Do you ever get the sense that it's not "SC" (spiritually correct) to express passionate will? In the 'New Age Movement', where 'acceptance' and 'surrender' are the big buzz words, is there still a place for passionate courage, commitment and determination?
So how do these qualities relate to acceptance and surrender? Are they meant to be blended together in some way? How do you commit to something with your whole heart, but without attached struggling?...
Understandably the warrior characteristic has received pretty bad press in the spiritual mainstream over the years. That's because this inherent quality of the soul, has been horribly distorted to control and suppress others. But is that a reason to 'throw the baby out with the bath water': to meditate out the will, passion and commitment to get things done? These characteristics are invaluable essences of the soul - the warrior energy of commitment.
In working with spiritual people all around the world, we notice a common theme running throughout the evolving movement: a general suppression of the authentic arising of committed passion.
Society has conditioned and suppressed people to limited lifestyles, with controlled expressive beingness
even when people break free, there's a lot of advice about 'letting go' and 'acceptance' which gets misconstrued as giving up the individuality of committed self expression
spiritual practices frequently seem to dissolve out individuality as they work to unravel the ego.
But true surrender is not 'acceptance of anything goes'. What is meant by that?
Commit to the directive of the universe.
There is a natural flow to the universe. As we know, everything is interconnected - that flow courses through us, when we open up and make space for it to flood in. Where does the flow then take a truly surrendered person? The soul is yearning to be liberated, and so this is what it does...
Manifests all the situations that would limit and constrain,
in order that we can confront those barriers and break through.
How do you break through? You do it by accepting the path that unfolds before you, then intuiting what you're being invited to do - either by the heart-felt pull, or the landing of higher knowing. When you make internal space to pick up on these internal impulses, the soul will guide you into your own repressed tightness - fear for example, that identifies you with the illusion, rendering you less than who you truly are.
For instance: we might live in fear of leaving a relationship because we're afraid of living alone; or leaving a job we don't feel satisfied with because we're afraid of not being supported; or not committing to that heart-felt dream, because of fear we'll fail.
All of these experiences will generate internal tightness - literally your energy field contracts down; your consciousness then becomes flooded with the energy of failure - the previous limiting pattern. The mind goes into negative overdrive; the body and breathing stiffen; and we close off to higher guidance - the creative soul can no longer flow in.
It is exactly these moments that we need to embrace and confront - because here is where the maximum soul growth is possible.
Feel the fear, do it anyway, then soften into the tightness
The fear is there for a reason - it tells you something important for your spiritual development is about to happen: that there's a priceless opportunity to expand beyond a previous limitation.
So here is the invitation:
Feel the fear of the choice presenting itself.
Commit to what you know in your heart to be correct, irrespective of the fear
then crucially, explore and feel the contractions within your body - the negative thinking, the heavy emotions, the tightness of the physical, the worrying mind.
Know that all of these reactions are simply transient energetic experiences, they are not meant to define you
Let go of the need for any kind of physical outcome - winning is the growth of soul.
Soften into the contractions by feeling through them and find the Void of Silence inside, of calm stillness - it is that sense of infinite potential that
allow for the spontaneous arising of a new sense of beingness.
Give yourself completely to outward expression of that beingness and
finally, watch for the Synchronistic Feedback Loop that shows the universe is supporting your growth.
I can, I will, I must.
This is what surrender is all about. It's not the acceptance of 'anything goes'. You're surrendering to the universe, and its directive that you're become increasingly unbounded by the external drama by infusing your soul through it.
It's the constant confrontation of the internal limitation of the moment - this is true surrender to the universal flow.
For this level of confrontation, it takes enormous levels of commitment and will. There aren't many out there at the moment who're embracing this, and you're still reading, you're almost certainly one of those warriors: the kind of person who feels - "I can, I will, I must".
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