Surrender

 As we approach our last teaching session this coming Monday I would like to ask you to make donation to the church if you have not already done so. None of this would be possible without the support of Joe and this church. I will put the donation basket on altar. You can give cash or a check made out to ECI. Thank you for your generosity.

This last week we looked at the issue of surrender-- allowing, relaxing into, accepting, yielding.  On this journey we are discovering over and over that if we turn towards, if we allow our experience, surrender into it, there is a relaxing, and the possibility of an opening into presence and grace. This runs counter to our usual ego orientation which is to resist especially suffering or unfamiliar newness.  In the face of suffering we tighten, we numb, we dissociate, we push away, we go to sleep. In other words we resist. When there is no resistance surrender is natural and easy. In fact ego cannot surrender. Ego is essentially complex tension patterns. So trying to surrender only adds another layer tension, the tension of trying. So what to do.

What need to explore, meet and understand is our resistance. This is not easy. Much of our resistance may be unconscious. But if we turn towards the inevitability of resistance, if we meet it, hold it gently, it will begin to relax and open. This takes time. But if realize that resistance is an attempt to avoid, push away, deny suffering, perhaps you can see that becoming curious, kind about our resistance will allow to rest a bit. Maybe the resistance experiences your presence, your curiosity as a kind of holding, a kind of care. Then maybe a little trust can arrive.  Perhaps the resistance is not needed so much, maybe it's safe to open into what the resistance is trying to protect. (exercise: tell me a way you resist). We spend so much energy resisting out of habit, out of lack of support and understanding. It's exhausting.

Surrender arises when the obstacles, the resistances start to dissolve. It is a quality of presence. It seems to arise out of the ground of holding and support that we explored a few weeks ago. It has has a yielding, melting, ease to it. It seems to be inviting in a warm way, inviting us into more relaxing and more letting go.  The support of the ground provides the ballast, the trust into  surrendering into ever deeper relaxing. Not by trying to relax but by the natural effect of presence on our souls and bodies. In a way surrender is like a simple 'yes' in the heart.

As the weeks have passed we are noticing how the field of presence is growing. Sometimes it is warm and tender. Sometimes the presence is more robust and alive. This last time I was aware of the sweetness, appreciation in the air. This is what happens when a group of people come together  week after week to practice presence together. As the openness, realness grows amongst us, as we feel safer to expose the truth of what is arising now, this sincerity and courage opens up the field of presence in and amongst us. We feel held, we feel safer we feel more open, and that invites grace to be among us. It is so precious.