Faith and Surrender

Meditation seems so difficult for many of us.  Am I doing it right?  Why can’t I make my mind quiet?  Where is the bliss?  Meditation techniques are numerous and no one technique will work for everybody, (never mind all the hype over electronic audio assisted technology guaranteed to make you “meditate like a Zen master” instantly).  It is really about developing your own awareness, your own most intimate presence and awakening to that. 

We usually think of faith as something we put into something beyond ourselves.  In meditation we are learning to put our faith in who we are on our most fundamental level.  “You are It!” the Upanishad tells us.  The sacred essence of being is within you, right now and always.  It always has been as well.  As Krishna explains, “There is nothing separate from me.  The universe is suspended from me like jewels upon a string.”  When we are able to let go of all of the BS (belief systems) that tell us who and what we are we awaken to our authentic being.  It is all God.

The ego is primarily our sense of separateness from the all.  It is our identification with our BS on a personal level.  Ego is the fall guy in most spiritual teachings.  In the Yoga Sutras ego-identification is one of the five primary afflictions that cause us to reenter the revolving door of misery.  When we cling to our physical vehicle and to our personal narrative, we become caught up in an illusion.  When we surrender the ego in faith to our true being, we are liberated.  It is very simple really and yet, seemingly impossible for most of us. 

On the other hand, our ego is also an aspect of God.  We don’t have to strive to be individuals we simply are.  Our individuality is God-given.  God has created us as individual beings as a means of knowing and expressing Herself more completely.  As ego-beings we are like cells in God’s body; both individual and inseparably connected.   There is no reason to be afraid of going beyond limited ego-awareness.  There is no reason to despise it. 

Faith simply means trusting that there is something, perhaps someone, who is wiser, more powerful and loving than we think that we are.  It means allowing that our own intelligence, strength, sensitivity and vivaciousness grow out of something deeper, something universal.  Surrender is simply inevitable with this recognition.  “Resistance is futile.”  At the same time our resistance itself is an aspect of the Divine.  Whatever you are doing, thinking, feeling, experiencing is none other than It, none other than “I.”  In the universal scheme of awakening there is no way we can fail; “no soul left behind.” 

This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to contribute some effort.  Surrender requires an active commitment.  It isn’t just giving up.  If only it were that easy.  Giving up is a momentary capitulation to circumstances, surrender is a commitment to Spirit.  Surrender entails accepting given circumstances and seeing beyond them.  It is the opposite of giving up.  It is trusting, knowing, believing and accepting the fundamental beneficence of life. 

In the Yoga Sutras surrender is called isvara pranidhana.  It’s a mouthful, I agree.  Isvara, or Ishwara, means the higher consciousness which we have access to when we quiet our mental chatter and attune to it.  Pranidhana means dedication and devotion.  It takes conscious effort to attune to and to stay connected with higher consciousness.  We can surrender to fear, to anger, to loneliness, or unworthiness without effort.  Surrender to God requires focus, awareness, commitment and dedication.  Never, never give up because once you are connected you taste freedom. 

Faith, or shradha, is a profound power within us.  It can propel us into new dimensions of consciousness or it can keep us stuck.  There is a story of a woman who heard that her faith could move mountains.  She sat in meditation for an extended time trying to remove the mountain in front of her.  When she opened her eyes it was still there.  “I knew it wouldn’t work,” she said.  Our problem is that all of our faith, all of our belief is invested in things-as-they-are.  This is what we are accustomed to as “reality.”  Our reality is the display of our beliefs.  We are locked into a shared reality, a collective hallucination that keeps us from realizing our inner power of faith.  We have been lead to believe that our outer circumstances are ultimately real.  In truth they are created from within us through our limited beliefs.