Sometimes,
All we can do is surrender and trust the process.
But it's not always easy to do.
How to have faith and in who or what?
How to let go of control completely and allow life to unfold unassisted by our ego-mind?
What if we could release the heavy load of fear and worry by handling our intentions and expectations to the Universe?
We could all use more faith in our lives.
These are uncertain times,
They say.
But the truth is that it's always been like this.
Since the moment we wake up each day,
Life is a mystery unfolding with only one constant change.
Everything is impermanent.
And when there is change in our lives,
We are confronted with the unknown and then we suffer and struggle.
Because we want to know what's next,
We want control.
And yet sometimes the most powerful thing to do is to surrender.
We all experience fear of the unknown and trust is such a powerful antidote for anxiety and worry,
Especially when we are doubting and need to make an important decision in our lives.
So today I'm very happy to share with you one of the most inspiring and wise contemplations on faith and trust.
I hope it brings you comfort as it did for me and awakening you the power of trust in the Universe.
An Act of Faith by Alan Watts Lao Tzu puts it in this way,
The great Tao flows everywhere,
Both to the left and to the right.
It loves and nourishes all things,
But does not lord it over them.
And when merits are accomplished,
It lays no claim to them.
The more,
Therefore,
You relinquish power,
Trust others,
The more powerful you become.
But in such a way that instead of having to lie awake nights,
Controlling everything,
You do it beautifully by trusting the job to everyone else.
And they carry it on for you.
This seems a sort of paradox to say this,
But the principle of unity,
Of coming to a sense of oneness with the whole of the rest of the Universe is not to try to obtain power over the rest of the Universe.
That will only disturb it and antagonize it and make it seem less one with you than ever.
The way to become one with the Universe is to trust it as another as you would another and say,
Let's see what you are going to do.
But in doing that,
You see,
In saying that to everything else that you have been thought to think is not you,
You are also saying it to yourself.
Because finally,
As I pointed out,
You do not know where your decisions come from.
They pop up like hiccups and when you make a decision,
People have a lot of anxiety about making decisions.
So when we decide,
We are always worrying.
Did I think this over long enough?
Did I take enough data into consideration?
And if you think it through,
You find you never could take enough data into consideration.
The data for a decision in any given situation is infinite.
So what you do is,
You go through the motions of thinking out what you will do about this and then,
When the time comes to act,
You make a snap judgment.
I am speaking a little extremely,
Making some fun of it and so on because after all,
We do occasionally get the outlines of things and make the right decision on rational grounds.
But we fortunately forget the variables that could have interfered with this coming out right.
It is amazing how often it works,
But worriers are people who think of all the variables beyond their control and what might happen.
So then,
When you make a decision and it works out alright,
I think very little of it has much to do with our conscious intent or control.
The more you let go of it and trust it,
As if it were quite other than you,
The more you realize the inseparable identity of self and other.
If you ever saw for example the film Kon-Tiki,
This man figured out a few things as to how to make a balsa wood raft to sail from South America to the Pacific Islands.
But once he has set this in motion,
He discovered that all sorts of unexpected factors cooperated with him,
That when the wood got wet it expanded so that the ties bit into it and held it completely secure.
He never expected that.
And he also found that as he sailed along,
A flying fish would simply lie flat on the deck every morning for breakfast,
That all kinds of natural factors,
It was as he had touched a key where he was flowing with the course of nature and everything cooperated with him.
Because he touched the key.
He made the act of faith.
Allow yourself to rest for a moment in silence,
To absorb these words,
To let them settle in.
And I invite you to close your eyes and see if you can realize it's possible for you to touch the key,
To flow,
Relax and trust the Universe.
Thank you for meditating.
Namaste.
