Surrender

Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

If we only held on to the thoughts about the positive things in our lives that would be one thing. However, we hold on to the most miserable and frivolous thoughts as well. We believe that if we gave them up, that we would be lost and would have no identity.

Only by surrendering our thoughts and beliefs will we find ourselves. We believe that any role that we play is better than not having one. We love being the victim and telling everyone about our illnesses or the injustices that were done to us. We love bragging about our accomplishments and possessions in order to cover up our feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy.

If we find the courage to surrender all of our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, we will find peace. We will not be lost if we give them up. We will be found.

Let's give up what we think we know and surrender to the divine unknown.

Gratitude

Qamea, Fiji

We are happy when "good" things happen to us, and angry or sad when "bad" things happen to us. In reality, we do not have enough information to determine what is "bad" and what is "good."

Often we look back on obstacles and disappointments and realize that we were better off from having gone through it. When we are fired from our job, we will often find a more suitable position. When our relationship does not work out, we often find someone who makes us happier.

Since we do not have knowledge of the "big picture," we should treat every event that happens to us with gratitude. When we realize that everything is a gift, we let go of the ups and downs that make us victims of our circumstances. By being grateful for everything, we become masters of our lives. We also will find that when we let go of our judgments and assumptions about events, things begin to flow more harmoniously. By not being buffeted by the winds of fortune, fortune smiles on us.

However, if we are grateful in order to receive the things that we think we want, it will only reinforce our feelings of lack. What we put out is what we receive. This is the law of prosperity and the law of karma.

If we would be grateful for just one day for everything that happens to us regardless of whether we believe the circumstances are "good" or "bad," everything will change. For example, instead of being frustrated or angry when we miss a traffic light, we can be grateful that we have a moment to practice presence. If a family member is ill, we could become despondent, or we could be grateful for all that we have learned from this person and thankful to be able to spend whatever time is left with them. If we lose our job, we could become fearful of what will happen to us, or we could be grateful for the opportunity to surrender our fears, appreciate the time that we have for ourselves, and look forward to obtaining a more meaningful job.

Let's be grateful for everything in our lives.

Fear

Qamea, Fiji

The opposite of love is fear. Our fear comes from thoughts of the past which we have repressed and avoided looking at, thoughts of regret for things that we have done in the past or that have happened to us, and anxiety about what might happen in the future.

Unless we are being chased by a bear, there is no fear in Present Awareness. By surrendering our thoughts and bringing our attention to the present, our fear dissipates and we are in harmony with the peace, love and joy of infinite universal energy, which is available to us at any time.

The vast majority of our thoughts do not serve us. They only cause us stress, anxiety and frustration. The pull of compulsive thinking is strong, but its power will lessen the more we maintain our focus on the present. If we are disciplined in keeping our focus on the present, we can reverse the polarity of our being and remain present as our default setting.

Let's surrender our thoughts and keep our awareness on the present moment.

Complaining

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

I finally understood why the pull of compulsive thinking so strongly pulls us away from being in Present Awareness when I read the following passage from Eckhart Tolle's A NEW EARTH.

"In most cases, when you say 'I' it is the ego speaking, not you. It consists of thought and emotion, of a bundle of memories you identify with as 'me and my story,' of habitual roles you play without knowing it, of collective identifications such as nationality, religion, race, social class, or political allegiance. It also contains personal identifications, not only with possessions, but also with opinions, external appearance, long-standing resentments, or concepts of yourself as better than or not as good as others, as a success or failure.

Egos only differ on the surface. Deep down they are all the same. In what way are they the same? They live on identification and separation. When you live through the mind-made self comprised of thought and emotion that is the ego, the basis for your identity is precarious because thought and emotion are by their very nature ephemeral, fleeting. So every ego is continuously struggling for survival, trying to protect and enlarge itself. To uphold the I-thought, it needs the opposite thought of 'the other.' The conceptual 'I' cannot survive without the conceptual 'other.' The others are most other when I see them as my enemies. At one end of the scale of this unconscious egoic pattern lies the egooic compulsive habit of faultfinding and complaining about others...Because when I criticize or condemn another, it makes me feel bigger, superior.

Complaining is one of the ego's favorite strategies for strengthening itself...Applying negative mental labels to people, either to their face or more commonly when you speak about them to others or even just think about them, is often part of this pattern.

Nonreaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego...When you realize it's not personal, there is no longer a compulsion to react as if it were. By not reacting to the ego, you will often be able to bring out the sanity in others, which is the unconditioned consciousness as opposed to the conditioned."

Consciousness

Maggie and Penny, Buffalo Lodge, Coromandel, New Zealand

We are justifiably outraged when we hear about a dog or cat being tortured, abused or neglected. However we are silent and indifferent to the suffering of animals that are raised for our food. 99% of the meat that we eat is sliced from animals which have only known suffering and torment their entire lives before they are killed in an agonizing and painful death.

We are nourishing ourselves with the tortured and tormented flesh of sentient beings. Beings who love their offspring, and have a depth of feeling which we refuse to bring to our awareness.

Heart disease is by far the number one killer of human beings. The difference in incidents of heart disease between meat eaters and vegans is 1000%. Our addiction to meat is literally killing us.

Let's be conscious of everything we do, everything we say and everything we eat.

Love

Merino sheep, Glenorchy, New Zealand

I have written in these pages that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. The opposite of love is also judgment. Judgment clouds our ability to love and to be loved. The opposite of judgment is also God. God is divine presence without judgment. All of the wars that have been fought have been fought because of judgment. Judgment makes us blind to seeing things as they really are. We think that our judgments reflect reality, but they are an illusion, based on false assumptions and flawed beliefs.

Let's surrender our judgment and experience the Divine love, wisdom and peace that is what we already are.

Courage

Dylan

Once we become aware of our thoughts and begin to surrender our beliefs, painful memories which we have been repressing will start to emerge into our consciousness. It takes courage to observe these thoughts without slipping back into unconsciousness and becoming lost in compulsive thinking.

The painful memories have a strong emotional charge, so we must remain vigilant and bring our attention to them without judgment of any kind. The emotional pull of painful memories will begin to lessen the more we bring the light of attention to them. As the emotional pull lessens, it will become easier to remain present.

It also takes courage to surrender the beliefs which have been programmed into us for our entire lives. We take great comfort in the beliefs which we share with our parents, our friends and our other social groups. We are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of what we will be without the safety of our belief structures. There is, of course, nothing to fear. Once we take the leap of surrendering, we will be comforted by the joy of Awareness.

Let's have the courage to surrender our beliefs, and the courage to observe our thoughts, because we know that nothing in our thoughts can harm us.