“In the end these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you love?
How deeply did you learn to let go?”
~ The Buddha
The idea of spiritual “surrender” is encapsulated in the maxims: “Let go, and let God”; “Go with the Flow”; and “Not my will,
but Thy will be done”.
Both Eastern and Western religious and spiritual teachings
stress the importance of allowing the inconceivably immense power
of Nature, the Tao, or the Divine to guide our lives;
of simply surrendering to Life, and allowing it to live us as it may.
Before surrendering, we may egoically think ourselves separate from other beings and life-forms, and that we are in ultimate control of our lives.
But, as we gradually realize that we are inextricably part of Nature,
not separate from it, and that Nature Knows best and is in control, we more and more allow Nature, not ego, to guide us.
Surrender is an inner process; an intuitional attitude rather than an outer act,
arising gradually as we gain implicit trust and faith in Nature’s supreme perfection.
And as our faith in Nature grows, ego goes.
We gradually lose the ego illusion of separateness from Nature,
and ever more surrender to Life.
And when we become completely surrendered to the river of life –
the river of existence – ego disappears:
Revealing that our true nature is Nature;
Revealing we are THAT, to which we have surrendered.
Ron’s audio recitation of Surrender- Let Go of Ego
“[Self] Realization is of the fact that you are not a person.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The Witness and the witnessed are ONE.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Just as it is known
That an image of one’s face is seen
Depending on a mirror
But does not really exist as a face,
So the conception of “I” exists
Dependent on mind and body,
But like the image of a face
The “I” does not at all exist as its own reality.”
~ Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland of Advice
We are the screen,
not the movie.
We are the Glory,
not the story.
We are Rama,
not the drama.
We are the Whole,
not our role. Aum Ram Sovayam, Aum Ram Sovayam, Aum Ram Sovayam!
We are That,
We are That,
We are That!
Ron’s audio explanation and recitation of Who Are We?
“There is one Cosmic Essence, all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful. This nameless formless essence can be approached by any name, any form, any symbol that suites the taste of the individual. Follow your religion, but try to understand the real purpose behind all of the rituals and traditions, and experience that Oneness.”
~ Swami Satchidananda
“Mind and manifestation are ONE.”
~ Mary Saint-Marie
“There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe. The horizontal threads are in space. The vertical threads are in time. At every crossing of the threads, there is an individual. And every individual is a crystal bead. And every crystal bead reflects not only the light from every other crystal in the net, but also every other reflection throughout the entire universe.”
~ Indra’s Net – from the Vedas of ancient India, 7000 years old
“God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”
~ Empedocles (500-430 B.C., Greek Poet)
God is ONE:
God is All – manifest and unmanifest.
God is Infinite Potentiality.
God is ONE:
Divinity ain’t divisible.
Visible and invisible are indivisible;
Perceptible and imperceptible are inseparable;
Material and immaterial are integral.
SELF subsumes ALL.
God is ONE:
God is non-denominational.
So, let us celebrate – not separate – the Whole;
Let us balance our differences on a fulcrum of
< LOVE >.
And may we ever remember that:
We’re whole,
we’re whole,
we’re whole.
Nothing ever
can dissever our soul.
“Prayers go up and blessings come down.”
~ Yiddish Proverb
“Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.”
~ Socrates
In the deepest part
Of each being’s heart
Perfect peace pervades.
May we plumb these depths
And share percepts:
At-oned in common calmness,
Common being,
Common “I”-ness;
At-oned in timeless
LOVE.
Ron’s explanation and audio recitation of Prayer For At-One-Ment
As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Love is what we were born with.
Fear is what we learned here.
The spiritual journey is the relinquishment – or unlearning – of fear
and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.
~ Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fears
hide our highest potentials.
The higher we go
the more we know,
“We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”
~ H. H. Dalai Lama, from ‘The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
~ Matthew 12:50
In this wonderful world of relativity,
We are all relatives.
We are all connected and kin,
With our precious planet,
and all Life therein.
We all belong here,
as we all long here –
For everlasting LOVE.
So as ONE earth-life family,
let us live our lives with LOVE
As the Kin-dom of Heaven,
Blessed on Earth, as it is Above.
The eyes are the windows of the soul.
