WHEN YOU HEAR the word surrender, you automatically think that it means to give up, throw in the towel and admit defeat. So, when I talk about surrender, it is a very complex subject to explain to you. The best way to simplify surrender is this way: the mind is amazingly intricate, and because you are a biological creature by nature, your feelings, ideas, and concepts are habitually ingrained. You do things because that is the way you always did it and never give it a second thought. But when you commit to something, you tend to see it through. The belief system that has been engrained in you is, “I don’t give up,” or “I will do it anyway.” In difficult circumstances, it is easy to make the wrong decisions when lacking the correct information. If you do have the right information, you tend to do things much better.
What is a positive example of Surrender?
Here is a good example of surrender that is very simple to comprehend.
Before I started Higher Balance, I had a number of students that I personally taught on a one-on-one basis. At that time, my policy was, “If somebody is persistent and dedicated enough, I will teach them.” That was my style and that is what I focused on. But there came a period of time when I wanted to take all of the lessons I was teaching to a higher level, which later became The Higher Balance Institute. At that time, I was not sure of which direction to take the lessons or how to fully go about it. So, I became consumed with teaching people individually. This, of course, took
away from the time I needed to develop Higher Balance. It became obvious to me that I had to sacrifice my commitment of teaching people one-on-one, and I knew that I had to start turning away the few people in order to help the many.
I will always remember this statement that I once heard — I think it’s from the movie Star Trek when Spock said, “When I sacrifice myself, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” I realized that if I surrendered my commitment to teach people one-on-one, I could reach out to a lot more people. Therefore, I stopped teaching individually and in small groups so that I could develop a format that would reach more people. It would still deliver the quality and intensity of the information that was so important to me. It was a surrendering process. It was an instinct, a habit I had developed that was very hard to break away from.
How does guilt play a role in Surrender?
I will give you an example of how that works. In many situations in life when you commit to friends, family, and a job and you also want to develop spiritually, you are taken advantage of by those other people. Not that they have bad intentions, but sometimes it is hard for us to say, “I’m going to let someone else help you.” or “You need to get help from another professional instead of me.” You feel guilty when you do that. Separate your mind from your duties and realize that, “This is a sensible thing for me to do,” and,
“Why should I be guilt-ridden by freeing myself of this responsibility?” It’s the guilt that is the real problem. The real question is, “Should you even feel guilty?” Your higher consciousness always knows the truth. If you are going to surrender something, then you probably already know that you should not feel guilty about doing it.
Can Surrender be used for eradicating addictions?
Surrender can be used for many, many different things. Another example of surrender is releasing your cravings of alcohol. It can also be used to clear ego issues; such as someone with a strong ego who
desperately wants to reach the higher states of consciousness, but feels that their ego gets in the way.
Surrender can be used for almost anything that is within the realms of inner truth. What I mean by “inner truth” is using surrender for the wrong reasons. Like if you commit a crime and want to remove the guilt — that is a problem. In that case, your inner-guide communicates with your biological self and says, “We need to resolve this.”
I often look at the biological self or the brain as if it were a computer.
When data is put into it, it simply responds and automates. Your mind or higher consciousness silently talks to you and says, “This is an issue. This is a problem and you need to resolve it.” The fact that your mind even brings it up and that it occurs to you is the first sign that you need to deal with it. You need to remove this perception that is inside of you because guilt and manipulation can have a profound effect on your spiritual growth.
You have within you something that drives you to evolve and seek out the experiences of life to the fullest intent. That intuitive mechanism within you to direct the will of the Force is called the Navigator. Your Navigator is saying, “We need to solve these problems so you can move on.”
What, in your view, is the one most important factor for permanently dissolving blockages or negative emotions?
Of course, the topic of this conversation is surrender, so make sure that you truly surrender your issues. A lot of people go through the process of surrendering, but they do it more like they are cleaning windows. They go through the steps and do what they feel they should do or what they were told to do, but they do not reflect within the depths of their consciousness to pull out the issue that needs to be surrendered.
