Surrender
Posted by Ren in The Present
South Africa's president was speaking on several levels when he turned that phrase but in essence he was referring to the human animals tendency to be its own worse enemy (to NOT gravitate towards what is clearly "correct" and healthy) which is why this Gravaton mini-blog is about… trust. Yeah, I know, I titled it "Surrender" but really, its about trust although one leads to the other leads back to the first and which one you begin with is up to you."Spiritual" and "moral" leaders (gurus, what have you) often ask their "flock" to surrender to God, God's plan, God's will. To surrender to "Love" (well, I have a fondness for that last one actually... It's a great "line" too don't ya think? Sorry .. I digressed); to give themselves over to... whatever the dogma (or manipulation) the moment calls for. Fair enough.Were going to take a bit of ride to get to the point now (it's a Gravaton blog, you know the drill).
The concept of surrender (though it does carry the negative connotation of having "lost") is easy to get just about anyone to understand so it's often used, in the positive sense, to help someone circumvent their egos long enough for a spiritual message of humility and acceptance of powers greater themselves, to reach them...
It's also used in the negative sense to turn the seeker (engaged in proactive searching and questioning) into a supplicant; supplicants being far easier to indoctrinate into whatever programming or attitudes the indoctrinator (for reasons good and/or bad) wishes to insert into the supplicants psyche.
Surrendering supplicants are willing to be lead... and that's not necessarily a bad thing mind you as those that are "fragile" of spirit, may very well need a trusted guide to lead them thought to certain "truths"… and past the minefields of emotional damage in between us and whatever "truth" we need to get to in order to evolve ourselves.
Seekers on the other hand are a bit more ego fueled, with the ego taking the positive role of protecting the seeker from becoming a manipulated supplicant; at least before they're ready to "surrender" to whatever / whoever their seeking has lead them to um, trust in.
Back to trust then but lets take a bit of a circumspect path to get there by looking at
Brain Chemistry.
It's a true fact that human brain chemistry becomes addicted to ANYTHING. Now I'm being quite literal here, ANYTHING; (that includes pain, drama, danger, angst, suffering, anger etc.. If you can experience it, you can become addicted to it. It's a bit of a design flaw except when we become addicted to "good" stimuli) it's why some folks always see the glass as half empty, fly off the handle easily, get into abusive relationships, engage in "extreme" sports, can't stop eating or not eating, cant stop exercising, feel perpetually conspired against, seek pain or abuse or humiliation or "drama"... And on and on....
ANY repeating stimuli becomes (at the brains most basic bio-chemical level) a potential source of addiction and feeding that addiction can lead people to "crazy" behavior when the repeating stimuli is EITHER "negative" in nature OR triggers a negative "root" experience memory in the "addict's" psyche (which they then keep re-living using new external triggers... even if those triggers have no real relation to the experience being re-lived... it just feeds the addiction and it can get "crazy").
Now lets continue the circumspect path to trust… by mixing in a bit about
Parasites
(What? Yeah yeah, bear with me).
It's another true fact that some parasites can alter the behavior of the host organism (causing it to do things that it normally wouldn't) in order to have the host serve the needs of the parasite (one example, is a waterborne intestinal parasite that causes felines to drown themselves in order that the parasite can enter other felines who drink from the same water supply (and NO that's not it up there that's just a scary artist rendering of a giant fictional parasite from the movie Cloverfield).
(What? Yeah yeah, bear with me).
So why bring up parasites? Well, those negative brain chemistry addictions I referred to above (really, any addiction)... just like certain parasites… will do ANYTHING to cause the "host" (addict) to act in, or trigger (or hold any belief necessary in order to trigger) the emotion / behavior which releases the stress chemical the brain became addicted to as a result of prior self (or perpetrated upon the self by others) abuse.
What to others may seem like "crazy" behavior Is just the body & brain (at a cellular, molecular level) acting in defense of its own wants and influencing the entire organism (as certain parasites influence their hosts) to act out in a manner that perpetuates the stimuli required to keep the "drug" of choice flowing to the cellular brain receptors that literally... take on the inverse shape of the neurochemical they've been absorbing which means... they are not even capable of receiving "happy" chemicals (think about that the next time you run into someone who seems perpetually dissatisfied no matter what's going on around them and show them compassion).
