Of course we have our preferences. They are intimately linked to our identity and sense of well being.

We may prefer organic food. Silence in the morning. Inspired conversation. A more peaceful world.

The thing is, the path of love, the path of kindness, the path of self-realisation, all merge into the path of surrender.

The path of surrender asks us to, “Not do what we want, so we can do what we like,” as Sadasiva swami once more or less put it.

Surrender means many things, including the release of personal preferences. This means we find happy in sad and sad in happy, and so stop preferring one over the other. We see them as essentially the same.

In the release of our personal preferences — which is to say the forfeiture of our need for things to turn out a particular way — we open up our arms wide to the totality of experience. We move beyound this and that, division, and seperation. We learn to love, or accept all. Deep, abiding peace is the natural result.

This does not mean we give up our predilictions. Not at all. It means we give up our attachment to them. We are OK with or without them.

And, ironically, because of this detachment we all but ensure the realisation of everything our heart desires but without any of the effort previously employed.