Here is a good example for this: I have an aquarium in my office. Every time I take a look at it, it is overgrown with plants. Today, I pulled a bunch of plants out, and you know, you can pull out a few plants and it looks great. Everything looks fine for a while, but the plants grow back. So, if I really want to get rid of the overgrown plants, I need to be consistent in finding the root of the problem. The solution is to make sure that I clear it all out and leave nothing behind.
Many people treat the situation quickly, like Windex on a glass. They clean it and move on. They’re not very fussy about the edges or the corners or finger prints that may be left on the glass. You have to be thorough. You have to be deeply earnest in your pursuit of releasing the problem so that you can surrender it. It has to be done from the depths of your soul. You must bring it out, release it, and surrender it to the Universe. This takes a lot of self-reflection. You cannot just sit down and go through the motions, like it’s a recipe book. You have to deeply reflect on it.
I seem to be blocked from connecting with my Higher Self. My meditations are nothing but blackness. Can the surrender skills and techniques help me to reach a level beyond relaxation?
Absolutely! I will do a little walk through process to help you with this.
You can add this to your meditation. It is critical information: It is all in the details. When you reflect on entering the void – the blackness – and you say, “Nothing is happening,” your expectation and the act of looking for something will prevent something from happening.
Now, I know that that may sound a little strange, but the Universe doesn’t necessarily show you what you want to see when you want to see it.
In other words, if you are looking for something in particular, then you are probably looking for something that you can already conceive or understand. So, you might say, “Okay, I expect to see something beautiful.
Maybe yellows and pinks and blues or I expect to see a flower.” You do this without even being aware of your expectation. Surrendering relieves you of that expectation. Surrendering allows something very profound to come through. And, of course, that is very hard to do.
Surrender the need to go beyond the black void. Be happy with the void.
Be content. Absolutely love the void. And when you come to terms with the void and you are at peace with it, just rest there and be placid. Just be there.
Don’t have any intent. Don’t have any expectation even if it takes a week or a month. I promise you, profound things will eventually happen.
Many years ago, I first entered that void of absolute nothingness and wondered the same thing, “Nothing is happening. I’m just going to this place and nothing is there. I’m just hanging out and that’s it.” When I came
to terms with this, I realized there is a peaceful feeling with no demands in the absolute nothingness. I just enjoyed being there. I even forgot about enjoying it because that’s a whole other thought process. It was just existence of non-existence.
Then I realized that I was moving – literally. It was like being in a starship moving through a galaxy and you see all the stars zipping past you like on Star Trek. You enter this area where there are no stars and it looks like an inky black hole. Not that it’s a hole or it is ink. It just doesn’t have any stars to mark distance or space. You enter it, and as you go further into it, and deeper, and deeper, it doesn’t seem like there is anything there.
Eventually, what was behind you can’t be seen anymore. So it looks completely black. And as you’re moving, you assume you are not moving at all because you cannot see anything to orient your progress.
There is nothing to gauge it by, so it feels like you are not moving at all.
But you are moving faster than the speed of light until, eventually, you realize there is something on the other side. It looks like sparkles of haze or fog. Trying to interpret it is the first mistake that you make. That’s what keeps it away, and that’s a million dollar statement! Don’t try to interpret it. Just let it be. Let it exist. Let the Universe manifest what it wants to show you. It becomes a profound experience. That’s when you get to see what is on the other side. Have faith in the Universe that this is all a good experience and I assure you, it is.
Just come to terms with the black and realize that it is not black at all.
You are actually moving. Most people think that the black is a void where nothing is happening. They are just there. There’s nothing going on. This is a test. This is a barrier. This is a wall that prevents those who should not be there from moving beyond it. It’s a way to fool them and make them turn back.
Just go with it and move. The more at peace and relaxed you become, the faster you will move across it. If you consciously start to think about it, it will weigh you down. Thought is heavy and it slows you. Let yourself cruise. Let yourself move through that space. And remember, when you find an inner peace inside of you and you go on with your daily routine, believe it or not, you are still moving. You are still moving in that other dimension. Even though you are going about all the things you do in your daily life, you are still moving as long as you can hold that feeling, which
is right in the inner chest area. It is this very relaxed, indifferent, non-emotional feeling, but it feels very good. It feels like you are very calm.
You just move and you will know when you get to the other side. You will be very grateful and very pleased with what you find.