Surrender

It is useless to try to surrender. Trying of any kind is not surrender. Surrender is rest. Without an "I" this happens naturally. Without an "I," who is there to make effort? The absence of effort is rest. Contrary to popular belief, surrender doesn't happen because something is changed but because something is seen. When it is realized that there truly is no self, that there is no separate self to be enlightened, no separate self to become free, no separate self to be perfected, or return home, the joke is apparent. There is no I. There is no me. There is no you. There is no us or them, There is just Oneness.

With this realization, comes the sense that there is nothing to do and no one to do it. Where before, there was the illusion of choice, of controlling events and ideas, Now, everything just takes it natural course, without any sense of being in control or having to be. As a result there is no conflict. What passes for surrender is not surrender. Surrender is not a partial thing. It is not I surrender to the One and remain me. It is not a relationship of God and me..Me drops out, and there is just the One. I, me, and my, were all ideas. The seeing of this is what is called freedom

Because the majority of books and scriptures are written from a dualistic perspective, that it could be this way is thought to be impossible. It is inconceivable. But reality defies logic as easily as it defies your understanding of what is possible. Is it possible to be the Whole expressing as part? It is possible, and it is so. To the ego, this is not very palatable. It is frightened at the prospect of not existing. That everything is an expression of one, that everything is the One expressing is not very flattering to an idea that prides itself on being a contributor, on being a cooperator. It wants to protest. "What about me?" "What about my opinion on the matter." "What about these treasures of I, my, and mine? What about my personal perspective? My personal expertise? This is all just more thinking.

In reality, the ego never did or does anything. It is just a label that gets associated with activity. It is not the doer. It is just a thought. That's what "you are not the doer" means. It means that everything ever done was done by the One, not you.

How then does it happen? Suppose you're relaxed, and a thought spontaneously arises. The label "I" arises and attaches to the existing thought. Next, the thought "My" arises suggesting ownership and authorship, Eventually through help from the body, the action is carried out. But who performed the action?

To see the immensity of this, it helps to take it out of the abstract. While resting, the thought arises to lock the door. You respond by locking the door. Do it now. Who locked the door? If you answer "I." then, any investigation which might have led to awakening is missed. "I" is just a label, and a label always references the past. The question is who locked the door? Did a label lock the door? Of course not. A label cannot lock a door. Did the mind lock the door? No, Mind is just a faculty for thinking. It cannot lock or unlock a door. Did circumstances lock the door? No, circumstances are just conditions, and conditions cannot lock a door. Did the body lock the door? No, clearly the body is just an instrument, but an instrument of what, of whom?

What causes thoughts to arise, and what causes action to be carried out? Who decides, responds, and acts? Who or what does "I" refer to? These are all varriations of the same one and only question. The question, "who am I?" is meant to lead beyond the label to the mystery, beyond the person to the Truth. By clinging to the label, knowledge is gained but Truth is missed.