Cynthia Bourgeault on Surrender: The Inner Ground of Becoming
A contemplative reflection on surrender, an invitation to deep listening
“My false self is not something to be eradicated so that my real self can emerge; rather is it my own inner ground of becoming from which I will bring myself forth...”
—Cynthia Bourgeault
Tasting the Why and the How
The interplay between personal spiritual work and our collective becoming is clear. The part and the whole, the micro and the macro, the drop and the ocean—these interwoven realities are not novel inklings.
There is a facet I wish to highlight, though. In my lived experience, this knowing emerged organically, intuitively. I endeavor to live and create at this intersection, but to do so in a spacious, non-formulaic way.
Encountering Cynthia Bourgeault’s wisdom lineage has given me a cosmological framework for something my lived experience had already begun to know. Drawing on her spiritual lineage and her own experiential knowing, Cynthia animates this subtle dynamism, the interplay between personal surrender and collective becoming, in such a way that one may taste the why and the how.
How can one honor truest thing they have ever known without imposing it upon everyone around them? This is a tension I live with.
Today I will share a morsel I have been digesting slowly. Cynthia wrote an article on an obscure German mystic, Jacob Boehme. I recorded it for myself in a voice memo in order to slowly consume it with my whole being. This pathway into contemplation is one of my favorites.
I do not promise perfect pronunciation or studio quality, but there is sincerity. There is presence. I am touched in the reading.
Please visit Cynthia Bourgeault’s original article for the full text and context.
Within each of us is a homing beacon that recognizes wisdom. I trust this.
As you listen, open to the still small voice within that lights up through a word, phrase, quote, or concept. What sings?
There is plenty here for the thinking mind to take in. See if you can invite the body and the heart to the listening, too.
Surrender and Spiritual Direction
This is part of why I offer spiritual direction the way I do.
Surrender is a lifelong endeavor that never looks quite the same way twice. It can help to have a place of spacious listening and patient trust along the way.
My name is Kirsten. I am a fellow traveler on this inward path. You can read about my offerings here.
