surrendering to the unknown

I heard it said recently that 'It is all about surrender.'  The idea of surrendering to God the Source of Everything resonates with me very strongly both logically, emotionally, and intuitively.  However, in the moment, the ego feels the need to act and "take care of things" so to speak and the idea of surrendering to God can be forgotten.  

But surrender doesn't mean that one has to sit there and do nothing.  One can surrender to one's Higher Self in each and every moment and find a guidance to act that is infused with love, creativity, wisdom and power.

I had an example come up this week with my kids.  Instead of responding to a situation from my usual bag of parenting skills, I decided to take a relaxing breath, let go of my thoughts about what I should say and do, and ask my Higher Self for guidance.  What came to me was a creative solution that provided an opportunity for growth for both of my teenage children and myself.  There is a reason that this Self is called the Higher Self!

Adyashanti talks about surrender this way:    

"In order to see through the mind and the deeply ingrained sense of separation that continues to generate so much confusion and suffering in our lives, we must take a chance; we must leave what we know and enter that mysterious reality of the unknown…It’s the most humbling thing in the world to admit that we don’t know, to surrender to the fact that we can’t know the nature of reality with our minds.  This realization opens the way for us: the way to the greatest knowing is through not knowing…"   (Falling into Grace, p. 88-89)

We really don't know what needs to be said or done in each moment.  And as long as we are operating from ego, we will respond from the limited understanding of who we think we are and our limited view of others.    

Adya says that surrendering to this unknowing "is a state of great availability and openness, and it's from this willingness to realize how little we really know, that our consciousness begins to shift.  It begins to shift from the mind and ego into its natural state...that doesn't fight against our inner or outer environment."  (falling into grace, p. 89)  He describes this as a state of openness and ease.  

"Dive fully into this openness and avail yourself of the intimacy found there, in not knowing."  (falling into grace, p. 90)