I want what I want.
Period.
I know what should be happening.
End of conversation.
And then there’s reality, that little pesky thing.
Do you identify?
I have a massive preference living right on my chest, weighing about 900 pounds. It feels like a gorilla even though I never really had a gorilla sitting on my chest. I absolutely know THIS OUTCOME/MY OUTCOME would be the highest, the best for all. I am positive.
And then there’s life, that annoying little bugger.
Please tell me that you identify, dear readers.
I do believe, with all my breath, that the teachings and principles of living yoga give us insight into how to partner with reality, how to participate most skillfully, most ease-fully into the unfolding of our lives.
I do believe in the practice of passionate non-attachment, the practice of taking actions and letting go of the results of those actions.
Passionate non-attachment.
I don’t think the passion part of that equation is the difficult piece—we are a passionate, full-hearted people, right? It’s the non-attachment part that is the hook, the line and the sinker, for so many of us.
Surrender.
Life is calling for me to surrender. To show up, to do my best, to participate fully. To fully savor and be present with what is. And to let go of the outcome.
I know this. I just don’t really want to do it.
And yet, I will. Of course, I will.
Is surrender so difficult because it leads us toward the abyss of the unknown?
Is the illusion of control and its inevitable struggle so seductive, so familiar, so magnetic a pattern that I can’t pull myself away from it?
I remember this profound quote from Rishi Prabhakar, an Indian teacher who visited Kripalu many years ago. Rishi said:
We can empty ourselves and receive Her.
There is no distance to travel, no technique to master.
Enlightenment is available in each moment when we choose it.
It requires only saying yes to the present moment.
There is nothing to do.
There is no knowledge, no special learning required.
No amount of doing will get us there.
We need only find the courage to take the leap into the unknown.
For it is in the unknown
that we meet God.
It is in the unknown that we meet God. (Fill in whatever word words for you—Grace, Spirit, Energy, Prana, Etc.)
I have spent so much of my life trying to control the outcome, trying to impose my will upon the moment. I know it doesn’t work and its cost is literally the sacrifice of the moment.
Yet how do I live within my human preference, while continuing to let go? It does seem that preference is an inevitable response, right?
What’s the practice?
How do we practice surrender?
Here are my two suggestions for us divine beings who are having a human experience, while wrapped in a body. (I still think that’s an absurd position to which we have been assigned.) Here are my thoughts about how to practice surrendering:
- Relaxing in our bodies—right here, right now!
Enjoy any physical practice that instructs your body in the brilliance, the art of letting go.
Yoga—deep relaxation—yoga nidra—walking—swimming…..
What is delicious to you? Give yourself this body-centered gift.
As we can cellularly learn to let go, we will support our practice of skillful living.
- Savoring the journey—right here, right now!
The journey is all we have.
This moment really is it.
Focusing on the future, worrying about what might happen, deters us from the perfection of now.
Let’s choose The Now, with intentionality and breath.
So much to say, dear friends, and yet, nothing to say at all. I leave you with the profundity, the simplicity of the Serenity Prayer, to light your way:
To accept the things
I cannot change.
The courage to
Change
The things
I can.
And the
Wisdom
To know
The difference.
Folks, what would practice of surrender look like for you? How might you continue to savor what is, while living within the human experience of your preference? Please keep me posted. I am aruni@rnetworx.com
All blessings,
Aruni