Y ou can a lleviate the ef fects
of uncon sciousness, but you cannot eliminate them unless you eliminate
their cause. T rue change happens within, not without. If yo u feel called upon to alleviate suf fering in the world, that is a very
noble th ing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on t he outer;
otherwise, you will encounter frustration and despair . W ithout a
profound change in human consciousness, the world’ s suf fering is a
bottomless pit. So don’ t let your compassion become one-sided. Empathy with someone else’ s pa in or lack and a desire to help need to be
balanced with a deeper realizatio n of the eternal nature of all life and the
ultimate illusion  of all pain. Then let your peace flow into what ever you
do and you will be working on the levels of ef fect and cause
simultaneously . This also applies if you are su pporting a movement designed to stop
deeply unconscious humans from destroying themselves, each other , and
the planet, or from continuing to inflict dreadful suf fering on other
sentient beings. Remember: Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you
cannot f ight unc onsciousness. If  you try to do so, the polar opposites will
become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. Y ou will become
identified with one of the polari ties, you will create an “enemy ,” and so
be drawn into unconscious ness yourself. Raise aware ness by
disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance. But ma ke sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no
negativity . “Lov e your enemies,” said Jesus, which, of course, means
“have no enemies.”Once you get in volved in working on the level of ef fect, it is all too easy
to lo se yourself in it. Stay alert and very , very present. The cau sal level
needs to  remain your primary fo cus, the teaching of enlightenment your
main purpose, and peace your most precious gift to the world.CHAPTER TEN
T H E  M E A N I N G  O F
 S U R R E N D E R
ACCEPT ANCE OF THE NOW
Y ou mentioned “surr ender” a few times. I don’ t like that idea. It sounds
somewhat fatali stic. If we alway s accept the way things ar e, we ar e not
going to  make any effort to imp r ove them. It seems to me what pr ogr ess
is al l about, bot h in our person al lives and collectively , is not to accept
the limitations of the pr esent bu t to strive to go beyond them and cr eate
something better . If we hadn’ t done this, we would still be living in caves. How do you r ec oncile surr ender  with changing things and getting things
done? T o some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying
defeat, g iving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, b ecoming
lethar gic, and so on. T rue surrender , however , is something entirely
dif ferent. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation
you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean  to cease
making plans or initiating positive action. Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to  rather than
opposing  the flow  of life. The only place  where you can  experie nce the
flow of life is the Now , so to surrender is to accept the present  moment
unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner
resistance to what is . Inn er r esistance is to say “no”  to what is , through
mental judgment and emotional negativity . It becomes pa rticularly
pronounced whe n things “go wrong,” which means that there is a gapbetween the demands or rigid expectations of your mind and  what is . That is the pain gap. If you hav e lived long enough, you will know that
things “go wrong” quite often. It is precisely at those times that surrender
needs to  be practiced if you wan t to eliminate pain and sorrow from your
life. Acceptance of what is  immed iately frees you from mind
identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is  the
mind. Surrender is a purely inner phenomenon. It does not mean that on the
outer level you cannot take acti on and change the situation. In fact, it is
not t he o verall s ituation that you need to accept when you surre nder , but
just the tiny segment called the Now . For example, if you were stuck  in the mud somewhere, you wouldn’ t
say: “Ok ay , I resign myself to being stuck in the mud.” Resig nation is
not s urrender . Y ou don’ t need to  accept an undesirable or unpleasant life
situation. Nor do you need to deceive yourself and say that there is
nothing wrong with being stuck  in the mud. No. Y ou recognize fully that
you want to get out of it. Y ou then narrow your attention down to the
present m oment without mentall y labeling it in any way . This means that
there is no judgment of the No w . Therefore, there is no resis tance, no
emotional negativity . Y ou accep t the “isness” of this moment. Then you
take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud. Such action I
call posi tive action. It is far more ef fective than negative action, which
arises ou t of anger , despair , or f rustration. Until you achieve the desired
result, y ou continue to practice surrender by refraining from labeling the
Now . Let me give you a visual analog y to illustrate the point I am mak ing. Y ou
are walk ing alo ng a path at night, surrounded by a thick fog. But you
have a powerful  flashlight that c uts through the fog and creates a narrow ,
clear space in front of you. The fog is your life situation, which  includes
past and future; the flashlight is your conscious presence; the cl ear space
is the Now . Non-surrender h ardens your psychological form, the shell of the ego, and
so creat es a strong sense of separateness. The world around you and
people in particular come to be perceived as threatening. The
unconscious compulsion to destroy others through judgment arises, as
does the need to compete and  dominate. Even nature becomes yourenemy a nd you r perceptions and interpretations are governed  by fear . The men tal dise ase that we cal l paranoia is only a slightly more acute
form of this normal but dysfunctional state of consciousness. Not only  your psychological form but also your physical form  — your
body — becomes hard and rigid through resistance. T ension arises in
dif ferent parts of the body , and the body as a whole contracts. The free
flow of life ener gy through the body , which is essential for it s healthy
functioning, is greatly restricted. Bodywork and certain forms of
physical therapy  can be helpfu l in restoring this flow , but unless you
practice surrender in your everyday life, those things can only give
temporary symptom relief since the cause — the resistance pattern —
has not been dissolved. There is  something within you that remains unaf fected by the transient
circumstances that make up your life situation, and only through
surrender do you have access t o it. It is your life, your very Being —
which exists eternally in the timeless realm of the present. Finding this
life is “the one thing that is needed” that Jesus talked about. If yo u fi nd your life situation unsatisfactory or even intolerable, it is only
by surre ndering first that you can break the unconscious r esistance
pattern that perpetuates that situation. Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or
achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally dif ferent ener gy , a
dif ferent quality , flows into your doing. Surrender reconnects you with
the sour ce-ener gy of Being, and if your doing is infused with Being, it
becomes a joyful celebration of  life ener gy that takes you more deeply
into the Now . Through nonresis tance, the quality of your consc iousness
and, therefore, the quality of whatever you are doing or cr eating is
enhanced immea surably . The results will then look after themselves and
reflect that quality . W e could call this surr ender ed action . It is not work
as we have known it for thousa nds of years. As more humans  awaken,
the word work  i s going  to disappear from our vocabulary , and perhaps a
new word will be created to replace it.It is  the quality  of your conscio usness at this moment that is the main
determinant of what kind of future you will experience, so to sur render is
the m ost important thing you ca n do to br ing about p ositive change. Any
action you take is secondary . No  truly positive action can arise out of an
unsurrendered state of consciousness. I c an see that if I am in a situa tion that is unpleasant or unsatisfactory
and I completely  accept the moment as it is, ther e will be no suf fering or
unhappiness. I will have risen a bove it. But I still can’ t quite see wher e
the ener gy or motivation for taking action and bringing about change
would come fr om if ther e isn’ t a certain amount of dissatisfaction . In th e st ate of surrender , you see very clearly what needs to be done, and
you take  action,  doing one thing  at a time and focusing on one thing at a
time. Learn from nature: See how  everything gets accomplished  and how
the mira cle of life unfolds without dissatisfaction or unhappiness. That’ s
why Jesus said: “Look at the lil ies, how they grow; they neithe r toil nor
spin.”
If your overall situation is unsatisfactory or unpleasant, separate out this
instant  and surrender to  what is . Th at’ s the flash light cutting through the
fog. Y our state o f consciousness then ceases to be controlled by  external
conditions. Y ou are no longer coming from reaction and resistance. Then look at the specifics of the situation. Ask yourself, “Is there
anything I can do to change the situation, improve it, or remove myself
from it?” If so , you take app ropriate action. Focus not on the one
hundred things that you will or may have to do at some future  time but
on the one thing  that you can do now . This doesn’ t mean you sh ould not
do any planning . It may well be that planning is the one thing yo u can do
now . But make sure you don’ t start to run “mental movies, ” project
yourself into the future, and so lose the Now . Any action you take may
not bear  fruit immediately . Unti l it does — do not resist what is. If there
is no action you can take, and you cannot remove yourself from the
situation either , then use the situation to make you go more de eply into
surrender , more deeply into the Now , more deeply into Being. When youenter this timeless dimension of the present, change often comes  about in
strange w ays without the need fo r a great deal of doing on your part. Life
becomes helpful and cooperative. If inner factors such as fear ,  guilt, or
inertia prevented you from taking action, they will dissolve in the light of
your conscious presence. Do not confuse surrender with an attitude of “I can’ t be bothered
anymore” or “I just don’ t care anymore.” If you look at it clo sely , you
will find that such an attitude is tainted with negativity in the  form of
hidden resentme nt and so is not surrender at all but masked resistance. As you surrende r , direct your a ttention inward to check if the re is any
trace of resistance left inside you. Be very alert when you do so;
otherwise, a pocket of resistance may continue to hide in some dark
corner in the form of a thought or an unacknowledged emotion. FROM MIND ENERGY T O SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Letting go of r esistance is easie r said than done. I still don’ t see clearly
how to let go. If you say it is by surr endering, the question r emains:
“How?”
