Letting go

The breath already practices this.

Letting go is not for the other person. It is so you can stop living inside a conversation that has ended.

In the reading

Learn to let go. Letting go is not for the other. It is for yourself. The person you cannot let go of — your relationship with him may already have ended. But your mind is still in conversation with him. Now end that conversation too. Say: what happened, I saw. I felt. I learned. Now I move on.

But moving on is not running into some new story either. It is returning to the present. And this reaches death as well. What comes in life will go. The body will go. Relationships will change. Wealth will go. The name will go. Therefore the stronger the grip, the greater the fear. One who learns to let go learns to live.

Every breath teaches you letting go. The breath came in; you did not grasp it. The breath went out; you did not stop it. Even if the outgoing breath were to say, I will not return, life still makes room for the next breath. This is the law of existence: coming and going, meeting and parting, becoming and dissolving. Therefore do not keep hold of life. Live it.

If a flower has bloomed, see its beauty. Do not think it must always remain like this. If you are with a dear person, live that moment completely. Do not keep thinking that one day this will end. Do not lose the life of the present in the fear of a future death. Live wholly what is now. This is meditation. This is love. This is respect for life.

The whole reading

If staying with what rises becomes distressing, stop. This is not therapy and not medical advice. If you are in trouble, find a person who can help you in the room you are in.

Do this today

Today, pick one old story you repeat and, for this sitting, set it down. Feel the breath leave without keeping it. If the feeling is too much, stop.

Sit for the time you chose