The Power of Selflessly Receiving
I often talk about the importance of selfless service as a means of freeing us from the constant demands of our small self, which seeks to sustain its identity. Service allows to move past our attachment to our actions or to our circumstances, and open to a life beyond personal demand.
But the flip side of selfless service is the capacity to selflessly receive. Our ability to live in simplicity is the fruit of truly understanding the incredible effulgence and magnificence of God’s intelligence and allowing it to express itself in our life. We let God show Himself through the life He has designed for us. Over time, we can move effortlessly through everything we encounter, because are open to receiving whatever God wants to give. In truth, giving and receiving are inseparable.
Our individuated growth is the most profound act of selfless service because we are allowing the Divine to emerge from within us, and this fulfills the very purpose for which God created our life. Wanting to know God is not an act of selfishness. The reality is that it is only God wanting to know Himself.
Surrender to What God Offers
When we surrender our life to serving the Divine and selflessly receiving whatever God presents to us, we are absorbed in the expression of Divine Love and can fully absorb Divine Grace. We are immersed in and surrendered to the unity of life. We must embrace this ultimate field of awareness if we want our realization because it is from this depth of consciousness that we live in an open heart and experience unconditional joy.
There are no conditions necessary and nothing in our lives we have to change in order to do that—but by opening our hearts and living from that center, our relationship to all conditions profoundly changes. Selflessly receive, accepting what is given, without asking for that which is not. Let your life show itself to you by surrendering your will to God’s will. You have your life; live it. Be engaged in whatever you are responsible for and do it with depth, joy, and simplicity.
Whenever you are not sure if something is your will or God’s will, surrender your will. If there is any struggle about this, it reflects your own misunderstanding. God is crystal clear. If you function from a place of simplicity and stillness, you won’t be confused. If there is confusion, it is because you haven’t gotten still enough inside to see the reality of what is being shown.
When we lack inner stillness, doubt starts to resonate in us as an expression of our resistance. We have the belief that we need to protect ourselves. We doubt God—and specifically, we doubt God’s will for us. So we push back and start to tear apart the threads of our own life. There is nothing more insidious and cancerous than doubt.
Let Go of Doubt
It’s vital that we surrender doubt. Trust is inherent within us. When we recognize that we are Ĺšiva, we trust our Selves. Ĺšiva never doubts Himself. He knows He’s the baddest dude in the land! In surrendering doubt, we have to let go of all of our stuff, all of our misunderstanding, and all of our unwillingness to reach deep inside ourselves and affirm, “This is God showing me my life.”
My teacher Rudi said it this way:
Those who pick apart the threads weaken the fabric of creation by applying their mind to the design, because to them God’s will is not acceptable as their own. We must first surrender to the miracle of creation and then the pattern will emerge. Life is composed of an endless variety of threads of many colors. The need to reduce them to a certain type of design constricts the creative output. All the tension put into the weaving is man’s limitation of God’s purpose.
God only wants you to live from an open heart, because it is only in that place that you will truly experience the bliss and true freedom of being alive. It is only in an open heart that you can celebrate the miracle, the effulgence, and the gift of Grace that gave you: Life and the capacity to experience the joy of your own awareness. Don’t reach and don’t reject. Stop trying to change what you are doing because you think it’s necessary in order to feel fulfilled.
How willing are you to remain still, surrender, and not need anything? Can you surrender every need that comes up and open to whatever life is asking of you in order to change? Sit in stillness and let your life unfold from within you. If you think, “Nothing is unfolding,” you are not paying attention to what is happening.
In other words, if nothing in your day-to-day life changes, perhaps everything that was truly significant within you would change. Don’t wait for your Divine life to show up someday. It is here, right now, as the life you are actually living. If you understand the possibility for transformation inherent in selflessly receiving, you will be so busy not reaching, and so busy receiving, you won’t have time to think about what you did or did not get. Truly allow the simplicity and the magnificence that is available to you to show itself.