~ Traditional Proverb
The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, My Psalm
” Open thine eyes — bright windows to the soul —
~ William Hetherington
“….it is the soul itself which sees and hears, and not those parts which are, as it were, but windows to the soul…”
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
“There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, …
beyond the highest, the very highest heavens.
This is the light that shines in your Heart.”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 3.13.7
“Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
The eyes are windows to the soul.
The eyes are the soul’s windows to the world.
The eyes gleam with the Light of our Common “I”ness.
The eyes have it –
The light of Infinite Awareness.
So, let us focus on the light in the eyes of others.
And open our hearts to the Infinite,
Never forgetting that “It’s In Every One of Us”.
Voice, Music & Lyrics by David Pomeranz. Photos & Video by Wernher Krutein. 1987. Out-of-Print VHS.
“To understand everything is to forgive everything”
~ Buddha
“Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about your self return to your memory.”
~ Course in Miracles
If you are harboring the slightest bitterness toward anyone, or any unkind thoughts of any sort whatever, you must get rid of them quickly. They are not hurting anyone but you. It isn’t enough just to do right things and say right things – you must also think right things before your life can come into harmony.”
~ “Peace Pilgrim – Her Life and Work in Her Own Words” Pg. 16
Most religions teach the importance of forgiving or atoning for transgressions committed by or against us – our “sins”. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism teach forgiveness.
Forgiveness is particularly important in Christianity.
Thus, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeatedly taught forgiveness.
Eg. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
~ Luke 6:37
And even while in excruciating pain as he was dying on a cross, Jesus beseeched God’s forgiveness of those who crucified him: “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”
~ Luke 23: 34
In emphasizing “they know not what they do” Jesus invoked Divine forgiveness in response to apparent unwitting (rather than willful) sins of the Roman soldiers who crucified him.
“Sins” are often considered acts or omissions violating moral or ethical codes, with emphasis on what is wrong.
But the original meaning of “sin” in Greek is to miss the mark – like an archer missing the target. If sin is considered ‘missing the mark’, expiation requires that we focus on what is right, and on what we should do to get back ‘on target’, rather than on what was wrong with a mistaken act or omission.
Thus to transcend the negative, we realize the positive.
“There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges – the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“It requires honesty to see whether you still harbor grievances, whether there is someone in your life you have not completely forgiven, an “enemy.” If you do, become aware of the grievance both on the level of thought as well as emotion, that is to say, be aware of the thoughts that keep it alive, and feel the emotion that is the body’s response to those thoughts. Don’t try to let go of the grievance. Trying to let go, to forgive, does not work. Forgiveness happens naturally when you see that it has no purpose other than to strengthen a false sense of self, to keep the ego in place. The seeing is freeing.”
“Jesus’ teaching to “Forgive your enemies” is essentially about the undoing of one of the main egoic structures in the human mind. The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. And what is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“According to Christian teachings, the normal collective state of humanity is one of “original sin.” Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering. Again, the term, stripped of its cultural baggage and misinterpretations, points to the dysfunction inherent in the human condition.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
In the Jewish tradition, the highest of High Holy Days is Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement and forgiveness. While fasting on that day, observant Jews communally confess their wrongs and ask Divine forgiveness, humbly acknowledging that there are none amongst them so righteous that they have not sinned.
[“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins,"
~ Ecclesiastes 7:20]
And whenever Jews realize that they have erred, the Torah – the Jewish Bible – obligates them to return to a righteous path with a process of repentance and reparation called teshuvah. “Teshuvah means returning to God and godliness.”; and returning to God is the essence of Judaism. ~ Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro,“Open Secrets”, pp.12-13
The ‘atonement’ process of returning to God which is the essence of Judaism is also the essence of all other major religions. It is a process of transcending ego’s hallucination of imagined separation from Source – from our ultimate Essence and true nature – and of returning to a psychological state of ‘original blessing’; a state of “At-one-ment” with the ONE inconceivable and indescribable universal Awareness or Intelligence – often called God.
“One great question underlies our experience, whether we think about it or not: what is the purpose of life? From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
Q. Is earth-life purposeful? A. Though some Eastern mystics may call this ever changing “reality”
a dream, maya, samsara, or illusion,
it is a marvelous and miraculous mental creation.
So how can anyone ever imagine earth-life to be without purpose?
