Surrender Series Part II

This is the second session in the Surrender Series. This episode builds on our first episode in this special series, "Let Go and Let God," which dives into trust, the foundation of true surrender. You are invited to learn to deeply let go, and experience the freedom that certainly follows.
Come back to your natural state of profound peace and joy.

Transcript

Welcome to the Surrender Series Part 2. How do we deeply let go? What is surrender? How to allow ourselves to experience total surrender and complete letting go and freedom from anything that binds us, That weighs on us. How can we clear and cleanse our minds and hearts and live in this world in a space of love, Of divinity, And of freedom. This is Arielle Hecht. Welcome, Welcome. I'm joined by Michael McIntosh. And today we're going to do a recap of the first part of this series and then we'll go deeper. Thank you for your beautiful presence. It's such a deep thing to let go. Surrender. We actually sent out a survey to all of our students and asked them about what they wanted. And we were surprised actually to find out that letting go and surrender was the most popular thing that they wanted more than any other thing. Because we live in a world where there's so many crazy things happening right now and it leads to a lot of emotional distress and a lot of thoughts and worries and confusion and that's a very unpleasant state to be in because our natural state is profound peace and infinite joy. And if we're not feeling that it's because we are caught up in these various negative emotions. So the more we understand how this whole thing works and how we can let go of all those negative feelings and how we can come back to our original state the better it is. So to recap from the first episode in this series. We first talked about something that we called a pre-step. However, It's really the foundation of surrender. And this first step is about trust. If you think about falling backwards. If there's someone behind you who you trust to catch you, To hold you, You'll let go. You can fall backwards. But if there's no one behind you or if there's someone behind you who you don't trust, You're probably not going to really be able to let go and fall backwards. So it's like this with letting go and surrender that first of all we want to intend and have the will to develop and experience such a deep and profound trust in life. The perfection of life, Divinity unfolding at every single moment. No accidents, No mistakes. Just deep and profound learning for the soul at every step. This feeling that life has your back. And this trust in life, It's linked. Trust in yourself. Trust in God the Divine. Trust in others. And for many of us, Or should I say most of us, That trust was broken at some point along the way. Who knows when it started for each of us, But most likely at the current state and stage we're in in the world and the cycle of life for most everyone that trust has been broken. It's been, It's fallen apart perhaps. And so this first step is to deepen in your trust. Wherever you are on that journey, Whether you really don't feel you can say I trust, That makes you feel very uncomfortable. Or if you've done some work with this or perhaps you had a really good solid upbringing and it's fairly comfortable. Or perhaps you're there and you trust. So regardless of where you are on that journey, Continuing to deepen in this sense of trust is really the foundation that allows us the space to really let go, To really surrender, To really experience that release. Falling back into the arms of life. I had this thought in my mind recently I shared with some people. Fall into God's arms and stay there. Fall into God's arms and stay there. So that trust. It's a beautiful thing. And this of course can be a whole series by itself because it's a very profound thing. Really what we are, The essence of what we're sharing here is we're trusting that life is benevolent and trying to help us. We're not necessarily trusting that there's not going to be any issues or pain because that's not what we're talking about. Sometimes people take this the wrong way and think I trust that everything is going to be pain free and without any drama. That's not real. That's not reality. We're saying that the things that are in our life right now and were in our life before and will become part of our life going forward are in one way or another beneficial for us. And the big shift here is to begin to recognize and listen carefully to the signs of life. Because the sooner we get the message from life the more we will develop that trust. If we don't get the message, For example let's say you're having conversations with people or you're doing things and the message is just not getting in. Then typically things will carry on getting worse until the message has been properly understood. And it often takes a long time for that message to go in and there are different messages for different people. Oftentimes you might be in a situation where you're having a literally completely opposite message from the other person. So it's not that there's one message for everyone. There's different messages for you, Different messages for somebody else. Even if you're all in the same place at the same time doing the same thing. So what we're saying is there's trust that what is happening at every single moment in one way or another has significance, Has hidden secrets within it. And our job as spiritual beings is to be humble and be willing to decode those messages. And when we do we will get a huge amount of benefit from it. And with this trust life is benevolent. There's also the embrace of and owning of one's personal responsibility on another level to