Metanoia
The Essential Surrender
By Kosi
Metanoia (me-tə-ˈnȯi-ə) is an ancient word that means a change of heart so deep, so total, you fall to the ground in an unending bow to the divine. This total change of heart is the transformation of repentance—a radical shift in consciousness—the moment of bitter remorse you feel when you suddenly realize the absolute futility of all your efforts to seek happiness in the world. It is the timeless moment when you turn away from this futile pursuit that naturally opens your heart to the divine logos—the purifying power of the vast intelligence of the entire universe. This is the beginning of the evolutionary process of metanoia—the ancient alchemy of a deep permanent transformation of every aspect of your life. The ancient words repentance, sin, and metanoia might seem irrelevant in the context of the eternal presence and teaching of Sri Sri Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, but what if the sublime nature of metanoia actually reveals the secret power of vichara—the ancient yoga of self-inquiry? What exactly is metanoia and why is this ancient alchemy essential for moksha—your eternal salvation?
The word repentance goes hand in hand with the word sin, which is often equated with ideas of bad, wrong, or even judged as evil or dastardly thoughts and actions you take, either knowingly or unknowingly, in the world. This common definition of sin tends to evoke a sense of guilt that serves to intensify the deep-seated feelings of self-hatred and shame that lurk at the root of every ego. As a result, the word sin can evoke an immediate reaction of disgust or an overwhelming sense of foreboding, guilt, and shame—or the total rejection of this word as meaningless and irrelevant to you and your life. But what if these common ideas of sin are not actually what the word means? What if the word sin is simply an archery term that means to miss the mark or miss the target? In other words, what if sin is the natural genetic tendency that drives your pursuit of pleasure and your complex strategies to survive in the world?
The mind naturally interprets what you perceive and instantly develops survival strategies based on this interpretation. This extremely potent genetic impulse of your mind grabs your attention and turns your awareness outward to the world. It is what drives the impulse to fight, seduce, run, cheat, lie, judge, hate, avoid, or seduce—the primal sins of survival. This genetic drive to survive constantly directs your attention outward to the events of your life. This movement of your egoic mind tricks you into thinking the constantly changing events unfolding in your life cause the wide array of emotions you experience every single day—but is this what is really going on inside of you? What does it mean to sin or miss the mark?
Sin is deeply rooted in the strong genetic human impulse to perceive, think, and act in the world from the ignorance, or limited perspective, of your ego and genetic mind. It is the conscious and unconscious biological urge to get, keep, and protect yourself in order to survive. This preoccupation with the constantly changing drama unfolding in your life is the nature of sin—missing the mark—meaning you are living your life in the fog of distraction, confusion, impulses, and reactions, and are asleep or unaware of the real purpose and nature of your life. This ignorance of what is actually going on inside of you is the real cause of the intense pain of suffering driven by the primal movements of your mind, which is the potent force of nature within you that drives the thousands of thoughts that appear and disappear again and again like clouds on the horizon that only serve to generate the waves of feelings and emotions that roll through your body like ripples in a still lake.
The deeply ingrained genetic tendency of ego in tandem with your senses naturally generates an unending stream of thoughts, images, and projections that appear and disappear in your mind as stories you instantly weave together, and deeply believe, as your perception of reality. It is the complexity of suffering that generates feelings, emotions, and reactions. This story-weaving capacity of your mind naturally captivates your attention, like a movie in a theater, and continues the ongoing, rather neurotic, conversation unfolding moment by moment in your mind. But have you ever stopped to wonder; exactly who are you talking to inside your head? Who or what exactly is this who? Hmmm…?
The story-weaving nature of your mind leads to the pursuit of pleasure and the complex strategies to get whatever you think will make you happy and avoid whatever you do not want or avoid the intense fear associated with death. The great haunting specter of death is always lurking in the recesses of your genetic mind, but this sense of terror can also appear in your consciousness as an intense fear of rebirth or the unending process of birth and death or the deep-seated fear of being trapped forever on the ancient and terrifying karmic wheel of samsara. But the fear of death and rebirth are actually the same fear—the loss of existence and everything you know, real or imagined, that triggers the genetically wired instinct of your body to survive.
This evokes the most important question you will ever face in life—what is the mark—what is the real aim or purpose of your life? If you follow the movements of sin, or the potent movements of your mind outward to the world, hoping to satisfy the mysterious longing deep inside that never seems to be satisfied, what are you actually accomplishing? Does your strategy of changing what is constantly changing produce any lasting results? Will you ever be genuinely happy following this genetic movement of your mind that can take you on a wild rollercoaster ride of emotional drama? Or drive the intense seeking for the ultimate solution of the perpetual happiness that enlightenment promises?
The natural preoccupation with the ever-changing story unfolding in your mind only leads to fleeting moments of happiness or states of bliss intermingled with chaos, fear, sadness, stress, anxiety, and the terror of death or rebirth—the grim reality of the misidentification with your body caused by the reflective nature of your ego. This evokes the question—how do you really break free of the mind twisting nature of this genetically strong perception of reality or the extremely limited perspective of your puny little ego mind and the arrogance of knowing it constantly generates?
