Letting Go
"We" are like a tree. "Attachment" is like vines. If we feel desire for sights, they”ll wind around our eyes. If we feel desire for sounds, they”ll wind around our ears, and so forth. When we”re all tangled up like this, we”ll have to die. Some people don”t let themselves die naturally. They take their attachments and tie up their own throats.
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The world is like red ants that crawl along vines. If we cut away the vines that entangle our tree, the ants won”t be able to get to it.
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We have to cut away whatever we can. If the mind is long, make it short. If it”s short, make it round. If it”s round, make it smooth. If it”s smooth, make it shine. That way it can roll around without getting stuck on anything, and can gain release from all suffering and stress.
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Suffering comes from "having." This is why people in the world are suffering so. If they have five, they want to increase it to ten. Once they have ten they think they”ll be able to relax. But when they actually get ten, they then increase it to 100. And then they have to keep looking for more all the time, for fear that they”ll lose what they have. Only when they stop breathing will they stop looking for more. This is why we”re taught that having is suffering. And this is why the Buddha arranged not to have anything at all. He said, "Physical form, feeling, perception, thought-formations, and consciousness are not mine. The senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling, and ideation are not mine." When nothing was his, how could anyone take anything away from him
Who could come and oppress him
If people give us things, we say that we "get," that we "have." If they take them away, we say that we "lose." But when there”s nothing to own, there”s no having or losing. And when that”s the case, where will there be any suffering
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Nibbana is the end of all having and lacking.
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If we don”t know how to let go, we”re going to suffer. Suppose that we”re carrying something in our hand. If we don”t let it go and put it down, we won”t be able to take hold of anything better than what we”ve got. This is why the Buddha taught us to let go. For one thing, our hand won”t get sweaty from carrying things around. Secondly, we can take what we”ve put down, turn it over, and look at it from every side to see what it really is. Say that we”re holding a knife tight in our fist. We can”t look at it to see what kind of knife it is. But if we open our fist and put the knife down, we can then look at it carefully to see whether it”s made from steel, wood, horn, or ivory, whether it”s well-made or not, and what uses it”s good for.
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To hold onto the body is to hold onto old kamma. To let go of the body is to let go of old kamma. And when we can let go in this way, there will be no more kamma in the body. It”s the same as with a piece of property. If we take possession of it, with a deed and the boundary staked out, there tend to be problems with trespassing, swindling, boundary disputes, and cases in court. But if we don”t take possession of it, and simply let it be public property, there will be no troubles or quarrels. This way the heart can be at its ease.
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If the heart gets caught up on anything, it”s got to be bad. If you can see being born and not being born as equal, being sick and not being sick as equal, dying and not dying as equal, as having the same price, then the mind can relax and not be caught up on anything at all.
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In the first stage we let go of evil and start doing good. In the second stage we let go of evil and some forms of good. In the third stage we let go of everything good and evil, because everything is fashioned by nature and thus undependable. We do good but we”re not attached to it. When you let go, you have to do it intelligently…
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