*The Paradox of Surrender* Q: First of all, I'd like to thank you all for creating these sessions. I've been listening to the tapes for about six months, so I've been with you - down in Costa Mesa actually. And it's had a tremendous impact on my life, in terms of creating more excitement, joy and love. And it's been very much fun sharing it with friends and clients... B: May I ask you a favor? Q: Yes. B: Will you share it a little more loudly please? Q: My concern has very much to do with your introductory remarks, and probably can be based on that, I suspect. B: Ooh! Q: I think what has happened is that in listening to your ideas, I have been forming new beliefs. B: All right. Q: And what's happening now is I'm attempting to integrate them, with a little difficulty, with a series of beliefs that I've probably had for lifetimes as a nun - and currently coming out of a yogic system of belief... B: I see. Q: ... which has to do with reverence for spirit, surrender to spirit... B: Yes. Q: ... as seeking the higher will, as opposed to the lower will being done, that kind of thing. B: Yes. There is nothing contradictory in what we are saying; you are simply using different semantics, which perhaps have a different understanding of the mechanism. The mechanism can be described, regardless of the symbols that are utilized to represent it; and the mechanism will be found to be the same for both ideas. The ideas we are presenting, the ideas you have now just outlined, simply have one particular mechanism; though many individuals will look at them in different ways, and mean them to represent different kinds of action. Q: Can you talk more about this mechanism? B: Yes. The idea simply is that what you call surrendering and going to the higher will, as opposed to the lower; in that way is simply the understanding of centering within your being. Surrendering is, in a sense, talking control, being in control, being fully responsible for what you create in life. Surrendering is going with the flow; but going with the flow means you then have, paradoxically, given yourself the ability to create what you desire. That means you are in control. Surrendering is being in control; it is not giving up. The idea of going with the higher will as opposed to the lower is simply recognizing that you have free will, but that you can choose to express yourself in a negative way or a positive way. And that if you choose to experience yourself in an integrated positive way, then you will be in synchronous harmony with the higher consciousness that you are, and you will be able /to know/ that you are in synchronous harmony with the higher consciousness that you are. Whereas if you choose the negative way, what you call the lower will, then simply, by definition, you may not know that you are in synchronous harmony with the higher consciousness that you are. You follow me? Q: Yes. B: Do you wish to continue? Q: No. I knew that there would be a way of integrating, a way to hold all of that. I guess I just wanted to hear you say it. Thank you. B: We thank you for bringing up the idea, for you will find that this is of paramount importance in your society at this time. In each and every one of you, as you examine the different ideas of belief systems that exist within your society, you will recognize that very often where many different societies think they truly disagree, it is only a matter of how they are calling the idea, rather than truly disagreeing on the fundamental basics. Many individuals do not realize that what they purport to be true within their system of reality, and what they purport to be false within someone else's system of reality, is only a difference of labels and nothing else. Nothing else! Thank you! Q2: I want to explore that concept of surrender. Because in our language, in our society, it means giving up, it doesn't mean taking control. B: Yes. There is, in some factions of your society, a new understanding now being applied to the term surrender. We are assisting in providing that understanding. You simply utilize, as a society, that term because it is the closest approximation to the idea that you have in your language. It does not necessarily precisely describe the mechanism that is involved, but it is the closest label you have. Q: There's no better synonym for the concept you're trying to convey? B: Let us scan. (Pause) We find that the majority of the references within the vocabulary of the channel, that are in your language, will all have to do with the idea of giving up control. Q: And thereby gaining greater control. Is that... B: The idea we are saying is that all of the reference words that could possibly be used from your language will all generally mean the same thing as your colloquial meaning of surrender. You do not have a word in your language that means giving up and taking control at the same time. Q: But that's the concept you're attempting to convey. B: Yes. Q: To give up control, and therefore gain greater control... B: No, no, no, no, no, no. Not to give up control, to give up trying. Q: To give up trying... B: Yes. To give up trying to control is to have ultimate control. Q: Ah! That does it. That does it! Okay, I have another paradox I'd like to - an apparent paradox for me - which I'd like to ask you about. B: All right. Q: In your initial remarks and in my question - well, when you were answering the other lady, you said: "trust that everything that's happening... that you're perfect; don't look at the echo for indications that there's something wrong with you. Trust that you are doing fine in your integrity." So that's one concept. B: Yes. Q: But when I asked a question, you said: "recognize that everything happening in your life right now is a reflection of what you may need to consider changing." B: Yes. Just as her echo is an opportunity for her to get in touch with what the belief system is. We are simply saying pay attention to it, but do not seek your validity in it; seek your validity in yourself. Q: Then the paradox is: a person is valid, but nevertheless there's room to change and grow. B: Of course, always! Q: But then, when you change and grow... B: You become a different validation. Q: And from your new perspective - we have a tendency, in our concept of growth, to look back on where we were and say: "Whew! Boy, am I glad I'm here and not back there." B: All right. Q: With that concept - you're suggesting that that's... what? B: You can always recognize the joy of being where you are. We are simply adding to the concept the idea of allowing yourself to recognize that what you /are/ is also, in existence in your linear terms, because of where you /were/. And thus, where you were is a part of where you are. Q: Aha! B: So to truly invalidate where you have been... we are not saying that you cannot appreciate where you are now, comparatively speaking, but the idea is not to invalidate where you were then, that is what allows you to be the /you,/ you are now. Whereas if you had invalidated yourself as the /you,/ you were then, you would still be that you. Q: Got it. Thank you. B: Thank you.