The answer to this life-changing question is simple—metanoia—surrender—the great humbling of your mind. This lives in the realization that you simply cannot change the momentum of your life or potent genetic movements of your mind infused with the power of your intellect, senses, and limited egoic perspective. The harsh reality is; you, as an individual who perceives and lives in the great ocean of suffering, or the great wandering known as samsara, do not possess the power to break this genetically induced trance. In other words, it is impossible for ego to free itself from ego unless there is a radical shift in your consciousness to a deep total surrender to the unseen presence—the vast unseen intelligence of the entire universe.
The only power you actually possess is free will—the unalienable right to choose. The power to stop and choose is the true nature of the inherent freedom of your mind. Ultimately, you can continue to choose the complexity of suffering or choose the potent intelligence of the vast peace of the presence—metanoia. This total surrender is the sacred moment of letting go of everything—all your strategies, attachments, desires, knowledge, experiences (enlightened or mundane) and the endless story about you and your life that your mind is constantly weaving. This moment of letting go is a deep dive into yourself—the intimate merging with the great unseen presence within you—not as a mere thought—but as the visceral realization of you as a single drop of water ‘I’ falling into the vast expanse of the ocean ‘I-I’ the vast unmoving presence of the Self.
This unseen presence has the infinite power to burn the reflective veils of consciousness that hide the eternal happiness alive in your heart—Turiya—the stateless state of pure awareness. It is not enough to know or even understand this. The conscious courageous act of letting go entirely and diving into the unseen light of pure conscious awareness within you is the nature of metanoia--the deepest unwavering surrender to the divine—the point of no return. In other words, you cannot think your way to the steady bliss of Turiya alive in your heart.
The mind and the ego are a potent illusion of reflective consciousness infused with your senses. The mind itself is a force of nature that is genetically and continuously distracted by thoughts and states of consciousness, experience, impulses, reactions, and emotions that come and go. The power of vichara (self-inquiry) lives in the potent invisible energy of the divine—the unseen light—the power of presence that ignites the kundalini shakti in your body—the sacred fire within you that can transform you entirely as an evolutionary process.
If you want to be genuinely, permanently, happy, total surrender is essential and more importantly if you want to be free of the endless wheel of karma—eons of suffering—the ancient alchemy of surrender to the unseen divine presence within you is absolutely critical for your eternal salvation. This evolution is not something that can be forced or accelerated by various methods or intellectual understanding—it is an organic process free of time and space—Sanatana Dharma—the eternal natural way. Surrender to the unseen presence is simply is not optional for moksha—total liberation. True surrender is the essential death of the limited perspective of ego and all of its attempts to control, seduce, run, fight, and protect.
Metanoia is basically the unwavering surrender and prostration to the divine. This bowing down to the unseen presence is the essential humbling of the arrogance and ignorance of your ego that invites the power of the universal consciousness to transform you from within. This is the nature of vichara—the living magnetic power of ‘Who am I?’ It is simply not a mental question that leads to an answer. It naturally shifts your attention with an unseen power that pulls you through the reflective illusion of your ego feeling ‘I’ into what is known as hrityam—the energetic vortex of the invisible light in your heart.
If you consciously place this question in your heart and repeat it again and again the mind collapses in on itself and falls through the feeling of ‘me’ or ‘I am me’ that is the reflective consciousness of ego in your heart. Once you fall through this gateway of reflective consciousness—the vast invisible consciousness of the logos pulls you in to the depths of pure conscious awareness. This energy literally grabs the feeling ‘me’ inside your heart igniting the purifying power of an invisible presence that burns away all conscious and unconscious tendencies—the veils of consciousness that hide the pure indescribable happiness of your eternal nature.
This pull inward is like being caught in tractor beam of light—there is no escape—unless this sensation freaks you out and you give your attention back to the stream of thoughts rolling through your mind. If you surrender to this pulling sensation, it is the point of no return, an immense power pulls your consciousness awareness deep inside melting the ‘me’ you feel into the divine presence of pure consciousness awareness within your heart. This is the invisible, unknowable, power of vichara—the eternal burning fire of the heart. It is the holy sacred blaze of indescribable love that destroys the me you think you are revealing the light you are, have been, and will always be—not as a thought—but as the direct realization of eternal presence.
Once you understand the real nature of vichara, it requires supreme courage to meet the death of your ego. Vichara literally torches everything about you that is false until you merge with the vast unseen presence—like you are a sugar doll falling into the ocean. Ultimately, with perseverance this fire of love sets you free—this unconditional love has the power to evaporate the mortal bond of ego that has imprisoned you on the karmic wheel of suffering for eons. This is the fire of grace that cuts the primal knot of the ego and sets you eternally free—moksha!
This bonfire of love physically removes the many veils of ignorance that hide the eternal light of pure unalloyed happiness—divine love without end. This divine unconditional love is the sacred purifying fire that removes all of your sins—the karma accumulated through countless incarnations of birth and death—the hell realm of unending existence as form and the dissolution of form.
Vichara is the ancient alchemy of the logos—the power of unseen energy that sets you free from the angel of death and opens the door of eternal life alive in your heart. The heart is the gateway of your salvation—moksha—this is the eternal mark—the real purpose of your life—liberation from eons of suffering.
If you are truly ready for moksha you will not hesitate to jump into the fire of love on the wings of the question ‘Who am I?’ This is the ultimate purpose of your life.
This timeless choice is living freedom—metanoia—the deepest most humble surrender to the divine fire.
Why not bow down and burn in this holy eternal fire of love?
This is the ancient alchemy of moksha—metanoia.
Tat Sat
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