Surrender means wisely accommodating ourselves to what is beyond our control.
Interpretation
Surrendering involves accepting situations we cannot change and finding peace within that acceptance.
In this quote, Sylvia Boorstein emphasizes the importance of surrendering to circumstances that are beyond our control, suggesting that true wisdom lies in being able to adapt to life's challenges with grace and understanding. Instead of resisting or fighting against these uncontrollable aspects, we should learn to accommodate ourselves to them, fostering inner peace and acceptance.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion on coping strategies for dealing with stress.
Heir to your own karma doesn't mean 'You get what you deserve.' I think it means 'You get what you get.' Bad things happen to good people. My happiness depending on my action means, to me, that it depends on my action of choosing compassion--for myself as well as for everyone else--rather than contention. [p.61]
If you take a deep breath and look around, 'Look what's happening to me!' can become 'Look what's happening!' And what's happening? The incredible drama of life is happening. And we're in it!
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
The path of compassion leads to the development of insight. But it doesn't work to say, "Ready, set, go! Be compassionate!" Beginning any practice depends on intention. Intention depends on intuiting-at least a little bit-the suffering inherent in the human condition and the pain we feel, and cause, when we act out of confusion. It also depends on trusting-at least a little bit-in the possibility of a contented, satisfied mind.
Mindfulness is attentiveness, moment to moment. What's happening right now and what's coming up in me in response to what's happening right now. Importantly, this is in the service of being able to choose wisely so that I avoid complicating my own life and the lives of others.
Suffering is the demand that experience be different from what it is.
How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.
The writer can grow as a person or he can shrink. ... His curiosity, his reaction to life must not diminish. The fatal thing is to shrink, to be interested in less, sympathetic to less, desiccating to the point where life itself loses its flavor, and oneβs passion for human understanding changes to weariness and distaste.
No good work is done anywhere without aid from the Father of Lights.
Be your character what it will, it will be known, and nobody will take it upon your word.
Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength.
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