At a certain point - Adyashanti
At a
certain point we need to grow up; we need to look inside ourselves for our
inner guidance. There are things most human beings know; they just don’t want
to know them. They know deep down that certain things in their lives are
working or aren’t working, that certain parts of their lives are functional and
others are dysfunctional. But sometimes, as human beings, we don’t want to know
what’s not convenient. So we pretend not to know.
What is
most important is to come out of pretending. There is a time and a place
for everything. There’s a time to make effort and to be disciplined. There is a
time to let go and realize you cannot do it alone, that it is up to grace, that
effort and struggling and striving play no part.
But
understand one thing: the trajectory of our spiritual lives—no matter what our
path, whether it’s a progressive path or a direct path, whether it is a
devotional path or otherwise—the trajectory of our spiritual lives and of all
spiritual awakening is toward surrender. Ultimately, that’s the name of the
spiritual game. Everything we do spiritually is leading us to a spontaneous
state of surrender—to letting go. That is where it all leads, no matter what
the path is, no matter what the practice is. Once you know that, you notice
that each step along the way is the next opportunity to surrender. It may take
effort to get there; it may take effort to get you to the point where you are
willing to let go into grace, but ultimately the whole of spirituality boils
down to letting go of the illusion of the separate self, letting go of the way
we think the world is and the way we think it should be
We need
the willingness to lose our world. That willingness is the surrender; that
willingness is the letting go. And each of us has to find what that letting go
means for us, what we need to let go of. Whether it’s easy or difficult doesn’t
matter in the slightest. It is the letting go that is ultimately important.
