Let Go: The Power of Surrender

A Message From the Unseen World

One night, in a most extraordinary and magical dream, I found myself in a sumptuous exotic room, evocative of a sultan’s palace. Elaborate candelabras held multiple lit candles around the semi-dark room. The candles threw off enough light to help me see the beautiful, intricate, hand-carved furniture and the regal purples, rich reds, and dark, dreamy blues of the luxurious fabrics.

As my spirit moved further into the room, I sensed an even more mysterious atmosphere and saw in front of me a young man lying on a chaise longue. He looked like Krishna, enigmatic, with huge eyes and an oval face. He was lying on his back, and somehow I knew he was looking up to God in the faraway spheres.

He was in awe, and I knew this was his way of praying and worshipping God. He wasn’t praying in the traditional narrow way we sometimes view prayer. I knew prayer could be different, and looking at the Krishna type figure. I could tell he was praying by marvelling at God’s majesty.

It was clear he was having fun—there was no pious strain. As I looked in wonder at him, he slowly turned his head and looked back at me with a friendly smile. At that moment, he communicated with me telepathically. Clearly, but gently, he uttered just one word: ‘Effortless.’

When I awoke, I knew the message in my dream meant that I should stop struggling and surrender to God. It wasn’t the first dream that I was given a message where instead of stressing, pushing and clutching at life, I needed to have more faith and let God take over. I needed to surrender to Him. I would then, paradoxically, accomplish a lot more.

Like me, I suspect many of you are hardwired, consciously or unconsciously, to believe that you can only navigate life by struggling with intense effort. So, you speed up.  Perhaps, also like me, some of you have the classic ‘Type A’ personality. This personality type is usually ambitious, rigidly organised, impatient, anxious, proactive. They are overly concerned with time management and have a constant feeling of working against the clock. It seems Type A’s generally experience high stress levels, hate failure and find it challenging to stop working, even when they have achieved their goals.

Maybe it was partly due to my personality type that it took a long time and many messages from the unseen world to learn to stop relying on my own strength. What inspired me most of all, though, was witnessing my late wife, Cushla's absolute trust in God. If she had a problem to overcome or a challenging project to manage, she would first of all pray about it. When she discerned what was spiritually ‘on the cards,’ i.e. if it was God’s will, all obstacles seemed to disappear, and she always got what she needed. What’s more, because she had absolute trust in God,  she found joy, peace and serenity, despite living with many challenges.

Going With the Flow

You don’t always have to be ‘in charge.’ Have you noticed how wearing it is? There’s a feeling around that’s causing many of us to be constantly earnest about everything. For many of us, struggling has become our default mode. We wear a scowl as if everything we do is essential. But we forget the world has existed without us for millions of years.

Instead of trying harder, we need to trust in God more. When I take time out and gaze at the moon and stars, or huge skies and distant horizons, it reminds me that I can call on a higher power to help me, so I begin to relax. It often brings to my mind that I have been relying on my own strength, which is analogous to depending on a small battery when I could have accessed the power of a mega power station all along. Looking back, I realise that if I had trusted more in God, I could have saved a lot of frustration and years of misdirected effort.

Unlike Abrahamic religions, Taoism philosophy does not have a God. Nonetheless, it has valuable wisdom to impart regarding misdirected effort and going with the flow. At the core of Taoist belief is the notion that the universe already works in harmony with its own ways. If we exert our will against these ways, then we will disrupt the harmony that already exists. Instead, he should go with the flow of life. (Much like in Christianity, where we learn that if we choose to go our own way, instead of surrendering to God’s way, there can be disastrous consequences for us).

Wu-Wei, which is Taoist teaching, means something like ‘not-forcing, not-doing, not-causing.’ It doesn’t mean not acting; it means ‘effortless action’ or ‘actionless action’ ⸻ it’s a kind of ebb and flow, an effortless surrender to the natural cycles of the world⸻ like a fish finding the current and going with it.

Alan Watts, the British writer and philosopher, known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience, uses the example of sailing. A sailing boat, he reminds us, uses the forces of nature, namely the wind’s power, to move across a body of water skillfully.

In contrast, a rowing boat, he says, is an inefficient mode of water transport, requiring immense strain and hardship. So, rather than going against nature and the universe,  life, like sailing, requires that you ‘flow through nature effortlessly’.

Let It Go

My persistence and drive often got me over or around many obstacles, but it was a two-edged sword. I tended to carry on like a ‘dog with a bone’ and was not willing to let go when I sometimes should have. This tendency was combined with the belief that focused and analytical thinking could get me out of all kinds of binds. But life taught me otherwise:

Sometimes we need to surrender and let the body’s intelligence and the unconscious mind express what it knows. For example, nowadays, when I lose something at home, instead of pulling the house apart looking for the lost item, I ‘let it go’ as if it’s no longer important to me. Here the intention matters: you can’t pretend to let go to get a result. As best you can, you need to release your concern with the outcome. I know, in the beginning, for many of you, this is not as easy as it sounds, especially if the item has sentimental value or you think it is ‘crucial’ to your everyday life, e.g. your mobile phone. When I truly let go (a virtue I need to practice much more) I often get amazing results, including being shown in dreams the exact location of lost items.

To help me ‘let go’ and to live life with more ease, I sometimes meditate on the words of the prayer Her Heart Is Full of Joy, written by Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a catholic saint and mystic:

Her Heart Is Full of Joy

Her heart is full of joy with love,
For in the Lord her mind is stilled.
She has renounced every selfish attachment
And draws abiding joy and strength
From the One within.
She lives not for herself, but lives
To serve the Lord of Love in all,
And swims across the sea of life
Breasting its rough waves joyfully.

Recommended Resources

Reading:

Slowing Down to the Speed of Life by Richard Carlson & Joseph Bailey. Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton.

Scripture to meditate on:

 ‘Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’  Matthew 11:28-30

Poem to enjoy:

The Avowal

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
free fall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace

Denise Levertov (1923–1997), British-born American poet