Surrender

Surrender is the effort needed to find an expanding of space already present and allowing everything else to fall away. For those who want to meditate but think it is impossible, it becomes available through surrender. We know we don’t actually want to think and “do” every moment of every day. We want the miraculous! So why do we grip so tightly in the opposite direction? We really need to learn how to relax and detach.

Shambhavananda- “We have certain patterns. We have certain things that have very deep hooks in us. In the beginning, when you start to change these things, a lot of stuff will pull on you. Rather than just screaming and hollering as you are being pulled away, you have to take out a sword and cut the stuff that is pulling on you. Well, what’s the sword? The sword is discrimination, the sword is discipline, the sword is commitment. If you see yourself as always being a failure, then you will be. You have to build a fire inside. Anyone who attains the heights has to cut loose a lot of stuff. It can get a little messy, but if you are working, you don’t take notice of the mess.”

What are the tools of surrender? Shambhavananda says, “Discrimination, Discipline, and Commitment”

Let’s think about holding a glass. In order to let go of a glass, we put it down. We relax our grip. We create space between our hand and the glass. The further we pull our hand away the more space between us and the glass. The greater the wisdom. But instead, we constantly wrap ourselves around the glass. We need to solve this problem. (Grip) We have to get that done. (Grip) We are so angry. (Grip) Remember when that happened? (Grip) A brilliant new idea. (Grip) Surrender is consciously releasing your grip on a situation. We cut our grip on it and create the space needed to see inside.

How Do We Put The Glass Down? Discrimination, Discipline, Commitment

Discrimination finds harmony in a situation. The hand completely covers everything inside the glass. The harmony comes in yourself with the situation. The glass could be cracking, but we would never know it because we’re too busy covering it and holding on to it. In the space of surrender we allow without our affecting it, or projecting on to it.

It takes discipline and internal effort to relax. In order to find a different way, we have to let go of the current way of operating. We train like an athlete with one-pointed focus. We discipline our minds. We discipline our emotions. We discipline our actions. If we relax and soften the grip, the glass automatically gets put down and the hand falls away.

We have commitment to free ourselves from the planning, replaying, or strategizing. Yes, our minds are for thinking and solving problems. The key is When We Tell It To. We have to put the effort into the opposite direction. We can think and get things done when we get up off the cushion. We are not at a lack of time for thinking. We commit to doing nothing for a certain period of time every day.

We need to build the opposing muscle, the one that lets us sit in harmony with a subtle smile on our faces.