Validating All That Is

So today I had the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be cast as the role of villain and to have a bunch of people get angry at me, something I haven’t experienced in quite some time now. Although it certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience, I learned a lot from it and would like to use it as a springboard to talk about how to respond when you are on the receiving end of attack, insult, and abuse.

Whether we’re talking about something big like a terrorist threatening to blow your head off or something small like someone casting you a disapproving look, let’s explore what we can do as conscious beings when we find ourselves in a situation where we are being attacked.

First let’s hear what Osho has to say:

Whenever someone comes to fight you, absorb him;
When someone insults you, absorb him and see — his insult becomes a flower.
He is releasing energy. When someone insults you, he is giving away energy.
He is foolish, stupid, so you absorb his energy, thank him, and go back and see what happens. When someone is ready to fight, simply allow him.
Be as if you are not there and he is fighting an emptiness.
Allow him, don’t resist, and you will come to know.
There is no other way; just listening to me will not do.
This is an art, it is not a science. Science can be explained, art has to be experienced.

-OSHO

Next let’s look to the Bible and hear what Jesus’ take on the matter is:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

-Matthew 5:38-42

One thing that we can see that all of these beings have in common is that they don’t fight back. They don’t judge the other person. It’s almost like they are standing open in a state of transparency, where nothing can truly hit them. They may certainly be struck physically, yes, but even that doesn’t get to them in their heart.

From Non-resistance to Non-violent Resistance

Now people often use statements like these to justify pacifism, saying that war is never the answer and that if you sit back loving people all day, all abuse will stop some day.

One good point that’s brought up in the book series Conversations with God is that allowing an abuser to continue to abuse another is beneficial for neither the abuser nor the one who is abused, for that teaches the abuser that such behavior is acceptable. What’s suggested instead is to do what’s best for yourself for in so doing, you will automatically be doing what is in the best interest of the all, for you actually ARE the all.

This is discussed in Book 1, page 132, for those of you who own a copy of the book.

Treating others with love does not necessarily mean allowing others do what they wish.

Parents learn this early with children. Adults are not so quick to learn it with other adults, nor nation with nation.

Yet despots cannot be allowed to flourish, but must be stopped in their despotism. Love of Self, and love of the despot, demands it.

-Conversations with God

When we hear about the idea of non-resistance, that may conjure up the idea of being a punching bag and getting your head kicked in.

Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.

-Gandhi

Here’s a clip from the film Gandhi where he speaks in front of a crowd and discusses this in more detail:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tjIiWIkAQ

What’s advocated here is not some submissive acceptance of what happens, but what MLK Jr. termed non-violent resistance.

Non-violent resistance is not for cowards. It is not a quiet, passive acceptance of evil. One is passive and non-violent physically, but very active spiritually, always seeking ways to persuade the opponent of advantages to the way of love, cooperation, and peace.

The non-violent resister accepts suffering without retaliating; accepts violence, but never commits it.

In non-violent resistance, one learns to avoid physical violence toward others and also learns to love the opponents with “agape” or unconditional love–which is love given not for what one will receive in return, but for the sake of love alone. It is God flowing through the human heart.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is not weak. Love is POWERFUL!

Now I know that advocating resistance in any way may make some spiritual ears recoil, and that’s okay. In many minds there may be a belief system set up that says “resistance = BAD!”

Think of this form of resistance as a way of cultivating one’s inner power in the name of what one believes. Love isn’t just the stereotypical new agey smiley happy gooey Love. That is one expression of it, sure, but Love can also be expressed with extreme intensity, such as a mother diving into traffic to pull her child back into safety. Love is NOT always some passive thing saying, “Oh, that doesn’t sound like such a good idea. Let’s talk about this and see if we can come up with an agreement here without arguing or raising our voices.”

Many spiritual people shut down their inner power in the name of ego transcendence. I’ve been there and done that.

The ego looooves the solar plexus chakra and to be a powerful force in the world, but that inner spirit can also be used by the heart to powerfully express Love in the world.

