SURRENDER

Surrender (choosing to creatively engage with What-Is)
Is vital.

I first sought enlightenment to make my life better,
Or at least more tolerable than it was.
Things were "bad", and getting "worse".
The idea of using Enlightenment as a way out
Seems rather insensitive and selfish of me now that I look back on it --
And stupidly ignorant.
My enlightenment began
When I got the joke,
And the joke was Me,
And the joke was on me --
Enlightenment isn't about "changing" or "improving",
But about getting calm and creative with things as they are.

The discovery was, at first, crushing.
The road out looked like punishment by "more of the same".
It took a long time for me to get
That any worthwhile, effective exploration into self
Cannot be assaultive,
But must be held in a context
Of unconditional love, humility, and total acceptance.
A realisation of Perfection is not
An ideal to be achieved,
But is justly a name for What-is, Just As It Is.

I did the journey hard --
Hard on me  and on everyone who cared about me.
I'd added the idea of "Getting Enlightened"
To a long "To-Do" list,
And to the huge pile of things I'd become attached to.
It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
Than for a logical, religious Westerner
To accept the need for trust, detachment and unconditional letting-go
Of all attachments and identifications -- ideas, concepts, beliefs, opinions and such....
While there is anything we are attached to emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or in any other way,
We are doing the splits,
And the Wholeness we look for will elude us.

Our present condition is a not a disease to be cured
Or a failure to be fixed
With tools of "enlightenment".
That's ego speaking.
Our present condition is an experience to be had
So that the wisdom gained from it can flow back to the Source
From whence we came,
From whence comes the energy vitalising this experience --
The Source that you and I truly are.