People who seem to get angry over "little" things, or start crying over "nothing", or seem to invite repeated cycles of abuse, or are convinced of conspiracies against them etc. etc. are behaving like hosts under the influence of "parasitic" addictions to stress chemicals and while they consciously feel miserable (angst filed etc.)... there is actually a part of their brain doing the happy dance every time they fall "victim" to their stress addictions.
I'm not even considering how things like natural hormonal imbalances due to aging (or being too young) or chemical imbalances caused by man made drug addictions, further wrecking havoc on a brain that may have already been ravaged and re-wired by the proverbial "hard" life.
That most of us (yours truly included) are able to "function" at all is small miracle all things considered. It's not a hopeless situation though. Read (or skim) on if you please.I've been describing the effect of "small" (molecular sized) things, things of the body (remember, biochemical addictions) but nonetheless things that have the potential to cause us (and those around us) GREAT damage and suffering (with collateral damage; just as a microbe colony living in a cat's intestine can cause it to drown itself)… It's why addressing those "small" things usually leads us to contemplate "BIG" forces and concepts and rightfully so all things considered.
To deal with the suffering caused by our imperfect physical design (which can confuse us into believing our spiritual design is also imperfect.. IT IS NOT), we tend to turn to religion (most statistics place the number of people who believe in "something more", a "higher power" or "God" at 90 to 95% of the population... it's why some have come to think of religion being a sort of pathological (defense mechanism) response to suffering rather then a valid concept... I'm not one of those people).
By trying to get us to "surrender" to the notion of higher powers, religions and "cults" actually can (if one is careful) provide a bypass around the physical mechanisms (and emotional machinations) of the brain that can keep us from evolving ourselves past our immaturity, past our (collective?) psychosis.
You'll recall (if you didn't miss it while skimming) that I told you neuroreceptors take on the inverse shape of the chemical they most receive (effectively rendering them "un-receptive" to any other stimuli... incapable of producing any other emotion). Well... if you deny them what they've become accustomed to (and can overcome the "parasitic" influence they'll exert on you in response)... and... you repeatedly bombard them with what you DO want them to become accustomed to... they actually will slowly reform themselves to only accept the good stimuli. (LOL then you get those sort of annoying perpetually happy people but hey, better that then the alternativespirituality (when done right) gets us to to "surrender" to that unseen, taken on faith (I call it the) source, (call it whatever you please) from which our "true" nature springs; that thing we're born with and will die with (and which is only faintly echoed at in our daily lives).. OMG! Trust me)
Now do those repeating rituals of prayer, singing and dance that you find in "worship" services start to make sense? (And can you see how someone can become "brainwashed" in the wrong hands?)
The source sits "outside" of our ability to define it in the practical sense, It is without "passion" of any type (or for anything) but is (an here is where language becomes inadequate as this will seem to be contradictory) the very essence of "love" and it whispers (hums really) a constant guidance beacon to us AND THAT... is what we need to TRUST or... (and be very careful if your going to go this route) "surrender" to. That gentle whisper quiet "hum" that's always there to coax our grosser selves past our inevitable self destructive (and hurtful of others) tendencies towards our bliss (and however that bliss finds its expression in this material plane).
None can be denied "the source". No matter how loathsome, confused or destructive a persons inclinations or behavior... they can choose to turn themselves towards it or (in the hands of a trusted guide) be turned towards it at any time during their lives (it's always there for you to "float" in ) and its detaching (from the insignificant, from the illusory) and aligning effect is the same for all... Really... doesn't matter (to simplify things) how "bad" you've been and no one "gets it" any more then you.
Powerful (yet passive) passionless (yet "loving"), assuring in it's "rightness" (yet having no judgment) impossible to readily conceptualize or control (yet fully "grasped" and by anyone surrounding themselves in its influence).