Speaking of standing up for what one believes, let’s take a look at this from a Law of Attraction standpoint by listening to what Abraham has to say on the topic of terrorism in the world:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqzk4riWo6U

The key is recognizing the intense contrast that is born from these experiences and focusing our attention upon the desires for peace, well-being, and understanding that are born out of these events.

What’s Your Take on the Issue?

What does the wisdom within you guys have to say?

When people have attacked you in some way, how have you responded and how effective was your response in creating the desired outcome?

This spiritual pathway can be very much like a roller coaster. There are highs and lows that happen against the backdrop of being, and they can be pretty intense. I often share some of my dark experiences here on this site. The past few days have been like that again. Big emotional upheaval, anger, rage, confusion, ego, and the fear of backsliding into unconsciousness. Y’know… that whole bit…

Funny to see the latest WINGS post be in alignment with what’s being experienced here. People talk about the mercury retrograde and whatnot. I have no idea what that stuff means, but it seems like a lot of that fits. Neat-o.

Anyways, regarding the dark stuff, one interesting to see is that it’s like a part of you burns up within. It’s like a mini-death, a release of old energy that is no longer you nor in harmony with your new vibration. We can think of it as an emotional storm, or a fire burning within. It feels like a part of you (quite literally) burns up in the process.

But what’s left after any big forest fire? Fresh, live, nutrient-rich soil. (The past few times I’ve written that line, I’ve “accidentally” typed the word “soul” instead of “soil.” hehe.) It’s a perfect place to start anew.

In this way, it’s like a sort of rebirth. Part of you literally dies and the part of you which can neither die nor be (re)born shines that much more clearly.

After the fire there’s a feeling of increased freedom, but cling not to this experience for it, like every other experience we can have, will pass. Enjoy it, but don’t get attached. There’ll probably be more storms to come. More darkness to face later. More inner nooks and crannies of fear to heal and transmute back into light.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0v3a-Z4QhY

The quotes from that video come from the book Oneness.

Also, this Adyashanti article helped me return back to the direct experience of who I truly am. Perhaps some of you will find them helpful as well.

In any event, hi.

It’s pretty nice to no longer feel like I have the IQ and clarity of a slug in the mud. It’s quite wonderful to feel open, relaxed, and free. Yes it is… It’s so.. natural.

What have you guys found to be helpful when you’re caught in the midst of the fire within? How do you relate to it? What do you find afterwards when the fire subsides?

So part of this spiritual path involves moving from fear towards love, becoming more and more loving.

The past few days I’ve allowed myself to be in my ego. To be angry. To feel my deep sadness. To experience this energy that for so long I’ve been trying to run away from, transcend, transform, heal, or in any way shape or form change. This egoic presence something I haven’t experienced in quite a long time, much less embraced.

I’ve decided to stop running from anything that is within me. Whether this fear is me or not me is not of primary importance right now. It is here, and I’m not going to run from it.

Diving into my own anger, I’m noticing one fear arising in particular: If I allow myself to experience my darkness, I’ll somehow slide back into my ego and become totally unconscious again, like some sort of crazed psycho killer or something. (Gotta love how the mind works…) A high degree of unconsciousness basically the complete failure for what one would call a spiritual person.

Looking at this more closely, we see that this fear is actually afraid of itself. It’s fear afraid of fear. The ego afraid of itself. It is a self-sustaining and self-reinforcing mechanism.

If you’re afraid of experiencing you’re own fear, noticing your existing fear will bring up more fear, which will create more, which will create more, and so on.

Acceptance of All of Yourself

Recognizing that I am All That Is, I want to be comfortable embracing the totality of my being. I want to be comfortable with both comfort and discomfort, at peace with both peace and stress. No matter what aspect of myself that is arising, I want to be okay with it.

I’m talking complete, full, and deep acceptance of all that I Am, the good and the bad.

Amazingly, (this amazes me every time it happens) the more I’m willing to sit with my own darkness, whether it takes the form of fear, anger, sadness, frustration, depression, anxiety, or whatever else, the more I can sit with it and notice it as presence, the more it seemingly just evaporates and dissolves right before my eyes.