 
Start by acknowledging that there is  resistance. Be  the re when it
happens, when the resistance ar ises. Observe how your mind c reates it,
how it labels t he situation, yourself, or others. Look at the  thought
process involve d. Feel the ener gy of th e emotion. By witnessing  the
resistance, you will see that it s erves no purpose. By focusing all your
attention on the Now , the uncon scious resistance is made conscious, and
that is the end o f it. Y ou canno t be conscious and  unhappy , conscious
and  in nega tivity . Negativity , unhappiness, or suf fering in whatever form
means that there is resistance, and resistance is always unconscious. Sur ely I can be conscious of my unhappy feelings? W ould y ou cho ose unhappiness ? If you did not choose it, ho w did it
arise? W hat is its purpose? Who  is keeping it alive? Y ou say tha t you are
conscious of your unhappy feelings, but the truth is that you are
identified with them and keep the process alive through co mpulsive
thinking. All that  is unconscious. If you were conscious, that is to say
totally present in the Now , all ne gativity would dissolve almost instantly . It could not survive in your presence. It can only survive in your
absence. Even the pain-body ca nnot survive for long in your presence. Y ou kee p your unhappiness aliv e by giving it time. That is its lifeblood. Remove time through intense pr esent-moment awareness and it dies. But
do you want it to die? Have yo u truly had enough? Who would you be
without it? Until yo u practice surrender , the spiritual dimension is something you
read about, talk about, get excited about, write books about, think about,
believe in — or don’ t, as the case may be. It makes no dif ference. Not
until you surrender does it becom e a living reality in your life. W hen you
do, the ener gy t hat you emanate and which then runs your life is of a
much hi gher vibrational freque ncy than the mind ener gy that still runs
our world — th e ener gy that created the existing social, political, and
economic structures of our civilization, and which also continuously
perpetuates itself through our educational systems and the media. Through surrend er , spiritual ener gy comes into this world. It c reates no
suf fering for yourself, for other humans, or any other life form on the
planet. U nlike mind ener gy , it does not pollute the earth, and it is not
subject to the law of polarities, which dictates that nothing can exist
without its opposite, that there can be no good without bad. Th ose who
run on mind e ner gy , which is still the vast majority of the  Earth’ s
population, rem ain unaware of the existence of spiritual ener gy . It
belongs to a dif ferent order of reality and will create a dif ferent world
when a suf ficien t number of humans enter the surrendered sta te and so
become totally free of negativity . If the Earth is to survive, thi s will be
the ener gy of those who inhabit it. Jesus referred to this ener gy when he made his famous prophetic
statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the gentle; they
shall have the earth for their possession.” It is a silent bu t intense
presence that dissolves the unconscious patterns of the mind. They may
still rem ain active for a while, but they won’ t run your life anymore. Theexternal conditions that were being resisted also tend to shift or dissolve
quickly through surrender . It is a powerful transformer of situations and
people. If conditions do not sh ift immediately , your acceptance of the
Now enables you to rise above them. Either way , you are free. SURRENDER IN PERSONAL RELA TIONSHIPS
What about people who want to use me, manipulate or contr ol me? Am I
to surr ender to them? They are  cut of f from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get ener gy
and pow er from  you. It is true that only an unconscious person will try to
use or manipulate others, but it is equally true that only an unconscious
person can  be used  and manipulated. If you resist or fight unconscious
behavior in others, you become unconscious yourself. But surrender
doesn’ t mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. It is perfectly possible to say “no” firmly and cle arly to a
person or to walk away from a situation and be in a state of complete
inner no nresistance at the same t ime. When you say “no” to a pe rson or a
situation, let it come not from reaction but from insight, from a clear
realization of what is right or not right for you at that moment. Let it be a
nonreactive “no, ” a high-quality “no,” a “no” that is free of all n egativity
and so creates no further suf fering. I a m in a situation at work that is unpleasant. I have tried to surr ender to
it, but I find it impossible. A lot of r esistance keeps coming up . If you cannot surrender , take  action immediately: Speak up or do
something to bring about a change in the situation — or remove  yourself
from it. T ake re sponsibility for your life. Do not pollute your b eautiful,
radiant inner Being nor the Earth with negativity . Do not give
unhappiness in any form whatsoever a dwelling place inside you. If you cannot tak e action, for ex ample if you are in prison, then you have
two choices left: resistance or su rrender . Bondage or inner freedom from
external conditions. Suf fering or inner peace. Is no nr esistance  also to be practiced in the external conduct of our lives,
such as nonr esistance to violen ce, or is it something that just concerns
our inner life? Y ou only need to  be concerned w ith the inner aspect. That is primary . Of
course, that will also transform  the conduct of your outer life, your
relationships, and so on. Y our relationships will be changed profoundly by surrender . If you can
never accept what is , by implication  you will not be able to accept
anybody the way they are. Y o u will judge, criticize, label, r eject, or
attempt to change people. Furt hermore, if you continuously make the
Now into a means to an end i n the future, you will also make every
person you encounter or relate with into a means to an end. The
relationship — the human being — is then of secondary importance to
you, or of no im portance at all. What you can get out of the rel ationship
is primary — be it material gain, a sense of power , physical pleasure, or
some form of ego gratification. Let me illustrat e how surrender can work in relationships. When you
become involved  in an ar gument or some conflict situation, perh aps with
a pa rtner or som eone close to yo u, start by observing how defen sive you
become as your own position is  attacked, or feel the force of your own
aggression as you attack the other person’ s position. Obs erve the
attachment to your views and opinions. Feel the mental-emotional
ener gy b ehind y our need to be right and make the other person wrong. That’ s t he ener gy of the egoic mind. Y ou make it conscious by
acknowledging it, by feeling it as fully as possible. Then one day , in the
middle of an ar gument, you will suddenly realize that you have a choice,
and you may decide to drop your own reaction — just to see whathappens. Y ou surrender . I don’ t mean dropping the reaction just verbally
by sayin g, “Oka y , you are right,” with a look on your face that says, “I
am above all th is childish unconsciousness.” That’ s just displa cing the
resistance to another level, with the egoic mind still in char ge, claiming
superiority . I am speaking of le tting go of the entire mental-e motional
ener gy field inside you that was fighting for power . The ego is cunning, so you have to be very alert, very present, and totally
honest w ith yourself to see wh ether you have truly relinquished your
identification with a mental position and so freed yourself from your
mind. If you sud denly feel very light, clear , and deeply at peace, that is
an u nmistakable  sign that you have truly surrendered. Then obse rve what
happens to the o ther person’ s mental position as you no longer ener gize
it throug h resistance. When identification with mental positions is out of
the way , true communication begins. What ab out nonr esistance in the face of violence, aggr ession, and the
like? Nonresistance d oesn’ t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is
that any “doing” becomes nonreactive. Remember the deep wisdom
underlying the practice of E astern martial arts: Don’ t resist the
opponent’ s force. Y ield to overcome. Having said that, “doing nothing” when you are in a state of intense
presence is a v ery powerful transformer and healer of situations and
people. In T aoism, there is a term called wu wei , wh ich is usually
translated as “actionless activity ” or “sitting quietly doing nothing.” In
ancient China, this was regarded as one of the highest achievements or
virtues. It is radically dif ferent from inactivity in the ordinary state of
consciousness, or rather unconsciousness, which stems from fear , inertia,
or in decision. The real “doing nothing” implies inner nonresistance and
intense alertness. On t he other ha nd, if action is required, you will no longer re act from
your conditioned mind, but you will respond to the situation out of yourconscious presence. In that state, your mind is free of concepts, i ncluding
the concept of non-violence. So who can predict what you will do? The ego believes that in your r esistance lies your strength, whereas in
truth resistance cuts you of f from Being, the only place of true power . Resistance is weakness and fear masquerading as strength. What the ego
sees as weaknes s is your Being in its purity , innocence, and power . What
it se es as stren gth is weakness. So the ego exists in a continuous
resistance-mode and plays counterfeit roles to cover up your “weakness,”
which in truth is your power . Until the re is surrender , unconsc ious role-playing constitutes a lar ge part
of h uman interaction. In surrend er , you no longer need ego defenses and
false masks. Y ou become very simple, very real. “That’ s dangerous,”
says the ego. “Y ou’ll get hurt. Y ou’ll become vulnerable.” What the ego
doesn’ t know , of course, is that only through the letting go of resistance,
through becomin g “vulnerable,”  can you discover your true and essential
invulnerability . TRANSFORMING ILLNESS INT O ENLIGHTENMENT
If someo ne is seriously ill and completely accepts their cond ition and
surr enders to the illness, would  they not have given up their w ill to get
back to health? The determinati on to fight the illness would not be ther e
anymor e, would it? Surrender is inner acceptance of what is  without any reservations. W e are
talking about your life  — this instant — not the conditions or
circumstances o f your life, not what I call your life situation. W e have
spoken about this already . W ith reg ard to illness, this is w hat it means. Illness is part of your life
situation. As such, it has a past and a future. Past and future form an
uninterrupted co ntinuum, unles s the redeeming power of the  Now is
activated through your consciou s presence. As you know , underneath the
various conditio ns that make up your life situation, which exists in time,
