Inner Calm Through Surrender

[Kati]

Recently, something shifted within me.

 

I’ve begun to live with the following belief: my life flows through the Dao, the Source. My existence belongs therefore to this infinite presence. I trust the wisdom of the Dao more than what my eyes can perceive, for the Dao sees farther than I ever could. Everything that unfolds is part of a greater plan, one beyond my understanding. The Dao, the Source, is my teacher. The purpose of my life is to stay connected to this presence.

Even pain and suffering can serve as gateways to it. From this sacred space, miracles and possibilities emerge—things my mind alone could never imagine.

 

Since leaning into this trust, I’ve been surprised by a new kind of quietness. It’s so calm inside that I can feel my heartbeat clearly, even when I’m not meditating in a formal way. Before, I could only sense it when I was sitting very still in formal practice.

It also feels like the noise of the outside world doesn’t shake me as much as before.

 

I wonder:

Has anyone else felt this kind of natural quietness just from trust or surrender?

Could this be something like what Daoists mean by aligning with the Dao, or “wu wei”?

I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences.

[Mark Foote]

8 hours ago, Kati said:

 

The purpose of my life is to stay connected to this presence.

 

 

Many teachers just emphasize "mind", or consciousness, as here:

 

You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of “I am”. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself.

(Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality])

 

 

Let the mind be present without an abode.

 

(from the Diamond Sutra, translation by Venerable Master Hsing Yun from “The Rabbit’s Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra”,  p 60)
 

 

You are right, self-surrender plays a vital role, as here where Gautama described the induction of the initial concentration:
 

… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.  (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein.
 

(SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original; “initial” for “directed”, as at SN 36.11, tr. PTS vol IV p 146)
 

 

To "hold consciousness by itself", as Nisargadatta prescribed, is to lay hold of "one-pointedness". To stay connected, Gautama advised the extension of the feelings of zest and ease of the first concentration:

 

… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.

(AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19)

 

I'm writing about that now:

 

Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.

The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair:
 

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.

(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

“Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of inhalation and exhalation.

In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation.
 

 

Gautama said that he always returned to one-pointedness after he lectured, that he constantly abided in "that first characteristic of concentration". Speaking of staying connected to presence!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 08:19 PM by Mark Foote

[Kati]

6 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

  (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein.

i dont get this part. can you explain this in your own words

 

i feel actually to dumb to understand all these quotes.

therefore i might get it better when you share from your personal experience

 

Edited Friday at 08:28 PM by Kati

[Kati]

6 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

To stay connected, Gautama advised the extension of the feelings of zest and ease of the first concentration:

dont get this either

 

7 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

(a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.

is this about feeling oneness? some of  these quotes are somehow  a bit cryptical. does that make sense?

 

9 minutes ago, Mark Foote said:

Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.

The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair:
 

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.

(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

“Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of inhalation and exhalation.

In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation.

this sounds great, while i dont get it at all. looks to me like i need a degree to get this. i do have a degree in philosophy and read because of it quite a lot of spiritual literature. right now that degree doesnt seem to help to get this.

[Mark Foote]

14 minutes ago, Kati said:

 

i dont get this part. can you explain this in your own words

 

i feel actually to dumb to understand all these quotes.

therefore i might get it better when you share from your personal experience

 

Dumb got nothin' to do with it!

How's this, something I wrote previously but my words, explaining the meaning of Gautama's "one-pointedness" and "lays hold of one-pointedness":

 

In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

 

The self-surrender required to "stay connected to this presence" can be a surrender of activity in the body, and if you remain present with consciousness in that surrender, you will find that the activity of the body becomes purely a function of the location of consciousness in the body. And that location shifts and moves, naturally.

The extension of ease is helpful to me in allowing activity of the body to become purely a function of the location of consciousness. I wake up to the location shifting and moving in the surrender of activity as I sit, or as I walk or dance.

 

 

Edited Friday at 08:36 PM by Mark Foote

[Lala Nila]

For me achieving this state of self-surrender is in the place between breaths, that "place" is achieved when not achieving anything, when not trying, when not doing. It's in the pause- the space between actions. Not as an idea or concept but felt as letting go into awareness.That is when I feel I'm getting a little taste of that self-surrender 

 

-Śakti folding back into Śiva-

[Nungali]

1 hour ago, Kati said:

dont get this either

 

is this about feeling oneness? some of  these quotes are somehow  a bit cryptical. does that make sense?

 

this sounds great, while i dont get it at all. looks to me like i need a degree to get this. i do have a degree in philosophy and read because of it quite a lot of spiritual literature. right now that degree doesnt seem to help to get this.

 

As much as mark is liked here ... that seems to be his dynamic ... I find it a bit  too much as well 

 

But dont worry as you wanted to know about a process in Taoism and he is talking Buddhism    

 

Oh, by the way , I know what you mean  and yes I have felt / sometimes do feel that . Eventually one can get to a place where one can experience , or at least feel ,  life without all those things that 'bring us down' and experience life and being alive , in the pure state   its rather ecstatic  .... a natural state of 'eudamonia '  . .   If you 'move with it '  it will 'look after you' , and that is a great feeling . My indigenous teacher simply refers to 'it' as 'Big Mum' .   He can just wander off into the wilderness naked and survive happily , and he has taught many young men the same . Of course to 'flow in this way with nature' takes understanding , knoweldge , practice and initiation , but once you have that 'under your belt'  ( and many believe one cannot live properly without that process )  , life can be lived as it was meant to be lived . 

 

-   I was tying to keep things uncomplicated ... I hope it worked . 

[Sanity Check]

 

 

 

 

 

...............

