What does it mean to "surrender"? I don't know how to actually do this. I know the theory, to let god or fate or whatever take control of my life and problems, but I don't know how to DO it. I can't sit down and let some god live my life, no matter what, surrender or not, I have to be there, active participant, deciding, doing, etc. How do I surrender when I can't physically change the fact that it's me that has to live my life? How do I let someone/something (god?) else decide for me when I have no choice but to be the one who decides? I don't know if I'm being clear...
Why do you feel you need to surrender? or even know how to surrender? You never truelly will. There are people in the world capable of surrender and there are those who will not. surrendering is different however in every single context of the word. the surrendering you speak of is what most people in the world do, and thats why the world is so dumb
I dont know what surrendering means in other religions/spiritual ways, but the christian one means getting on your knees before God (which means not putting yourself first but Him first) and laying down everything you've got. The thing about the camel not getting through the eye (the little gate). I surrender to God, but still live life. It's not in every situation clear what God wants, so the free will is not something that was taken from me, it's just a lower priority that God's will. But I have no idea if I really answered your question......just thought to share my view on it...
Sometimes you may really want something to turn out a certain way, like say, you really want your friend to cut down on drinking, for example. At some point you may realize that you can do no more that would be helpful to them. That is when I would release the responsibility over to God. I like the phrase, file it under "something for God to do." Surrender, to me, is letting go when there is nothing more you can do but hope and pray that things go the way you wish.
Here's my take on it - Surrendering to God is simply doing what you want to do with yourself and your life. God/the Tao instilled in you a dream of what you want to do and the means to achieve it. Taking advantage of that is what surrendering means. Blessings Sebbi
isnt surrendering to god the opposite to that, isnt it surrendering yourself, and your ego, and living only for god, devoting everything to him? which is living for god, and not yourself
You could well be right. But what is schizophrenia? A blanket term to cover a wide variety of psychological states - or so some psychiatrists say. The line between madness and genius is often said to be a thin one. Surrender though is often equated with a kind of experience categorized by some as the 'death' of the ego. (It may amount only to it's temporary suspension) A feeling of being subsumed into a mode of being or consciousness greater or larger than the ordinary, every-day ego centered consciousness. A realization that 'it' does everything. A few thoughts anyway.
Because it was people giving up their self-respect and self consciousnesses that allowed Hitler to persuade Germany to do support him - Hitler was democratically elected. You need to have a lot of self respect to become selfless - it sounds like a contradiction but it's not. You've got to be as generous as others as you would people to be generous to yourself but you've also got to be as generous with yourself as you would like to be with others. Blessings Sebbi
I don't think anything in my earlier post was saying that people should give up self-respect. I don't see how you could read that into it.
Or 'becoming' reality. Becoming 'real'. Language is a very limited tool to express what is esentially a non-verbal experience. (Of course, the verbal may enter into it).
