Persist!
I've touched often on this blog on the importance of emotional surrender. In RFP (2020) JWH discusses the importance of surrender repeatedly throughout the text. She even writes, “As it turns out, an ability to emotionally surrender or enjoy self-deprecating humor or laughter at one’s own expense is a better predictor of recovery than an ultra strong will power and a ferocious determination to succeed.” Surrender is definitely essential.
That said, don't make the mistake of thinking you don't need determination or a willingness to persist, to persevere. It has been my experience that you surely do. The way I see it, while surrender is an essential key to get you through the door, persistence is needed to get you to the doorstep.
I've seen a couple of people write that they “tried” the JWH approach, but it “didn't work” for them. I have to wonder what they mean by “tried.” It's not something you can do for 20 minutes a day over the course of three months, and then have any basis to decide, “It didn't work.” JWH makes clear it is not unusual for the process to take years. Moreover, she urges followers of the protocol to progress to the point that they feel constantly in the company of their chosen “invisible friend.” On top of this, you do need to achieve a deep level of surrender. All of this can take a lot of work! As I put it elsewhere, “Ideally, you more or less want to be living the protocol.”
If your experience is anything like mine, you'll go through frustrating, disappointing times when you're not sure you're making much progress and wonder what more you can do. You may find yourself asking your “invisible friend,” your “other” why they are not doing more to help you. These are times you need to persist, to trust the process, to trust your “friend,” and to keep going.
As I've written, I recently had the breakthrough experience of turning off pause. After a fairly short time, I slipped back into pause. Not a major problem, but then I bumped into two temporary obstacles to turning pause off again. First, I came down with a mild but persistent cough. Of course I was initially concerned about covid, but it never developed into anything else. But in JWH's recent webinar she mentioned that respiratory viruses can cause various blockages of channel qi. I have the impression such blockages may sometimes interfere with turning pause off, a process that involves a substantial shift in the flow of channel qi.
The second obstacle was cleared away upon receiving some authoritative information concerning turning off pause repeatedly. It's beyond the scope of this post, but I'll touch on it in the near future.
So this has me waiting until this stubborn cough is resolved and probable channel qi blockages are cleared to be able easily to turn off pause again. (I came very close to turning off pause a few days ago, but it seemed the switch, so to speak, wouldn't quite allow itself to be flipped all the way.)
In the meantime I persist. I persevere with the protocol despite the fact that I'm not particularly even trying to turn off pause at the moment. I've decided the best thing I can do during this phase is to nurture my companionship with the “other,” without a lot of focus on turning off pause. I'm optimistic the time for that will come soon enough!
“Banat, Banat, Ban Jai!” (“Striving, striving, one day behold! The Divine Goal!”) ~ Lahiri Mahasaya