Let Everything Be as It Is

 

Surrender is not just a spiritual, but a truly life transforming practice. It is basically to accept things as they are and Let Everything Be as It Is right now in your life. Resistance is always futile anyway, because what you resist persists and even gets stronger. And too much striving in life actually produces the opposite of thriving. When you stop trying to force things, or overcome things by brute strength and instead, learn to work with the flow, then your natural state of happiness and joy begins to shine forth. By practicing living this way often enough, you may even begin to understand and realize the sheer beauty of the NOW moment for the very first time in your life. 

 

 

There is a marvelous and almost commanding power in non-resistance and acceptance.  If you could learn to be at peace with and simply accept even the unacceptable in your life right now, imagine how much easier your life could be. What if you could just Let Everything Be as It Is?  Well this is the way to flow with life.  To come into union or harmony with the way things actually are right now, to embrace things as they are happening right in this very moment is freeing and liberating.  Here's the thing to remember, whatever you are experiencing now is precisely as it needs to be, otherwise you wouldn't be experiencing it. And the very things you are resisting by nonacceptance cause resistance and friction in your efforts to change, or overcome them. If you could instead accept where you are at and move forward from there, with the flow rather than against it, you could certainly maximize your ability for affecting positive change in your life.

 

The idea of effortless effort in Zen traditions has ultimate relevancy here.  Oftentimes we accomplish more by doing less. Aldous Huxley a leader in modern new thought said this, “In all activities of life from the trivial to important, the secret of efficiency lies in an ability to combine two seemingly incompatible states – a state of maximum activity and a state of maximum relaxation.” Being natural, spontaneous and responsive to life, like water, you can be powerful and effortlessly flowing at the same time. Water is a dynamic reminder of a transcendental life altering substance which overcomes both the hardest and softest elements just by just a gradual, continuous flow. 

 

 

Why walk through life with a clenched fist?  Not accepting things as they are in this very moment is battling against yourself, which is a never ending battle you cannot win.  A great question to ask yourself is this: what do I need to let go of, or merely learn to accept to be at peace right now?  Once you find the answer to this question and you let go of whatever it is you are struggling to accept, you will instantly feel lighter.  Acceptance of things as they are instantly brings clarity and balance to your life experience.  So what in your life can you surrender to or accept right now?  Can you imagine what it would be like to make accepting everything as it is your spiritual practice for the next week?  I assure you that if you do, you will see dynamic changes and your life will be revolutionized.  Accepting things as they are brings clarity, balance and a quiet sense power to any one's life... 

 

Copyright Justin Topik, Peace Passion Positivity 2013, all rights reserved, except for use in brief quotations and reviews which include authors name

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peace-Passion-Positivity/146951492057494

The Power of Surrender

Sometimes you find yourself at a crossroads, or a turning point. You know the place? where you can either go one way, or the other, and in this place, you may need to seek counsel and advice. Other times, all you can do is fully surrender. This happens when you are faced with a circumstance so big, like a enormous boulder in your path that you cannot see literally any way around on the narrow path you may be walking. You have tried EVERY possible way around the boulder, or challenge, but nothing seems to be working. It is during moments such as these, when it seems all you can do is fully surrender to a situation, or challenge you may be faced with. There is power in surrender though, because the creator, or Great Spirit knows our every need and concern. And sometimes I believe, he is just waiting for us to quit trying so hard to fix everything, or to fix a situation we have very little control of anyways and just give it over to him. He waits, he glories in those opportunities to show himself, to reveal his power, and his unfailing love for us all. He yearns for us to call upon him for everything. It is just in these moments of surrender that he can really show forth his glory and power, usually because we are so humbled and so broken down and open.

A perfect example of this type of surrender was the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt in their exodus (or migration), when pharaoh decided to take revenge. In the moment when all the Israelites were surrounded by the Sea on one side and by the army of pharaoh on the other, coming to literally destroy them, all Moses could do as their leader was surrender, because in his limited perspective they were trapped. So that is exactly what he did was surrender to a higher power. And look what happened? God revealed marvelous power and delivered the people in a miraculous way.

I remember well a very trying time such as this in my own families lives. It was few years ago. I had lost the best paying job of my entire life just a few months before Christmas. My wife and I at the time and I were praying for a miracle, not knowing where to turn. We couldn't pay rent, and we had absolutely no money for Christmas. On top of that, we were several thousand dollars past due on all of our most basic bills. In that moment and situation, all we could do was surrender, as we were in way over our heads. So, that is what we did. We surrendered everything to God. You see The Power of Surrender is that it pulls you to your knees, to the ground, where you realize your own humility and limited power compared to the power of the universe and you humbly and sincerely ask for help and surrender your situation to a much greater entity.

Needless to say, our prayers were answered, but in a completely bizarre way. We were praying for a miracle for things to turn around. I guess the old saying is true, "be careful what you pray for," because just a few weeks later, our house caught on fire in the middle of the night, due to a wood burning stove. We lost pretty much everything. But, then an amazing thing started to happen. The community responded to our loss. Money, gifts, clothing, food, furniture and etc. began flooding in from everywhere in an avalanche of abundance. We lost our home, but in our surrender, God gave us a fresh new start with a ton of resources and we were able to totally start over with a clean slate financially.

That is The Power of Surrender. It is not weakness. It is not about giving up, but rather giving in to a power and force that is much greater and wiser than you and me. This lesson was a great lesson in surrender for me and my family. In surrender lies great strength and power because you are saying, God I can't fix this. All I can do is all I can do, the rest now God is up to you. I can't get out of this jam alone. And you are turning your problem/challenge over to God, or the Great spirit, or Allah to help you resolve it. You are reaching, or turning to him for help. And I am here to testify that in that moment of surrender comes some of life's greatest blessings and gifts!