The Wisdom in Letting Go

 

 From the perspective of primal instincts seeking security (relief from fear and anxiety) is not about the future. There is only activity in the moment, sparked by a feeling based reaction to environmental cues and conditions. These actions have a bearing on future events but there is no instinctual awareness of this fact. The memory that forms and informs instinct is genetic and neurological, not conceptual; it is impersonal rather than personal.

 

The intellectual capacity to retain and manipulate memories as concepts gave humanity the ability to imagine the future. With this, the immediacy of the instinctual drive to survive morphed into the concept of a secure future – a future free of fear and anxiety. Now, instead of the coming and passing of feelings we call fear and anxiety there is a continual sense of impending doom. And so, we acquire and hold on in a futile quest to end this feeling once and for all.

 

But, Genuine Security is not something that can be acquired. It is not something to which we can cling. In fact the more we rely on holding on to this or that to provide relief from fear and anxiety the more insecure we become. It’s just a matter of odds.

 

In the animal kingdom the instinct to survive poses no such problems. For them these feelings are simply cues to action. Once the appropriate action is completed the feeling freely passes away. In the course of action there is a focusing of attention to the task at hand. When it is complete the animal freely returns to its naturally open, yet alert, state of being. There is no holding on.

 

However, as I noted earlier, the complexity of our evolving human intellect artificially inflates the ranks of what constitutes a survival threat. So, not only is there no relief from the existential dilemma posed by knowing we will ultimately die, but we are now in a constant defensive mode – protecting phantom selves from imaginary threats. Unfortunately our instincts cannot tell the difference and flood our bodies with hormones that keep us tightly focused, on high alert. And that is our supposedly relaxed state, when we are not actively engaged in fight or flight reactions.

 

What I have sought to bring to your attention is that we need not stay in this altered state. And it is indeed an altered state. It is really quite extraordinary that human beings have come to believe that our “natural states” are limited in range between low and high anxiety. And then we self medicate with drugs, food and/or sex to find an “altered state” that gives relief. We have even come so far as to believe that meditation is about achieving altered states. But that is not so. Meditation is about returning to our Natural State.

 

To discover our True Nature we must first discover our Natural State – relaxed and open, yet attentive. To fully Realize our True Nature we must spend some time in our Natural State. Given our current conditioning this is no easy task. The mere intent to hold on to our false sense of security pulls us into an altered state where our focused attention is too narrow to see the vastness of our Being.

 

I have sought to show that discovering our Natural State is as easy as walking “Through an Open Door”. Once there we can attend to the forces that keep us hanging on to false identities, identities formed as a means to provide a false sense of security. In so doing we allow for the natural release of our grip. What was once held will naturally and effortlessly fall away.

 

Why in the world would we want to let go of everything we now hold dear? What is the Wisdom in letting go?

 

We hold on for dear life and life keeps slipping away. We do not know life. We only know the fear of death. We acquire a collection of thoughts and things to assuage that fear, but it never goes away. The more tightly we hold on to our thoughts and things the more we fear they will be taken away. Now the fear has multiplied.

 

What is the Wisdom in Letting Go? When we relax into our Natural State we are able to see our True Nature. It is not the fear, it is not the anxiety, and it is not even the blissful rest we experience.

 

Our True Nature is the Open Space in which all of this arises. It is not inner space. It is not outer Space. It is not empty. It is not full. It just Is, has Been and always will Be. In Knowing this there is Peace. Peace that is not touched by fear. Peace that holds fear when it arises. Peace that supports Courage in the face of fear. Peace that give rise to Joy with acts of Love.

 

            What is the Wisdom in Letting Go?

 

Just This.