 

 

[Kati]

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

As much as mark is liked here ... that seems to be his dynamic ... I find it a bit  too much as well 

nicely put. this is an issue we have as humans. we can all be smart and spiritual, and still because of different intellects have a hard time to get the message from another person

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

But dont worry as you wanted to know about a process in Taoism and he is talking Buddhism

you really are good at getting what i looked for.  
 

 

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

If you 'move with it '  it will 'look after you' , and that is a great feeling .

exactly, heart melts...

 

 

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

He can just wander off into the wilderness naked and survive happily , and he has taught many young men the same

ahaa i am happy that i get spirtual growth without this kind of spirtual practice. but if it helps them, i wont interfere haha
 

 

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

-   I was tying to keep things uncomplicated ... I hope it worked

yes it did

 

[Kati]

4 hours ago, Mark Foote said:

Dumb got nothin' to do with it!

How's this, something I wrote previously but my words, explaining the meaning of Gautama's "one-pointedness" and "lays hold of one-pointedness":

 

In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

 

The self-surrender required to "stay connected to this presence" can be a surrender of activity in the body, and if you remain present with consciousness in that surrender, you will find that the activity of the body becomes purely a function of the location of consciousness in the body. And that location shifts and moves, naturally.

The extension of ease is helpful to me in allowing activity of the body to become purely a function of the location of consciousness. I wake up to the location shifting and moving in the surrender of activity as I sit, or as I walk or dance.

 

 

sounds  like what i have to do in my qigong practice , feel the qi in the body and be in a state of being and not being with whatever i feel :

 

thank you for sharing this. it is a nice reminder Mark

Edited yesterday at 12:49 AM by Kati

[Kati]

3 hours ago, Lala Nila said:

For me achieving this state of self-surrender is in the place between breaths, that "place" is achieved when not achieving anything, when not trying, when not doing. It's in the pause- the space between actions. Not as an idea or concept but felt as letting go into awareness.That is when I feel I'm getting a little taste of that self-surrender 

 

-Śakti folding back into Śiva-

yes i understand. living in that pause is the place to receive grace and be in flow
 learning to let go of constant control, manipulating myself and others, drowning in selfpity and fear. all that falls away with learning to receive grace

[forestofclarity]

23 hours ago, Kati said:

I wonder:

Has anyone else felt this kind of natural quietness just from trust or surrender?

Could this be something like what Daoists mean by aligning with the Dao, or “wu wei”?

I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences.

 

Surrender seems to be a large part of it. It is not always clear what is being surrendered. Typically, it refers to the acquired mind (識神) or shi shen, the series of habits and ways of doings things that we've picked up over our lifetime or many lifetimes. Under it, the yuan shen (元神), is primordially free and connected to the larger whole. 

 

I often think of the TTC 48 on this (trans Derek Lin)

 

Pursue knowledge, daily gain
Pursue Tao, daily loss
Loss and more loss
Until one reaches non-action
With non-action, there is nothing one cannot do
Take the world by constantly applying non-interference
The one who interferes is not qualified to take the world

[Mark Foote]

22 hours ago, Lala Nila said:

For me achieving this state of self-surrender is in the place between breaths, that "place" is achieved when not achieving anything, when not trying, when not doing. It's in the pause- the space between actions. Not as an idea or concept but felt as letting go into awareness.That is when I feel I'm getting a little taste of that self-surrender 

 

-Śakti folding back into Śiva-
 

 

 

A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location).

(Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214)

 

I find that there is no pause between the movements of breath, provided I allow action born out of "embodied self-location. The key for me is to be present with the "specific position in space within one’s bodily borders" of self-location from one moment to the next, and to "drench" the body with the ease associated with autonomic activity such that "there is no point (in the body) that is not pervaded" with that weighted ease.

At some point, consciousness retained with the embodied self-location becomes embodied self-location retained with consciousness, and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation is solely by virtue of the location of consciousness.

That last is Gautama's fourth concentration. He provided a metaphor for the feeling of the fourth concentration:

 

… it is as if (a person) might be sitting down who had clothed (themselves) including (their) head with a white cloth; there would be no part of (their) whole body that was not covered by the white cloth. 

(MN 119, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III p 134)

 

 

If you prefer Daoism, that would be "manifests in the skin and hair" as described in the Tai Chi classics:

 

With this method of circulating the ch'i (Tai Chi), it overflows into the sinews, reaches the bone marrow, fills the diaphragm, and manifests in the skin and hair.

 

("Master Cheng's Thirteen Chapters on T'ai-Chi Ch'uan", Cheng Man-Ching trans. Douglas Wile, pg. 17)

 

 

 

[Nungali]

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Edited 6 hours ago by Nungali

[ChiDragon]

On 9/12/2025 at 5:12 AM, Kati said:

I wonder:

Has anyone else felt this kind of natural quietness just from trust or surrender?

Could this be something like what Daoists mean by aligning with the Dao, or “wu wei”?

I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences.

Yes, that is exactly how I felt ever since I'd translated the Tao Te Ching. I had learned and discovered what "wu wei" was all about. I don't take adversity as serious as before. I am more calm in handling the most difficult situations. Over all, I felt that I am a better person!

[Mark Foote]

47 minutes ago, Nungali said:

.

 

 

[Mark Foote]

50 minutes ago, Nungali said:

.

[Nungali]

Nah ....  not you . 

 

I was complaining about the reddit posts up there  ^ 

 

But then did a Cobie 

 

but now I got a raspberry ... I do a reverse Cobie 

 

' we can go to reddit if we want to read reddit  '  

 

I wasnt bitchin about you Footsie .....

 

but I will now , cause yo paranoid bro  . 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Sanity Check]

The meek will inherit the earth.

Edited 1 hour ago by Sanity Check