AUM Shanti – Peace to all.

One often comes across the concept of "surrender" in religious and spiritual teachings and at some point on the Path it becomes a forefront issue. Even if not, it can be an interesting idea to play around with. I mean, who surrenders? Why surrender, and to whom or what? And why is the idea so prevalent and stressed?

Well, it is stressed because it is usually not omissible for development. It may come to the seeker in a variety of ways; a statement such as "losing your life so that you may gain it", or that you need to be "born again before you can enter the kingdom of heaven".

So what is this stuff about "surrender"?

I say this often, and now again, so please bear with me; yoga is extremely simple in its most basic of forms. If something is overly difficult it probably is not yoga, or it is and you are not ready for the particular stage you are attempting. Yes, there is work, and it is not easy, but it also should not be overly complex or too difficult. When you are ready, it will be doable, albeit with some effort.

Descartes said so humorously "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), and most people sort of stick with this idea, and take it the step further into believing that they are who they think they are. Ask anybody and they will rattle off the usual descriptions and names and titles and so on. It is seemingly simple and correct and understood, and besides, if you don't like what or who you think you are, you can always change what you think about yourself, and so change yourself. But of course, you are not changing your Self at all – you are only changing what you think and modifying your self-concept.

The Self exists as is without modification. It needs no changing. It cannot be changed. It exists whether there are thoughts or not. It is really the pervasive Energy available to you to use to create your self-concept by means of your mind. The Self only needs to be realized. And to realize It there is only one way – one has to become It. But in order to become It, you have to give up your ideas about It because You are not what or who you think. The moment you stop thinking (or rather, identifying your Self with your mind), you start uncovering who You are. You are always there. It is only that you have this mistaken identity of a self-concept, and you believe that You are that. You are not. And the belief that You are, conceals the Self, and is the source of all misery.

It helps to grasp the two-you thing first. One you is this self-created, thought-up you. It consists only of mental concepts and descriptions and attributes that your mind has assigned to it for various reasons of likes and dislikes and ego identification. Whatever follows your words "I am…" reflects this self-created you. Whatever you think of yourself, those thoughts, feelings and ideas, are self-created mental constructs, and the conglomeration of all your mental (including psychological) efforts is what you call "me". And it is this self-created, thought-up, and really, illusionary "me" that has to be surrendered to the "real You". That is what is meant by "surrender".

That there are two "things" one refers to as "you" inside of a single entity immediately becomes a logical inconsistency (even to the mind!). But the mind does not make real and unreal distinctions, nor does it fool itself. It merely produces thoughts according to direction. Your consciousness attaches to either your self-concept, or it re-merges with your Self, and that is your choice to make.

If you make the mistake of identifying who You are with who you think you are, you exist in a state the yogis call "illusion", since the center of your experienced universe is then based upon and functions according to the principles of a mistaken idea that your consciousness accepts as real. It is like working on a lengthy mathematical equation after you have made an initial error at step one. Even if you follow all the laws in some great book of instruction and solicit the help of your peers, it really doesn't matter how long you slave through it, your conclusions about yourself and everything related to that "me" – all of it – will always be flawed at each and every step.

Fortunately the work is frustrating and hard and always produces questionable conclusions mostly productive of irritation, doubt, pain and at times great suffering. And at that point one may get tendencies to go back to the very beginning and take a new look at the foundational principles of your being and your ideas about your self and your Self. And there is no principle more foundational than what you call "I", and no more potent a question than "who am I?"

If you miss (or choose to miss) this step of asking "who am I?", you'll start a new search for a better calculator and buy more manuals and visit more experts and even do a refresher course in math, or find somebody to help you either manage and manipulate your mind changing skills, like a therapist or like-minded escapist friends, and keep occupying yourself with the plentiful outer distractions of all kinds to help you to avoid the question of who You are, which can initially only be approached and found in silence.

But if you are seriously reconsidering your original thought, the "I" thought, and you examine how it came about, and by what power, and you can begin to discriminate between the real You and the made-up you, what follows is the practice (indeed a practice), of surrendering; or the re-directing of your consciousness away from the identification with the idea-self to the consciousness of your Being, which is consciousness to begin with, and which is a lot more peaceful and all-encompassing and loving, and filled with Bliss.

The practice of surrendering is rare in some ways because it feels like dying, though it is only the death of the self-concept. But surrendering is also highly auspicious since it brings the practitioner to any one of a multitude of Paths. And as Yogi Berra says, "If you find a fork in the road, take it." Because you have to do something. Stagnation is not really a good option. Choose the path to your real Self at this fork. The other path leads in a circle the yogis call "samsara", which has the implication of wandering the same paths over and over again, which is not really an attractive idea.

Is it any wonder that one of the oldest messages from mankind's wise ones for the generations to follow and even carved into the pyramids is "Man, Know Thy Self"?

Think about it… uhm, well, no, don't. Just be.

Namaste.