“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what 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
“One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”
― Elisabeth Elliot
“The greatness of the man's power is the measure of his surrender.”
― William Booth
“Surrender your own poverty and acknowledge your nothingness to the Lord. Whether you understand it or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon.”
― Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground Of Love
Someone asked contemporary Spiritual Teacher Eckhart Tolle, "I don't like the idea of surrender. It sounds somewhat fatalistic. If we always accept the way things are, we are not going to make any effort to improve them... How do you reconcile surrender with changing things and getting things done?
Eckart Tolle replied:
To some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying defeat, giving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, becoming lethargic, and so on. True surrender, however, is something entirely different. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action.
Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner resistance to what is.
Inner resistance is to say "no" to what is, through mental judgment and emotional negativity. It becomes particularly pronounced when things "go wrong," which means that there is a gap between the demands or rigid expectations of your mind and what is. That is the pain gap.
If you have lived long enough, you will know that things "go wrong" quite often. It is precisely at those times that surrender needs to be practiced if you want to eliminate pain and sorrow from your life. Acceptance of what is immediately frees you from mind identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is the mind.
Non-surrender hardens your psychological form, the shell of the ego, and so creates a strong sense of separateness. The world around you and people in particular come to be perceived as threatening. Not only your psychological form but also your physical form - your body - becomes hard and rigid through resistance. Tension arrises in different part of your body, and the body as a whole contracts. The free flow of life energy through the body, which is essential for its healthy functioning, is greatly restricted.
If you find your life situation unsatisfactory or even intolerable, it is only by surrendering first that you can break the unconscious resistance pattern that perpetuates that situation.
Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally different energy, a different quality, flows into your doing. Through nonresistance, the quality of your consciousness and, therefore, the quality of whatever you are doing or creating is enhanced immeasurably. The results will then look after themselves, and reflect that quality. We could call this surrendered action.
It is the quality of your consciousness at this moment that is the main determinant of what kind of future you will experience, so to surrender is the most important thing you can do to bring about positive change. This is what Jesus talked about as "the one thing that is needed." Any action you take is secondary. No truly positive action can arise out of an unsurrendered state.
2.
A negative mind can never give a positive life. In every moment when we surrender, we enter into a positive domain by yielding to what is, and in that state of consciousness, you never allow yourself any negativity, but embrace appreciation and gratitude. Thus you have a more positive experience out of that moment, that now than someone who knows not how to surrender.
Osho said: "I also know only one miracle, to let nature have its course, to allow it, whatsoever is happening. Don’t interfere, don’t come in the way. Suddenly you will disappear. You cannot be there without resistance, fight, aggression, violence. Ego exists through resistance. This has to be understood very deeply. The more you fight, the more you will be there."
3.
In the state of surrender, you see very clearly what needs to be done, and you take action, doing one thing at a time and focusing on one thing at a time. Learn from nature: See how everything gets accomplished and how the miracle of life unfolds without dissatisfaction or unhappiness.
If your overall situation is unsatisfactory or unpleasant, separate out this instant and surrender to what is.
Do not confuse surrender with an attitude of "I can't be bothered anymore" or "I just dont care anymore." If you look at it closely, you will find that such an attitude is tainted with negativity in the form of hidden resentment and so is not surrender at all but masked resistance. As you surrender, direct your attention inward to check if there is any trace of resistance left inside you. Be very alert when you do so; otherwise, a pocket of resistance may continue to hide in some dark corner in the form of a thought or an unacknowledged emotion.
Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of resistance - surrender - is the end of the mind as your master, the impostor pretending to be "you," the false god (ilah). All judgement and all negativity dissolve.
The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up.
Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace.
And within that peace, there is great joy.
And within that joy, there is love.
And at the innermost core, there is the sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named.
Someone asked: "Letting go of resistance is easier said than done. I still don't see clearly how to let go. If you say it is by surrendering, the question remains: How?"
Start by acknowledging that there is resistance. Be there when it happens, when the resistance arises. Observer how your mind creates it, how it labels the situation, yourself or others. Look at the thought process involved. Feel the energy of the emotion. By witnessing the resistance, you will see that it servers no purpose. By focusing all your attention on the Now, the unconscious resistance is made conscious, and that is the end of it. You cannot be conscious and unhappy, conscious and in negativity. Negativity, unhappiness, or suffering in whatever form means that there is a resistance, and resistance is always unconscious.
You say that you are conscious of your unhappy feelings, but the truth is that you are identified with them and keep the process alive through compulsive thinking. All that is unconscious. If you were conscious, that is to say totally present in the Now, all negativity would dissolve almost instantly. It could not survive in your presence. You keep your unhappiness alive by giving it time. Remove time through intense present-moment awareness and it dies.
Until you practice surrender, the spiritual dimension is something you read about, talk about, get excited about, write books about, think about, believe in - or don't, as the case may be. It makes no difference. Not until you surrender does it become a living reality in your life. When you do, the energy that you emanate and which then runs your life is of much higher vibrational frequency than the mind energy that still runs our world, the politics, economic structure, education, media. Through surrender, spiritual energy comes into this world.
Unlike mind energy, it does not pollute the earth, and it not subject to the law of polarities, which dictates that nothing can exist without its opposite that there can be no good without bad. Those who run on mind energy, which is still the vast majority of Earth's population, remain unaware of the existence of spiritual energy. It belongs to a different order of reality and will create a different world when a sufficient number of humans enter the surrendered state and so become totally free of negativity. If the Earth is to survive, this will be the energy of those who inhabit it.
Jesus referred to this energy when he made his famous prophetic statement in the Sermon of the Mount: "Blessed are the gentle; they shall have the earth for their possession."
It is a silent but intense presence that dissolves the unconscious patterns of the mind. The external conditions that were being resisted also tend to shift or dissolve quickly through surrender. It is a powerful transformer of situations and people. If conditions don't shift immediately, your acceptance of the Now enables you to rise above them. Either way, you are free.
~ From the Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
# Further:
* What does Surrender Mean - teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
* Surrender Works
* Eckhart Tolle
* Cancer as Unresolved Complaint via Surrender Works
* The Flavor of Surrender via Surrender Works
* Progression of Surrender - Wisdom of Upanishad
* What is Surrender? via Spiritual Awakening
* Surrendering in a Lovely Chess Game (Poem by Hafiz)
* Veiled Secret of Surrender (Poem by Sadiq)
* Zen Way of Love and Surrender
* Mary a Receptive Soul in Loving Surrender - teachings of Reshad Feild
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