Letting Go

Interesting discussion here.

Here is my comment on "letting go".

It's funny that you blog about "letting go". I told my wife the other day that life is just a series of letting go's. Actually, that's not quite accurate though. Our early life is a series of desiring, grasping, clinging, building, striving... Our ego's are developing, we are finding out "who we are", our likes and dislikes, our attractions and aversions. We we worry about losing what we have gained, we want to gain more, rise higher...my teen and preteen are right in the middle of it, and while I know where the ego ends, it is a necessary part of life for them, so I have to "let them go" too.

At 40 years old I realized that, if I live to an average age for a man (certainly no guarantees), half of my life was over. What did I want the other half to be like? Did I like who I was? What I was doing? So, I made some changes that have led to interacting with the world, and people and my ego in a completely different way. Instead of having this low level static of general discontent in my life, I've rested in who I am, and the circumstances I'm in, like sitting in a comfortable easy chair perfectly molded to my body after years of use.

I believe the reason that "letting go" is huge part of the spiritual journey is that grasping, clinging, holding, striving etc. produces suffering. In my ego, I want things to last forever, but nothing does, so I suffer. In my ego, I want to be the center of everything, but I'm just one of billions. In my ego, I believe I own my possessions, but in reality they are only mine until someone else wants them more, they get lost, or they get destroyed. I want those I love to stay forever, but they will leave. In my ego, I want to live forever, but someday I will die. And so, I suffer.

All these realizations entail "letting go". At the end of "letting go" there is freedom.