A simple seeker was meditating on the powerful symbolism of The Tree of Life. It suddenly almost seemed to overpower her with a feeling of intense devotion, when respect and reverence were her usual spiritual limits.
“Have they been self-imposed limits?”
“How could that possibly be?”
“Resistance.”
“To losing control?”
“Yes.”
“That’s possible, but it surely makes good sense to have a small supply of …”
“Defensive mechanisms?”
“They do have survival value.”
“How can you explore the complexity of the qualities and intensity of thoughts and emotions, and the ever-developing interdependence between them, armed with …?”
“Protection from them?”
“Not protection, distance.”
“How do they differ?”
“I explained that to you, long ago. Once you have opened your mind, there is no way you can close it.”
……..
A simple seeker’s note to herself
“Perhaps I do seem to resist …”
“Surrender?”
“I’ve never felt comfortable with that concept.”
“It’s more than a concept.”
“To me, it has always seemed as a military or political power-over ending to a battle.”
“A win/lose situation?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“So, surely there’s some other term that could more adequately express …”
“Express what?”
“Recognition of and devotion to a higher …”
“A higher what?”
“A better way.”
“A better way to what?”
“A better way to live than …”
“A better way than what?”
“Better than I now seem to be living.”
“In what way?”
“In my attitude toward life and its future possibilities.”
“And to your relationship with me?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“So, what’s the solution?”
“To what?”
“To my resistance to surrender.”
“What term would satisfy you?”
“Acceptance.”
“Of what?”
“Of seemingly infinite degrees of differences in our capacities to understand, and of our different states of awareness.”
“How would acceptance differ from surrender?”
“Surrender may only be in form, while resistance lives in essence.”
“And acceptance?”
“There’s nothing to surrender.”
“Why?”
“Acceptance comes with the awareness that we’re each, to differing degrees, part of the same reality.”
“Yes.”
……
Simple Seekers 