I've been thinking about the notions of surrender and obedience, as applied to living life, and spiritual practice. This most recent round of thinking about this subject was spurred by the conversation between Ken Wilber and Brother Wayne Teasdale over at integralnaked. Wayne Teasdale spoke of "surrender" a lot. But when you think about it, the subtle dimensions of that, are really hard. I've been part of "semi-cults" before (actually learned a lot!) - I'm not going to go into details here - but fo course one of the aspects of cults, semi-cults, is that they lean deeply on the spiritual truth of surrender, to motivate people, and oftentimes manipulate people. On the other hand, it is really hard to let go of the really deep attachments, such as to a mate, or to a way of life, or if you are smart and successful, your own way of doing things.   more »