Our purpose is process – metamorphic process;
We are here to evolve.
Like unique facets of an infinitely faceted jewel,
Each earth being has a unique perspective but a common Essence –
which transcends this world, while everywhere imminent therein.
So, our purpose is to harmoniously realize, experience and actualize
our ONE transcendent identity –
As Infinite Potentiality –
As Divinity.
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
~ Exodus 33:14
“What is God? The eternal one life underneath all the forms of life. What is love? To feel the presence of the one life deep within yourself and all creatures; to be it! Therefore, all love is the love of God.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds. It is always present within you. You can use it any way you want.
~ Lao Tzu
As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.
~ Marianne Williamson
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘The Present’.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt (and others)
You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present.
~ Eckhart Tolle
Each person has different
talents, interests and abilities.
But, all people share
one common gift:
Consciousness, awareness, presence.
Life’s essence is Presence.
Presence is our greatest gift.
And the greatest gift we’ve been given,
Is the greatest gift we can give –
NOW and forever.
Ron’s audio recitation of Presence – Our Greatest Gift
“You will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32
“You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.”
~ Psalm 82: 6
“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise
of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga
“To Know Thyself is to know the Whole.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“You cannot teach an ego to be anything but egotistic,
even though egos have the subtlest ways of pretending to be reformed.
The basic thing is therefore to dispel, by experiment and experience,
the illusion of oneself as a separate ego.”
~ Alan Watts
“If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception.”
~ Rumi
For millennia there has been a tacit taboo or ‘conspiracy of silence’ against disclosing to all Humankind our true spiritual and immortal identity.
Except for those raised in so-called ‘primitive’ or indigenous societies, most people have been acculturated from time immemorial into societies with “an unrecognized but mighty taboo—[a] tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are.” ( Alan Watts: The Book, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Introduction.)
From childhood we are taught to self-identify only with an illusory and disempowering ego image; with a separate name, gender, and story about who and what we are. We are taught that we are each born into Nature as limited beings; but, not that Nature is our nature, or that we are Beings of Light sharing limitless immortal common consciousness with all life-forms.
Nor are we ever taught the greatest “secret of secrets”: that we are not mere powerless perceivers of our “reality”, but also its co-creators – that we co-create our reality with our thoughts, words and deeds; that everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way; and, that this worldly “reality” is dependent upon the awareness with which we envision, experience and co-create it.
To experientially realize that greatest “secret of secrets” is to Know Thyself. And to Know Thyself, is to know the Whole – the Truth that will set you free.
But until now that greatest secret has been mostly suppressed and hidden, often by institutions and individuals seeking selfish hierarchical exploitation of our precious planet and all its life-forms and resources.
Until now ignorance our true identity and immortality, has resulted in our hallucination of separation from Nature, from each other, and from our sole Self and spirit, with consequent destructive insanity, selfishness and suffering.
But now, facing ominous and enormous ecological and financial crises which cannot be resolved from the same levels of consciousness which created them, we are at long last being awakened from our delusion of separateness and powerlessness. Spurred by increasing suffering and awareness of imminent catastrophe, we are finally dispelling the ignorance which has spawned these crises.
And we shall soon reach a tipping point, when a critical mass of Humankind will have awakened to the “secret of secrets”, uplifting all human consciousness and resolving harmoniously and compassionately the critical mess created by our prior unawareness of that “secret”.
Thus awakened, we shall harmoniously, cooperatively and lovingly resolve our common crises for our common good.
“Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.” ~ Rumi
Spiritual teachers say we can learn about ourselves by closely observing all of Nature’s manifestations and processes. As above, so below.
So, what can we learn about ourselves by studying snowflakes and hydrologic processes?
Science tells us that though countless trillions of snowflakes have fallen on earth each has a unique form; that each snowflake is an hexagonally symmetrical crystalline form which begins around a tiny speck of dust, (as each pearl forms around a sand particle), but that no two snowflakes are exactly alike.
Yet, despite this wondrous and unimaginable diversity of forms, all snowflakes have a common essence — frozen water, H20.
When a snowflake melts, it returns to and merges with its watery source, which is perpetually recycled. So, each snowflake’s essence is the same – recycled water, which has formed countless unique prior snowflakes.
