Today a friend shared with me some wisdom borrowed from a Buddhist teaching. The topic was letting go, and it really stuck me deep in my core. As I listened to the simple words they resonated and vibrated deep within me and I recognized a power that I never knew that I had. The power to let go.
Going through a transitional time myself it’s particularly poignant, but truly it’s relevant to all of us at all times: Here goes:
He tells this story.
” I learned something from my teacher in the way that great teachers teach. Not with many words, but a small subtle lesson that makes your world open up.
I was walking with my teacher, taking a stroll, when he bent down, picked up a stick, turned to me and asked, “Is this heavy?”
I nodded.
Then he threw the stick to the side “Now it isn’t.”
It’s only heavy when you hold it, but if you let it go , it’s got no weight at all.
Profound, simple and unforgettable.
It’s only heavy when you hold it, but if you let it go , it’s got no weight at all.
He taught me that the first way to uncomplicate life is to travel lightly.
We carry so much around all the time. Worry and anxiety crowd our mind. We regurgitate old wounds and chew on them thinking that they’ll nourish us. But they won’t, they’ll poison us.
Imagine you had a backpack filled with big rocks and you had to carry it everywhere you went. Imagine you just didn’t know how to take it off and put it down. You’d be so grumpy; so sick. You’d be exhausted.
Are you exhausted? I don’t want to be exhausted. So I need to get rid of those rocks. I need to look in there and see what I don’t need and throw it away.
This is the first step in the process of letting go.”What can I throw away?”
You know, you can throw away so many more things than you thought you could. Nothing bad will happen, I promise.
We spend so much energy telling and retelling our most heart wrenching stories to ourselves and to others. I know I spent many years doing that, but it’s not worth it.
Until now I thought you learn from the past. I thought I had to hold on to it or it would have been for nothing. You don’t. The lessons you learned are already a part of you. Trust that. And trust that you can be here now, alive and present, fully actualized without reliving the stories again and again and again.
In fact, its even deeper. You don’t learn from the past, you feel pain from it. Its just rocks on your back weighing you down with every step you take. holding you back from being happy.We can empty our mind of those stories. If we need them to teach someone about life we can always find them again, but the bag on your back can be empty and light.
I’m letting go, I’m free falling into the wonderful destiny G-d has in mind for me. Looking ahead there are a thousand ways to give to the world and I’m bursting with excitement to give and to share.
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