In considering a different article, I realized there was a way to describe layers to the process of surrender.
Similar to the process of consciousness unfolding to itself, there is 2 intertwined processes. One is that of purification, the other of release.
They sound kind of synonymous but there’s a distinction. Purification is a cleansing of old fog or crud. Release in this context is a letting go of what’s been held onto, resulting in opening. The two can be tightly intertwined but are a distinct process – one in clearing the old dust, the other in allowing the opening to what is here beneath that. But we can even be holding onto crud.
At first we have the simple process of allowing or letting go. It is not something we do; it is something we let go of doing. This can happen after purification or with a bit of clarity or insight. Or, it may result in purification. Or both.
The next step is an opening – letting go results in a de-constriction, a relaxation, and/or a clearing. This leads to more open channels and a greater ability to support a larger sense of being and experience more subtle values.
Where a release feels like a letting go, an opening feels more like a stretch or expansion.
The third stage is the falling back or into. Here we settle deeper into the opening just created. We progressively settle deeper and deeper into source. This is intimate to the awakening process too.
And finally, we have the integration of what we can stabilize of this in our day-to-day experience.
If you’ve read some of the early articles here, you may recognize the cycle of growth:
disintegration, growth, integration, balance, and repeat
The process becomes part of our very nature as we return home.
Davidya
Last Updated on June 16, 2016 by
Thanks David, these words are ringing clear as a bell …{& they contain the answer to a question I asked recently 😉 } … wonderful!
🙂
It is uncanny how much this post reflects what I have been trying to articulate in my own practice. Lately, I have been feeling this inside: a stirring up of stuff accompanied by lots of thoughts, followed by an awareness that something just opened up as I feel myself settling in even more deeply. It is as if I can now feel the process of purification, release, and opening repeatedly as I do my practice. It is accompanied by upwellings of contentment and, at times, joy. It has probably been going on for years, but suddenly it feels like the curtain is being drawn back and I can actually watch the process. Agni melee.
Hi Tim
Right. Clarity can go in cycles but generally we gradually become more and more conscious of the processes of life, the universe, and everything (to reference Douglas Adams)
And yes – a curtain or veil. At a certain point, the layers become a normal part of our experience all the time. Though we may focus on one or another, it’s all just there.
And it’s very nice when the bliss body comes online… that’s another more subtle curtain.
Thanks for pointing out these distinctions. How does healing fit into this classification and also transformation. Sometimes difficult experiences are transformed into a positive aspect especially in tantric practices. I don’t think that would be purification – it seems to be different.
Hi K
This article is primarily focused on the surrender that takes place during a spiritual practice such as meditation or darshan. But it’s not a practice in itself, it is a non-doing.
Healing is more part of the preparation for such things. Clear the deck, then the clarity is there for surrender to take place in.
However, the release and purification I mention are also often associated with healing. But in this case healing is taking place as part of the process rather than as a technique. As an effect.
Transformation happens in the growth phase, as a result of healing and dissolving the old. Opening arises and our perspective is transformed.
Reframing a past trauma can be useful but real healing is when we resolve the energetic charge and it thus becomes neutral. The memory remains but it doesn’t trigger anything. Then the karma or the impressions can be said to be done.
We may then more broadly see things more positively but it’s important that is an effect rather than a practice. Making a new story may help us feel better but it’s not liberating.
Let me know if that wasn’t what you meant.