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The Steps of Surrendering
Surrender connotes surrender to God, which few except the most saintly seem to manage. It’s much easier to do the surrendering on your own and let God show up if he wants to. Open yourself up to a Rembrandt or a Monet painting. Pay full attention to it. Open yourself up to what is in front of you rather than allowing yourself to be distracted. Don’t judge in advance that you have to like the painting because you’ve been told it’s great. Don’t force yourself to respond because it makes you look smart or sensitive.
Let the painting be the center of your focus, which is the essence of humility. Be receptive to any reaction you may have. If all these steps of surrender are present, then a great Rembrandt or Monet will evoke love because the artist is simply there in all his naked humanity.
In the presence of such humanity, surrender isn’t difficult. People themselves are more difficult. Yet surrendering to someone else follows the same steps we just listed. Perhaps the next time you sit down to dinner with your family you might decide to concentrate on just one step of surrender, such as paying full attention or being non-judgmental.
Pick the step that seems easiest to approach or, better yet, the one that you know you’ve been leaving out. Most of us have left out humility when we relate to our families. What does it mean to be humble with a child, for example? It means regarding the child’s opinion as equal to your own.
At the level of awareness, it is equal; your advantage of years as the parent at the table doesn’t discount that fact. We all had to be children, and what we thought back then had all the weight and importance of life at any age, perhaps more so.
The secret of surrender is that you do it inside, without trying to please anyone else.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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19 comments
add your comment »Dwight B
Not all of us here are fundamentalists so quoting the Bible doesn't really hold much importance (although I have read the Bible many many times)..
What Deepak Chopra said can be applied to everything and everyone..I do not see how it can be insinuated that he is "trying to push his one god idea that rules all the others that man has created"..
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ANDREW Proverbs the fear of the LORD GOD is the beginning of WISDOM
SHERIE a good read is the book of Proverbs OT. there you will find many of your questions so stated answered.
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humility is the key, humility is the beginning of wisdom.
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I'm a tad bit lost here on this one. Isn't surrendering just being yourself. Loving yourself and all others. Allowing, Trust, Faith, Being Humble, Compassionate, Caring, Sharing, Giving of Yourself, Loving All, Being, Doing, Acting Upon, Helping, Being your True Self, No Ego, No Guilt, Causing No Harm, Being Aware and just Living in the Moment, Being Thankful for what you Do Have, Always Being Open to New Ways of Learning/Understanding, Acceptance, Prayer, Meditation, Learning from Past Mistakes, Trying your Best Each Day, One Day at a Time, Trying to Improve on Yourself, Being Aware that Divine Spirt lives Within You, Staying Focused and Not have Fear as You Know you are Not Alone and seeking to find your True Higher Self to be better, Kinder to Self and All Others, and on and on I could go..but I am Unsure of All this???
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Yay, those of us who don't believe in superstition don't have to 'surrender' to anything. :D
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Thank you, Deepak. I have always had difficulty understanding what that term means, but you have clarified it, and I appreciate your aid in helping me to understand concepts associated with God.
Giving one's heart to God is surrender...not in having to fight any battles, the battle was fought by another, and for me, surrender means to go with the flow. It is a stream of consciousness, and because I am aware that I am spirit in nature, the stream will carry me into the great ocean which is in essence...God.
One who resists the flow will struggle until he is completely exhausted and can struggle no more...I guess it's a win/ win situation. ;)
Psst...Dwight, I love ya, man...but being out of sequence is the Christian religion trait. I'll pray for God to give you understanding.
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SORRY ABOUT THAT GOT IT OUT OF SEQUENCE
for more info on this topic
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POOR DEEPAK two
And many use their sense found in the lower bowels of brain activity the EGO to get what they want regardless of whom it might offend. Even when ones have accelerated their knowledge into their SUPER EGO to know the rights from the wrongs and try to function with that knowledge still in them resides the horrors of become filled with guilt again. And with guilt comes a shutting down of the empathy for others.
JESUS died on the cross to cover all those sins to get rid of our guilt so that we could function at another level that of love for ourselves first then for all others. [BUT ONLY FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN HIM] and the next thing that JESUS CHIRST DID was send back to mankind the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD to take residence in mankind [THAT IS CALLED THE BAPTIZIM OF JESUS] and for those of us who have been baptized in JESUS have become immortal while yet mortal. Thus we have become as him a SECOND ADAM. Now what that means is that each of us who have followed HIS tenets to be done have our part in GODS COSMIC PLAY. And each of us have our marching orders sent to us daily what we should do.
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POOR DEEPAK
To talk in riddles as he seems to do bring me chuckles and giggles at his ways of trying to push his one god idea that rules all the others that man has created. What moronic senseless rhetoric he uses to try to ride the fence of sanity. WHY does he do that simple he wants for all folks to like him ---- and that means he will sell more of his stuff.
Now there is only one GOD and HIS chosen people were the JEWS for a long time but since the advent of JESUS CHRIST the gentiles have been included so that means all of the human race can come to know HIM and then have a part to play in GODS GREAT COSMIC PLAN and PLAY. Simply put until JESUS CHRIST CAME mankind had only one real source of inspiration and that was conscience. But the fatal flaw of that and still is today is that guilt destroys many.
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All of you are wonderful. Thanks for your comments.
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