Tantra Tip of the Day Practicing Surrender

Take a moment and feel into your body. Scan it from head to toe. Would you say its over-all tone is relaxed or constricted? Are some areas of your body open and others closed? Breathe into the areas of tension. See if you can let go of the need to control and be present with what is.

How does it feel to surrender to the moment? Are you able to trust the process or do you or find fault with what is arising? Is there a tendency to judge your self or blame others? Do you frequently resist what is arising in the moment? Is there a habit to try and control or change what is unfolding around you? What would it be like to surrender into the flow of life and trust that the universe is supporting you in every moment?

Tantra Tip of the Day- Surrendering Control

I had a great time teaching in Toronto, Canada in July. On returning to Sedona I found myself needing to go inward. This process kept me off the computer and somewhat disengaged from the world. My mind kept saying, “get to work” and I knew I needed to not do and instead to be. It is a challenge to be in a doing world. I just had to let go, surrender control and trust the process.

I spent a week just letting go of doing and becoming empty. Then I was able to go deeper into myself and look at my own Tantric practice and to take time to connect more deeply with my inner teachers. I re-read Passionate Enlightenment : Women in Tantric Buddhism by Miranda Shaw, a book I first read 6 years ago. I highly recommend this book, especially to women new to Tantra. It is full of wonderful stories about the women who taught the men, who are credited with creating the Tantric Buddhist traditions. Reading it reconnected me with the deeper truth of Tantra, which is about waking up from the delusion, called life that most of us take so seriously.

One of my biggest challenges is how to “be in the world but not of it.” When I start focusing more on business, making money and being successful than on being present in the Now, I begin to believe in the world of delusion and start to loose my way. Spacious awareness is reality not the thoughts in my head or the Dow-Jones Industrial average. Surrendering control allowed me to empty out and be refilled and brought me back home to the spacious awareness that I am.

Try this: Notice when your need to control arises. What is the situation? What is the fear? What would happen if you let go? Isn’t control really an illusion created to keep fear at bay? Explore what happens when you surrender control. See what you discover.

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(C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.

Tantra Tip of the Day – Surrender or Suffer

Suffering is the direct result of resisting what is arising in the moment. Surrender is staying open to what is arising in each moment. If you are suffering ask yourself how can of let go of my resistance to this moment. Resistance is often triggered by fear. Ask what am I afraid of? Is this fear real or imagined? Say your fear out loud. I discovered many years ago that when I say my fear out loud it usually is not a real fear but a mind generated fear about some imagines future. If you are suffering let go of resistance and see what happens.

Original Art by Paul Heussenstamm,
www.Mandalas.com

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(C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.

Practicing the Art of Surrender

I woke up yesterday morning with a new insight about resistance as the cause of all suffering. This insight was not intellectual but visceral. As I emerged from sleep I felt “resistance” and suffering. Then I felt “surrender” and the reestablishment of flow. I have been acutely aware of my energy flow for the past few weeks. I have been watching when I open and surrender and when I contract and resist. I have been able to see how my choice to open or close effects my perception of life. Stress and distress are a direct effect of resisting what is happening. Surrender is just allowing what is to be as it is in this moment.

I have discovered that is usually my thoughts about past and future that create fear and cause contraction and resistance. When I am present I naturally relax and surrender to the moment. I feel I am one with the flow. I am learning to discern these two distinct ways of being. One is much more intellectual, thought driven and fear based. The other more present, relaxed and heart connected.

My edge right now is staying in my surrendered heart, no matter what is arising. I find this both exciting and at times scary. It is interesting to watch my mind which is quick to jump in and want to figure things out and take control of the situation. When this happens I bring myself back to the present moment and check in with my heart. The choice is flow or control. In the past I have often been more comfortable choosing control. This choice goes back to my childhood when I learned not to rely on others but to trust myself. Now I am reeducating my heart and learning to trust the flow of the universe to support me in each moment by surrendering my need to know and to control.

Last night I had the opportunity to practice surrender while a man held space for me. I wanted to see just how opened and relaxed I could be. We went through a communication and each shared our desires, fears and boundaries. My desire was to allow him to guide me and to surrender as much as possible. His desire was to guide me through a particular practice. It was a delight for me (who is usually the teacher) to relax and be guided. I felt strongly held by his presence and that supported me in opening fully. I also became aware that when I surrender the light within me shines more brightly and that is a gift for him. I could feel my aliveness expanding as light, as love.

