Letting go, the process of not holding on, is an important facet of mindfulness practice and a key determinant in our well being. It is the potential for how we can relate to each moment’s experience without contention or trying to grab or control it. A cause of so much of our anguish is this tendency to grasp after, hold on to, or reject experience.
It is when we can’t let go of a feeling, thought, or reactive state that the real work begins. What is required is to feel fully those painful feelings and allow them to unfold and release over time. In this case, letting go happens through the process of letting be. With grief and other powerful emotions, just letting go and trying to move on too quickly can be a type of avoidance, denial, or spiritual bypass. Wise mindfulness is the ability to meet ourselves as we are, with patient, tender awareness, and allow the sadness, tears, and all. It is only by surrendering to grief and heartbreak that we eventually come to resolution with loss.
~Mark Coleman
who is this somebody who is nobody?
inquiry for today~ no surrender. no letting go. just a simple observance. see what happens. what unfolds. what unravels.
Ever since you first tasted the elixir of nobodyness, maybe in the midst of meditating or grieving, you have lost your hunger for somebodyness. Mainstream culture conditioned you to construct a persona and defend it with all your might. The endless self-improvement project, fueled by self-loathing and foiled by the realities of the human condition, has only reinforced the illusion that you are separate from your Source. But a combination of spiritual practice and tragic losses ended that game. You, for one, are relieved to surrender.
~Mirabai Starr
