On Surrender
Housekeeping Notes:
I’m pleased to see more activity from Germany. Welcome.
We’ll continue with our Pick a World series in the next few days, but this arose today, so here it is.
On Surrender
Think of Big Mind—there is just a single mind, of course—as a glass of river water. (There are manybrains, or little minds, located within many apparently separate bodies, but Mind is singular, and is located, so to speak, outside of the body.)
So, we have our glass of river water, which is at one moment viewed as clear and at another time seen as cloudy; sometimes pure, sometimes dirty. Mind itself is always clear, but sometimes brain isfocusing on the mud, and at other times it is focusing on the water.
We do our practices, we read a book, we go to satsang, or have an exciting conversation, but somehowwe get a lightning bolt of grace: CRACKABOOM! Something happens. Suddenly, out of absolutely No-where, (and No-when!) there arises a greater clarity.
The water has not changed. It’s still river water, with a given content of sediment. The mud has not changed, it’s still river mud, surrounded by water. But now each is seen to be what it is, as it is, and each is seen to have its place. Thank goodness for the sediment! Ultimately, river water has the potential to be more interesting than just water or mud alone, don’t you think? Without river water, without water and mud, without yin and yang, there can be no river. We would be left only with pure spaciousness, which is fine, just fine, but still we would be missing a lot, don’t you think?
We would, in fact, be missing exactly This.
In Buddhism, as you know, the lotus is a big symbol. We’ll borrow it
The lotus is a beautiful flower that is rooted in mud, passes through ever-clearing water, and finally lies on the surface of the pond, passively, beautifully reflecting pure sunlight. Our ultimate practice in Life, if it could be said to be a practice at all, is to allow a lotus to grow right where we now stand. That’s our job. This can only happen in our absence. Personal absence is achieved through a continuing willingness to surrender right now, even to this thing, especially to this thing, this very thing right in front of us, this thing that is screaming at our brains that it shouldn’t be!
There are no exceptions in the surrender game. Brain is always searching for the exception. That’s its job. Let it do its job, but don’t pay it too much attention. Don’t spend a lot of time with it. Brain is like a flower without sun. Don’t pay it much attention and it will wither on its own; we don’t have to do anything to make it happen. In fact, we can’t do anything to make it happen. In that movement, we would not be absent, do you see?
Trying to ignore brain is in fact paying it attention. Let brain do its job, but don’t take the results of its job too seriously.
Big Mind is surrender.
Big Mind makes no exceptions; it is all-inclusive, perfectly accepting of everything just as it is. If I am finding an exception, I am living from brain, not Mind. This is a good pointer for me to use to notice if I’m presently being myself or my Self.
It takes no effort to simply reflect. None at all. If I am efforting, I am not reflecting; this is a good pointer for me to use to notice if I’m presently being myself or my Self.
There is no suffering in simply reflecting. None at all. If am suffering, I am not reflecting; this is another good pointer for me to use to notice if I’m presently being myself or my Self.
You are already awake over there. You are Awakeness Itself!
You are awake, always have been, always will be; you can’t not be awake! Over there, as the reader, you may not yet recognize what is already present. Over here, as the Writer, through the typist, it is seen.
There is no difference in our actual reality, but there is a difference in our perceived reality, and thus in our experienced, make-believe, personal worlds.
There is just Life. You are that Life. When you feel deeply connected to your Self, there is indeed deep connectivity. When you do not feel deeply connected to your Self, there is still deep connectivity. There is just One, just this very Not-two you are standing in right now, holding the spot for the lotus-to-come.
Your flowering is already happening.
I will help you to grow your lotus. After all, that’s why You sent me.
