If the Buddha Got Stuck_ A Handbook for Change on a Spiritual Path - Charlotte Sophia Kasl [86]
One of Nisargadatta’s students asked, “There are so many theories about man and the universe. . . . Which are true?”
Nisargadatta answered:
All are true, all are false. You can pick up whichever you like best. Theories are neither right nor wrong. They are attempts at explaining the inexplicable . . . it is the testing of the theory that makes it fruitful. It is the earnestness that liberates and not the theory.
Letting go is a daily practice based on your earnest desire for freedom from identifying with your thoughts and your identity. To let go you observe the rising and falling of thoughts and emotions—you learn to be be aware of them but not immersed in them. If a concept of being good, bad, smart, or stupid arises, you become able to see it like the smoke and mirrors of the Wizard of Oz—a little man behind a curtain pulling levers and creating an illusion.
Another part of letting go is to slow down and make friends with whatever feelings and emotions arise—neither making a story out of them, forcing their expression, nor pushing them away away. You just stay with them and let them unwind. In many ways letting go is to let go of holding back, of running away; it’s about staying connected, opening up, being real, and dropping all the masks. When you can let someone see your tears, your hurt, your sadness, your beauty, you naturally enter the flow of loving, giving, receiving. The heart opens, the body becomes resonant.
52. What Is This Feeling of Emptiness?Notice the Withdrawal Symptoms of Letting Go
The teachings I give you are a raft.
—THE BUDDHA
Letting go creates a wonderful image. It is the way toward love, contentment, and breaking free. To get a visceral feeling of what letting go is like, put out your hands, palms up, make tight fists, and notice how this affects your whole body—your breathing, your jaw, your muscles. Then breathe out and let your fists fall open. Breathe again. Just as holding tightly puts the squeeze on every part of your body, letting go helps everything start to flow together.
The ego resists with all its might because letting go also means falling into the empty space beyond thoughts, concepts, images, and teachings. It can feel disorienting and unfamiliar—kind of like going through withdrawal from a substance. I will list the cues at the end of this chapter so you’re aware of them if they occur.
When the Buddha said the teachings are a raft, he meant that you can use them to navigate from the land of unconsciousness to the other side of the river, which symbolizes being awake. When you reach the other side, you let go of the teachings and journey on, attuning, responding, and be-ing, instead of following the rules, teachings, or advice of others. Another image is that you climb onto your little raft to cross the river and halfway across it starts falling apart, the boards and sticks float away, and there you are in deep water with nothing to hang on to. You end up swimming all on your own—no rules, guidelines, or predictable answers. You have only yourself and the “what is” of the moment. You sink into the silence of just being. This is why it can be scary to let go.
Likewise, letting go means dropping the external trappings used to symbolize spirituality. There is no particular diet, clothing, icon, or daily ritual that provides a sure path to happiness or unhappiness. If you decide to become a vegetarian, wear black, shave your head, pray, throw the i ching, do tai chi, yoga, breathing exercises, or bow one hundred times a day, you do it without any agenda attached to it. It can be lovely to bow, to say namaste, or to meditate, but the minute you think it is a path to somewhere, you’re hooked. There are no paths because we’re not going anywhere.