āLife is a mystery. You cannot understand it unless you surrender, for your intellect cannot grasp its expansive and infinite nature, its real meaning and fullness. Bow down low and be humble; then you will know life’s meaning.ā
~ Amma
There is an open secret to the spiritual life, and itās called surrender.
We can try our best to understand the nature of reality and our conditioning. We can hope forever that our troubling thoughts and feelings will subside so weāll finally be at peace.
But until we surrender, the happiness we long for will elude us.
The word āsurrenderā means to give back completely, to release ownership of something and offer it back.
What do you surrender?
ā¢ Your personal needs and desires;
ā¢ Attachment to the content and meaning of all thoughts;
ā¢ Attachment to things being familiar and known;
ā¢ The need to know;
ā¢ The need to understand and analyze with your mind;
ā¢ The need to control.
Thats a lot! Itās everything you hang onto that keeps you feeling separateāfrom others, from yourself, and from life.
In fact, these things were never you. Surrendering lets go of distorted thinking and brings you back home to what was always true.
Surrender everything that makes up the sense of your personal identity, and where are you? Who are you? What are you?’
Youāre empty, willing, and totally receptive to something beyond your beliefs about yourself. You’re taken over by the divine flowā¦the natural intelligence that is the pure substance of life.
Everything is givenāthe people you know, your talents and skills, the situations you find yourself in, the challenges and joys that make up your life.
You can subtract your personal desires and ideas about things, and your life is still here, beautifully unfolding as it is.
And things get a lot easier once we stop resisting this movement. Weāre coming into alignment with things as they truly are.
Surrender arises from total devotion to the heart of lifeās unfolding. We bow down with utter humility, beyond receptive, open, empty of personal needs and desires.
We donāt need to hold onto any concerns or figure anything out. We see the futility of going into the mind for answers.
We simply let ourselves be absorbed into the river of life that is already flowing, receiving everything thatās given without one second of hesitation….releasing everything until you are nothing…and letting yourself be the vessel through which life is expressed.
You love whatās given with all your heart. Youāre a thousand percent willing to receive whatās offered.
Surrender leaves nothing out, not one stone unturned. But donāt get deterred by the totality of what is being asked of you. Take a baby step in the direction of surrender.
ā¢ Stop questioning one idea you’re attached to and flow with whatās given.
ā¢ Put aside your view on how you want things to be in one situation and
wholeheartedly embrace whatās actually happening as it is.
Bow down with humility to your one true homeā¦infinite luminous beingā¦
Mia says
Hello Gail, I have a question: How do you surrender when things in your life aren’t working at all – when you are sick, alone, without employment, when this is “things as they truly are” and you life doesn’t at all seem like it is “beautifully unfolding”? Does it still hold true then that “I donāt need to carry any concerns or figure anything out”?
I find the idea of total, radical surrender and complete trust in life fascinating but sometimes it seems to need almost superhuman strength and courage – is it even possible to do this in dire circumstances?
Gail Brenner says
In contemplating your question, Mia, I’m wondering what the alternative is to surrender. Surrendering to what is doesn’t mean you don’t take action, and it doesn’t mean you’re not wise about things that need to be taken care of. If there are things to do, do them.
In fact, as you let go of trying to figure all this out in your mind (I’m guessing recycling the same problems over and over), there may be space for some creative solutions that you didn’t notice before.
What I have found is that worrying doesn’t help – no matter what is going on.
So the question becomes: how do you meet the circumstances of your life? And that is the question for all of us in any moment. And here are the choices: fear and resistance or authenticity with what is and intelligence.
Happy to hear your thoughts…
Mia says
Thank you, Gail. You’re right, what is the alternative to surrender? I’ve often asked myself this very question.
I think, my concern really is: Can I trust life? Can I find the courage to truly and radically surrender all my problems to life?
To be honest: I simply don’t know what to do and which action to take. I’ve spent the last decades of my life trying to solve my problems and I’m exhausted. If I let go, if I surrender all – can I trust life?
In response to another reader’s comment (“The Pain of judging thoughts”) you wrote: “Surrender into the One Heart, and let yourself be moved. There is an intelligence here that is way beyond the human mind.”
I’d love to access that intelligence but so far I haven’t been able to. Something in me is still afraid to trust life, to truly surrender it all – especially in the face of financial insecurity, loneliness, sickness. Do you know what I mean? I probably didn’t put that very well, sorry …
Gail Brenner says
Hi Mia,
You might reflect on conditioned patterns that are running in you that may be keeping you from seeing things clearly and/or trusting life. There may be viewpoints you hold, and you may not even be aware of them, that are putting up a barrier to freedom. Maybe investigate that….