there is somethi ng deeper , more essential: your Life, your very Being in
the timeless Now .As there are no problems in the Now , there is no illness either . The belief
in a labe l that someone attaches  to your condition keeps the condition in
place, empower s it, and makes a seemingly solid reality out of a
temporary imba lance. It gives i t not only reality and solidity but also a
continuity in time that it did not  have before. By focusing on this instant
and refr aining from labeling it mentally , illness is reduced to one or
several of these factors: physical pain, weakness, discomfort, or
disability . That  i s what you sur render to — now . Y ou do not surrender to
the idea of “illness.” Allow the suf fering to force you into the present
moment, into a state of int ense conscious presence. Use it for
enlightenment. Surrender does not transform what is , a t least not d irectly . Surrende r
transforms you . When you  are transformed, your whole world is
transformed, because the world is only a reflection. W e spoke about this
earlier . If you looked in the mirror and did not like what you saw , you would
have to be mad to attack the image in the mirror . That is precisely what
you do when you are in a state of nonacceptance. And, of course, if you
attack the image, it attacks you back. If you accept the image, no matter
what it is, if you become frie ndly toward it, it cannot not  become
friendly toward you. This is how you change the world. Illness is not the problem. Y ou  are the problem  — as long as the egoic
mind is in control. When you are ill or disabled, do not feel that you have
failed in some w ay , do not feel guilty . Do not blame life for trea ting you
unfairly , but do not blame yourself either . All that is resistance. If you
have a major illness, use it for enlightenment. Anything “bad” that
happens in your life — use it for enlightenment. W ithdraw time  from the
illness. Do not give it any past  or future. Let it force you into intense
present-moment awareness — and see what happens. Become an alchemist. T ransmute base metal into gold, suf fering into
consciousness, disaster into enlightenment. Are you seriously ill and feeling  angry now about what I have j ust said? Then that is a clear sign that the  illness has become part of your sense of
self and that you are now protecting your identity — as well asprotecting the illness. The cond ition that is labeled “illness” has  nothing
to do with who you truly are. WHEN DISASTER STRIKES
As far as the sti ll unconscious majority of the population is co ncerned,
only a critical limit-situation ha s the potential to crack the hard shell of
the ego and force them into surr ender and so into the awakened  state. A
limit-situation arises when through some disaster , drastic upheaval, deep
loss, or suf fering your whole world is s hattered and doesn’ t make sense
anymore. It is an encounter with death, be it physical or psych ological. The egoic mind, the creator of t his world, collapses. Out of the  ashes of
the old world, a new world can then come into being. There is  no guarantee, of course , that even a limit-situation will do it, but
the potential is always there. Some people’ s resistance to what is  even
intensifies in such a situation, and so it becomes a descent into hell. In
others, t here may only be partial  surrender , but even that will give them a
certain depth and serenity that were not there before. Parts of the ego
shell bre ak of f, and this allows small amounts of the radiance a nd peace
that lie beyond the mind to shine through. Limit-situations have produced many miracles. There ha ve been
murderers on death row waiting for execution who, in the last few hours
of their lives, experienced the egoless state and the deep joy and peace
that come with it. The inner resistance to the situation they found
themselves in became so intense as to produce unbearable suf fering, and
there was nowhere to run and nothing to do to escape it, not even a mind-
projected future . So they were forced into complete acceptance of the
unacceptable. They were forced into surrender . In this way , they were
able to enter the state of grace w ith which comes redemption: complete
release from the past. Of course, it is not really the limit-situation that
makes room for the miracle of grace and redemption, but the act of
surrender . So whenever any kind of disaster strikes, or something goes seriously
“wrong” — illness, disability , loss of home or fortune or of a socially
defined identity ,  breakup of a close relationship, death or suf fering of a
loved on e, or your own impending death — know that there i s anotherside to it, that you are just one step away from something incr edible: a
complete alchemical transmutation of the base metal of pain and
suf fering into gold. That one step is called surrender . I do not mean to  say that you will become happy in such a situa tion. Y ou
will not. But fear and pain will  become transmuted into an inn er peace
and serenity that come from a very deep place — from the Unmanifested
itself. It is “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.”
Compared to that, happiness is quite a shallow thing. W ith this radiant
peace co mes the  realization — not on the level of mind but within the
depth of  your Being — that you  are indestructible, immortal. This is not
a belief. It is absolute certainty that needs no external evidence or proof
from some secondary source. TRANSFORMING SUFFERING INT O PEACE
I r ead about a stoic philosopher in ancient Gr eece who, when he was
told that his son had died in a n accident, r eplied, “I knew he  was not
immortal.” Is that surr ender? If it is, I don’ t want it. Ther e ar e some
situations in which surr ender seems unnatural and inhuman . Being cut of f from your feelings is not surrender . But we don’ t know
what his inner state was when he said those words. In certain extreme
situations, it may still be imposs ible for you to accept the Now . But you
always get a second chance at surrender . Y our first chance is to surrender each moment to the reality of that
moment. Knowing that what is  cannot be undone — because it already is
— you say yes to what is  o r accept what isn’ t. Then you  do what you
have to do, whatever the situati on requires. If you abide in this state of
acceptance, you create no more negativity , no more suf fering, no more
unhappiness. Y o u then live in a state of nonresistance, a state of grace
and lightness, free of struggle. Whenever you are unable to do that, whenever you miss that c hance —
either b ecause you are not generating enough conscious presence to
prevent some habitual and uncon scious resistance pattern from arising or
because the condition is so extr eme as to be absolutely unacceptable toyou — then you  are creating som e form of pain, some form of suf fering. It may look as if  the situation is creating the suf fering, but ultim ately this
is not so — your resistance is. Now her e is your second chance at surrender: If you cannot acc ept what
is outside, then accept what is inside . If you cannot accept the external
condition, accep t the internal condition. This means: Do not resist the
pain. Allow it to be there. Surrender to the grief, despair , fear , loneliness,
or whatever form the suf fering takes. W itness it without labeling it
mentally . Embrace it. Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes
deep suf fering into deep peace. This is your crucifixion. Let it become
your resurrection and ascension. I d o not see how  one can surr ender to suffering. As you yoursel f pointed
out, suffering  is non-surr ender . How could yo u surr ender to non-
surr ender? For get about surrender for a moment. When your pain is deep, all talk of
surrender will probably seem fu tile and meaningless anyway . When your
pain is deep, you will likely have a strong ur ge to escape from it rather
than sur render to it. Y ou don’ t want to feel what you feel. What  could be
more normal? But there is no escape, no way out. There a re many
pseudo escapes — work, drink, drugs, anger , projection, suppression,
and so on — but they don’ t fre e you from the pain. Suf fering does not
diminish in intensity when you  make it unconscious. When y ou deny
emotional pain, everything you do or think as well as your rela tionships
become contami nated with it. Y o u broadcast it, so to speak, as th e ener gy
you emanate, and others will pick it up subliminally . If they are
unconscious, they may even feel compelled to attack or hurt you in some
way , or you may hurt them in an unconscious projection of your pain. Y ou attract and manifest whatever corresponds to your inner state. When there is no way out, there is still always a way thr ough . So don’ t
turn away from the pain. Face it . Feel it fully . Feel  it — don’ t think  about
it! E xpress it if necessary , but don’ t create a script in your mind around
it. Give all your attention to t he feeling, not to the person, event, or
situation that seems to have cau sed it. Don’ t let the mind use th e pain to
create a victim identity for yourself out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself
and telli ng others your story wil l keep you stuck in suf fering. Since it is
impossible to get away from the feeling, the only possibility of change isto move  into it; otherwise, nothing will shift. So give your complete
attention to what you feel, and r efrain from mentally labeling it. As you
go into the feeli ng, be intensely alert. At first, it may seem like a dark
and terrifying place, and when the ur ge to turn away from it comes,
observe it but d on’ t act on it. Keep putting your attention on the pain,
keep feeling the grief, the fear , the dread, the loneliness, whatever it is. Stay aler t, stay present — present with your whole Being, with e very cell
of y our body . As you do so, you are bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of your consciousness. At th is s tage, yo u don’ t need to be concerned with surrender anymore. It
has hap pened already . How? Full attention is  f ull acceptanc e, is
surrender . By giving full attentio n, you use the power of the No w , which
is th e power of your presence . No hidden pocket of resist ance can
survive in it. Presence removes time. W ithout time, no suf fering, no
negativity , can survive. The acceptance of suf fering is a journey into death. Facing d eep pain,
allowing it to be, taking your attention into it, is to ent er death
consciously . When you have died this death, you realize that there is no
death — and the re is nothing to fear . Only the ego dies. Imagine  a ray of
sunlight that has for gotten it is an inseparable part of the sun and  deludes
itself int o believing it has to fight for survival and create and cl ing to an
identity other than the sun. W ould the death of this delusion not be
incredibly liberating? Do you want an easy death? W ould you rather die without pain, without
agony? Then die to the past every moment, and let the light  of your
presence shine away the heavy , time-bound self you thought of as “you.”