learn, To rise to what life is asking of you, To grow, To transcend. So it also isn't just that we just trust in life and do whatever we want and kind of flail about in the ocean, The sea of the field of action unconsciously. Not that kind of reckless, Careless trust. But it's a holy trust. It's a trust that has sanctity, Has honoring, Has respect, Has reverence for life and the messages life is teaching us and has respect for ourself, All of those around us and for God. And from that place there's we can also say you're making progress, You're making spiritual endeavor alongside this total trust in life. So this is the essence underneath everything. And one of the things that is absolutely essential for us to practice surrender is to be able to come away from our usual state of consciousness and our usual perceptions and our usual ways of going about doing things and thinking things and our belief systems. We're often trying really hard to let go but we're doing it from a place that is fundamentally stuck. Stuck in the past, Stuck in our opinion. So it's kind of like standing in a bucket trying to move around but you're in the bucket. You need to get out of the bucket first then you can move the bucket. And a lot of times spiritual practice is done standing in a bucket. Not in the right place to actually have the freedom to move around easily. That's why one of the deepest things we can do is to imagine being dead. And the reason for this is because we don't realize how much attachment we have to everything until you look at yourself from the outside. The key benefit of spiritual practice and personal growth is to be able to watch ourselves, The person in this world, Whatever you look like in the mirror, To be able to watch yourself as if you're watching some other person. This is very very high level awareness. The difference between spiritually minded conscious people and what we might call not especially conscious people is spiritually minded people have the capacity to look at themselves from a detached place. Realize that they're not the thing that they thought they were, This body, This situation. And then look back and go, Hmm, This person has various things that could be refined. If we're stuck in ourselves and we're stuck in our ego and we're stuck in our stuff we won't be able to see that perspective and that's why it sometimes can be difficult to make any progress. So this is a powerful awareness and it ties in with in the first episode of the series. After that pre-step, That foundation, We talked about step one, Have the intention to surrender. You can have the intention even if you're not there yet to be the witness of your personality and body and mind. To have the intention and then to the second step to move into the thoughts to align the mind with surrender. So you might have thoughts that align with your intention of letting go and surrender. I know Michael sometimes leaves notes on his bathroom mirror or you can write it or you can put it in a journal and he creates t-shirts with these reminders for himself. So you want to align your thoughts with it, The literal thought that you're having in your mind, What you're actually saying in your mind. Aligns with this intention of surrender. I let go. I release control. I surrender. I trust. It's all yours. It's all in God's hands. I let go. I trust. Whatever your languages that works for you. And then the third step was to really move into the feeling of surrender, The feeling of releasing the pressure valve of the pressure inside and letting it all drain out like from a balloon. You're releasing pressure. You're releasing the weight on your shoulders. You're releasing the burden from your mind. You're literally going into that feeling state with your foundation of trust, With your intention, With your thought. You're going into that feeling in your body and the feeling in your mind of relief, Of letting go, Deep sigh. So that was the first, The first series, The first episode. Yes. We need to hear these things. We need to hear these things again and again, Because knowing is a wonderful introductory step. And then the next thing is practicing. And then after that is embodying. So let's take a little practice to actually do this. We go to a surrender group and we have a book that talks about this as well. And what I do in my practice personally, And I'll share this with you now, Is to use the breath because the breath is a wonderful thing because as long as we're alive in our physical body, We will breathe. And there's a, There's a wonderful quote, Remembrance at every breath, Have remembrance at every breath. So we can use the breath and what we can do, It's a beautiful practice, Is when you breathe in, Imagine yourself filling up with spiritual energy, Beautiful good vibrations as you breathe in. And when you breathe out, You imagine dying and letting everything go completely. And the reason we say dying is because it is the most clear-cut way of totally letting go of everything completely. Then there's nothing else. If I'm sitting here saying, I'm alive in this body and I'm trying to like let go of this one thing and then there's these 500 other things and I'm trying to figure out why I should let go of and it's too complicated. If you imagine letting everything go completely and you've got no choice, Just like when you go up in a plane, If you've ever experienced this, It happens to us pretty much every time we go traveling, We're like, All right, Let's make sure everything's packed properly, Let's make sure it's all good, We've got to get it all ready, Get in the car. And then we drive to the airport, We get a taxi or whatever. And then finally you check in your bags and you go through security. And once you're