Surrender is for the strong and spiritual
By Maggie Richards
In life we can surrender – to a situation, guidance, a relationship – through choice. From love. Or be forced to surrender to the way things are when our world as we know it collapses around us. Though the latter triggers more suffering, both experiences are fertile ground for spiritual growth. Because all surrender is preparing us for the ultimate relationship – the unbreakable, ineffable one with our Creator.
Learning to give up their own ego-based will and entrusting their life to Divine Will is what saints, sages and Masters have done throughout the ages. To be, do and say what The Divine wishes us to do at all times is what ultimately leads to self-realisation and a bliss that no-one can take away from you. Imagine!
I began ‘seriously’ surrendering when I was 34 after three intense years of personal development, simultaneously doing two transformative therapy trainings. One of them – the Osho Risk Training – put meditation front centre. The philosophy was that therapy was preparation for meditation. A means of clearing the repressed dark emotions and beliefs that kept us from resting in deep meditation. And I loved it.
Searching for The One
I loved how free, joyful and loving I felt as I surrendered – by having the courage to expose without blame – to my emotional pain, shame, anger and vulnerability. The more honest I was in facing my darkness, the more light began flowing through me, adding a brand new glow to everything. I’d signed up for the training secretly hoping to meet The One, but wound up falling in love with me!
The year after finishing the Osho Risk Training a friend said it would be good for me to live at the spiritual retreat where the training happened – a magical little place in rural Denmark called Osho Risk. From the outside, it didn’t seem wise. In London I had a successful career as a national press journalist, a beautiful flat and good friends.
Did I really want to leave all I’d built and start again? Yes!, said my intuition, louder and louder. Yes! And, miraculously, I was ready to listen. I was ready to surrender to my heart’s longing to heal, and leap. A few months later, in March 2010, I put my last few belongings in a container in southeast London and headed back to Osho Risk.
Jumping into the unknown
I didn’t know how long I was staying or what would come next. I just knew I had to go. Nothing could ruffle this new, quiet readiness within to let go of life as I’d known it, and surrender to Divine Will (it was one sentence from a friend that triggered this blessed chain of events, remember). I had total faith it would carry me where I needed to go.
And oh my word, did it. To a life far more than sublime – and surreal – than I could have dreamed of. In the July, four months after I’d moved to Denmark, my Spiritual Teacher entered my life – via my inbox.
Little did I consciously know that in those first emails I was opening a door to a glorious new life stage that would in parts echo her fantastical story of spiritual transformation. Of an unimaginable new chapter marked by tests and trials of asceticism, purification and selflessness that would see me – with a great deal of loving assistance – embark on the Spiritual Path to Self-Mastery.
Protection on the Path
Guided and protected by my beautiful Teacher, I would go on to experience more bliss, more love and more happiness than ever. The training demanded surrender from the start – to my Teacher's authority, to higher laws, and to going with the flow – even when my lower self didn’t wish to! It also demanded daily meditation and prayer.
Surrender demands humility, courage and faith – three essentials of a spiritual life. Ultimately, it is to let go and let God, as the saying goes. Again and again and again. And The Divine, I have humbly come to discover, is the answer to everything we seek – for I believe we're all searching for the light.
More of my spiritual journey is revealed in A Guide to Being a Better Being
Learning to give up their own ego-based will and entrusting their life to Divine Will is what saints, sages and Masters have done throughout the ages. To be, do and say what The Divine wishes us to do at all times is what ultimately leads to self-realisation and a bliss that no-one can take away from you. Imagine!
I began ‘seriously’ surrendering when I was 34 after three intense years of personal development, simultaneously doing two transformative therapy trainings. One of them – the Osho Risk Training – put meditation front centre. The philosophy was that therapy was preparation for meditation. A means of clearing the repressed dark emotions and beliefs that kept us from resting in deep meditation. And I loved it.
Searching for The One
I loved how free, joyful and loving I felt as I surrendered – by having the courage to expose without blame – to my emotional pain, shame, anger and vulnerability. The more honest I was in facing my darkness, the more light began flowing through me, adding a brand new glow to everything. I’d signed up for the training secretly hoping to meet The One, but wound up falling in love with me!
The year after finishing the Osho Risk Training a friend said it would be good for me to live at the spiritual retreat where the training happened – a magical little place in rural Denmark called Osho Risk. From the outside, it didn’t seem wise. In London I had a successful career as a national press journalist, a beautiful flat and good friends.
Did I really want to leave all I’d built and start again? Yes!, said my intuition, louder and louder. Yes! And, miraculously, I was ready to listen. I was ready to surrender to my heart’s longing to heal, and leap. A few months later, in March 2010, I put my last few belongings in a container in southeast London and headed back to Osho Risk.
Jumping into the unknown
I didn’t know how long I was staying or what would come next. I just knew I had to go. Nothing could ruffle this new, quiet readiness within to let go of life as I’d known it, and surrender to Divine Will (it was one sentence from a friend that triggered this blessed chain of events, remember). I had total faith it would carry me where I needed to go.
And oh my word, did it. To a life far more than sublime – and surreal – than I could have dreamed of. In the July, four months after I’d moved to Denmark, my Spiritual Teacher entered my life – via my inbox.
Little did I consciously know that in those first emails I was opening a door to a glorious new life stage that would in parts echo her fantastical story of spiritual transformation. Of an unimaginable new chapter marked by tests and trials of asceticism, purification and selflessness that would see me – with a great deal of loving assistance – embark on the Spiritual Path to Self-Mastery.
Protection on the Path
Guided and protected by my beautiful Teacher, I would go on to experience more bliss, more love and more happiness than ever. The training demanded surrender from the start – to my Teacher's authority, to higher laws, and to going with the flow – even when my lower self didn’t wish to! It also demanded daily meditation and prayer.
Surrender demands humility, courage and faith – three essentials of a spiritual life. Ultimately, it is to let go and let God, as the saying goes. Again and again and again. And The Divine, I have humbly come to discover, is the answer to everything we seek – for I believe we're all searching for the light.
More of my spiritual journey is revealed in A Guide to Being a Better Being