THE W A Y OF THE CROSS
Ther e ar e many accounts of people who say they have found God
thr ough their deep suffering, and ther e is the Christian expr ession “the
way of the cr oss,” which I suppose points to the same thing . W e are concerned with nothing else here. Strictly speaking , they did not find God through their suf fering , because
suf fering implies resistance. They found God through surrender , through
total acceptance of what is , into which they were forced by their intense
suf fering. They must have realiz ed on some level that their pain was self-
created. How do you equate surr ender with finding God? Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of
resistance — surrender — is the end of the mind as your master , the
impostor preten ding to be “you ,” the false god. All judgmen t and all
negativity dissol ve. The realm o f Being, which had been obscur ed by the
mind, th en opens up. Suddenly , a great stillness arises within you, an
unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy . And wit hin that joy , there is lov e. And at the innermost core, there is the
sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named. I don’ t call it finding God, because how can you find that which was
never lost, the very life that you are? The word God is limiting  not only
because of thousands of years of misperception and misuse, but also
because it implies an entity other than you. God is Being itself, not a
being. There can be no subject -object relationship here, no duality , no
you and  Go d. God-realization is the m ost natural thing there is. The
amazing and incomprehensible fact is not that you can  become conscious
of G od b ut that you are not  conscious of God. The way of the cross that
you mentioned is the old way to enlightenment, and until recently it was
the only  way . But don’ t dismiss it or underestimate its ef ficacy . It still
works. The way of the cross is a comple te reversal. It means that the worst thing
in your life, your cross, turns into the best thing that ever hap pened to
you, by forcing you into surren der , into “death,” forcing you to  become
as nothing, to become as God — because God, too, is no-thing. At this time, as far as the unconscious majority of humans is concerned,
the w ay of the cross is still the only way . They will only awaken  through
further suf fering , and enlightenment as a collective phenomenon will be
predictably preceded by vast upheavals. This process reflects the
workings of certain universa l laws that govern the growth ofconsciousness and thus was foreseen by some seers. It is d escribed,
among o ther places, in the Boo k of Revelation or Apocalypse, though
cloaked in obscure and som etimes impenetrable symbology . This
suf fering is inflicted not by God but by humans on themselves and on
each other , as well as by certain defensive measures that the Earth, which
is a living, intelligent or ganism, is going to take to protect herself from
the onslaught of human madness. However , there  is a growing number of humans alive toda y whose
consciousness is suf ficiently ev olved not to need any more suf fering
before the realization of enlightenment. Y ou may be one of them. Enlightenment t hrough suf fering  — the way of the cross — means to be
forced into the kingdom of heaven kicking and screaming. Y ou finally
surrender becau se you can’ t sta nd the pain anymore, but the pain could
go o n for a long time until this happens. Enlightenment consciously
chosen m eans to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to
make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in
the state of pres ence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is . Y ou then  don’ t need pain anymore. How much more time do y ou think
you will need before you are able to say , “I will create no more pain, no
more suf fering” ? How much more pain do you need before you can
make that choice? If you think that you need more time, you will get more time — and
more pain. T ime and pain are inseparable. THE POWER T O CHOOSE
What about all those people who, it seems, actually want to suffer? I
have a friend whose partner is physically abusive towar d her , and her
pr evious r elation ship was of a similar kind. Why does she choose such
men, and why is  she r efusing to get out of that situation now? W hy do so
many people actually choose pain? I k now that the  word choose  is  a fav orite N ew Age term, b ut it isn’ t
entirely accurate in this context. It is misleading to say that somebody
“chose” a dysfunctional relationship or any other negative situation in hisor her life. Choice implies consciousness — a high degree of
consciousness. W ithout it, you have no choice. Choice begins the
moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the
moment you become present. Until you reach that point, you are
unconscious, spi ritually speaking. This means that you are compelled to
think, fe el, and act in certain wa ys according to the conditioning of your
mind. T hat is why Jesus said: “For give them, fo r they know not what
they do.” This is not related to intelligence in the conventional sense of
the word . I have met many highly intelligent and educated people who
were als o completely unconscious, which is to say completely i dentified
with their mind. In fact, if mental development and increased knowledge
are n ot c ounterbalanced by a corresponding growth in consciousness, the
potential for unhappiness and disaster is very great. Y our friend is st uck in a relation ship with an abusive partner , and not for
the first  time. Why? No choice . The mind, conditioned as it is by the
past, alw ays see ks to re-create w hat it knows and is familiar with. Even
if it is p ainful, at least it is fa miliar . The mind always adheres to the
known. The unknown is dange rous because it has no control over it. That’ s why the mind dislikes and ignores the present moment. Present-
moment awaren ess creates a gap not only in the stream of mind  but also
in the past-future continuum. Nothing truly new and creative can come
into this world except through that gap, that clear space of infinite
possibility . So your  friend, being identified with her mind, may be recreating a
pattern learned in the past in w hich intimacy and abuse are inseparably
linked. A lternatively , she may be acting out a mind pattern learned in
early childhood according to w hich she is unworthy and deserves to be
punished. It is possible, too, tha t she lives a lar ge part of her life through
the pain-body , which always s eeks more pain on which to feed. Her
partner has his own unconscious patterns, which complement hers. Of
course h er situation is self-created, but who or what is the se lf that is
doing the creating? A mental-em otional pattern from the past, no more. Why m ake a self out of it? If you tell her that she has chosen her
condition or situation, you are reinforcin g her state of mind
identification. But is her mind p attern who she is? Is it her sel f? Is her
true ide ntity de rived from the past? Show your friend how to be the
observing presen ce behind her thoughts and her emotions. T ell h er aboutthe pain-body and how to free h erself from it. T each her the art of inner -
body awareness. Demonstrate to her the meaning of presence. As soon as
she is able to ac cess the power of the Now , and thereby break  through
her conditioned past, she will  have a choice. Nobody chooses  dys function, conflict, pain. No body chooses  insanity . They happen because there is not enough presence in you to dissolve the
past, not enough light to dispel the darkness. Y ou are not fully h ere. Y ou
have no t quite woken up yet. In  the meantime, the conditioned mind is
running your life. Similarly , if you are one of the m any people who have an issue with their
parents, if you still harbor rese ntment about something they did or did
not do, then you  still believe th at they had a choice — that they could
have act ed dif ferently . It always looks  as if people had a choice, but that
is an illusion. As long as your mind with its conditioned patterns runs
your life , as long as you ar e  your mind, what choice do you have? None. Y ou ar e not even there. T he mind-identified state is severely
dysfunctional. It is a form of insanity . Almost everyone is suf fer ing from
this illne ss in varying degrees. The moment you realize this, there can be
no more  resentment. How can you resent someone’ s illness? The only
appropriate response is compassion. So that means n obody is r esponsible for what they do? I don’ t like that
idea . If you are run b y your mind, although you have no choice you  will still
suf fer the consequences of your unconsciousness, and you will create
further suf fering . Y ou will bear the burden of fear , conflict, problems,
and pain . The suf fering thus created will eventually force you out of your
unconscious state. What yo u say about choice als o applies to for giveness, I suppose. Y ou
need to be fully conscious and surr ender befor e you can for give . “For giveness” is a term that has  been in use for two thousand y ears, but
most people have a very limited view of what it means. Y ou cannot truly
for give yourself  or others as long as you derive your sense of self from
the past. Only through accessing the power of the Now , which is your
own po wer , can there be tru e for giveness. This renders the past
powerless, and you realize deeply that nothing you ever did or that was
ever don e to you could touch even in the slightest the radiant e ssence of
who yo u are. The whole concept of for giveness then becomes
unnecessary . And how do I get to that point of r ealization? When y ou surrender to what is  and  so become fully present, the past
ceases to have a ny power . Y ou do not need it anymore. Presence is the
key . The Now is the key . How will I know when I have surr ender ed? When you no longer need to ask the question. N O T E S
 
1  Arth ur K oestler , The Ghost in the Machine  (London: Arkana, 1989), p.
180. 2  Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, The Grand Failur e  (New Y ork: Charles
Scribner ’ s Sons, 1989), pp. 239–40. 3  A Course in Miracles  (Huntin gton St ation, NY : Foundation for Inner
Peace, 1975), introduction. 4  Ruth L. Sivard, W orld Military and Social Expenditur es 1996, 16th
Edition  (W ashington D.C.: W orld Priorities, 1996), p. 7.A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
 
 
I am  dee ply than kful to Connie Kellough for her loving support and her
vital par t in transforming the m anuscript into this book and bringing it
out into the world. It is a joy to work with her . I extend  my gratitude to Corea Ladner and those wonderful people who
have contributed to this book by giving me space , that most precious of
gifts — space to write and space to be . Th ank you to Adrienne Bradley
in V ancouver , to Mar garet Mil ler in London and Angie Fran cesco in
Glastonbury , En gland, Richard in Menlo Park and Rennie Fru mkin in
Sausalito, California. I am  also thankful to Shirley Spaxman and Howard Kellough for their
early review of the manuscript and helpful feedback, as well as to those
individuals who were kind enough to review the manuscript at a later
stage and provide additional in put. Thank you to Rose Dende wich for
word-processing the manuscript in her unique cheerful and professional
manner . Finally , I would like to express my love and gratitude to my mother and
father , without whom this book  would not have come into existence, to
my spiritual teachers, and to the greatest guru of all: life.A B O U T  T H E  A U T H O R
 
 
Eckhart T olle was born in Ger many , where he spent the first thirteen
years of  his life. After graduating from the University of London, he was
a r esearc h scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University . When he was
twenty-nine, a profound spiritu al transformation virtually diss olved his
old identity and radically changed the course of his life. He devoted the next few ye ars to understanding, integrating, and
deepening that transformation, w hich marked the beginning of an intense
inward journey . Eckhart is not aligned with any particular religion or
tradition. In his teaching, he conveys a simple yet profound message
