Surrender

Thomas speaks about the inward gesture of surrendering. Surrender is the practice of being willing to be totally present in life as it is. And then allowing ourselves in whatever conditions are arising, whatever intelligence at that moment, to respond appropriately.

Transcript

You noticed during the Guided Meditation that there were instructions in different places to just surrender,

Right?

A really vivid image that I've gotten from the Zen tradition is opening the fist of understanding.

Understanding being like this movement of the mind that thinks it knows,

And when the mind knows,

There are no more possibilities available because it knows,

Right?

And they symbolize that with a gripping fist.

And so they use the language of opening the fist of understanding,

Opening the fist of the mind,

Right?

And so that same kind of gesture we were practicing over and over in this meditation,

You know,

Whether it's the body bracing,

You know,

We can relax the jaw,

You know,

Just kind of surrender that.

Or if we're working at the level of awareness itself,

You know,

You notice that attention just fixates on different experience.

You don't have to try and focus on something.

Awareness just focuses.

We're wired to just home in on different experiences in the environment,

In the world,

In the self,

Right?

But as you notice that gripping,

That seizing of awareness,

You also notice that there's this very subtle level of will where you can just let that go,

You know,

Just open that fist,

So to speak,

Right?

And so in the wisdom traditions,

You know,

They'll call this submission or they'll call it surrender.

There are a lot of different terms for it,

But it amounts to the same gesture of just letting go,

Right?

So I just wanted to read a little passage from a nice little book I came across recently.

This is for those readers out there.

This is Cynthia Bergeau called The Wisdom Way of Knowing.

So she's talking about,

You know,

Just day-to-day practice,

You know,

Like practicing not just on the cushion but in the world,

In life.

And,

You know,

She points out that Eckhart Tolle recommends that the best place to begin to practice surrender is while waiting in a grocery line.

And she comments,

There,

If you're alert,

You can already experience the basic configuration that comprises all surrender.

So this is really cool.

This is what relates to all of us right now and always right now.

She says,

A part of you that feels urgent,

Constrained,

Put upon.

And I might elaborate on that for a moment.

Just the part of you that's seeking is what she's saying.

You know,

We're so deeply wired at the level of personality,

At the level of self to try and improve this moment,

Right?

To try and make it a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better.

That's like the American way to make your life a little bit better,

A little bit better to the point that you're a billion dollars better.

It's kind of the calculus in our culture,

Right?

So,

You know,

There's that part of you that feels urgent,

Constrained,

Put upon.

The part of you that's seeking,

That's not okay with this moment,

That needs a little more.

And she says,

There's another part of you that somehow knows how to sink into the now and find spaciousness and even delight exactly where you are.

The no in you and the yes in you.

So I want to take just a moment on this language,

The no in you and the yes in you.

So,

You know,

Symbolically,

The no in you,

It's that seeking energy.

When we're looking to improve the moment,

There's something in us,

There's a bracing,

Right?

There's something in us saying,

No,

Like not this moment.

It's not okay to be awakened fully right now.

I need to work harder at it or whatever.

Like I'll be happy when,

You know,

Is a common mantra.

Like when all this is in place,

Then I'll be happy.

We all do this.

We're deeply wired to do this.

And this is the insight that,

You know,

The Buddhist tradition brings to us.

You know,

That this tan-ha,

This fundamental thirst,

As it's originally spelled out in the Pali Canon,

But really it just amounts to this seeking,

Right?

Desire and aversion,

Right?

We're constantly trying to get to the next situation that's better by saying no to this situation.

Really basic.

It's brilliant.

I mean,

The people who formulated this thousands of years ago,

It's just stunning,

The clarity of it.

So that's the no,

Right?

The part of us that's saying no right now.

And we're all in the grocery line.

You know,

The body in this moment somewhere is struggling a little bit.

The mind is,

You know,

We're not fully awakened yet.

Or are we?

It's that question,

It's that tension,

It's that no.

And then Bourgeois points to that yes,

That fundamental yes that's here too.

And that was pointed to in the meditation.

The yes,

In a manner of speaking,

It's awareness,

Right?

Because awareness is beyond the personality.

They say it's trans-personal.

It's beyond the person.

Because awareness isn't discriminating.

Awareness at its deepest level,

It's not saying,

I like this,

But I don't want that.

Awareness is just this resounding yes to what's present.

And I want to add a qualifier or maybe a detail here,

Because this gets abused,

Right?

In terms of the teaching and the understanding.

This idea that,

Oh,

Awareness is saying a big yes to all of it,

So I'll just say a big yes to all of it.

