Surrender

Buffalo Road, Coromandel, New Zealand

1.  Our thoughts and beliefs are not true.
2.  We are not our thoughts and beliefs, even though we think we are.
3.  If we acknowledge and surrender our thoughts and beliefs to Universal Spirit, we will fulfill our life's purpose and experience peace, love and joy.

Let's surrender our will to God's will.

Awakening

Kamakura, Japan

In my view, there are four simple steps to awakening.  As Michael Beckwith says, it is simple, but it is not easy.

The first step is intention.  When we are so fed up with our misery that we cannot stand it any more, we look for a way out.  We are so incredibly frustrated with our lives that we think the Universe is out to get us. We are depressed, angry, neurotic and loathe ourselves and our lives.  To some, suicide is the solution.  Others discover a different way of being, one of love, peace and joy.

Sometimes, we see someone on television or meet someone who is enlightened and we desire to have the life force that they have.  Sometimes, we have a spontaneous transcendent experience.  We are briefly transported out of our miserable existence and feel euphoric and a feeling of oneness with others.  We think that if it can happen once, it could happen again, and we try to figure out how to bring back and prolong that divine experience.  To some, drugs introduce us to the euphoric feeling of oneness.  This can be a trap if we rely on drugs to experience that feeling.  Some wonder whether that same feeling can be obtained without drugs and are willing to try.

The second step is utilizing the many tools that are at our disposal which can lead us to awaken.  We can bring our attention to the present moment. We can choose to be loving instead of fearful.  We can give up our will to God's will.  We can meditate.  There are more incredible resources available to us than at any time in our history.  There are teachers, living and dead, books, websites, seminars, workshops, temples and churches (watch out for the dogma!), etc.  We should choose the path and resources which best resonate with us.

Once we begin utilizing the tools which we have chosen, it takes courage to face and acknowledge the long held beliefs and painful memories which rise to our consciousness when we are still.  The pull of compulsive thinking is very strong.  The groups we belong to will also exert strong pressure.  Our gender, religious, social and economic groups will begin to lose their power if people stop identifying with them.  Our parents, teachers, religious leaders, media figures, and friends will try to keep us in their belief systems because they believe that those systems keep them safe from the terrifying unknown.

We also need discipline to keep our attention on stillness and away from obsessive and compulsive thinking.  Our belief systems are like a magnet, constantly drawing us back to the thoughts which we believe keep us safe.  Also, it takes discipline to remain focused when there are so many distractions to keep us from the present moment.  Television, films, social media, games, shopping, gossiping with friends, etc. make it easy to distract ourselves.  The constant barrage of media can make it difficult to be alone, without distraction, in order to tune into the tiny voice of stillness.  It is well worth it.

Let's have the courage and the discipline to utilize the tools that are available to us to awaken now.

Acknowledge and Surrender

Church Bay, Waiheke Island, New Zealand

We cannot stop our thoughts.  However, we can stop identifying with them.  We can create a separation between ourselves and our thoughts by realizing that our thoughts are not us.  They arise from nothingness and disappear into nothingness.  As they arise, we acknowledge them without fear or judgment and surrender them to the Void.  We have the courage to look at our deeply buried thoughts as they arise dispassionately, without fear or judgment.  Meditation and stillness will slow our thoughts down so we can consciously see them.

Once we acknowledge our thoughts, they lose their power over us.  Unacknowledged thoughts and beliefs remain with us, tormenting us throughout our lives.  They are the cause of our frustration, our unhappiness,and our failure to live fulfilling lives.

We acknowledge our thoughts and beliefs and release them to the Universe.

The Instrument

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland


We are not inside our bodies.  Our bodies are within us.  Our bodies are our instruments for interacting with the material world.

We all know what it takes to keep our instruments in good working order:  whole organic foods (our fuel), clean water, pure air, and consistent exercise.  The most important factor in keeping our instruments working is eliminating stress.

Heart disease is the number one killer.  Stress (in very direct relation) causes heart disease as well as many other diseases.  It is also the major cause of our frustration and unhappiness.

Stress is caused by compulsive, unexamined thought.  The thoughts that cause stress usually consist of expectations of future events.  We fear something that we think will happen to us, or we are afraid that we will not receive something that we think we deserve or desire.

By eliminating expectations, we eliminate stress.  We eliminate expectations by surrendering our desires and bringing our attention, without judgment of any kind, to the present moment.

Our expectations of what we think we want pale in comparison to what we receive when we release our thoughts and allow Universal Spirit to guide us.  We are relaxed and stress free because we know that everything will unfold just as it should for the highest outcome for all concerned.

Let's allow reality to be just as it is.  

Courage

Onetangi Beach, Waiheke Island, New Zealand

We know how to awaken.  We have all the tools.  We have the teachings of all the masters, living and dead, at our disposable at any time.  We know what to do.  So, why is it so difficult?

It is difficult for two reasons.  First, we have built a protective wall around all of the memories of painful incidents we have experienced during our lives.  We have shielded ourselves from the pain.  When we bring our awareness to our thoughts, we are confronted with our subconscious thoughts and we are terrified to confront them.  Also, our thoughts and belief systems are the only existence that we know.  They are who we think we are.  If we surrender our thoughts and beliefs, we believe that we will cease to exist and we are afraid that there will be nothing (or worse) left.

Of course, we know that this is untrue.  However, it takes real courage to face our painful memories and take the leap of faith into the Unknown.  We will not do this alone.  When we take this leap of faith, there is something on the other side to catch us.  There is a Universal Intelligence which has been begging us to join it.  There is peace, love and joy on the other side.  There is nothing to fear.

Let's have the courage to surrender and leap into the Great Unknown.

Nature

Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan

Our true nature is peace, love and joy.  Our experience of our true nature is obscured by a veil that we have created.  The veil is our ego, our thoughts, our beliefs.  Our thoughts that we have had throughout our lives has created a system of beliefs that has hardened into a wall between ourselves and our true nature.

We do not have to search for love and happiness.  We only have to lift the veil and be who we really are.  We can lift the veil of hardened beliefs by surrendering our prejudices, thoughts, judgments and beliefs and turning our awareness to the present moment, the place between our thoughts.  Our thoughts will then recede into the background and we will be in harmony with our true selves, i.e., Universal Intelligence.

 Let's be one with our true nature by surrendering our thoughts and beliefs and being present.

Truth

Merino Sheep, Glenorchy, New Zealand


The main cause of our suffering is that we believe our thoughts are truth.  This is the fundamental lie of our existence.  It is not events in our lives that cause us unhappiness.  It is our thoughts about those events.  We believe that if things were different than they are, everything would be fine with us.  Nothing is wrong with reality.  Reality is perfect.  It is our perception of reality that causes our problems.

We experience freedom when we understand that we are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not true.  By creating a separation between our awareness and our thoughts, we can begin to question our thoughts.  By creating this separation, we can look at our thoughts, without judgment.  When we bring awareness to our thoughts, we understand that there is no connection between truth (i.e., reality or what is) and our thoughts.  We can then begin to stop taking our thoughts seriously, and look at our thoughts with amused detachment.  The grip that our thoughts and beliefs have over our lives and well being will start to loosen and eventually fall away altogether.

Once we understand that there is a difference between ourselves and our thoughts, everything will change.  The world will look different.  Our unhappiness will fade.  We will know peace, love and joy in our lives.

What we think and believe are lies.

Let's accept what is, just as it is.