with the  timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual
masters: there is a way out of suf fering and into peace. Eckhart is currently traveling extensively , taking his teachings  and his
presence throughout the world. He has lived in V ancouver , Canada, since
1996. For upc oming events, books, and audios and videos of E ckhart’ s
seminars, visit his website:
www .EckhartT olle.com 
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teaches methods that are practical and easy to incorporate into daily life. Living in the Light: A Guide to Personal and Planetary T ransformation
by Shakti Gawain. Shakti tackles the importance of listening to our
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_OceanofPDF.com_The_Power_of_Now__A_Guide_to_Spiritual_Enl_-_Eckhart_Tolle.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Y ou can a lleviate the ef fects
of uncon sciousness, but you cannot eliminate them unless you eliminate
their cause. T rue change happens within, not without. If yo u feel called upon to alleviate suf fering in the world, that is a very
noble th ing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on t he outer;
otherwise, you will encounter frustration and despair. W ithout a
profound change in human consciousness, the world’ s suf fering is a
bottomless pit. So don’ t let your compassion become one-sided. Empathy with someone else’ s pa in or lack and a desire to help need to be
balanced with a deeper realizatio n of the eternal nature of all life and the
ultimate illusion  of all pain. Then let your peace flow into what ever you
do and you will be working on the levels of ef fect and cause
simultaneously. This also applies if you are su pporting a movement designed to stop
deeply unconscious humans from destroying themselves, each other, and
the planet, or from continuing to inflict dreadful suf fering on other
sentient beings. Remember: Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you
cannot f ight unc onsciousness. If  you try to do so, the polar opposites will
become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. Y ou will become
identified with one of the polari ties, you will create an “enemy,” and so
be drawn into unconscious ness yourself. Raise aware ness by
disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance. But ma ke sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no
negativity. “Lov e your enemies,” said Jesus, which, of course, means
“have no enemies. ”Once you get in volved in working on the level of ef fect, it is all too easy
to lo se yourself in it. Stay alert and very, very present. The cau sal level
needs to  remain your primary fo cus, the teaching of enlightenment your
main purpose, and peace your most precious gift to the world. CHAPTER TEN
T H E  M E A N I N G  O F
 S U R R E N D E R
ACCEPT ANCE OF THE NOW
Y ou mentioned “surr ender” a few times. I don’ t like that idea. It sounds
somewhat fatali stic. If we alway s accept the way things ar e, we ar e not
going to  make any effort to imp r ove them. It seems to me what pr ogr ess
is al l about, bot h in our person al lives and collectively, is not to accept
the limitations of the pr esent bu t to strive to go beyond them and cr eate
something better. If we hadn’ t done this, we would still be living in caves. How do you r ec oncile surr ender  with changing things and getting things
done. T o some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying
defeat, g iving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, b ecoming
lethar gic, and so on. T rue surrender, however, is something entirely
dif ferent. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation
you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean  to cease
making plans or initiating positive action. Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to  rather than
opposing  the flow  of life. The only place  where you can  experie nce the
flow of life is the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present  moment
unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner
resistance to what is. Inn er r esistance is to say “no”  to what is, through
mental judgment and emotional negativity. It becomes pa rticularly
pronounced whe n things “go wrong,” which means that there is a gapbetween the demands or rigid expectations of your mind and  what is. That is the pain gap. If you hav e lived long enough, you will know that
things “go wrong” quite often. It is precisely at those times that surrender
needs to  be practiced if you wan t to eliminate pain and sorrow from your
life. Acceptance of what is  immed iately frees you from mind
identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is  the
mind. Surrender is a purely inner phenomenon. It does not mean that on the
outer level you cannot take acti on and change the situation. In fact, it is
not t he o verall s ituation that you need to accept when you surre nder, but
just the tiny segment called the Now. For example, if you were stuck  in the mud somewhere, you wouldn’ t
say: “Ok ay, I resign myself to being stuck in the mud. ” Resig nation is
not s urrender. Y ou don’ t need to  accept an undesirable or unpleasant life
situation. Nor do you need to deceive yourself and say that there is
nothing wrong with being stuck  in the mud. No. Y ou recognize fully that
you want to get out of it. Y ou then narrow your attention down to the
present m oment without mentall y labeling it in any way. This means that
there is no judgment of the No w. Therefore, there is no resis tance, no
emotional negativity. Y ou accep t the “isness” of this moment. Then you
take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud. Such action I
call posi tive action. It is far more ef fective than negative action, which
arises ou t of anger, despair, or f rustration. Until you achieve the desired
result, y ou continue to practice surrender by refraining from labeling the
Now. Let me give you a visual analog y to illustrate the point I am mak ing. Y ou
are walk ing alo ng a path at night, surrounded by a thick fog. But you
have a powerful  flashlight that c uts through the fog and creates a narrow,
clear space in front of you. The fog is your life situation, which  includes
past and future; the flashlight is your conscious presence; the cl ear space
is the Now. Non-surrender h ardens your psychological form, the shell of the ego, and
so creat es a strong sense of separateness. The world around you and
people in particular come to be perceived as threatening. The
unconscious compulsion to destroy others through judgment arises, as
does the need to compete and  dominate. Even nature becomes yourenemy a nd you r perceptions and interpretations are governed  by fear. The men tal dise ase that we cal l paranoia is only a slightly more acute
form of this normal but dysfunctional state of consciousness. Not only  your psychological form but also your physical form  — your
body — becomes hard and rigid through resistance. T ension arises in
dif ferent parts of the body, and the body as a whole contracts. The free
flow of life ener gy through the body, which is essential for it s healthy
functioning, is greatly restricted. Bodywork and certain forms of
physical therapy  can be helpfu l in restoring this flow, but unless you
practice surrender in your everyday life, those things can only give
temporary symptom relief since the cause — the resistance pattern —
has not been dissolved. There is  something within you that remains unaf fected by the transient
circumstances that make up your life situation, and only through
surrender do you have access t o it. It is your life, your very Being —
which exists eternally in the timeless realm of the present. Finding this
life is “the one thing that is needed” that Jesus talked about. If yo u fi nd your life situation unsatisfactory or even intolerable, it is only
by surre ndering first that you can break the unconscious r esistance
pattern that perpetuates that situation. Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or
achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally dif ferent ener gy, a
dif ferent quality, flows into your doing. Surrender reconnects you with
the sour ce-ener gy of Being, and if your doing is infused with Being, it
becomes a joyful celebration of  life ener gy that takes you more deeply
into the Now. Through nonresis tance, the quality of your consc iousness
and, therefore, the quality of whatever you are doing or cr eating is
enhanced immea surably. The results will then look after themselves and
reflect that quality. W e could call this surr ender ed action. It is not work
as we have known it for thousa nds of years. As more humans  awaken,
the word work  i s going  to disappear from our vocabulary, and perhaps a
new word will be created to replace it. It is  the quality  of your conscio usness at this moment that is the main
determinant of what kind of future you will experience, so to sur render is
the m ost important thing you ca n do to br ing about p ositive change. Any
action you take is secondary. No  truly positive action can arise out of an
unsurrendered state of consciousness. I c an see that if I am in a situa tion that is unpleasant or unsatisfactory
and I completely  accept the moment as it is, ther e will be no suf fering or
unhappiness. I will have risen a bove it. But I still can’ t quite see wher e
the ener gy or motivation for taking action and bringing about change
would come fr om if ther e isn’ t a certain amount of dissatisfaction. In th e st ate of surrender, you see very clearly what needs to be done, and
you take  action,  doing one thing  at a time and focusing on one thing at a
time. Learn from nature: See how  everything gets accomplished  and how
the mira cle of life unfolds without dissatisfaction or unhappiness. That’ s
why Jesus said: “Look at the lil ies, how they grow; they neithe r toil nor
spin. ”
If your overall situation is unsatisfactory or unpleasant, separate out this
instant  and surrender to  what is. Th at’ s the flash light cutting through the
fog. Y our state o f consciousness then ceases to be controlled by  external
conditions. Y ou are no longer coming from reaction and resistance. Then look at the specifics of the situation. Ask yourself, “Is there
anything I can do to change the situation, improve it, or remove myself
from it. ” If so, you take app ropriate action. Focus not on the one
hundred things that you will or may have to do at some future  time but
on the one thing  that you can do now. This doesn’ t mean you sh ould not
do any planning. It may well be that planning is the one thing yo u can do
now. But make sure you don’ t start to run “mental movies, ” project
yourself into the future, and so lose the Now. Any action you take may
not bear  fruit immediately. Unti l it does — do not resist what is. If there
is no action you can take, and you cannot remove yourself from the
situation either, then use the situation to make you go more de eply into
surrender, more deeply into the Now, more deeply into Being. When youenter this timeless dimension of the present, change often comes  about in
strange w ays without the need fo r a great deal of doing on your part. Life
becomes helpful and cooperative. If inner factors such as fear,  guilt, or
inertia prevented you from taking action, they will dissolve in the light of
your conscious presence. Do not confuse surrender with an attitude of “I can’ t be bothered
anymore” or “I just don’ t care anymore. ” If you look at it clo sely, you
will find that such an attitude is tainted with negativity in the  form of
hidden resentme nt and so is not surrender at all but masked resistance. As you surrende r, direct your a ttention inward to check if the re is any
trace of resistance left inside you. Be very alert when you do so;
otherwise, a pocket of resistance may continue to hide in some dark
corner in the form of a thought or an unacknowledged emotion. FROM MIND ENERGY T O SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Letting go of r esistance is easie r said than done. I still don’ t see clearly
how to let go. If you say it is by surr endering, the question r emains:
“How. ”
 