Nothing needs to be done to fix, change, or rise above darkness. It just kinda takes care of itself.

Again, the following quote is proving itself to be the case:

Your task in life is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and remove all the barriers that you have built against love.

–Rumi

Awareness itself is transformative. The presence of conscious awareness is itself healing.

Unconsciousness is nothing more than not being aware. When you’re aware of whatever processes or fears you were previously unconscious to, those patterns no longer run on unconscious autopilot. Awareness disengages those processes.

The great thing about anger is that you don’t have to go digging deep to find the root of your crud. It’s like it comes to the surface for you and becomes incredibly obvious. What a gift, this anger!

It’s almost like resistance itself is what sustains our inner darkness and demons. As counter-intuitive as it may seem at first, if we allow our darkness to be an integral part of us and give it just as much importance and permission to be here as our light, the darkness just blows away like dust in the wind and transforms into light. The two become one.

This integration process allows for equal value to ALL aspects of the infinite, yet still provides a space for you to choose what aspect of yourself you wish to experience out of your own free will.

In a similar way, all men are created equal, yet you can still choose with whom you wish to interact.

In the Sedona Method, one of the end goals, if you wanna think of it that way, is imperturbability, which is basically not being uprooted by anything that happens in the world. It’s deeply being centered in who you are so that you’re okay no matter what happens. This is what I’m talking about.

It’s about being okay with everything in this world, everyone in this world, and everything inside of you.

Deep acceptance of All That Is.

I recently found out (this time through facebook status updates since I don’t watch the news) that California voted to uphold Proposition 8, banning gay marriages.

It’s a pretty hot topic, with lots of polarized debate, and it’s not something that I normally talk about since politics just flat out doesn’t interest me.

That said, this whole situation is like a thermometer. It’s simply showing us the level of consciousness of the collective at the time of the vote, as well as allowing people to see who they’re choosing to be in relationship to it, just like everything else in life.

The collective hasn’t shifted totally to unconditional allowance in one fell swoop, but it is shifting, piece by piece.

It used to be that a decision such as allowing gay marriage was completely unthinkable. The fact that it’s even up for discussion is already a wonderful step in the direction of equality. No we’re not there yet, but the momentum is still flowing in that direction, as it has been for quite some time...

It’s like the civil rights movement with black people. Racial equality didn’t happen all at once overnight, but as a process of evolution, step by step.

Recognizing and appreciating the shift in the direction of equality, and standing for equality and unconditional acceptance ourselves, we can choose to accept those who don’t accept full equality yet, seeing them as equal in value to us.

Those with another perspective are simply unique facets of life expressing another aspect of itself. Everything is the One in expression. Other people may certainly have different beliefs, different programming, and a different upbringing, but that in no way invalidates them as beings worthy of love and acceptance.

This situation gives us the opportunity to be the change we wish to see in the world.

No matter what decisions people make, how they vote, or who they choose to be, we can accept them fully as they are.

Oregon Autumn by Marc Adamus

Most of us have qualities about ourselves that society would judge as less than “ideal”… whatever that is. Maybe we’re not really really ridiculously good looking, maybe we’re overweight, maybe we’re gay, maybe we’ve got ADD, maybe we’re not the smartest cookie in the batch… whatever. Everyone’s got something..

The thing is though, in this lifetime, you’re not meant to be anything other than who and what you really are. You’re here to BE YOURSELF, the unique expression of the infinite you.

You don’t have to box yourself in to some arbitrary idealized standard in order to be lovable, acceptable, and worthy. Nope!

Looking At Our Bad Side

Whatever energy you find within yourself, whether “good” or “bad,” it’s there for a reason. It was created by your energy. There are no accidents and no mistakes. It’s not random.

Whether that “unacceptable” energy is something to be healed and transformed or it’s meant to be something we experience throughout the whole of our lives, whatever role that energy is here to teach us about ourselves, it is what it is and so it’s up to us to accept that energy and allow it to be, without resistance.

