The Virtue of Surrender

If any want to follow me, let them renounce themselves.”

(Jesus in Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24)

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood [God].”
(Step 3 of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous)

In Yoga, there are 5 Observances: Cleanliness, Contentment, Discipline, Self-Inquiry, and Surrender to the Divine. This surrender means willingly trusting that there is some sort of big picture in life which we can never truly understand with our small human mind. It means giving our lives over to making the world a better place by our loving presence, by our choice to put the good of others, of the world, over our own petty wishes.

Here is how the Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, explains surrender:

“Surrender will always feel like dying, and yet it’s the necessary path to liberation. It takes each of us a long time to just accept—to accept what is; to accept ourselves, others, the past, our own mistakes, and the imperfection and idiosyncrasies of almost everything. Our lack of acceptance reveals our basic resistance to life. Acceptance isn’t our mode nearly as much as aggression, resistance, fight, or flight. None of these responses achieve the deep, lasting results of true acceptance and peaceful surrender. Acceptance becomes the strangest and strongest kind of power. Surrender isn’t giving up, as we often think; it’s a giving to the moment, the event, the person, and the situation.”

In Yoga, these teachings on surrender tie into Bhakti Yoga (the path of devotion) and Karma Yoga (the path of selfless service). I believe these ancient spiritual teachings are precisely what the modern world needs to remember and practice so we can help make the world a more peaceful and loving place for everyone.

May we trust – and begin NOW, this very moment!