What could be more natural than letting go? Think about it. If half of our life is spent meeting moments that are natural endings, then what are we to do with these things in our lives that can no longer serve us in a meaningful way? The answer? We must let them go! To do anything else would be unnatural, even unhealthy for us.
Imagine a tree that has become so identified with its own green leaves that when the first chill of fall touches its limbs, this tree decides it wants to hold onto what it already has. "After all," the tree reasons, "what if spring doesn't bring me something at least as good as what I have now? Why should I let go?" Of course, come the winter snows, this tree that held on so dearly to its summer leaves, cracks and breaks beneath the weight of a stressful load it was never intended to carry. The moral of this little story is simple: We are not created to walk around with the weight of the world -- all our experiences, memories, and past -- on our shoulders.
Letting go is the out-breath of the universe. It is part of a natural cycle connected to a greater whole, where the ending of anything already has a new beginning built into it. And just as we must expel a breath before we draw in the new air that revitalizes our physical system, so too we must learn to let go of whatever compromises the natural wholeness of our Original Self if we wish to realize its native spiritual contentment.
What are we actually talking about when we speak of letting go? After all, no one wants to let go of something that has proven itself to be satisfying! Whatever it is that we wish to let go of must be something from which we wish to be free. This may be unpleasant or troubling relationships, a problem-filled past or fearful future, any form of addiction, recent painful events -- or any of those disturbing thoughts and feelings about these same troubling things that we no longer want in our lives.
The truth is that troubles like these come with being human. We all know how it feels to want to let go. The problem is that wanting to let go, and actually being able to, is still light years apart for most of us. But it need not remain this way. The gulf can be sealed permanently once we understand that all that separates us from our intention to let go are those mistaken ideas we carry around about the nature of what's actually weighing us down. This is why we need new and higher self-knowledge.
For instance, nothing in itself -- no event, no relationship, no regret-filled thought or feeling -- has any real weight of its own with which to pull us down. The nature of what really weighs on us is something altogether different. This can help to explain a deep mystery: Why is it that regardless of everything we do in our exterior life to rid ourselves of this or that problem, person, or contrary condition, we have yet to genuinely shake ourselves free? The answer begins with this next insight.
The real act of letting go is first an interior action, followed, if needful, by a wiser exterior action. After all, what is it that binds us if not where we are blind to some unconscious need to either maintain or keep forming these painful attachments? To see the truth of these findings is to realize why there can be no substitute for self-illumination. After all, no one frees themselves by laying down with one hand what they unknowingly cling to with the other! This explains why the aim of all true spiritual teachings has always had a dual purpose: 1) to reveal to us that no condition in our life exists apart from the consciousness responsible for its continuing creation, and 2) to bring the light of this higher self-knowledge into the unexamined darkness of our consciousness so that we no longer make the mistake of clinging to anything that compromises our integrity.