If that energy is a block that’s meant to be dissolved, it will be through non-resistance. If it’s something that’s meant to be expressed and experienced in this lifetime, then we’ll allow ourselves to express it and experience it fully without judgment, guilt, or condemnation.

We can allow the energy to do what it needs to do. It’s got its own intelligence. You are that intelligence. It’s not separate from you. You know what to do.

Accepting Ourselves Now

Right now, we simply are the way we are. We may certainly be different later on, yet ironically it’s through full and total acceptance of who we are now that we find ourselves automatically rising up to the healthiest and most loving and natural state possible.

Paradox!

It is by accepting the here and now that we afford ourselves the highest likelihood of transforming what is here and now into something else.

But I Don’t Want More of It!

There’s this fear that if we accept what’s here, the universe will be like, “Oh, you like this? Okay. We’ll give you more of the same then.” and so things won’t change and we’ll just keep getting more of the same.

It turns out… that’s not the case! What you resist persists and what you look at disappears. In your own experience, has this been the case?

Being Yourself, Regardless of Others’ Judgments

When you’re willing to be yourself regardless of what others think, when you’re willing to be the unique expression of All That Is that you were born to be, whether your talents are absoulutely horrendous, or absoulutely amazing, the willingness and freedom to be yourself is what is really inspirational.

(Fun note: I “accidentally” typed absoulutely instead of absolutely. It’s gonna stay that way for now.)

Tools to Help Accept Yourself Fully As You Are

There are some tools and techniques that we can use to help us accept ourselves to ever-increasing degrees.

Two tools that I’d highly recommend are EFT and The Sedona Method.

There are many more tools, and even things that don’t involve tools or strategies. When it comes to self-acceptance, what have you guys found valuable?

Welcome welcome, America’s new president, Barack Obama!

This afternoon he gave his inauguration speech in front of roughly 3 bazillion people all crowded along the Washington Mall.

Thank goodness there was so much body heat going around, because it was a cold day today, yet the human popsicles came out regardless to watch our new president be sworn into office.

One of the big buzzwords these days is “Change.” So, setting this context, let’s highlight a few of the changes that he mentioned in his inauguration speech today that specifically tie into the idea of spiritual change and Oneness.

Choosing Oneness over Separation

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

Love over fear. Unity trumps separation. Let go of outdated belief systems that no longer serve us.

Unconditional Love is just that: UNCONDITIONAL. That means without condition. Regardless of race, culture, history, or belief systems, you are Loved just the same. You need do nothing to earn it, nor can you lose it. You Are Truly Loved, unconditionally and infinitely Loved. It is Love that is our foundational bedrock, our core of being.

The All Are the One

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

Our differences may exist on the surface, and we all play unique roles within All That Is, but it is our variety that makes us special, and our diversity that, when fully honored, paradoxically draws us together as One.

You and I all fit into the puzzle of All That Is when we are fully being who we are: unique expressions of the One.

Creation is Power

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

If you have a bunch of blocks lying on the ground, it takes power to creatively put them all together as a building. Yet when you have a building constructed of blocks, it takes virtually no power to destroy the building.

Power lies in Creation. Only the powerful can create. Anyone can destroy because it takes no power.

True Change Starts With You

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

You are your society. You are the people. The All are the One and the One is the All. We are one nation.

It is up to you to take responsibility for your life, to create your reality, and to serve yourself through service to others, for you and the other are One.

It’s time for change! Let’s sing it with Here II Here!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0f3Dn_FQ8Y

photo credit: Norma Desmond

Have you ever noticed that, in retrospect, the right people, events, and circumstances synchronistically tend to show up at just the right time?

Looking back over the course of history, it often makes sense why things happen the way they do. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

As you raise your consciousness, something similar happens. It’s like your perspective also raises, giving you a clearer picture of everything around you. You become aware of more, able to see more of the “big picture,” in a sense.

