Sweet Surrender

"The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 5, II, 4:5

Today's blog is a challenge. I've had this topic in mind for a long time, but it has been gestating, like the seed that all divine ideas are. It's sprouting today, a lovely spring morning with the birds singing and the breeze dancing music in the wind chimes. Harmony is in the very air of the dream this morning, and it's easy to relax and allow this idea to have its way with me. So here goes...

When I was 20 years old, I transferred to the UMKC Conservatory of Music, and my life changed enormously, for many reasons. The most memorable and lasting was my relationship with a statue at the Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery. Ironic that a statue, a graven image, should teach me so much over the years about the nature of illusion, and about the beauty of surrendering each moment to Truth. I didn't know then that literally all of it was my projection, and that the symbols in my dream have only the meaning I give them. But then, that is part of the game, isn't it? Pretending it's happening TO us.

I was young, it was the early 1970's, and I read Alan Watts and Ram Dass and Paramahansa Yogananda and B.K.S. Iyengar. Everything was an adventure in consciousness to me, and I developed the habit at an early age of questioning everything, of looking beyond the obvious for Truth. It was during a time of deep questioning and apparent suffering that I discovered HER.

She is a beautiful, larger than life statue of Quan Yin (they spell it Guanyin at the Gallery), and she is known throughout the world as a Bodhisattva of compassion. As the story goes, she Awakened to the nature of the dream (became enlightened), that it is all Self. And so she vowed to never totally relinquish her form in the dream until all aspects of Self awaken. You can see a photograph of this particular statue of Quan Yin at: http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase_ImageView.cfm?id=597&theme=china

When I first saw her, I was speechless. Everything stopped. My mind dissolved, and I sat for what must have been hours with tears running down my face. Nothing in particular happened. I simply sat in complete surrender to the Love I felt in her presence.

Now, I know a statue is like everything else in the dream. Yet what she symbolized to me then, and what she continues to symbolize for me now, is Perfect Love and complete, total Joy. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of teachers, because although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. And they will appear when and where it is helpful for them to do so. No one can call on them in vain. Nor is there anyone of whom they are unaware. All needs are known to them, and all mistakes are recognized and overlooked by them. The time will come when this is understood." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers, 26, 2:1-7)

What this image has always symbolized for me is beyond words. And yet the closet I could come to describing it is a complete abandonment to Love, an absolutely exquisite, sweet surrender. There is an elegant composure and relaxation to her, that has nothing to do with control, and everything to do with being completely and utterly natural and free. Being completely at home, completely at One with it all. This sweet, sweet surrender to Love is why we're here, and is our true Freedom.

"Freedom is creation, because it is Love. Whom you seek to imprison you do not love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 8, Section IV, 8:2-3