Surrender to Something Good

Sometimes I think the yoga community has a one track mind.  When the conversation turns to the study of yoga philosophy, everyone wants to talk about the Patanjali's Yogasutra.  Although it's just one in an ocean of yoga texts, it seems like all I ever hear is, "Patanjali, Patanjali, Patanjali."  

"What about the Shiva Sutras," I want to ask?  What about the Upanishads?  What about the plethora of texts with long jumbles of sanskrit titles that I won't inflict on you?

Nope.  Everyone wants to talk Yogasutra.

So, I do.  I have to.   If you want to be able to talk yoga in today's world, you're going to have to, too. 

Every time I teach any kind of formal program, I trot out the highlighted, dogeared copy that saw me through my very first teacher training.  Thumbing through, I invariably flash back to that first reading, which, although so very earnest, was also confusing, daunting, and because I barely understood a word of it, dare I say, boring as all hell.  

Today, after much use, my copy of the sutras falls open to the portion on practice.   I'm drawn immediately, as I often am, straight to sutra 2.1, and have to smile, and admit that somewhere along the way, this sutra won me over.  It's been translated in vastly different ways, and trust me, the translation makes all the difference.  I particularly like this one:

"The divine activity in yoga involves creative energy, putting one's heart into study, and surrender to the Lord."

This is a much loved sutra in the Anusara Yoga community.  We talk about it in terms of effort and surrender, the complementary actions of yoga.  Personally, I've always taken it to mean something along the lines of crossing T's, and dotting I's, and doing everything within my power, while simultaneously aquiesing to the fact that there are things in this world that, ultimately, I do not control.  I've always seen it as a study in both encouragement and solace, reminding me to get my butt up off the couch, but also that there are some walls that are not worth repeatedly flinging myself up against.  Recently, in class, a teacher invoked that old Kenny Rogers adage, you gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.  

I guess what I'm saying is that, unconsciously, I've always associated effort and surrender with winning and losing, which makes surrender both synonymous with defeat, and the strategy that shrewd yogis take to deal with it.  Do you tend to think similarly?

Well, what if we did the typically tantric thing?  What if we took that idea and stood it on its head, in good yogic fashion?  Suppose we redefine our definition such that surrender isn't just something to do when things don't go our way?  

Just now I looked surrender up in the dictionary and one of the first definitions given is, "abandonment."  What if, with wild abandon, we just got out of our own way and capitulated to the possibilities that life is actually offering up?  What if we acquiesced to the art of allowing life's benedictions to wash over?   What if surrendering is just another way to open to grace? 

What would it be like, unmitigated surrender to something good?   

The only thing in your way is you.  

Resistance is futile.  

Comments

[Kathy]

This is so interesting - I'm with you on the surrender thing. I recently had a class in which an 'executive coach' was one of the students. He really had a hard time with the word surrender. He felt strongly that surrender meant giving up - even softening in the poses was a little scary. But as anyone who has been through a twelve step program can tell you - admitting you are not in control is the most liberating feeling. I mean we have choices to make every minute of every day, but to surrender is divine.

[cecily]

This kind of surrender has been my daily mediation since taking on a full work load, accelerated teaching certification course, and my chaotic life on top. It has come to be so important to do all that I can and when I can't to surrender to a power so much greater than me, a do a little yoga dance on my mat.

Before, I would have had to agree, that surrender meant Defeat, chickening out, giving up. But with my little threads of yoga philosophy beginning to weave a bigger tapestry, it is the best thing I can do in my life inside a tornado.

[luella]

surrendering is the only way to open to grace! you must release and empty yourself in order make room for the light to come in. you are totally right: the only thing in your way is you.

[Katie Ruffin]

I am VERY new to yoga and I wanted to thank you for this piece I discovered in Yoga Fit mag. Sutra 2.1 was the cherry on top of yesterday that made it a day that will live in my memory forever as the day my life changed direction. I experienced a mental release in my practise/meditation that I never knew could happen. It kind of scared me at first and I did not know what to think or how to feel about it. I found this mag at Target after class and after reading your piece I understand why my heart and soul feel so free for the first time in my life. I am in it for life now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing.
Katie Ruffin
Hernando, MS