The Big Picture

It is all connected. The appearance of random and seemingly disconnected events is the product of a limited perspective of consciousness. It’s all connected. After all, it must be, since it’s all One.

Everything that’s happening in the universe is perfect. Literally. All That Is unfolds in divine perfection. There are no mistakes. No accidents. Everything is happening absolutely perfectly.

Not only is perfect, but everything that’s happening in life is exactly what’s supposed to be happening.

Understanding this, we can become very excited, very appreciative, and very accepting of what arises in the Now. What could be more exciting than being in full alignment with who we are in the moment?

Since we’re very excited about what is happening, we’re never wanting to be anywhere else.

When we’re never waiting for anything else, we don’t even need the idea of patience.

When we no longer need patience, we’re no longer impatient.

Bada-bing bada-boom!

Total acceptance, love, oneness, and peace with the Now.

Non-duality is about inclusion, not exclusion. Non-duality seems to run contrary to duality. Non-duality (not two) says that All That Is is One.

The One is the All. The All are the One.

So how does duality fit into this?

Duality is the fundamental basis of separation, that there are many individual separate things. “This over here is me, but that over there is not.” While duality is not the ultimate truth at all, it is still a witnessable reality in a sense, is it not?

The All are the One. The One is All That Is.

If Non-duality didn’t include Duality within it, it wouldn’t be All That Is.

If All That Is didn’t include both the light AND the dark, it wouldn’t be ALL That Is. It would be Half-of-What-Could-Be.

Everything exists everywhere in the Universe simultaneously. It is omnipresent.

To experience physical reality, we basically put a filter over the Infinite to limit what we see, like putting on a pair of colored sunglasses. We vibrationally stand in a place which gives us a unique perspective to see various aspects of the infinite, a particular manifestation of All That Is. Playing with that vibration is the essence of the Law of Attraction. It’s a lot like looking at a hologram. It all exists now, but the version of the hologram you see depends upon the direction you are looking from.

Each unique mind-made perspective is dualistic in that you are looking from this perspective and not that perspective, yet all perspectives are equally valid from an ultimate non-dualistic stance. It’s not this OR that. It’s this AND that. Non-duality.

All That Is (which some people like to refer to as God) appreciates, cherishes, and supports all aspects of itself, INCLUDING YOU.

Recognizing that all possible choices and all states of being are valid as part of All That Is, judge not any aspect of All That Is.

From a non-dual perspective, all that is witnessed is recognized to be the One, and all appearances are recognized to simply be expressions of the One.

Thus, upon awakening, One’s relationship to duality changes. Duality is recontextualized to be an expression of the underlying Oneness. It is all simultaneously nothing and everything. You are that.

Stripping Away Leads to Integration

The spiritual practice of self-inquiry involves the stripping away of all false ideas of what you are to cut away at the illusion. Self-inquiry begins to dissolve the illusory reality of the ego. You can begin to see the nothingness of physical reality, come to find the non-existence of a separate self, have a dark night of the soul as the separate self falls away, awaken to your true nature as the One and the All, and come back around to reintegrate the Relative within the Absolute.

By stripping away the unreal from the real, we come to reintegrate the unreal with the real, interestingly enough. Gotta love that paradox.

It’s ultimately about inclusion. So don’t try to “kill the ego” or “get rid of the mind.” They are not your enemies, I assure you. They’re not something to kill, but rather something to disidentify with.

What happens after total egoic disidentification is spiritual awakening. Don’t worry about learning how to do it because it’s automatic and natural for everyone. It’s “built into the system,” so to speak.

Surrender. It is easily one of the most important aspects of spirituality. It is synonymous with letting go and allowing. The hallmark of surrender is the giving up of resistance. It’s a being transparent to energy that is passing through you.

If surrender is so important, what is it, really?

Let’s look at a variety of definitions from a number of spiritual teachers to make sure we’re very clear on what surrender is all about.

The traditional sense of surrender includes a sense of loss and defeat, a place of weakness and inability, a choice to end the experience and exit the journey. In a spiritual context, surrender means something very different. It’s something applied while fully engaged with the experience rather than an end to it.

