The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 4, Part 6

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

I am not sure why surrender and trust should win over despair when we ‘totter on the edge of the abyss.’ Can you explain this further?

Your question is a good one because it goes to the heart of the problem. Let us ask ourselves first why we would find ourselves before that abyss. Why would you be standing there before the Void?

Because I have come to realize in my deepest self that I know nothing — not even who I am.

Yes, and this process of unlearning and truth-seeking has been conducted in a spirit of total honesty. Honesty. You have been unwilling to fool yourself with false-knowledge and beliefs. And now, standing naked before the Void, you must remain honest. Having come so far, you can’t now choose some palliative — you can’t just surrender because you fear the alternative.

Yes, that’s where I find myself now. It would be so nice to just let go and believe that the Tao would catch me, but I don’t want to believe anything.

Nor should you. May I suggest that you try and experience your emptiness as openness? I know you must have done so already to have arrived where you are. Do it again now, in your meditations, but do it with all your heart.

Emptiness is openness. It requires no belief. It is simply being receptive to the Unknown.

I hesitate to say more. This is where you go beyond. This is where intuitive understanding enters your experience. This is where fullness arises. And it is only yours to know.

Of despair and surrender I will say this: Despair is a choice. Surrender arises. Surrender is what your innate nature most wants to do. Follow your heart.

Despair has its complement in hope. To engage in either is to still be on the merry-go-round of attachment. Or, as Lao-tzu tells us, to cling to either is still to be on a precarious ladder—it matters not whether you are going up it or down it, you are still in peril. Why not rather step onto solid ground. That ground is simple letting go in trust.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.