Letting Go

In many ways we are two beings, two views of the world, intertwined.

One of these views is convinced that we will not be happy until we get though our to-do lists, until all of the things that we think are wrong with ourselves and the world are righted. Happiness under this view is a promise in the far off future, a potential reward if we live life well.

The other view sees that we are already happy. That we need nothing. That this very moment is an exquisite gift, far beyond anything else we could hope for.

In the first view, we suffer constantly, because we never have enough.

In the second, life itself is beyond description, beyond categorization. Even the possibility of suffering cannot arise. We have all we need because we already see that we are everything.

Most of us are unfamiliar with second view. Perhaps we have had a glimpse in a sunset, or in moments when we questioned who or what was looking out of our eyes. Many of us have had moments of intimate connection, when we cannot even see the boundaries between a me and the rest of the world. But then, soon enough, we think "that was nice, but now I have to get back to work."

When we want to lessen our struggles, it can be easy to think "I'll just have the second view," but it doesn't seem to work that way. When there is an "I" looking to add the "right view" to the to do list, we have turned it into a concept, something that can be done or not done, well or poorly. We've put conditions on something that is beyond conditions.

Instead, the second view seems to sneak up on us, when no one is watching. We find ourselves here when we are no longer trying to do anything. We find when we stop looking, and then we see that it was here all along, that we are never separate from it. That only our thoughts create separation.

When we see this, we give up. We trust that life is going to deliver us exactly the right things at exactly the right time, regardless of our personal preferences. We see that life will be exactly as it is, regardless of our personal preferences. And we see that those preferences, those desires, were what prevented us from seeing it in the first place.

Jeff