I feel very blessed in my life right now to be practicing and deepening my understanding of David Deida’s work. He talks about surrender on page 77 of Intimate Communion, Awakening Your Sexual Essence. At the same time I am deepening my understanding of Gangaji’s self inquiry work and her book The Diamond in Your Pocket. Together they are taking me to a new level of presence and awareness.

Original art by A. Andrew Gonzalez http://www.sublimatrix.com/

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(C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.

Leaping into the Void, Part 2

I woke up about 4AM and finally took the leap into the void. I could feel myself falling like a skydiver, wind in my face arms and legs stretched out. Suddenly I was suspended in the emptiness. "Stop." "Be still." "Be." No movement. No story. Emptiness. Silence. I lay there feeling into the void. Still.

I got up and meditated. I dozed. I listened to Gangaji speak on stillness. I am in a new place. I feel resistance. I breathe. Instead of pushing through to something or backing away from something. I am being with what is. I am aware of the urge to do, of thoughts and of feelings. It is uncomfortable in the unknown, in the dark. I like resolution.

When I am still I immediately connect to joy and spaciousness, it feels good. Yet I don't allow myself to relax in this knowing. Very quickly my habit is to go back to thinking and doing. What is my resistance to being, to stillness, to peace?

Today I am slowing down and being aware of the stillness inside me. I am doing things from a place of stillness. I am noticing my discomfort at times. I feel the stillness as not separate from me. Being still is not a doing. Surrender, breathe, be, open, close, breathe, relax, deep silence, peace, fear, close, breathe open, thoughts, let go, surrender....

Tantra Tip of the Day – Leaping into the Void

I have been feeling a deep need to let go of control, let go of directing the show, let go of being strongly in my masculine. This is a role I am comfortable with from many years being a teacher, midwife and mother. I am used to holding space for others, so they can feel safe. I am comfortable helping them explore their edges.

Now I am at the edge of a precipice. There is something essential just beyond what I can safely reach. I need to surrender into the unknown and trust that is it ok not to know. I need to let go and breathe into my heart. I need to trust this process called life. I need be willing to fall apart. I need to surrender and trust the process.

It is hard to do this alone, to hold space for myself. I long for a strong man to hold space for me. I long for my heart to open and trust this man. I want to see in his eyes that he believes in me and will be there at the end, no matter what. I long to surrender and fall apart with total abandon.

Where in your life do you need to surrender? What is your relationship to trust? What is your relationship to your inner masculine? How can you show up and support your inner feminine?

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C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.

Tantra Tip of the Day - Feel into Surrender

Surrender

Let go, flow, slow, don't know,
Relax, no resistance,
Tension melts,
Mind empty,
No thoughts,

Floating on a calm sea,
Buoyant, light, supported effortlessly.
Blue sky in all directions,
I am free; all is as it needs to be.

Peace at last,
No more fear,
No need to control,
Surrender all to the Infinite,
Trust totally.

By Crystal Dawn Morris March 27, 2009

Try this: Spend some time today exploring what surrender is to you. How does it feel? What beliefs do you have about it? Experience a moment of surrender and see what you discover about yourself.

(C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.
www.TantraForAwakening.com
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Tantra Tip of the Day – Say Yes to Life

Tantra says, "Yes! To what is. Yes, to this moment. Yes, to being you, as you are, now."

When you surrender into this moment and allow everything to be as it is, you become aware that all is one. You’re in the flow, neither resisting what is or grasping after something other than what is, to be happy. Resistance creates suffering, striving after some imagined future, creates suffering. Accepting yourself as you are, this moment as it is, the people around you as they are, life as it is, allows you to relax, open and just be. This is freedom.

Today, notice when you say yes to the moment and when you resist the moment. Experiment with saying yes, even when your habit would be to say no. If you find yourself in heavy traffic instead of cursing, and insisting this is not as it should be. Try accepting that you are in a traffic jam. If that isn’t possible, then accept that you are choosing to be in resistance to what is. Then notice if your resistance is causing suffering. Once you are aware of the suffering, see if you can soften your resistance. See the humor in your situation; laugh at how serious you are being. Try taking a deep breath, as you exhale relax and let go of trying to control the world around you. Notice how it feels to surrender into the moment. See what happens when you let go of resistance.

(C) Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.
www.TantraForAwakening.com
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