Dear friends,
We often hear the term surrender in a spiritual context. But I am not sure it is always rightly understood, so I thought to share a few thoughts this week.
Surrender is most often used with a sense of giving up — especially, for example, militarily — but even more commonly in phrases such as “surrender your independence.” Not all that inspiring, eh? But what does surrender really mean for those of us who seek to find true peace and better merge with Spirit?
Surrender can actually be thought of as accepting reality for what it is. We usually tend to see the world the way we want it to be. Have you ever wondered why you and your friends seem to make the same kinds of mistakes over and over? A friend of mine recently shared an image I had heard before, but addresses this quite well:
You are walking down the street and fall into a hole. You are not pleased (to put it mildly) and with great effort you climb out. A week later… same street, same hole, and in you go. This time it takes you a little less time to get out. A week later… guess what?… same street, same hole. You sort of notice it, but fall in again and climb out. Later on as you are there again, you notice the hole and avoid it. Clever! My goodness, we can be slow!
You have just surrendered to the fact that there is a hole. What have you given up? Giving up is an attitude, not an action. We so often walk into a wall over and over when there is a door through the wall just a few feet away. But we are so fixated on the spot where we are standing we don't even notice the door a few feet away. Surrender is ultimately about being open, and about not living in our preferences and what Yogananda called your “likes and dislikes.” It is not easy, so far from surrender being a passive giving up, it is a courageous and energetic accepting of what is, and moving on knowing that whatever comes to us is for our own growth and expansion. That is quite dynamic and and quite a bit harder than it may at first seem.
May we ever surrender with courage, faith, and joy.
Blessings,
David G., manager
for the Gang at East West