Living in Surrender to What Is
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
While reading in The Power of Now I came across a chapter on surrender, which hit me quite hard. Basically it said that it makes no sense to argue with the world, but instead one should live in an inner state of surrender. There is no need to judge, to desire, to inwardly argue with the world. All of that just causes pain and resistance and discomfort. It is much better to accept reality as it is on all the levels of the mind.
That doesn’t mean we should not do anything to change it. The outward world can be affected by us, and there is no point in not using suntan lotion when the sun is burning fiercely. We still have choices in the world. It is an inward stance, a way of inner being that leads to a measure of grace. It opens us up to being in harmony with existence, because we no longer create a mind and emotions of resisting life or the world.
For me this made a lot of sense. It goes against the ego, which wishes to be proud and strive and win, but it is the way of not objecting to that which is.
Comments
I think that's called pragmatism?
If you have to choose, do you want peace or do you want to be right?
It is the ego that wants to be right, because for a thought to be wrong is to face annihilation. It seems to me the more insight we get into the ego’s function, the less it’s grip on us.
In some sense surrendering to what is allows us to take appropriate action. If we didn't accept that the sun can burn our skin but instead rallied against the sun for burning, the sky for not being cloudy, our skin for not being sufficiently resistant, we would expend a lot of energy fruitlessly when if we accepted those things we could take the sensible action of applying sunscreen or wearing appropriate clothing.
Surrender conotates yielding, giving in or giving up.
Perhaps accepting, embracing, uniting with or becoming one with what is.
At ant rate, once we become one with what is, we can establish a better parameter with what will be. Only in accepting the what is do we fully see and appreciate what is and the paths before us. For we are neither slave nor captive to what is, but an active creative participant benefactor and beneficiary of what is. What is is not a solid rock to stand upon but a flowing river, ever changing, ever flowing. We are the navigators, traversing this what is.
Another way to state this is that fighting the what is is tantamount to swimming against a rip tide. A surfer utilizes the rip tide (rip current) to get through and too the waves. A swimmer, in accepting the what is of the rip tide, flows with it, swimming across until emerging from the rip to the what is of the sea and waves pushing him or her to shore.
The what is has not changed. The surfer and the swimmer have not surrendered to their "what is", but have accepted it and utilized it to benefit and advance - the surfer to reach his beloved waves and the swimmer to safely reach the shore, their new what is.
Peace to all