The Difference between Acceptance and Surrender…
3 October 2012
By anjili On August 12, 2012
Acceptance and Surrender: What is the Difference?
I had a profound moment while speaking and sharing with a dear friend of mine; her question sought an answer to Dharma and Karma, accepting one’s circumstance as part of the Soul’s journey during this incarnation.
I spoke, within my scope of limited knowledge, about the difference between Dharma (accepting one’s life purpose) and Karma (the consequences of the actions in this lifetime or others). Her comment was of accepting things as they are and living within the consequences of them. This struck me deeply, it triggered a thought of the various situations people, in general, place themselves in and then convince themselves into accepting what has been handed to them, as if one had no effect on the situation at all.
I was quickly reminded that individuals often take the idea of accept and surrender to mean that one has no effect on what his or her experience is in life. That circumstances seem to be happenstance in life, meaning we accept the hand we are dealt in life and making the best of it. I was guided by my High Self as I went on to explore with words why this, at that moment, in this context, did not satisfy my truth.
And the teaching was this:
I am the creator of my own circumstances. This is my truth, but it isn’t
everyone’s. For many people their current experience is that life just
happens to them, they don’t always have a choice or the opportunity to
choose something different or change a current scenario. Then they find
themselves in a situation that they feel they don’t want to be in. When
this is the case, they are told to accept things as they are, and find
peace within it. This is what one thinks of as surrender.
This way of thinking has been taught and accepted as satisfactory for many people, over a period of who knows how long, however, it is no longer the time we live in. The time Now is that of teaching people that they can change their experience. You can create something different. One no longer has to accept circumstances that have been seemingly handed to them. Understanding oneself as the creator of every experience we have for the purpose of Spiritual Growth is a fundamental teaching in our current times. If something doesn’t feel right, satisfy you, or creates any feeling other than joy they one has the responsibility of asking themselves:
Why did I create this? What can I learn to move me further along my path?
Once this inner reflection occurs, one can then surrender to things as they are, and take responsibility to create something different in the future. What needs to be accepted is responsibility…Responsibility for creating, for dreaming your world into being in conscious way. There are no victims, ignorance is a choice, not a happenstance. The time for innocence has passed, if you have felt that it hasn’t yet, Now it has. You have read these words and now you cannot not know that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life.
If you don’t like something then change it.
Set your intentions for how you want your life to be, visualize it, breath into a knowing that it has already happened and let go of attachment and expectation of when and how it manifests into your experience. Accept the responsibility to create and then surrender to the process of how it manifests.
I will be 100% responsible for the circumstances that I create and Accept each moment as an opportunity to learn about myself, I will surrender to the process of how things come to be. I will not accept what others say I must, or feel that I have to accept something that is not mine or has not been created by me. Each being is on an individual journey back to Oneness, I will accept responsibility for my path of return, but I cannot accept anyone else.
Dharma is tending to your life purpose. Karma is accepting the fruits of your actions. There are things in my life that I must surrender to as a result of it aligning with my purpose. But if I do not like the circumstances which I find myself in, then I can choose to change my future experience when I accept responsibility for the choices I make that create my life.
We accept the Responsibility of creation and Surrender to our own manifestations. This is the process.
Anjilianjili@kabbalisticyoga.com