Surrender

To most people, the word surrender means “giving up” and in general has a very negative connotation, mostly associated with defeat and failure.

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Jesus on the cross, symbolizing the deepest surrender.

But true surrender, on a spiritual level, is an extremely positive action that frees you from the shackles of mind made resistance to the situation, place or person you are experiencing. It is the failure and defeat of the limited mind and the victory of the unconditional, deepest self that you are at your essence.

Spiritual surrender fundamentally means completely embracing and thus transcending your limited sense of self and with that all resistance associated with it.

It is the complete and total acceptance of a situation, person, place or thing that is currently present either only in your mind as a thought or picture connected to an emotional response or as an actual physical event unfolding in front of you (which is of course also always associated with a mental and emotional response – the physical event holds no meaning on its own until the mind gives it meaning and resists it, which is then the main cause of suffering).


It has to be understood that surrender is primarily an internal phenomenon. You are surrendering all resistance to the situation. All the thoughts, pictures, emotions and sensations are embraced.

You are also only surrendering to what is here NOW, what you are experiencing in this moment. Whether it is anger, sadness, apathy, fear… connected with mental judgments and/or painful memories – that is what you let go your resistance to and by doing so integrating it, understanding it, dissolving it.

Ultimately, you must know that what you are surrendering to is always yourself.

When you surrender completely, right action will follow. Surrender in no way implies passivity (though of course in some situations, doing nothing is the best thing to do –  so while not implying it, it does not exclude it) – as you let go of any resistance to the situation, you will come to your true self, your deepest nature. In that place, you will have access to a deeper well of energy, knowing and intuition than was possible from the previous limited point of perception. You will know what to do, how to do it and you will have the energy to follow through with your plans. You will also gain access to a deeper level of understanding of the whole situation and your place in it – this will allow you to gain insight and knowledge that have previously been closed off.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, you will also find peace – the silent, deep peace of being itself. You will become like a tree rooted deep into the earth, as the storms of external events leave you unaffected.

It has to be said of course, that there are various levels of surrender. Your surrender can be very deep, or very light. The depth of your surrender will be related to the depth of peace you will experience, the amount of insight and knowledge you are able to obtain and the amount of energy you can regain.

Use surrender as part of your everyday life. Surrender to what is present in every moment of your experience, internally and externally. What you are fundamentally doing is letting go or surrendering resistance and embracing, accepting and allowing what is to be.

Once you can do that, inner peace will soon become your new home.

And with that change in your inner state, soon, the external world will shift as well.

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