content of the mind in states of sickness, when thoughts can be misleading, dangerous and life-threatening.

It may pay to check things out with a suitable professional person, guide, or therapist, if indicated.

It’s also a good idea to do so with a health professional if one is susceptible to unraveling, or is vulnerable, to a mental health condition.

The issue is not really about what will happen to you, or what you will do, or how your five year plan will work out. It’s about sitting in a space where fear and anxiety about, Life and the Universe is alleviated.

Of course we desire, we want great things, and that lottery win.

Being in the Divine place is not about forceful relinquishing of our desires or even addictions.

It’s about being in a space where it is natural to accept the fullness of life “as it is”, and thus the needs and wants disperse, vanish or become irrelevant.

Gratefulness for what we have not regret for what we haven’t got.

Acceptance is that there is enough, and I can share fully what I have got.

I don’t have to win to the detriment of others. (Maybe sport is different).

Being one with the Divine Self will enable outcomes of benefit without or beyond limitation.

Far greater things can happen.

There still will be in counters in life that confuse, and cause fear and anxiety but again the Divine Design is that we learn.

Everything is included as part of the spiritual journey.

Thus desire can be re-purposed and re-understood. Something to not fight against. Something purposely placed in the correct position in the scheme of things.