You must learn to trust life to start letting go into its flow. Remember that this body that you take to be “personal” was actually created through the intention of life to express itself uniquely through this form. The body belongs to life and it will be recycled back by life. When the “mind” takes ownership of the body it eventually does not allow the body’s natural expression to unfold. Your mind can oppose your heart, and it’s usually the case in most people. Your heart is the metaphor for life’s natural will, and the mind is the metaphor for the “conditioned” will or unnatural will created through deluded thinking.
Letting go needs courage initially
Most people love to hear talks about spirituality, about “letting go” into life, but when it comes to the actual embodiment of this truth, they shy away. The mind does not want to let go, it wants to control, it wants to stay in the center. Adyashanti, a radical spiritual teacher, pointed out – “Letting go is not for the weak hearted”, by that he meant that one needs to have the courage to go against the conditioned pull of the mind to let go into the natural movement of life.
In most cases people let go when they reach a point in their life where their mind runs out of all strategies. It’s not a pleasant place to be in, but it’s usually where everyone will eventually end up because the personal cannot sustain itself forever. The latest, at the time of death, the mind realizes that no amount of personal will can stop death from happening, it realizes that it has no control and that life is ultimately in control.
In spirituality there’s a saying – “Die before you Die so that you can truly live”. It simply means let go completely of your will (like during death) so that life can truly live through you. Your personal will is created out of fear, out of a wrong vision. All the suffering and misery that is created in this world stems from the “personal” will trying to make effort under the hope that it will attain happiness through it. You can never experience true freedom as long as personal will is active in you. However, letting go of the personal will, voluntarily, requires some amount of courage and the willingness to see through the challenges of the transition.
All techniques and practices are forms of control
You can’t use a tool, technique or practice to let go, or surrender, to life. All practices and techniques are eventually forms of control and require the mind’s involvement. Whether you are practicing staying in stillness, focusing on positive thoughts, breath control or some form of meditation, eventually you are still trying to “control” and hence the mind is still in the center, it has not let go completely.
Practices and techniques have their place for a while to help bring some maturity, understanding and stability to your mind. Once you have attained understanding about the truth of life, once you have some stability and grounding in self-realization, you must let go of the practices and allow yourself to be completely “empty handed” (without any strategies). Only when you let go so completely will you start experiencing the pull of life taking over.
Continue to Part 3
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Beyond Will Power Allowing the Tension of Creation Coming To A Passively Positive Mind Visualizing Your Desired Reality from All Dimensions of the Mind Staying True To Your Comfort A Constant Self-Growth Do You Feel Good About Yourself? Let Go Of the Effort to Make It Happen The Art of Letting Go – Part 5
Thanks
Sen I have gotten so much out of your writing. I’ve been reading for over a month now and I wanted t let you know I’m here.
Thanks David, I am glad you’ve been able to resonate with your own truth through these posts.
Sen, I don’t know where I’d be without your writings just now. You’ve taught me so much in the space of just a few days. Every one of your articles gives me feelings of joy and hope. I don’t know who you are, but thank you so much for sharing all this. I accidentally came across one of your articles because I was looking for self-help material online, after going through a very tough festive period. I can’t help but feel that this is the beginning of the change I’ve felt coming for a long time. Life does indeed have some tricks up its sleeve…
Senji
If the ‘being’ is so intelligent then why did it create a thing like the mind which has so much mistakes and faults in its working………….
Amit
Amit, you may find insights in the below posts
The Non-physical perspective
The value of negativity
Hi Sen,
I think my perfect excuse to wait and not let go has been being a mother.
I think I can do it and just take any experience, but I FEAR for my son to go hungry, or lack of anything because his mom wants to find her higher self.
It also happened that when my own mom follwed her heart to pursue her dreams, I suffered.
We are not isolated, the decisions we make, or not make will impact those around us.
Is that a valid thought or just an excuse?
Radiance, parenthood does not need to be an excuse! Though you posted months ago, it strikes a chord with my own experience. If you felt/were abandoned, you seem to use that pain as a starting point for parenting differently (not abandoning your own child). That is a good use of the experience. However, the other side of the coin is harmful – by holding onto the pain of your own youth, you stymie your own expression. The pain defines how you act today, it limits what you do.
Breaking the cycle of abandonment is a big step. If you can let go of the pain, you may find that the responsibilities of parenthood line up neatly, too. And you do yourself a lot of emotional good.
Sen, Thank you so much. It’s been a while since all the techniques I used to use seem no more appropriate and I was a bit lost. Each time I feel bad now, the only way I’ve found (still hard to apply) is to accept it… and let go, knowing it will end. And in most cases, it happens to end more quickly than I thought.
I’ve discovered your website yesterday but what you write resonates in me more than everything I’ve read these last weeks. Thank you again!