Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Letting Go

meh_meh_
edited May 2011 in Meditation
I have read that we should let go of our past, let go of our future, meditate on the source of a problem and let it go. How does one 'let go'?

Comments

  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    through a deep acceptance of what is. you don't try to let go directly. you work at it indirectly.

    breathe in and breathe out. accept everything as it is. your thoughts. your feelings. your past. your future. just accept it all right here and now. and fall in love with what is.

    good luck.
  • meh_meh_
    Hmm that sounds fair enough - but that also sounds as though it requires a decent level of spiritual cultivation. I so want to work at it all - but I'm totally unsure of how I should be meditating, how to be mindful in my daily life etc. The basics really. I read a book by Ajahn Brahm recently, and that cleared a lot of things up for me, but at the same time - confused me, as a beginner, even more.
  • fivebellsfivebells Veteran
    To be mindful in daily life is not a basic skill. It takes a lot of training. Like I said, MBAB is a relatively advanced book. Mindfulness In Plain English would be a better place to start. (Available free online.)
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    edited May 2011
    actually it takes no spiritual cultivation. all limitations are self placed. just shut up and sit down. watch things come and go. let things be. it's very simple.

    i'm not even talking about concentration. if you lose awareness, so be it. just accept it all.

    it doesn't matter if you have been meditating for 10 years or even one day. the idea is to have a beginners mind. the idea is to just to accept it all right here and right now. all you need is sincerity and a deep acceptance. which anyone can do.

    don't make meditation a rpg where you have to level up to get better.
  • aMattaMatt Veteran
    Meh,

    Everyone has to learn to let go, and its different depending on what you're letting go of...

    As a general practice, one thing I do is start noticing all of the components of a thing.

    For instance, if you are angry at your mom for talking meanly to you, you could realize there are many peices to why she would do such a thing... she is not a stand-alone mean being, she has emotions, habits, good and bad qualities aquired through her life. She had parents who drove her, grandparents that drove her parents, historical events that shaped their minds...then on and on it can spread out until that "meanness" you saw becomes a little peice of a big network of choices and perceptions. It is not just in your mom, or in your eyes and heart... it doesn't belong to either of you.

    Then, when you look at her, maybe you can see her just as an intersection of all of those forces, empty of any real static qualities. The perception of meanness then fades without effort.

    With warmth,

    Matt

  • pegembarapegembara Veteran
    Be the watcher. Observe thoughts, feelings, sensations, sounds, sights, smells and tastes as though you are a 3rd person. Notice what is it that pulls you in.

    Almost always it is because you take these things personally.
  • zenffzenff Veteran
    edited May 2011
    “How does one let go?”
    As far as it can be explained, I think it has been said.

    Ultimately it can not be explained, though.
    When we make words, concepts and preferences we overshoot our “target” already.

    Don’t make anything, then there will be nothing to let go of.
  • juanorellanajuanorellana
    To let go, first you must realize that nothing you have under your possession was ever yours. letting go of things for me was not hard. letting go of love ones is a whole different thing. wanting to be with someone is actually a fear of being alone. once you confront your fear and know that you will be happy with or without the person. and you accept it then, you can move to letting go. this is a very easy to say however it is hard to do. after you let go, you will be rewarded with happiness. so dont be afraid to let go. because you never really had it or him or her to beging with. its all in your head. if that person or thing comes back to you accepted and enjoy it but know things always change. and people are hear to teach us things. if someone stay with you show them love and compassion and they will always want to come back. love in it self is a different concept. the only love is unconditional love.
  • RaelRael
    To let go is more a physical thing and in a imperfect world,that nothing is how we want it to be. People do not behave how we want them to ,they do not treat us how we want to be treated. We must let go of exploitation in relationships,and the gossip and tale culture,and most of all the distinction between what is love and what is clinging.
    Our Buddhist principals are to be more caring and patient,loving and generous and wise.
  • KungaKunga
    edited May 2011
    My thoughts don't belong in the present.

    ding.
  • tesstess
    edited May 2011
    My thoughts don't belong in the present.

    ding.
    so they must belong to the past or future, unless you have found the ultimate truth and self.

    Please tell me your way.

  • tesstess
    “How does one let go?”
    As far as it can be explained, I think it has been said.

    Ultimately it can not be explained, though.
    When we make words, concepts and preferences we overshoot our “target” already.

    Don’t make anything, then there will be nothing to let go of.



    :clap:
  • KungaKunga
    Please tell me your way. :

  • tesstess
    Please tell me your way. :

    I did not find a way. That is why my thoughts don't belong in the present. :grr:


    My thoughts twinkle with the past and future and I wish they did not.
    I do respect my previous experiences / as a lesson/ and I acknowledge the need to think about the future. However, I miss the balance and capability of enjoying the moment.

    I belong to people who standing in front of a beautiful view – enjoy it for a second and then think: oh I have to come back here.

    I hope you understand the metaphor in my last statement.

    This is why I am searching in Buddhism – to find the right balance.
  • RaelRael
    If you do not let go you are in the world of delusions.To think of the past or future is not the answer,it is now ,this very secound that counts,the here and now.
  • santhisouksanthisouk Veteran
    I would say that "letting go" is more closely related to things like "putting aside", "patience", "taking a break from over stressing", or "relaxing from overexertion". I don't think "letting go" is related to "jumping in without looking" or "forcing it apart with over extreme pressure", as in "wanting it right now or this very minute".
  • LieselLiesel
    Meh, it's all about letting go. Comtemplation and meditation are balancing acts to see clearly and use that which is skillful in that very moment to let go of the unwholesomes states. It doesn't always work in the same way. Some unwholesome states can be let go off easily just by observing others are more persistent and they may cease by sending Metta or by contemplating the cause of the unwholesome state. By developping the factors of the 8thfold path you mind will become sentive and see the craving that causes the clinging that causes the problem/suffering and may be let go off. In that very momemt there is no craving and no clinging, only a whole bunch of relief afterwards. At least this is what I can tell you in my experience. With Metta,
  • ravkesravkes Veteran
    It happens over time. Practice letting go and you eventually will stop caring about whatever it is that you're holding on to.
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    By practicing the act of letting go by sitting there on a meditation cushion breathing in and out. Sitting there breathing in and out teaches you how to let go.
  • NamelessRiverNamelessRiver Veteran
    "I have read that we should let go of our past, let go of our future, meditate on the source of a problem and let it go. How does one 'let go'?"

    Well I am a lousy meditator, but as to my understanding that doesn't make much sense.

    You don't meditate on the source of a problem. You meditate on a meditation object which is a pretty standard thing.

    If I am meditating on my breath and my mind slips to something else (past, present or future) I just bring it back.

    After the meditation the problem is still there, though. The only thing I did was to make my mind more workable. Instead of being dragged into whatever situation pops up I just don't freak out.

    "I read a book by Ajahn Brahm recently, and that cleared a lot of things up for me, but at the same time - confused me, as a beginner, even more."

    Doesn't he talk about nimitta as a visual hallucination and sign of progress? I think that is just wrong. That is an idea of a commentator and not of the Buddha, who characterized jhanas by its factors and not by a moon hovering above your head. Considering that is the foundation of the whole progression through jhanas I'd say it's one big slip.
Sign In or Register to comment.