Giving Up Ground

I am free when I remember that the sense of falling comes with the relieving truth that there is no ground. Everything is change. Tension arises when the mind resists the reality of our groundlessness and grasps on to the idea that our lives are at the control of our own fingertips. Recognizing that our lives are subject to something unspeakable and beyond ourselves is, at first, a frightening truth to face. But, if one can sit lovingly with the fear of uncertainty for just a moment long enough, right there, even if only for a glimpse, fear fades into the wide open view of surrender. This view is presence. 

There is a seemingly paradoxical dynamic between our power and our willingness to surrender. We can make efforts in our lives to grow and move toward desired change or in the direction of something meaningful, while simultaneously being with the truth that the only way there is from here. Yet, the false notion that power is our ability to predict and control the terrain of our lives enters easily into the operations of the mind. When we release the idea that we can maneuver our lives into what we think they ought to be and arrive instead to how things are, we become potently powerful in our capacity to change and move in our desired direction. Within this space, our true nature of resilience and adaptability is boundless. Whether we experience an internal sense of stability, chaos, or something in-between, there is no ground beneath it. Our degree of willingness to surrender into the wide open view of our groundlessness is the degree to which we are free to access our power.