“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. The past is closed and limited, the future is open and free.”
~ Dr. Deepak Chopra
Happy Friday everyone! Well, it appears that my little rain dance and prayers were answered overnight, as we got close to an inch of rain in some heavy, passing showers. So thank you God, I see you up there in that light.
I thought, boy, if only all my other prayers could be that easily answered !?!? Of course I can’t help but notice that my prayer for water was pretty self serving LOL …. But, I know the trees, and the birds and iguanas who reside in them, really needed the rain too! It’s said that Prayer is me talking to God. Meditation is allowing God to talk to me. Should I be doing both?
This got me to thinking about what it really means to surrender ourselves to the divine spirit. In talking about the Yamas and Niyamas, the practice of Ishvara Pranidhana literally means to “lay all of our actions at the feet of God”.
And I was thinking a bit further about that wonderful movie “Seven Days in Utopia” and the final lesson of SFT: Seeing, feeling, and trusting in the Divine, and what my Epitaph might say. I’m not sure that I want to go down simply known as “Victoria was a Vegan” or “Smart and Spiritual”.
What does it mean to live a life of God’s purpose, to surrender??
I decided to check out what the Google Gurus had to say.
From a Christian perspective, it’s said that surrendering to God “is to become Christ-like, and to live life with the courage, compassion, power and principles of Jesus.”
I liked this passage from the Bible:
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
~ Corinthians 6:19-20
Of course this passage ties in nicely with yoga philosophy, that going inward is the path to “the holy spirit”.
Yogi Alex Marcoux writes: “Surrendering is a pivotal part of our journey. At some point we have a choice, we can keep status quo, which certainly is the easier option or we can surrender. While status quo is easier, the rewards of surrendering make the journey worthwhile. When we surrender we trust and live the higher vision that Spirit has for each of us. In other words – when we surrender we live purposefully.”
“To surrender, you let go or release something that is very precious to you. What are you releasing? You are letting go of the ego. When doing so, you concurrently remember the divinity within. That’s right, you remember who you truly are and that you are absolutely divine and there is no separation between yourself and Spirit. Before you came to be in your present form, you knew Truth. One of your soul’s purposes is to remember who you truly are while living in this human dimension. To remember God is – therefore I AM.”
I then wondered what the great Deepak Chopra had to say on the matter of Surrender. Deepak writes:
In practical terms surrender means letting go. Although you don’t realize it, reality isn’t a given. Each of us inhabits a separate reality. Your mind maintains your personal version of reality by buttressing it with beliefs, expectations, and interpretations.
Your mind blocks the free flow of the life force by saying, “This is how things must and should be.” Letting go releases you from the insistent grip, and when you let go, new forms of reality can enter.
You only have to take a ride on a roller coaster to see who gets more enjoyment out of the experience, those who clutch tight with white knuckles and clenched jaws or those who let go and allow themselves to be carried up and down without resistance.
Letting go is a process. You have to know when to apply it, what to let go of, and how to let go. Your mind is not going to show you any of these things; worst still, your ego is going to try to prevent you from making progress since it believes that you have to hold on in order to survive. Your only ally in letting go is spirit, which sees reality as a whole and therefore has no need to create partial realities based on limitation.
Reactions result in a closed set of options: Awareness results in an open set of options.
The critical times to let go are when you feel the strongest urge not to. We all hold on tightest when our fear, anger, pride, and distrust take over. Yet these forces have no spiritual validity. At those moments when you are afraid, angry, stubborn, or mistrustful, you are in the grip of unreality. Your ego is forcing you to react from the past, blinding you to new possibilities here and now.
Instead of saying “I have to have my way,” say to yourself, “I don’t know everything. I can accept an outcome I can’t see right now.”
Spirit has a good outcome for any situation, if you can open yourself to it!
Today, let’s let go of the white knuckles we have on life. I like this idea of living the roller coaster of life with hands up, open to where ever the divine might lead me ❤