Start by acknowledging that there is  resistance. Be  the re when it
happens, when the resistance ar ises. Observe how your mind c reates it,
how it labels t he situation, yourself, or others. Look at the  thought
process involve d. Feel the ener gy of th e emotion. By witnessing  the
resistance, you will see that it s erves no purpose. By focusing all your
attention on the Now, the uncon scious resistance is made conscious, and
that is the end o f it. Y ou canno t be conscious and  unhappy, conscious
and  in nega tivity. Negativity, unhappiness, or suf fering in whatever form
means that there is resistance, and resistance is always unconscious. Sur ely I can be conscious of my unhappy feelings. W ould y ou cho ose unhappiness. If you did not choose it, ho w did it
arise. W hat is its purpose. Who  is keeping it alive. Y ou say tha t you are
conscious of your unhappy feelings, but the truth is that you are
identified with them and keep the process alive through co mpulsive
thinking. All that  is unconscious. If you were conscious, that is to say
totally present in the Now, all ne gativity would dissolve almost instantly. It could not survive in your presence. It can only survive in your
absence. Even the pain-body ca nnot survive for long in your presence. Y ou kee p your unhappiness aliv e by giving it time. That is its lifeblood. Remove time through intense pr esent-moment awareness and it dies. But
do you want it to die. Have yo u truly had enough. Who would you be
without it. Until yo u practice surrender, the spiritual dimension is something you
read about, talk about, get excited about, write books about, think about,
believe in — or don’ t, as the case may be. It makes no dif ference. Not
until you surrender does it becom e a living reality in your life. W hen you
do, the ener gy t hat you emanate and which then runs your life is of a
much hi gher vibrational freque ncy than the mind ener gy that still runs
our world — th e ener gy that created the existing social, political, and
economic structures of our civilization, and which also continuously
perpetuates itself through our educational systems and the media. Through surrend er, spiritual ener gy comes into this world. It c reates no
suf fering for yourself, for other humans, or any other life form on the
planet. U nlike mind ener gy, it does not pollute the earth, and it is not
subject to the law of polarities, which dictates that nothing can exist
without its opposite, that there can be no good without bad. Th ose who
run on mind e ner gy, which is still the vast majority of the  Earth’ s
population, rem ain unaware of the existence of spiritual ener gy. It
belongs to a dif ferent order of reality and will create a dif ferent world
when a suf ficien t number of humans enter the surrendered sta te and so
become totally free of negativity. If the Earth is to survive, thi s will be
the ener gy of those who inhabit it. Jesus referred to this ener gy when he made his famous prophetic
statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the gentle; they
shall have the earth for their possession. ” It is a silent bu t intense
presence that dissolves the unconscious patterns of the mind. They may
still rem ain active for a while, but they won’ t run your life anymore. Theexternal conditions that were being resisted also tend to shift or dissolve
quickly through surrender. It is a powerful transformer of situations and
people. If conditions do not sh ift immediately, your acceptance of the
Now enables you to rise above them. Either way, you are free. SURRENDER IN PERSONAL RELA TIONSHIPS
What about people who want to use me, manipulate or contr ol me. Am I
to surr ender to them. They are  cut of f from Being, so they unconsciously attempt to get ener gy
and pow er from  you. It is true that only an unconscious person will try to
use or manipulate others, but it is equally true that only an unconscious
person can  be used  and manipulated. If you resist or fight unconscious
behavior in others, you become unconscious yourself. But surrender
doesn’ t mean that you allow yourself to be used by unconscious people. Not at all. It is perfectly possible to say “no” firmly and cle arly to a
person or to walk away from a situation and be in a state of complete
inner no nresistance at the same t ime. When you say “no” to a pe rson or a
situation, let it come not from reaction but from insight, from a clear
realization of what is right or not right for you at that moment. Let it be a
nonreactive “no, ” a high-quality “no,” a “no” that is free of all n egativity
and so creates no further suf fering. I a m in a situation at work that is unpleasant. I have tried to surr ender to
it, but I find it impossible. A lot of r esistance keeps coming up. If you cannot surrender, take  action immediately: Speak up or do
something to bring about a change in the situation — or remove  yourself
from it. T ake re sponsibility for your life. Do not pollute your b eautiful,
radiant inner Being nor the Earth with negativity. Do not give
unhappiness in any form whatsoever a dwelling place inside you. If you cannot tak e action, for ex ample if you are in prison, then you have
two choices left: resistance or su rrender. Bondage or inner freedom from
external conditions. Suf fering or inner peace. Is no nr esistance  also to be practiced in the external conduct of our lives,
such as nonr esistance to violen ce, or is it something that just concerns
our inner life. Y ou only need to  be concerned w ith the inner aspect. That is primary. Of
course, that will also transform  the conduct of your outer life, your
relationships, and so on. Y our relationships will be changed profoundly by surrender. If you can
never accept what is, by implication  you will not be able to accept
anybody the way they are. Y o u will judge, criticize, label, r eject, or
attempt to change people. Furt hermore, if you continuously make the
Now into a means to an end i n the future, you will also make every
person you encounter or relate with into a means to an end. The
relationship — the human being — is then of secondary importance to
you, or of no im portance at all. What you can get out of the rel ationship
is primary — be it material gain, a sense of power, physical pleasure, or
some form of ego gratification. Let me illustrat e how surrender can work in relationships. When you
become involved  in an ar gument or some conflict situation, perh aps with
a pa rtner or som eone close to yo u, start by observing how defen sive you
become as your own position is  attacked, or feel the force of your own
aggression as you attack the other person’ s position. Obs erve the
attachment to your views and opinions. Feel the mental-emotional
ener gy b ehind y our need to be right and make the other person wrong. That’ s t he ener gy of the egoic mind. Y ou make it conscious by
acknowledging it, by feeling it as fully as possible. Then one day, in the
middle of an ar gument, you will suddenly realize that you have a choice,
and you may decide to drop your own reaction — just to see whathappens. Y ou surrender. I don’ t mean dropping the reaction just verbally
by sayin g, “Oka y, you are right,” with a look on your face that says, “I
am above all th is childish unconsciousness. ” That’ s just displa cing the
resistance to another level, with the egoic mind still in char ge, claiming
superiority. I am speaking of le tting go of the entire mental-e motional
ener gy field inside you that was fighting for power. The ego is cunning, so you have to be very alert, very present, and totally
honest w ith yourself to see wh ether you have truly relinquished your
identification with a mental position and so freed yourself from your
mind. If you sud denly feel very light, clear, and deeply at peace, that is
an u nmistakable  sign that you have truly surrendered. Then obse rve what
happens to the o ther person’ s mental position as you no longer ener gize
it throug h resistance. When identification with mental positions is out of
the way, true communication begins. What ab out nonr esistance in the face of violence, aggr ession, and the
like. Nonresistance d oesn’ t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is
that any “doing” becomes nonreactive. Remember the deep wisdom
underlying the practice of E astern martial arts: Don’ t resist the
opponent’ s force. Y ield to overcome. Having said that, “doing nothing” when you are in a state of intense
presence is a v ery powerful transformer and healer of situations and
people. In T aoism, there is a term called wu wei, wh ich is usually
translated as “actionless activity ” or “sitting quietly doing nothing. ” In
ancient China, this was regarded as one of the highest achievements or
virtues. It is radically dif ferent from inactivity in the ordinary state of
consciousness, or rather unconsciousness, which stems from fear, inertia,
or in decision. The real “doing nothing” implies inner nonresistance and
intense alertness. On t he other ha nd, if action is required, you will no longer re act from
your conditioned mind, but you will respond to the situation out of yourconscious presence. In that state, your mind is free of concepts, i ncluding
the concept of non-violence. So who can predict what you will do. The ego believes that in your r esistance lies your strength, whereas in
truth resistance cuts you of f from Being, the only place of true power. Resistance is weakness and fear masquerading as strength. What the ego
sees as weaknes s is your Being in its purity, innocence, and power. What
it se es as stren gth is weakness. So the ego exists in a continuous
resistance-mode and plays counterfeit roles to cover up your “weakness,”
which in truth is your power. Until the re is surrender, unconsc ious role-playing constitutes a lar ge part
of h uman interaction. In surrend er, you no longer need ego defenses and
false masks. Y ou become very simple, very real. “That’ s dangerous,”
says the ego. “Y ou’ll get hurt. Y ou’ll become vulnerable. ” What the ego
doesn’ t know, of course, is that only through the letting go of resistance,
through becomin g “vulnerable,”  can you discover your true and essential
invulnerability. TRANSFORMING ILLNESS INT O ENLIGHTENMENT
If someo ne is seriously ill and completely accepts their cond ition and
surr enders to the illness, would  they not have given up their w ill to get
back to health. The determinati on to fight the illness would not be ther e
anymor e, would it. Surrender is inner acceptance of what is  without any reservations. W e are
talking about your life  — this instant — not the conditions or
circumstances o f your life, not what I call your life situation. W e have
spoken about this already. W ith reg ard to illness, this is w hat it means. Illness is part of your life
situation. As such, it has a past and a future. Past and future form an
uninterrupted co ntinuum, unles s the redeeming power of the  Now is
activated through your consciou s presence. As you know, underneath the
various conditio ns that make up your life situation, which exists in time,
there is somethi ng deeper, more essential: your Life, your very Being in
the timeless Now. As there are no problems in the Now, there is no illness either. The belief
in a labe l that someone attaches  to your condition keeps the condition in
place, empower s it, and makes a seemingly solid reality out of a
temporary imba lance. It gives i t not only reality and solidity but also a
continuity in time that it did not  have before. By focusing on this instant
and refr aining from labeling it mentally, illness is reduced to one or
several of these factors: physical pain, weakness, discomfort, or
disability. That  i s what you sur render to — now. Y ou do not surrender to
the idea of “illness. ” Allow the suf fering to force you into the present
moment, into a state of int ense conscious presence. Use it for
enlightenment. Surrender does not transform what is, a t least not d irectly. Surrende r
transforms you. When you  are transformed, your whole world is
transformed, because the world is only a reflection. W e spoke about this
earlier. If you looked in the mirror and did not like what you saw, you would
have to be mad to attack the image in the mirror. That is precisely what
