Once in awhile it is necessary to surrender yourself. Completely and unconditionally.

This does not mean giving up and becoming a lazy bum, not caring about anything and passively accepting whatever comes along your way. Surrender is profound wisdom of yielding to rather than resisting the flow of life. While this surrender-feeling should be ingrained in our daily pattern of activities, it is usually forced upon us out of necessity in order to survive. Extreme moments of despair. There are situations in life which become unsatisfactory over time or even completely intolerable. The only way to get through this then is by surrendering, that is "breaking up that unconscious resistance pattern that keeps perpetuating the situation."

Surrender is an inner process, and you only have to concern yourself with the energy of friction arising from the inside. Acquiring the suitable match with the outer, with little or no resistance.

Call it finding God or Allah, call it being happy with yourself, call it feeling "cool, calm and collected," call it being one with yourself, call it a state of pure thoughtlessness, call it energy and warmth, call it floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean somewhere, call it whatever.

Here is the (boring) official dictionary definition:

sur·ren·der (s-rndr) v. sur·ren·dered, sur·ren·der·ing, sur·ren·ders v. tr.

1. To relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion.
2. To give up in favor of another.


3. To give up or give back (something that has been granted): surrender a contractual right.
4. To give up or abandon: surrender all hope.
5. To give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion: surrendered himself to grief.
6. Law. To restore (an estate, for example), especially to give up (a lease) before expiration of the term.

And here is a really nice description of surrender as given by Karma Klutz in his essay Darma Talk.

"The courage that you must manifest on the cushion is the courage of the supplicant who is willing to surrender completely to the experience of becoming absorbed into Fundamental Nature or into whatever name you choose to call Fundamental Nature..."

"...You must surrender yourself to the experience of sitting and open yourself to whatever happens, not what you hope, expect, think, have read or heard, or anticipated will happen. A Christian prayer is "Let thy will be done." This is the attitude of surrender you must have. Not surrender to a person or a tradition but to your own nature. Persons are part of this world of samsara or delusion, they are the fingers pointing at the moon. Traditions can be corrupted. Surrender to the truth of your own nature..."

"...When you surrender yourself to God you surrender yourself to your original nature which is universal compassion. You empty yourself so that you can become an instrument of compassion, so that you can fulfill your purpose which is to be of real service to other sentient beings..."

"...When we sit on the cushion in complete surrender to the absolute, by forgetting ourselves and surrendering to the moment, we place ourselves in close proximity to the object of our affection."

Hopefully this passage will offer some one out there some kind of guidance. It certainly has helped me alot and changed my way of viewing life greatly. Though I was born this way and have had the surrender-feeling inside of me from the very beginning.