through security and you're on the plane, There's nothing you can do. If you've forgotten something, There's nothing you can do about it. You can't get anything out of your bags that have been put in the bottom of the plane. You can't easily get your stuff in the overhead compartment either. You just have to sit there in your seat and look at the sky, Look at the beautiful clouds and all the tiny little cars and houses and things. It's a wonderful experience. And totally trust the pilot, You know, It's like so symbolic. You're just hell, Totally trust God, The pilot, Like it's all good. You're just on the ride and here we are. You're completely let go. I mean, It's in the hands of someone else and you just literally have to sit there and enjoy. So that's really what we're doing with Surrender. We're breathing in that wonderful light and then we're letting go of everything. And this is really an essential practice to completely let go of absolutely everything in a second. This is going to be the greatest and most valuable practice you've ever done in your life at the end of your life. Because there's going to be crazy things happening in this world which we are all aware of. It's already coming. Nature is out of control and it's going to get more and more crazy. There's all sorts of crazy things on the way. Because as is the state of consciousness of human beings, So is the manifestation of that consciousness. And when you tune into what is going on inside people nowadays, Then you get an idea of what the consequence of that is going to be in the future. So we don't have to worry about that. We just need to learn how to do these practices. So we breathe in the wonderful light so we're completely safe and secure and then we totally let go of everything as if you're flying up beyond and you haven't got anything to worry about and there's nothing you can do and it's all finished. And then you fill up again with that light and then you let go even more of absolutely everything. Your body, Your projects, Your goals, Your dreams, Your regrets, Everything completely, 100%. And then you fill up again with that light. So let's just practice this for one or two minutes and just notice how you start to feel lighter and more relief as you keep doing this. Breathing in that light and completely letting go like you're flying up, Up on a wave and you're totally free. With each moment, With each breath, Total surrender, Total letting go, Freedom, Peace, Bliss. And it's like wholesale letting go. You don't have to worry about each thing but just everything at once becoming angelic. This is another way of wording it, You're becoming angelic. An angel is free. Free from any pull, Any bondage of the physical world. So another way of saying dying really is actually awakening to eternal life, Ascending, Your ascension, Your awakening, Your angelic form. And you're awakening that in this world while you are literally still in your body. But your consciousness is ascending, Your consciousness is becoming light and free and divine. You are the soul. Your eternal nature is peaceful, Blissful, Loving, Free. You are divine and you are letting go into the arms of love, Into the arms of the one, Completely held. And so you can sink into those divine arms and sink into that deep silence, That deep silence you know in the core of your being. You are unlimited consciousness. Not in any way limited by your body, The part, The role you are playing on the field of action. You are silent being of peace who uses your body to act here on earth. Use your mind, You use your mouth to speak, Your ears to listen. So the body is a tool, A vehicle to bring forth the divinity of your spirit. And as you go beyond and stabilize in the consciousness of your spirit, You can say your higher self, Then you can bring that experience and this too is certainly the call of these times. Let go, Surrender, Awaken, Ascend. Perfect union with the one. And you bring that consciousness here all the way down to the ground. Completely light, Completely free, Just an instrument, Nothing is there. Renouncing even the fruit of action, Realizing I am not the doer, I am an instrument in this perfect symphony of life. And so you act completely free. I am an instrument, Nothing is mine, Nothing belongs to me. I only have the one supreme, The beloved, The divine, The source of love. So we can just let go, Let go, Let go. The more you practice this, It becomes quite apparent that whatever we have in this world is temporary and to think we own anything or anyone is delusional, Genuinely delusional. It's fascinating when you turn on the television and here's all these adverts for life insurance and getting these things and owning this and buying houses, It's delusional. By all means you can do things in the drama but nobody owns anything ever. He means the movie of life when he says the drama. The drama of life. It's such a funny situation. Spirituality really just means sanity, Sanity being saint, Being sensuous, Being real, Truth. And trying to sustain madness requires huge amounts of work, Pills and psychotherapy and the amount of things that are required to maintain the warped perspective that we own things and everything is stable and it's never going to change. But when we realize we're spiritual beings, We're stable internally but the rest of the world, The body is literally constantly changing every single moment, The body changes, The world is changing, The different systems of the world change, People are changing, Governments are changing, Money is changing, Technology is changing, Everything is changing all the time. Sometimes it's slower, Sometimes it's faster. We're in a period of extreme change nowadays, Everything is changing way too