you do when you are in a state of nonacceptance. And, of course, if you
attack the image, it attacks you back. If you accept the image, no matter
what it is, if you become frie ndly toward it, it cannot not  become
friendly toward you. This is how you change the world. Illness is not the problem. Y ou  are the problem  — as long as the egoic
mind is in control. When you are ill or disabled, do not feel that you have
failed in some w ay, do not feel guilty. Do not blame life for trea ting you
unfairly, but do not blame yourself either. All that is resistance. If you
have a major illness, use it for enlightenment. Anything “bad” that
happens in your life — use it for enlightenment. W ithdraw time  from the
illness. Do not give it any past  or future. Let it force you into intense
present-moment awareness — and see what happens. Become an alchemist. T ransmute base metal into gold, suf fering into
consciousness, disaster into enlightenment. Are you seriously ill and feeling  angry now about what I have j ust said. Then that is a clear sign that the  illness has become part of your sense of
self and that you are now protecting your identity — as well asprotecting the illness. The cond ition that is labeled “illness” has  nothing
to do with who you truly are. WHEN DISASTER STRIKES
As far as the sti ll unconscious majority of the population is co ncerned,
only a critical limit-situation ha s the potential to crack the hard shell of
the ego and force them into surr ender and so into the awakened  state. A
limit-situation arises when through some disaster, drastic upheaval, deep
loss, or suf fering your whole world is s hattered and doesn’ t make sense
anymore. It is an encounter with death, be it physical or psych ological. The egoic mind, the creator of t his world, collapses. Out of the  ashes of
the old world, a new world can then come into being. There is  no guarantee, of course, that even a limit-situation will do it, but
the potential is always there. Some people’ s resistance to what is  even
intensifies in such a situation, and so it becomes a descent into hell. In
others, t here may only be partial  surrender, but even that will give them a
certain depth and serenity that were not there before. Parts of the ego
shell bre ak of f, and this allows small amounts of the radiance a nd peace
that lie beyond the mind to shine through. Limit-situations have produced many miracles. There ha ve been
murderers on death row waiting for execution who, in the last few hours
of their lives, experienced the egoless state and the deep joy and peace
that come with it. The inner resistance to the situation they found
themselves in became so intense as to produce unbearable suf fering, and
there was nowhere to run and nothing to do to escape it, not even a mind-
projected future. So they were forced into complete acceptance of the
unacceptable. They were forced into surrender. In this way, they were
able to enter the state of grace w ith which comes redemption: complete
release from the past. Of course, it is not really the limit-situation that
makes room for the miracle of grace and redemption, but the act of
surrender. So whenever any kind of disaster strikes, or something goes seriously
“wrong” — illness, disability, loss of home or fortune or of a socially
defined identity,  breakup of a close relationship, death or suf fering of a
loved on e, or your own impending death — know that there i s anotherside to it, that you are just one step away from something incr edible: a
complete alchemical transmutation of the base metal of pain and
suf fering into gold. That one step is called surrender. I do not mean to  say that you will become happy in such a situa tion. Y ou
will not. But fear and pain will  become transmuted into an inn er peace
and serenity that come from a very deep place — from the Unmanifested
itself. It is “the peace of God, which passes all understanding. ”
Compared to that, happiness is quite a shallow thing. W ith this radiant
peace co mes the  realization — not on the level of mind but within the
depth of  your Being — that you  are indestructible, immortal. This is not
a belief. It is absolute certainty that needs no external evidence or proof
from some secondary source. TRANSFORMING SUFFERING INT O PEACE
I r ead about a stoic philosopher in ancient Gr eece who, when he was
told that his son had died in a n accident, r eplied, “I knew he  was not
immortal. ” Is that surr ender. If it is, I don’ t want it. Ther e ar e some
situations in which surr ender seems unnatural and inhuman. Being cut of f from your feelings is not surrender. But we don’ t know
what his inner state was when he said those words. In certain extreme
situations, it may still be imposs ible for you to accept the Now. But you
always get a second chance at surrender. Y our first chance is to surrender each moment to the reality of that
moment. Knowing that what is  cannot be undone — because it already is
— you say yes to what is  o r accept what isn’ t. Then you  do what you
have to do, whatever the situati on requires. If you abide in this state of
acceptance, you create no more negativity, no more suf fering, no more
unhappiness. Y o u then live in a state of nonresistance, a state of grace
and lightness, free of struggle. Whenever you are unable to do that, whenever you miss that c hance —
either b ecause you are not generating enough conscious presence to
prevent some habitual and uncon scious resistance pattern from arising or
because the condition is so extr eme as to be absolutely unacceptable toyou — then you  are creating som e form of pain, some form of suf fering. It may look as if  the situation is creating the suf fering, but ultim ately this
is not so — your resistance is. Now her e is your second chance at surrender: If you cannot acc ept what
is outside, then accept what is inside. If you cannot accept the external
condition, accep t the internal condition. This means: Do not resist the
pain. Allow it to be there. Surrender to the grief, despair, fear, loneliness,
or whatever form the suf fering takes. W itness it without labeling it
mentally. Embrace it. Then see how the miracle of surrender transmutes
deep suf fering into deep peace. This is your crucifixion. Let it become
your resurrection and ascension. I d o not see how  one can surr ender to suffering. As you yoursel f pointed
out, suffering  is non-surr ender. How could yo u surr ender to non-
surr ender. For get about surrender for a moment. When your pain is deep, all talk of
surrender will probably seem fu tile and meaningless anyway. When your
pain is deep, you will likely have a strong ur ge to escape from it rather
than sur render to it. Y ou don’ t want to feel what you feel. What  could be
more normal. But there is no escape, no way out. There a re many
pseudo escapes — work, drink, drugs, anger, projection, suppression,
and so on — but they don’ t fre e you from the pain. Suf fering does not
diminish in intensity when you  make it unconscious. When y ou deny
emotional pain, everything you do or think as well as your rela tionships
become contami nated with it. Y o u broadcast it, so to speak, as th e ener gy
you emanate, and others will pick it up subliminally. If they are
unconscious, they may even feel compelled to attack or hurt you in some
way, or you may hurt them in an unconscious projection of your pain. Y ou attract and manifest whatever corresponds to your inner state. When there is no way out, there is still always a way thr ough. So don’ t
turn away from the pain. Face it. Feel it fully. Feel  it — don’ t think  about
it. E xpress it if necessary, but don’ t create a script in your mind around
it. Give all your attention to t he feeling, not to the person, event, or
situation that seems to have cau sed it. Don’ t let the mind use th e pain to
create a victim identity for yourself out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself
and telli ng others your story wil l keep you stuck in suf fering. Since it is
impossible to get away from the feeling, the only possibility of change isto move  into it; otherwise, nothing will shift. So give your complete
attention to what you feel, and r efrain from mentally labeling it. As you
go into the feeli ng, be intensely alert. At first, it may seem like a dark
and terrifying place, and when the ur ge to turn away from it comes,
observe it but d on’ t act on it. Keep putting your attention on the pain,
keep feeling the grief, the fear, the dread, the loneliness, whatever it is. Stay aler t, stay present — present with your whole Being, with e very cell
of y our body. As you do so, you are bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of your consciousness. At th is s tage, yo u don’ t need to be concerned with surrender anymore. It
has hap pened already. How. Full attention is  f ull acceptanc e, is
surrender. By giving full attentio n, you use the power of the No w, which
is th e power of your presence. No hidden pocket of resist ance can
survive in it. Presence removes time. W ithout time, no suf fering, no
negativity, can survive. The acceptance of suf fering is a journey into death. Facing d eep pain,
allowing it to be, taking your attention into it, is to ent er death
consciously. When you have died this death, you realize that there is no
death — and the re is nothing to fear. Only the ego dies. Imagine  a ray of
sunlight that has for gotten it is an inseparable part of the sun and  deludes
itself int o believing it has to fight for survival and create and cl ing to an
identity other than the sun. W ould the death of this delusion not be
incredibly liberating. Do you want an easy death. W ould you rather die without pain, without
agony. Then die to the past every moment, and let the light  of your
presence shine away the heavy, time-bound self you thought of as “you. ”
THE W A Y OF THE CROSS
Ther e ar e many accounts of people who say they have found God
thr ough their deep suffering, and ther e is the Christian expr ession “the
way of the cr oss,” which I suppose points to the same thing. W e are concerned with nothing else here. Strictly speaking, they did not find God through their suf fering, because
suf fering implies resistance. They found God through surrender, through
total acceptance of what is, into which they were forced by their intense
suf fering. They must have realiz ed on some level that their pain was self-
created. How do you equate surr ender with finding God. Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of
resistance — surrender — is the end of the mind as your master, the
impostor preten ding to be “you,” the false god. All judgmen t and all
negativity dissol ve. The realm o f Being, which had been obscur ed by the
mind, th en opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an
unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy. And wit hin that joy, there is lov e. And at the innermost core, there is the
sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named. I don’ t call it finding God, because how can you find that which was
never lost, the very life that you are. The word God is limiting  not only
because of thousands of years of misperception and misuse, but also
because it implies an entity other than you. God is Being itself, not a
being. There can be no subject -object relationship here, no duality, no
you and  Go d. God-realization is the m ost natural thing there is. The
amazing and incomprehensible fact is not that you can  become conscious
of G od b ut that you are not  conscious of God. The way of the cross that
you mentioned is the old way to enlightenment, and until recently it was
the only  way. But don’ t dismiss it or underestimate its ef ficacy. It still
works. The way of the cross is a comple te reversal. It means that the worst thing
in your life, your cross, turns into the best thing that ever hap pened to
you, by forcing you into surren der, into “death,” forcing you to  become
as nothing, to become as God — because God, too, is no-thing. At this time, as far as the unconscious majority of humans is concerned,
the w ay of the cross is still the only way. They will only awaken  through
further suf fering, and enlightenment as a collective phenomenon will be
