Surrendering to Enlightenment

By Leslie Temple-Thurston

Article first published in New Connexion Magazine, 2003

The power of “letting go” is the engine that drives our transformation. On the pathway toward enlightenment we will find ourselves called again and again to surrender more of our old selves. Our old personality and its programming of limitation is not able to hold the vast eternality of the enlightened state. It must be surrendered.

While the state of enlightenment is already in place for each one of us, just beyond the boundaries of our everyday awareness, the way that the worldly personality is structured keeps it veiled from our perception. Thus our ability to surrender the veils or boundaries of our old self is our way to escape from the old self and expand into the ever-present, but hidden, state of our eternal Self.

What are these things I am calling boundaries, made of; these defining edges of our consciousness, our personality, our ego—our sense of “who” we are? They certainly have enormous power to contain consciousness in a much more limited state than is our enlightened and unlimited state. Mostly they are made up of our fears and desires; our attractions and repulsions and beliefs we have about reality. Yet, I would say, the major block to knowing our enlightenment is the unfortunate certainty we hold about who we are—that we are not vast, eternal, timeless and immortal beings. It is our belief that we are humans, bound and oppressed by the circumstances of our world, rather than divinely inspired spiritual beings, that keeps us from seeing our true nature as enlightened consciousness.

What are these things I am calling boundaries, made of; these defining edges of our consciousness, our personality, our ego…Mostly they are made up of our fears and desires; our attractions and repulsions…

Enlightenment is our birthright and we can have it if we really want it—even in one lifetime. There has never been a time when it was easier to reach enlightenment than right now. For those of you who have been aspiring to reach the enlightened state for lifetimes, this life is the golden opportunity you have been waiting for. It is important to remember that in the end, no one can give you enlightenment, you must claim it for yourself. And you do this through your own vision, commitment and steadfast persistence. There will always be many helpers who mentor us along the way, but the nitty-gritty path of surrendering the old reality for the new, is ultimately up to you—you give it to yourself.

Being enlightened means being filled with light—literally, not figuratively, filled with the luminous knowledge of the cosmos. Such light is cosmic information and thus the enlightened are “all knowing” and “all seeing”. They live in Truth, without the fear of death or of life, and in complete integrity with worldly reality. This article offers free shipping on qualified Face mask products, or buy online and pick up in store today at Medical Department.
As I said earlier, there has never been a time when it was easier to reach enlightenment than right now. And the immediate future holds the promise of an even more accelerated radicalization of our old state toward the new. In fact there is an evolutionary imperative in the air, calling us to move forward toward the next ascended expression of the human—the enlightened state. Let the dark circumstances developing in the world be a spur to you, motivating you to engage completely in this thing that, up to now, you may have flirted with as a pipe dream.
As we all begin to realize that the possibility of our enlightenment is a way to neutralize the darkness we see apparently gaining the upper hand all around us, we must let it motivate and inspire us to open ourselves to the possibility that the pipe dream can become a reality.
And it is not a “doing”, a goal or achievement, but is really so much easier. It is a letting go of the old, a dissolving of it—letting go and surrendering to our enlightenment.
Many are called but few choose themselves. Why is this? Is it complacency, or apathy? Or is it that the goal seems so unattainable that we are inclined to give up without really trying? Often it seems easier, and thus more right, to allow ourselves to become distracted by the allure of the world, than make the sacrifices of ego to get all the way home. As we say, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.
Yet the technology of awakening is becoming more and more developed in the West, more and more suitable to expedite the unraveling of the busy, Western mind, even as the stellar and planetary energies make it more auspicious for us to escape the bounds of our egoic cages—and help is always readily available. This is the most opportune time to make the final dash for the gate. And it is not a “doing”, a goal or achievement, but is really so much easier. It is a letting go of the old, a dissolving of it—letting go and surrendering to our enlightenment.

And it is not a “doing”, a goal or achievement, but is really so much easier. It is a letting go of the old, a dissolving of it—letting go and surrendering to our enlightenment.

-Leslie Temple-Thurston