Acceptance of all as it is right this moment
is not the same as giving up or getting stuck.
It's a method of finding your sea legs
amidst the ever changing elements of life.
To desist in struggling against what is
(as if it should not be happening)
uplinks your small intelligence
with a vast universal intelligence.
That's how to be the most available
to have good come through you.
From the perspective of a seemingly separate individual
there is no way to perceive what is for highest good of all,
no matter how hard you try to figure that out in your mind.
But if you take the plunge and join with the all
by accepting everything right now as it is
(which can feel like surrendering into not-knowing)
you'll find that you are able to play your small part perfectly,
relieved of the illusion of being the fixer, the healer, the judge.
Paradoxically, by operating from this surrendered perspective
what appears to come through you
may heal more than you ever could have planned or imagined.
~
There have been moments of revelation when my head tipped back and my mouth opened into a Cheshire Cat grin and a belly laugh cavorted out through these lips in a spontaneous expression of joy and relief, realizing how much easier it is to not be mentally bound up in trying to control life. Suddenly I am simply "being lived through", there is no effort, just a wide open, surrendered, yet vitally alive feeling in the middle.
In order to grow up and be mature and successful in this world, we are taught to develop self will, self control, self discipline. This is important in order to develop an interior consistency, a unified operating system on the micro level. Independent initiative and goal setting is not a bad thing. But being able to call the shots is not the ultimate freedom. There is a radically different freedom that is only found through surrender and acceptance. Acceptance of all as it is, and most specifically, all of yourself as you are.
Sooner or later one will realize that no amount of effort to improve oneself or the world results in enduring security, success, or satisfaction. Whatever has been shored up will spring a leak, whatever assumptions have been made there will be unexpected changes, whatever roles have been established there will be alterations. Plans will change, people will change, no program is set in stone. One comes to see the endlessness of the improvement game.
With the relinquishment of trying to improve anyone or anything or any aspect of the self you appear to be, there can be access to a still point in which a deep alignment with everything and everyone takes place. I'm not saying this is easy or comfortable to get there. Getting to that may entail facing every bit of resistance your small self can muster. It may feel temporarily boring to stop trying to become anything. It may feel downright scary–as if, by stopping, you are laying yourself bare to be caught up with by something unknown and frightening which you have been trying to outrun. There is a hunch that if you stop planning and trying and scheming and dreaming that you may die.
Practicing acceptance and surrender into the present moment is given a lot of lip service as a "good thing", a spiritual thing, but in fact it can feel sort of like dying. Not in a dramatic way, more of a death into the ordinary. The mind scrambles to find more than "Oh. Just this." If any aspect of you resists, there will still be tension. It may feel as if you had been trying hard to get "home" but are now abandoning the journey, therefor risking the possibility of never reaching some better life that you were meant to live. But as more aspects of your seemingly separate self take the risk to surrender, the tipping point may come when the release of personal control is felt as true freedom.
When you are not bound up in being busy trying to attain anything or become anything (especially some preconceived idea of what "better" looks like), then you are releasing the breaks and going into neutral. Be open to being surprised. Life has a way of meeting you perfectly exactly where you are. When you are not trying to be any more than you are in this moment, not trying to compensate, not trying to bargain with life or anyone in particular, not fearfully struggling to improve anything in the world, then life can meet you perfectly in this moment as you are, and there will be no gap of disconnection, no disjunct between your little self and everything else. It's all one flow, and your part is clear because it is just this, now, completely whole.
Experiencing that is not the same thing as making the mark, attaining the goal, winning the game, or getting anything in particular under your control. In fact, part of the relief is the absence of all of that mattering. It has nothing to do with arriving into any sort of permanent arrangement, with nailing down stability in a career or relationship. But there is vitality, and flow, a sense of celebration, and possibly the feeling of being deeply penetrated and enfolded by love. You may suddenly find that things once out of reach are now given onto you, equal to or better than your most special secret dreams. New horizons of possibility open up unexpectedly. And the darnedest thing is, the way you feel inside may be more "at home" with yourself and in the world than ever before.
Acceptance of all as it is right this moment
is not the same as giving up or getting stuck.
It's a method of finding your sea legs
It's a method of finding your sea legs
amidst the ever changing elements of life.
To desist in struggling against what is
(as if it should not be happening)
uplinks your small intelligence
with a vast universal intelligence.
That's how to be the most available
to have good come through you.
From the perspective of a seemingly separate individual
there is no way to perceive what is for highest good of all,
no matter how hard you try to figure that out in your mind.
But if you take the plunge and join with the all
by accepting everything right now as it is
(which can feel like surrendering into not-knowing)
you'll find that you are able to play your small part perfectly,
relieved of the illusion of being the fixer, the healer, the judge.
Paradoxically, by operating from this surrendered perspective
what appears to come through you
may heal more than you ever could have planned or imagined.
~
There have been moments of revelation when my head tipped back and my mouth opened into a Cheshire Cat grin and a belly laugh cavorted out through these lips in a spontaneous expression of joy and relief, realizing how much easier it is to not be mentally bound up in trying to control life. Suddenly I am simply "being lived through", there is no effort, just a wide open, surrendered, yet vitally alive feeling in the middle.
In order to grow up and be mature and successful in this world, we are taught to develop self will, self control, self discipline. This is important in order to develop an interior consistency, a unified operating system on the micro level. Independent initiative and goal setting is not a bad thing. But being able to call the shots is not the ultimate freedom. There is a radically different freedom that is only found through surrender and acceptance. Acceptance of all as it is, and most specifically, all of yourself as you are.
