The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection

by Mickey A. Singer

I just kept letting go and practicing nonresistance, whether I liked what was happening or not.

Each of us actually believes that things should be the way we want them, instead of being the natural result of all the forces of creation.

Nonetheless, it is also true that we are not powerless in the face of the events unfolding around us. We have been gifted with the power of will. From deep inside, we can determine how we want something to be and apply the power of our minds, hearts, and bodies in an attempt to make the outside world conform.

If the natural unfolding of the process of life can create and take care of the entire universe, is it really reasonable for us to assume that nothing good will happen unless we force it to?

For example, what would happen if we respected the flow of life and used our free will to participate in what’s unfolding, instead of fighting it?

Let it be clear right from the start, however, that this type of surrender does not mean living life without the assertion of will.

My story of these forty years is simply the story of what happened when the assertion of will was guided by what life was doing instead of what I wanted it to be doing.

My personal experience is that aligning one’s will with the natural forces unfolding around us leads to some...

How could I ever have imagined that I would end up running a $300-million-a-year computer software company, with twenty-three hundred people reporting to me, all without leaving the woods of Alachua or putting aside my spiritual pursuits?

How could the flow of life’s events pull that off, especially since I had never even touched a computer in my life and was totally content with my finances? As I sit here today, if I were forced to answer that question, I would utter the word surrender.

My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself—because it was.

When I was writing a program, the voice in my head would speak in the computer language I was using. I didn’t think in English and then convert to the language; my primary thoughts were in the computer language to begin with.

There was something very surreal as I stood there offering the finished package up to the universe. I had simply been following the flow. I hadn’t had any expectations, hopes, or dreams about anything. For many years now, I had just been putting one foot in front of the other serving whatever was put before me to the best of my ability.

Despite all these outer changes, I did not become a traditional businessman.

I remained a person whose spiritual path was surrendering to the flow of life and putting his entire

heart and soul into what life was giving him to do. My twice-daily meditation sessions certainly helped ...

For years I had been willing to let go of my personal preferences and focus on doing the absolute best I could with what life presented me. I hadn’t expected anything in return, and I was very humbled to see what was unfolding.

As I drove over to Wilbur’s, I focused on remaining open and receptive to the experience at hand so that I could see where life was taking it.

As I look back now, I am so grateful that surrender had taught me to willingly participate in life’s dance with a quiet mind and an open heart.

Something that started out looking totally disastrous had ended up with a positive result.

Time and again I was seeing that if I could handle the winds of the current storm, they would end up blowing in some great gift.

Perhaps change only takes place when there is sufficient reason to overcome the inertia of everyday life. Challenging situations create the force needed to bring about change. The problem is that we generally use all the stirred-up energy intended to bring about change, to resist change. I was learning to sit quietly in the mid...

when push comes to shove, I don’t care what it takes, just free me from myself.

Reality was what it was—might as well use it to let go of the personal self.

What I saw was that no matter who we are, life is going to put us through the changes we need to go through.

The question is: Are we willing to use this force for our transformation?

I had seen time and again that letting go not only led to amazing results, but it also left me in a state of profound inner peace.

I was not in charge; life was in charge, and there was an underlying sense of enthusiasm and excitement about getting to see what was going to happen next.

The handwriting was on the wall—this was becoming like all the previous times I had to put aside my strong personal preferences and surrender to what was manifesting before me. I didn’t like it one bit, but I was fully committed to seeing where the path of surrender to life was going to lead me.

There were going to be the expected power struggles, dealer acquisition issues, and constant legal and financial issues to be ironed out.

Nonetheless, I didn’t allow myself to get caught up in all those negative thoughts. I just remained open and completely intrigued by what was unfolding.

Meanwhile, I never worked so hard in my life. But it didn’t burn me out. In fact, it had the opposite effect.

The more I let go of “Mickey” and just committed myself to the task life had given me, the more the spiritual energy flow increased within me. It was as though by aligning myself with life’s outer flow, the beautiful, inward flow of energy was naturally strengthened.

I was deeply in love with the excitement and wonder of experiencing what would unfold next.

For years I had been diligently working to free myself of that weak person inside who always insisted on things being the way he wanted.

Now, nothing was the way anybody would have wanted. Yet everyone just took a collective deep breath and did whatever was asked of them.

At some point there’s no more struggle, just the deep peace that comes from surrendering to a perfection that is beyond your comprehension. Eventually, even the mind stops resisting, and the heart loses the tendency to close.