Surrender is the ultimate goal of any spiritual practice. Despite the fact that you could equate the word “surrender” with failure or weakness, it is the most potent spiritual activity since it grants you limitless freedom and opportunities. When you surrender, you believe that even though you can’t predict how a situation will turn out, God, the universe, or a greater intelligence is capable of doing anything.
At the spiritual level, nothing is ever forced to happen the way you want it to; everything always unfolds flawlessly. Your ego-mind is the only thing that thinks you are a lone survivor in a dangerous environment. You are a spiritual entity in reality. You put an end to the struggle when you give yourself over to Spirit and pay attention to your inner intelligence. You eliminate your doubts and fears, as well as the barriers your ego has built.
The entire spiritual path could be described as learning to let go, but letting go all at once isn’t possible. This is a path of many small steps, a process of replacing automatic reactions with deepened awareness. Here are the guidelines along the path that have proved effective for me personally and that I feel will work for many people:
1. Have lofty goals in mind.
Be a saint and perform miracles. why not Ask for mastery as soon as you can if you believe that mastery is what inner growth is all about. Do not attempt to work miracles, but do not deprive yourself of them either. Vision is the start of mastery; become aware of the marvels all around you so that bigger miracles might develop more easily.
2. Forgive yourself.
We all fall into traps of selfishness and delusions when we least expect it. The chance remark that wounds, the careless lie, and the irresistible urge to cheat are universal. Forgive yourself for being where you are. Apply the same dictum to yourself that you apply to others: I am doing the best that I can from my own level of consciousness. I like one spiritual master’s definition of the perfect disciple: “One who is always stumbling but never falls.”
3. Learn to let go.
The paradox of being spiritual is that you are always wrong and always right at the same time. You are right to try to know God, but you are wrong to think that things won’t change tomorrow. Every stage of inner growth is good and is nurtured by God, but when it’s time to move on, don’t hesitate to let go.