Buddhists have been known to say "Life Is Suffering"; fair enough, but once you realize that the (work in progress) flesh sacks were using to explore this plane of existence in, have this "little" bio-chemical design flaw that needs to be monitored (and maybe even overcome), then really... (if your mindful of the design flaw and attune yourself to trusting the gentle flow of the source.. of your true nature), life... is actually pretty darn good!
The Dedication:
To some of the friends, family and passing but valued acquaintances I made last year (2/11 to 2/11). Your a good body of folk. I'm tilting in a direction which will keep me from seeing most of you as often as I did (if at all). But your in my heart and I'm grateful for having known you all (with apologies to anyone I left off for whatever reason... and who's name or nickname I've misspelled).
In no particular order but as they pop into my head... Thanks to:
Alex, Donna Eagle (may you always be in bliss), (kind) Laurie (Who ROCKS! non-stop… always will), Natasha B. (with whom I first shared an Emergen-C), (grateful) Chachi (Who's all that… and tough too!) , Steve, Dawoud (The coolest Imam in Islam), Megan ("Tiggrr"... who's OMG! a blessing just to watch move), Allyson, MORE--> Zoe! (what a voice!), (brother) Zach (Thanks for choosing sanity), Sid (for gods sake man, get a room!), Al, (yoga) Mary (& the "Man Posse"), Alina, Stephanie, Kera (Nice voice too BTW), Dna, Hannah (who's playing is healing energy), (belly dancing) Danielle (of the Dub Wars), Eli, Karen (I didn't know you were Latin), Eduardo & Soul (the first "Freeks" to welcome me... Live well in Texas Soul if that's were you are), Mikio and Haj and the rest of the "Freek Factory", The rotating and welcoming residents at the Brooklyn Sanctuary (Shhhh don't call it Grand Space anymore), (Most Beautiful "traveler") Sorah W, (the briefly but well meet) Brian ("the builder" and his homeboy "Peaches"), Anna, Julia (write that book... careful with the research though), Kiana Love (what a name!, what a cutie too!), Pedro, (Belly dancing warrior) Sera S. (hardly knew you but I'm pretty darn sure you ROCK!), Ed ("Tem"), Mark (the psychologist… really?), Yust, Narottam, Imani, Natalia L. (still my favorite Jelly Doughnut), Daygots (who made it real to me when It could have gone all sideways), (the buddhist bassist) Vinny & Sandy (the reason Vinny's a lucky dog), Aaron (the "Ablemonk"), ("kiss me") Kate and... (the last "new" person I meet. Nice clothes and fierce dancing BTW) Sefiriah Fierce.
May those above and those reading always trust the light (or if your feeling a tad submissive
, then just go on and surrender to it… whatever gets you there eh?).
Welcome to the Gravaton
Peace
Ren
You've just read an entry in the Gravaton (this time around not so) Mini Blog. To read more you can always return here as well as visit the other blog site The Gravaton Blog which will contain different (though sometimes related) content. Go see for yourself.
Comments
#1
Lou, Feb 6 2009, 10:30 AM
Like the song says "Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away". My 2 cents
Ren, Feb 6 2009, 12:35 PM
LOL thanks Lou.
I forgot how much I liked that song and those lines in the chorus are kind of spot on. I'll PM you about which other lines are spot on too.
You get a star!
I forgot how much I liked that song and those lines in the chorus are kind of spot on. I'll PM you about which other lines are spot on too.
You get a star!
daisy sola, Feb 14 2009, 07:57 PM
Looks like somebody might just be back in black soon. LOOK OUT!
Ren, Feb 15 2009, 11:59 AM
Ohhhhh Kaaayy,
The inference is WAAAYYYY off topic. The song however is most cool so I'm letting it slide. Now behave yourself.
But since you got me off topic
But since you got me off topic
daisy sola, Feb 15 2009, 03:55 PM
OK hows this for on topic?
Ren, Feb 15 2009, 08:02 PM
Snicker, OK yes its on topic (well part of the topic anyway) now STOP IT DAGNABIT!!
daisy sola, Feb 16 2009, 11:14 AM
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