The Joy of Letting Go

I know everyone say’s these very words, yet  the meaning is understood by a few.  The letting go process is a slow one, because man has always wanted to acquire, accumulate and not let go. We are told from childhood to take each opportunity, don’t let go of any thing that is yours with out a fight. And we start by accumulating toys, knowledge, money, materials, people, emotions and feelings. We start hording them. As if we are misers, yet we hate misers and don’t want to be like them.

We perceive ourselves as generous, and giving, but do not let go. How can we live in such dichotomy, no wonder our lives are complicated and messed up. We want love so we acquire girl/boy friends, then we treat them as possessions, we get married and bind them under contracts of marriage, we have kids and rule over their emotions and feeling, dictating terms and expecting obedience. We become monarchs, and judge and punish our most dear ones. We judge our colleagues, coworkers and friends. And then we say we let you do this, we allowed you freedom, we …………

How do we do all this? Don’t we ever realize, ‘Who are we?’ Just  fellow humans. How then can we give permission, allow, and set free? Who are we?

Letting go is letting go of this perceived ego of are persona. Letting go is letting go of our perceived guilt, anger, regret, harm, ill-feelings, shortcomings, and insults. Letting go of the baggage we carry on our shoulders all the time. Letting go of what we perceive to be a perfect life for ourselves. Our lives are perfect the way they are, with out us controlling, or sitting in the drivers seat, and letting the universe guide us.

Just imagine, a captain at sea, not knowing the course he is taking, the destination he has to reach, and the perils on the way. We are that captain. We know not where we will end up, what is the goal of our lives, which path to take, and what can we expect when we reach there, and the lessons we have to learn on the way. Yet we so willingly take out our lives and start the ride. We do not have faith in the universes forces to guide us. We feel that we know better, we can take care, we have the knowhow and the knowledge.

We fall, and these falls teach us some lessons. Hopefully we start to let go. Once we can do this we give the control back to the Creator and take a back seat and enjoy the ride called life. 

The Need to Talk

Why is there a certain urge in some to talk, and communicate so much? We find a lot of people saying, I know you will not understand but let me explain.... How does a person think that the other will not understand what you are saying but still finds the urge to explain. This has facinated me, either you view the other as too dumb, and not be able to comprihend what you have to say, or he/she is intelligent enough to understand it so you are sharing your knowledge, experience with that person. So how can both the perspective co-exist at the same time.

Here is what happens, we feel through our past experiences with certain people, who we need to impress upon, or to show them that we also know something, or the critics in our lives, have now been able to understand us. We have tried explaining our view point and they seem not to understand it, or be able to agree with our view point. This leaves a permanent mark on our way of dealing with the world. Every time we try to explaine ourselves we always go back to explaining to those people who we find difficult to convince. So we give disclaimers like 'I know you will not understand', or 'untill you go though the same you will not understand the pain', how macaber is our thoughts that we want others also to go through the pain we are going through.

So we are always trying to convince the critics in our lives all the time, and not perciving that every individual is different, where one can't understand one concept the other could be able to understand it in a jiffy. We need to be able to make that distinction, in the way we speak with every one.  Without this distinction, we keep explaining where we need not, and talk too much. Talk is only to communicate one wants, needs and thoughts to another. Not to gain approval and full sanction from another.

Food for thought!!!