Surrender

sur⋅ren⋅der -- verb -- to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress

-Dictionary.com

Let’s examine some spiritual perspectives of surrender. True surrender is not just an action, but a way of being in the world.

“What is the secret of your serenity?” asked a student.

“Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable.” said the Master.

-Anthony DeMello

Our buddy Deepak would like to chime in here.

With surrender, passion is directed toward life itself--in spiritual terms, passion is the same as letting yourself be swept away on the river of life, which is eternal and neverending in its flow. The final fruit of surrender is ecstasy: when you can let go of all selfish attachments, when you trust that love really is at the core of your nature, you feel complete peace. In this peace there is a seed of sweetness perceived in the very center of the heart, and from this seed, with patience and devotion, you nurture the supreme state of joy known as ecstasy. This, then, is the path to love, although it isn’t the only path.

-Deepak Chopra

Our good friend Eckhart Tolle is here as well.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation. Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.

-Eckhart Tolle

David Hawkins has some words to say too.

The pathway to Enlightenment via radical truth is demanding and requires the surrendering of all belief systems. Only then does the Ultimate Reality reveal itself as the sought-after ‘I’ of the Supreme.

To let go of the known for the unknown requires great commitment, willingness, and devotion to surrendering one’s faith to God.

The experience of the presence of God is available and within at all times, but awaits choice.  That choice is made only by surrendering everything other than peace and love to God. In return, the divinity of the Self reveals Itself as ever present but not experienced because it has been ignored or forgotten, or one has chosen otherwise.

The spiritual aspirant, therefore, is wise to detach from all positionalities and opinions and be willing to surrender the ego’s temporary satisfactions for a higher goal.

-David Hawkins

Ramana Maharshi puts it like this:

There are two ways of achieving surrender. One is looking into the source of the ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling ‘I am helpless myself, God alone is all powerful, and except by throwing myself completely on Him, there is no other means of safety for me’, and thus gradually developing the conviction that God alone exists and the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.

-Ramana Maharshi

Bashar just came up and asked for the mic.

Knowingness comes from surrender, letting go. Now, we understand that many of you, according to the definitions you have, many of you will label this as a loss of some sort of a lack of control of some sort and this is not the case.

Surrender, if we may provide our definition, is the letting go of the concept of who you think you’re supposed to be and actually being who you are, because who you are is unlimited possibilities, and when you allow yourself to surrender to the idea and the experience that you were created in the image of the Infinite, which means that you are Infinite possibilities too, then the physical reality, which is only a mirror, can then reflect those unlimited possibilities back to you in the synchronicities as they naturally unfold in your physical day-to-day life.

So surrender is actually acceptance of your total self, not the forsaking of your total self, as many of you have been led to believe through the definitions that your world has provided you with that only serve to limit you, and this is what we want to share with you and what we suggest you learn to give up, are those limitations.

-Bashar

As Adyashanti would put it, surrender or suffer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhlOZDxgmwY

Surrender basically boils down to a complete acceptance to life as it is in the moment, creating a space for the presence of Love. It’s more than just an intellectual acceptance, but a true acceptance that permeates your entire being.

Surrender is total internal non-resistance. It is letting go of ALL beliefs and judgments. In its place is an emptiness wherein resides the mystery, the unknown. Silence. It is the fullest emptiness you’ll ever find. It is where you find God.

Surrender does NOT imply doing nothing like a passive bump on a log. Imagine yourself being connected to chains pulling you in many different directions simultaneously. The chains represent your subconscious beliefs, your thoughts, your habits, your desires, and your attachments and aversions. Through non-resistance and allowing, the chains fall away on their own. By resisting the chains, you hold them in place. With the surrender of all chains, there is the freedom to move in any direction, or to sit perfectly still. All possibilities open up. What results is freedom. The ability to do anything.

What is the deepest result of complete and total surrender?

Enlightenment. Awakening. Remembering who you truly are. Self-realization. Peace. Love. Serenity. Ecstacy. Joy.