20211126 - Letting Go

We cling to so many things in life, material things, thoughts about how things should be and feel, ideas and views about ourself and others. This is a clinging on the inside, like a contraction, not so different from a closed fist, desperately holding on to what we don’t want to lose. The story goes that you can catch a monkey by putting a banana in a narrowly barred cage. The monkey reaches in and grabs the banana, but the banana is too large to fit through the bars so the monkey is caught with one hand inside the cage and the banana in his hand prevents him from getting away. The only thing he needs to do to be free is to let go of the banana, but he won’t. When we hold on to our thoughts like the monkey we create our own prison. We limit our freedom and become stagnant and rigid and the flow and expansion of life and spirit becomes stale. I’m sure you’ve felt this contraction when you’ve been questioned in your believes and found yourself defending them. Those conversations doesn’t tend to flow so well and meeting each other in understanding becomes really hard. Can you feel the sense of contracting and hardening that arises around both pleasant and unpleasant situations? Letting go just means releasing the contraction around the thing and allowing it to be. It is not necessary to push the thing away. No force is required. Just soften the contraction. Just let go. You do it all the time, actually. Make a fist. Squeeze it tight. Now let go. Notice the feeling. Try it again. This is the physical sensation of letting go. Practicing meditation, you are practicing letting go on the inside. Become familiar with the interior sense of contraction, in the body and mind. Then practicing letting go of that. - Jon Kabat-Zinn