quickly for us to keep up with. So we can either get anxious about it and try and adjust to it which is very difficult to manage or we can practice these methods to come back to the stable ground of being real and come into accord with what is. So this is really a choice we make again and again. Am I going to come into a state of peace and freedom and let go? Imagine the reality is it could all disappear. Am I going to feel that I've already attained everything on a different level, On a higher level and act from there? Or am I going to run around trying to control everything in an uncontrollable world? And think all the time about everything and get stressed about it. What am I going to do? So the good news is that by talking about these things, By practicing these things, You're getting this other option which most people have never even heard of. I hope you realize that the things we're sharing, Things you know, Most people in the world have never heard of them. So that's one of the great benefits of doing these sorts of talks and calls and this is why it's useful for you to share with other people or let them know about these things, Let them know about these sessions because most people have never heard about this and can you imagine how much peace people would feel if they realized they don't have to grasp and control and hold on. Some people have never really felt deep peace in their whole life. This is like spiritual insurance Michael was talking about, Life insurance, But this consciousness, This awareness is the insurance. The insurance of your being, Being in your true state of peace, Of love, Of bliss in a way that nothing can touch you. You're held in God's arms and heart. So this is the real, The real insurance you can say. And if you hear that thunder our beloved Mother Earth is in agreement. This beautiful thunder and lightning going on here. And it's a wonderful thing actually to be in the house and outside there's thunder and lightning and rain and wind and we're all nice and cozy and safe in the house and that's a symbolic example of what happens on a spiritual level that the world might be thunder and lightning but we are safe in this sacred place, Spiritual consciousness. And the fascinating thing about this is the more we practice these things they start off as a nice idea, Oh that's interesting, And then we practice it and then we experience it and then what happens is it actually changes our perspective about life completely. Because when we realize that we don't have to run around after things to feel attainment, We don't necessarily have to fix things to feel attainment either because we already have that feeling. Then many, Many things that we do no longer make any sense. For example if you were to take let's say 100, 000 people, Let's say you got 100, 000 people together and you ask them what are you doing today and they told you what they're doing, Then you asked why are you doing those things? They would say well I'm doing this thing, I'm going to work or I'm doing this thing or I'm talking to this person or whatever it is so that I can get this other thing, I'm going to work so I can make money. If you said okay great why are you making money so I can buy this stuff or why do you want this stuff so that I can feel more relaxed or I'm buying this food so that I can feel comforted or I can feel healthy and why do you want to feel comforted and healthy so that I can finally be at peace? Or I'm buying this car, Why are you buying a really expensive car? Oh so that something something something and you keep asking the question why why why, At the end of it is always a state of consciousness. So when it comes down to it, Pretty much everything we do, The reason we're doing it is so that we feel a shift in our state of consciousness. So all this work, All this time, All this effort really is just to feel better. And when we practice these methods what happens is you can start to feel better, Feel all of those things today, Quickly. And when you feel that consistently that you naturally can come to that good feeling then all of these running around things that we do to feel better seem a bit ridiculous because we don't need to do all that stuff to feel good. So we already feel good and what happens is our whole life gets readjusted, Gets realigned that we already feel good now and then the question is more about how can I be of service to help others feel good as well? Not that I need to because I'm already feeling satisfied anyway, But from the heart, From a state of love, Compassion. And all those things that are tedious and pointless to try and feel good, They don't make any sense so we can let that go. So you end up with a lot more time and a lot more opportunity to do something different. A blessing and a gift. Definitely this time together has been this session on surrender. May you really receive it, The vibrations of surrender and letting go. Freedom, Bliss, Love, Peace and re-emerge this state of consciousness once again. And dwell in this perfect peace that comes from letting go and letting God. So thank you so much for your sacred presence, Your good vibrations. You are a special jewel that you are aware of these things and as you keep enjoying this consciousness, You'll notice life begins to feel very different to you. Peace and grace. Oceans of love, Many many blessings and Om Shanti. Thank you.

Reviews

A calming and grounding talk featuring a lovely meditation on the feelings of letting go. I loved the comparison of how we let go once we are in the air on an airplane. Overall great two part series. One that I will come back when I have extended amount of time to listen.

So grateful for this series 🙌🙏✨
angelic timing and powerful content