Not only are snowflakes unified in amazing physical diversity by their common watery essence, but science says that their common essence is indestructible. Water – a liquid – is a form of matter. Matter is merely manifest energy – E=mc2 – and energy can’t be destroyed. It just cycles from formlessness to differing forms and phenomena. So, in their essence, snowflakes are immortal energy.
Like snowflakes, each of the billions of humans who have inhabited Earth has had an individually unique form and genetic makeup. And like snowflakes, human physical bodies are composed of common elemental constituents, including mostly H20. People’s physical bodies – like snowflakes – appear for a twinkling of time, die and physically ‘melt’ back into the Earth.
But, unlike snowflakes, each of us is aware of our environment and of our life’s experiences; and this awareness is our entire existence. So, while unique snowflakes are united in glorious diversity by their common watery essence, physically unique human beings, are unified not only by their common elemental constituents but, also, by their by their common essence – consciousness, which is the sole context of human beingness.
Snowflakes emanate in Nature and, apparently, are peacefully at one with Nature until they disappear. Humans appear in Nature but – unlike snowflakes – we have great intelligence and we think. And through thought we identify ourselves with our perceived separate forms. Thus, we think that we are entities “condemned” by nature to inevitable bodily death. But we don’t know what will happen to us upon such death.
So, we become afraid of dying; of giving up the known for the unknown. And, through thought, we try psychologically to “protect” and preserve our ephemeral physical forms and to deter or deny their inevitable demise. Accordingly, our lives are often marked by mental afflictions causing conflicts, problems and suffering, which disturb our peace and our awareness of at-one-ment with Nature.
Q. So, what can people learn from snowflakes?
A. To ‘cool it’ and to not worry about our inevitable disappearance; to let go and go with the flow.
We can surmise that we are much more than our unique physical forms or our thoughts; that – like snowflakes – our common essence is immortal.
Realizing this, we can begin more and more to identify with our immortal nature, rather than our ephemeral forms and thoughts; and gradually we can expand our perceived boundaries, so to ever evolve ’til these boundaries dissolve.
Thus, we can more and more live with less and less anxiety, fear and worry. Though in this life we may never totally transcend ephemeral entity identity, often we can just be at peace – as immortal awareness.
And so,
“As we lose our fear, Of leaving life, We shall gain the art of living life.” ~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
In all events, – like snowflakes – we need not worry about leaving. For
“It is in dying [to ego life] that we are reborn to Eternal Life.” ~ Saint Francis of Assisi
Here’s what Paramahansa Yogananda says:
“The dewdrop belongs to the sea. Separated, it is vulnerable to the sun and wind and other elements of nature; but when the droplet returns its source, it becomes magnified in oneness with the sea. So it is with your life. United to God you become immortal.”
We have nothing to surrender
But the idea
That we’re someone,
With something
To surrender.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Thy will, be done.”
~ Luke 22:42.
“Setting aside all noble deeds, just surrender completely to the will of God.
I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not grieve.”
~ Bhagavad Gita
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
~ Proverbs 3:5-6
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”~ Lao Tzu
“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.”
~ Lao Tzu
“They are the chosen ones who have surrendered.”
~ Rumi
“How did you get here? Close your eyes and surrender.”
~ Rumi
“The hurt that we embrace becomes joy.” …..
“Roar, Lion of the Heart, and tear me open!“
~ Rumi
“The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.”
~ William Booth
“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”
~ Julia Cameron
“To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go”.
~ Lao Tzu
“He knows what He is doing with me.
I cannot always understand His way,
but I am content in the realization that He knows what is best.
That is surrender.”
~ Daya Mata
“Surrender is faith that the power of Love can accomplish anything
even when you cannot foresee the outcome.”
~ Deepak Chopra
“Knowledge is learning something every day.
Wisdom is letting go of something every day.”
~ Zen Proverb
“Each person’s life – each lifeform, in fact – represents a world,
a unique way in which the universe experiences itself.
And when your form dissolves, a world comes to an end –
one of countless worlds.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being,
only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance
will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is,
ever be put together a second time.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
~ Dr. Seuss
No two people experience identical perceptions
or states of consciousness;
Each one’s awareness
is mediated and limited by a unique body/mind;
And each person’s consciousness state is ever
changing and unique.