Sooner or later one will realize that no amount of effort to improve oneself or the world results in enduring security, success, or satisfaction. Whatever has been shored up will spring a leak, whatever assumptions have been made there will be unexpected changes, whatever roles have been established there will be alterations. Plans will change, people will change, no program is set in stone. One comes to see the endlessness of the improvement game.
With the relinquishment of trying to improve anyone or anything or any aspect of the self you appear to be, there can be access to a still point in which a deep alignment with everything and everyone takes place. I'm not saying this is easy or comfortable to get there. Getting to that may entail facing every bit of resistance your small self can muster. It may feel temporarily boring to stop trying to become anything. It may feel downright scary–as if, by stopping, you are laying yourself bare to be caught up with by something unknown and frightening which you have been trying to outrun. There is a hunch that if you stop planning and trying and scheming and dreaming that you may die.
Practicing acceptance and surrender into the present moment is given a lot of lip service as a "good thing", a spiritual thing, but in fact it can feel sort of like dying. Not in a dramatic way, more of a death into the ordinary. The mind scrambles to find more than "Oh. Just this." If any aspect of you resists, there will still be tension. It may feel as if you had been trying hard to get "home" but are now abandoning the journey, therefor risking the possibility of never reaching some better life that you were meant to live. But as more aspects of your seemingly separate self take the risk to surrender, the tipping point may come when the release of personal control is felt as true freedom.
When you are not bound up in being busy trying to attain anything or become anything (especially some preconceived idea of what "better" looks like), then you are releasing the breaks and going into neutral. Be open to being surprised. Life has a way of meeting you perfectly exactly where you are. When you are not trying to be any more than you are in this moment, not trying to compensate, not trying to bargain with life or anyone in particular, not fearfully struggling to improve anything in the world, then life can meet you perfectly in this moment as you are, and there will be no gap of disconnection, no disjunct between your little self and everything else. It's all one flow, and your part is clear because it is just this, now, completely whole.
Experiencing that is not the same thing as making the mark, attaining the goal, winning the game, or getting anything in particular under your control. In fact, part of the relief is the absence of all of that mattering. It has nothing to do with arriving into any sort of permanent arrangement, with nailing down stability in a career or relationship. But there is vitality, and flow, a sense of celebration, and possibly the feeling of being deeply penetrated and enfolded by love. You may suddenly find that things once out of reach are now given onto you, equal to or better than your most special secret dreams. New horizons of possibility open up unexpectedly. And the darnedest thing is, the way you feel inside may be more "at home" with yourself and in the world than ever before.
In order to grow up and be mature and successful in this world, we are taught to develop self will, self control, self discipline. This is important in order to develop an interior consistency, a unified operating system on the micro level. Independent initiative and goal setting is not a bad thing. But being able to call the shots is not the ultimate freedom. There is a radically different freedom that is only found through surrender and acceptance. Acceptance of all as it is, and most specifically, all of yourself as you are.
Sooner or later one will realize that no amount of effort to improve oneself or the world results in enduring security, success, or satisfaction. Whatever has been shored up will spring a leak, whatever assumptions have been made there will be unexpected changes, whatever roles have been established there will be alterations. Plans will change, people will change, no program is set in stone. One comes to see the endlessness of the improvement game.
With the relinquishment of trying to improve anyone or anything or any aspect of the self you appear to be, there can be access to a still point in which a deep alignment with everything and everyone takes place. I'm not saying this is easy or comfortable to get there. Getting to that may entail facing every bit of resistance your small self can muster. It may feel temporarily boring to stop trying to become anything. It may feel downright scary–as if, by stopping, you are laying yourself bare to be caught up with by something unknown and frightening which you have been trying to outrun. There is a hunch that if you stop planning and trying and scheming and dreaming that you may die.
Practicing acceptance and surrender into the present moment is given a lot of lip service as a "good thing", a spiritual thing, but in fact it can feel sort of like dying. Not in a dramatic way, more of a death into the ordinary. The mind scrambles to find more than "Oh. Just this." If any aspect of you resists, there will still be tension. It may feel as if you had been trying hard to get "home" but are now abandoning the journey, therefor risking the possibility of never reaching some better life that you were meant to live. But as more aspects of your seemingly separate self take the risk to surrender, the tipping point may come when the release of personal control is felt as true freedom.
When you are not bound up in being busy trying to attain anything or become anything (especially some preconceived idea of what "better" looks like), then you are releasing the breaks and going into neutral. Be open to being surprised. Life has a way of meeting you perfectly exactly where you are. When you are not trying to be any more than you are in this moment, not trying to compensate, not trying to bargain with life or anyone in particular, not fearfully struggling to improve anything in the world, then life can meet you perfectly in this moment as you are, and there will be no gap of disconnection, no disjunct between your little self and everything else. It's all one flow, and your part is clear because it is just this, now, completely whole.
Experiencing that is not the same thing as making the mark, attaining the goal, winning the game, or getting anything in particular under your control. In fact, part of the relief is the absence of all of that mattering. It has nothing to do with arriving into any sort of permanent arrangement, with nailing down stability in a career or relationship. But there is vitality, and flow, a sense of celebration, and possibly the feeling of being deeply penetrated and enfolded by love. You may suddenly find that things once out of reach are now given onto you, equal to or better than your most special secret dreams. New horizons of possibility open up unexpectedly. And the darnedest thing is, the way you feel inside may be more "at home" with yourself and in the world than ever before.
No comments:
Post a Comment