And serenity now,

And that kind of thing.

You know,

People play that scenario out in their minds.

Like,

Is that what a yes is?

And I just want to point out that the yes,

It's referring to an inward gesture,

Right?

You know,

That level of will where we can release the bracing in our body-mind and open up into the spaciousness of awareness,

Right?

It's that inward gesture of saying yes,

Right?

And we can call that awareness.

Awareness just holding this moment as it is.

And that may imply any number of responses to the outward situation,

Right?

So I just want to make that clear that we can deeply say yes and be accepting at the level of awareness.

And that might mean that,

You know,

We've taken the friction out of our systems.

We've seen an injustice,

And we will vigorously defend a certain principle because that's what's appropriate in the moment.

So it's just to say that this practice of surrender,

It's not laying down to the circumstances of life,

Whatever they are.

It's being willing to be totally present.

It's the strength of being present to life.

And then allowing,

You know,

Whatever conditions are arising,

Whatever intelligence in that moment to respond appropriately.

So it's an important distinction to make there.

I just want to say that.

Bergeau goes on to write,

She says,

Going with the softness,

The yes,

Always connects you immediately with your heart.

And then the divine intelligence can begin to operate.

So she's an Episcopalian priest.

Her metaphor is the divine intelligence begins to operate on you.

But it's that image,

It's the vibrating violin string in an orchestra,

Right?

Like when we're braced,

When we're tense in the body,

When we're certain in the mind,

When we're closed off,

It's putting a damper on that string,

Right?

And when we release that,

When we allow it to vibrate,

It sounds with the chorus around it,

Right?

And that's Bergeau's metaphor for the way that we come into this knowing beyond the individual,

Beyond the person.

And so you can actually test that in your experience right now.

And again,

It's effortless.

You can just notice the no in you.

The no is just circumstance,

Basically.

It's this world of the body that is often uncomfortable.

It's the mind that is constantly looking for answers and relief from the search,

But just can't quite find it.

You just locate that in yourself for a moment.

If I could give voice to it,

My own version of it,

It's something like,

Oh,

You know,

Another Wednesday night,

Room full of people.

We're not enlightened yet.

It's kind of hot in here.

Fuck.

Something like that,

Right?

That kind of searching function.

It's readily dissatisfied.

Dissatisfaction is its modus operandi.

It can't be but dissatisfied.

And that's there.

Here's the kicker.

Here's where it all comes together.

The no is contained by the yes.

This is the game that the self plays.

At the level of self,

We say,

No,

I'm going to keep saying no until it's a yes.

Eventually it will be a yes.

Not this moment.

This moment's not okay.

Neither is this one.

This moment's not okay.

There's always something wrong with it.

Its way of being is dissatisfaction.

But when we just move to the yes that's already here.

We're not trying to produce a yes.

We're not trying to arrive at yes by manipulating conditions.

But it's simply the yes that's always here.

It's the suchness of the situation.

It's awareness itself.

All we need to do is turn to it.

We don't need to become still.

That's struggling at the level of the self.

But we turn to that within us that is already still.

That's always already still.

So there's no doing involved.

There's nowhere to arrive.

You're not projecting a better moment into space and time.

It's just right here.

So you can just take a moment to feel that softness.

And it's a softness softer than the physical body.

But the physical body softens when we go there.

It's a willingness rather than a willfulness.

So we turn to that which is already perfectly still.

Already surrendered.

Totally willing.

And you can feel the self,

Body,

Mind,

Spirit beyond.

As this individual note in the universal hymn.

It's a very subtle symphony.

Reviews

Thank you for sharing this. It was helpful to hear it and then feel the shift in my mind & my body during this talk. I will be listening to this talk again 🙏

Wow. I had no idea how transforming that would be. Get ready to take notes and step into softness ✨

"The body softens when you go there" This teaching has saved me. 🙏 I thank God for the Wisdom and Beauty that flows through this amazing human.

Insightful xxx thank you 🙏💜🙏

Thank you 🙏🏻. Beautifully pointed out.

Ahhhhhhhh......that's a big content exhale. Bowing to the yes and the no of the moment to moment experience. Great wisdom and metaphors. Thank you Thomas and thanks to those that inspire you.

Loved this talk...the "no" for me shows up as resistance, bracing and dissatisfaction. Being able to be with whatever circumstance is arising and being aware of labelling it as good or bad has helped me to ride the storms of life...as do these life enhancing offerings from teachers such as yourself...much gratitude to you Thomas 🙏😌