predictably preceded by vast upheavals. This process reflects the
workings of certain universa l laws that govern the growth ofconsciousness and thus was foreseen by some seers. It is d escribed,
among o ther places, in the Boo k of Revelation or Apocalypse, though
cloaked in obscure and som etimes impenetrable symbology. This
suf fering is inflicted not by God but by humans on themselves and on
each other, as well as by certain defensive measures that the Earth, which
is a living, intelligent or ganism, is going to take to protect herself from
the onslaught of human madness. However, there  is a growing number of humans alive toda y whose
consciousness is suf ficiently ev olved not to need any more suf fering
before the realization of enlightenment. Y ou may be one of them. Enlightenment t hrough suf fering  — the way of the cross — means to be
forced into the kingdom of heaven kicking and screaming. Y ou finally
surrender becau se you can’ t sta nd the pain anymore, but the pain could
go o n for a long time until this happens. Enlightenment consciously
chosen m eans to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to
make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in
the state of pres ence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is. Y ou then  don’ t need pain anymore. How much more time do y ou think
you will need before you are able to say, “I will create no more pain, no
more suf fering”. How much more pain do you need before you can
make that choice. If you think that you need more time, you will get more time — and
more pain. T ime and pain are inseparable. THE POWER T O CHOOSE
What about all those people who, it seems, actually want to suffer. I
have a friend whose partner is physically abusive towar d her, and her
pr evious r elation ship was of a similar kind. Why does she choose such
men, and why is  she r efusing to get out of that situation now. W hy do so
many people actually choose pain. I k now that the  word choose  is  a fav orite N ew Age term, b ut it isn’ t
entirely accurate in this context. It is misleading to say that somebody
“chose” a dysfunctional relationship or any other negative situation in hisor her life. Choice implies consciousness — a high degree of
consciousness. W ithout it, you have no choice. Choice begins the
moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the
moment you become present. Until you reach that point, you are
unconscious, spi ritually speaking. This means that you are compelled to
think, fe el, and act in certain wa ys according to the conditioning of your
mind. T hat is why Jesus said: “For give them, fo r they know not what
they do. ” This is not related to intelligence in the conventional sense of
the word. I have met many highly intelligent and educated people who
were als o completely unconscious, which is to say completely i dentified
with their mind. In fact, if mental development and increased knowledge
are n ot c ounterbalanced by a corresponding growth in consciousness, the
potential for unhappiness and disaster is very great. Y our friend is st uck in a relation ship with an abusive partner, and not for
the first  time. Why. No choice. The mind, conditioned as it is by the
past, alw ays see ks to re-create w hat it knows and is familiar with. Even
if it is p ainful, at least it is fa miliar. The mind always adheres to the
known. The unknown is dange rous because it has no control over it. That’ s why the mind dislikes and ignores the present moment. Present-
moment awaren ess creates a gap not only in the stream of mind  but also
in the past-future continuum. Nothing truly new and creative can come
into this world except through that gap, that clear space of infinite
possibility. So your  friend, being identified with her mind, may be recreating a
pattern learned in the past in w hich intimacy and abuse are inseparably
linked. A lternatively, she may be acting out a mind pattern learned in
early childhood according to w hich she is unworthy and deserves to be
punished. It is possible, too, tha t she lives a lar ge part of her life through
the pain-body, which always s eeks more pain on which to feed. Her
partner has his own unconscious patterns, which complement hers. Of
course h er situation is self-created, but who or what is the se lf that is
doing the creating. A mental-em otional pattern from the past, no more. Why m ake a self out of it. If you tell her that she has chosen her
condition or situation, you are reinforcin g her state of mind
identification. But is her mind p attern who she is. Is it her sel f. Is her
true ide ntity de rived from the past. Show your friend how to be the
observing presen ce behind her thoughts and her emotions. T ell h er aboutthe pain-body and how to free h erself from it. T each her the art of inner -
body awareness. Demonstrate to her the meaning of presence. As soon as
she is able to ac cess the power of the Now, and thereby break  through
her conditioned past, she will  have a choice. Nobody chooses  dys function, conflict, pain. No body chooses  insanity. They happen because there is not enough presence in you to dissolve the
past, not enough light to dispel the darkness. Y ou are not fully h ere. Y ou
have no t quite woken up yet. In  the meantime, the conditioned mind is
running your life. Similarly, if you are one of the m any people who have an issue with their
parents, if you still harbor rese ntment about something they did or did
not do, then you  still believe th at they had a choice — that they could
have act ed dif ferently. It always looks  as if people had a choice, but that
is an illusion. As long as your mind with its conditioned patterns runs
your life, as long as you ar e  your mind, what choice do you have. None. Y ou ar e not even there. T he mind-identified state is severely
dysfunctional. It is a form of insanity. Almost everyone is suf fer ing from
this illne ss in varying degrees. The moment you realize this, there can be
no more  resentment. How can you resent someone’ s illness. The only
appropriate response is compassion. So that means n obody is r esponsible for what they do. I don’ t like that
idea. If you are run b y your mind, although you have no choice you  will still
suf fer the consequences of your unconsciousness, and you will create
further suf fering. Y ou will bear the burden of fear, conflict, problems,
and pain. The suf fering thus created will eventually force you out of your
unconscious state. What yo u say about choice als o applies to for giveness, I suppose. Y ou
need to be fully conscious and surr ender befor e you can for give. “For giveness” is a term that has  been in use for two thousand y ears, but
most people have a very limited view of what it means. Y ou cannot truly
for give yourself  or others as long as you derive your sense of self from
the past. Only through accessing the power of the Now, which is your
own po wer, can there be tru e for giveness. This renders the past
powerless, and you realize deeply that nothing you ever did or that was
ever don e to you could touch even in the slightest the radiant e ssence of
who yo u are. The whole concept of for giveness then becomes
unnecessary. And how do I get to that point of r ealization. When y ou surrender to what is  and  so become fully present, the past
ceases to have a ny power. Y ou do not need it anymore. Presence is the
key. The Now is the key. How will I know when I have surr ender ed. When you no longer need to ask the question. N O T E S
 
1  Arth ur K oestler, The Ghost in the Machine  (London: Arkana, 1989), p. 180. 2  Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, The Grand Failur e  (New Y ork: Charles
Scribner ’ s Sons, 1989), pp. 239–40. 3  A Course in Miracles  (Huntin gton St ation, NY : Foundation for Inner
Peace, 1975), introduction. 4  Ruth L. Sivard, W orld Military and Social Expenditur es 1996, 16th
Edition  (W ashington D. C. : W orld Priorities, 1996), p. 7. A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
 
 
I am  dee ply than kful to Connie Kellough for her loving support and her
vital par t in transforming the m anuscript into this book and bringing it
out into the world. It is a joy to work with her. I extend  my gratitude to Corea Ladner and those wonderful people who
have contributed to this book by giving me space, that most precious of
gifts — space to write and space to be. Th ank you to Adrienne Bradley
in V ancouver, to Mar garet Mil ler in London and Angie Fran cesco in
Glastonbury, En gland, Richard in Menlo Park and Rennie Fru mkin in
Sausalito, California. I am  also thankful to Shirley Spaxman and Howard Kellough for their
early review of the manuscript and helpful feedback, as well as to those
individuals who were kind enough to review the manuscript at a later
stage and provide additional in put. Thank you to Rose Dende wich for
word-processing the manuscript in her unique cheerful and professional
manner. Finally, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my mother and
father, without whom this book  would not have come into existence, to
my spiritual teachers, and to the greatest guru of all: life. A B O U T  T H E  A U T H O R
 
 
Eckhart T olle was born in Ger many, where he spent the first thirteen
years of  his life. After graduating from the University of London, he was
a r esearc h scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. When he was
twenty-nine, a profound spiritu al transformation virtually diss olved his
old identity and radically changed the course of his life. He devoted the next few ye ars to understanding, integrating, and
deepening that transformation, w hich marked the beginning of an intense
inward journey. Eckhart is not aligned with any particular religion or
tradition. In his teaching, he conveys a simple yet profound message
with the  timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual
masters: there is a way out of suf fering and into peace. Eckhart is currently traveling extensively, taking his teachings  and his
presence throughout the world. He has lived in V ancouver, Canada, since
1996. For upc oming events, books, and audios and videos of E ckhart’ s
seminars, visit his website:
www. EckhartT olle. com 
If yo u e njoyed The Pow er of Now, we  highly reco mmend the following
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Cr eative V isualization  by Shak ti Gawain. This pionee ring bestseller and
perennial favorite helped launch  a new movement in the personal growth
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teaches methods that are practical and easy to incorporate into daily life. Living in the Light: A Guide to Personal and Planetary T ransformation
by Shakti Gawain. Shakti tackles the importance of listening to our
intuition, relying on intuition as a guiding force in our lives, and
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Who They Really Are.
The primary focus is on the importance of inner transformation and the elimination of unconscious resistance and negativity.
What is the primary focus of the author's teachings?
The author explains that surrender is not about accepting the situation or condition, but rather about accepting the present moment and letting go of resistance and negativity.
What does the author mean by "surrender"?
Yes, the author emphasizes that surrender does not mean giving up or passively accepting the situation, but rather it allows for a deeper understanding and a new perspective, which can lead to a more effective and peaceful approach to change.
Can one still take action and change the situation after surrendering?
The author clarifies that surrender does not mean giving up or being passive, but rather it allows for a more effective and empowered action, as the focus is on the present moment and the elimination of resistance.
Is surrender compatible with taking action in the external world?
The author emphasizes that forgiveness is not about condoning or justifying someone else's actions, but rather about acknowledging and letting go of the negative emotions and patterns associated with the situation, and instead choosing to focus on the present moment and inner peace.
What is the author's view on the concept of "forgiveness"?