The Awakening and Letting Go
Letting
go is the natural surrender of the human mind to any involuntary reactivity
aimed at removing anything that might threaten or undermine the ego-self.
Letting go should be a natural instinct, and not a technique that one has to
learn and master; it is simply a spontaneous human ability to give up all human
attachments that create the unreal ego-self.
According
to the TAO, the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, it is the letting go, and not the holding on, that makes us strong
because it overcomes the fear of the unknown and the unpredictable. Let go of
yesterday to live in today as if everything is a miracle; let go of the world
to have the universe. That is the only path to awakening of the mind.
Lao Tzu believes that the entire universe with everything in it
flows with a mysterious force that not only controls but also maintains the
natural order of all things. That ultimate reality is nondescript and
paradoxical; all humans can know is that it is not only within and outside
them, but also everywhere and nowhere.
“The Way to the Creator existed
before the universe was
created.
Its essence is formless
and unchanging.
It is present wherever
we turn,
providing compassion to
all beings.
It comes from the
Creator of the universe,
who has no name.
To identify him, call
him the Creator.
He can also be called
the Great Mystery,
from whom we come, in
whom we live, and to whom we return.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter
25)
Accordingly, Lao Tzu’s emphasis is on being, rather than on doing.
This is how the human mind may have become distorted,
delusional, and dysfunctional:
·
In the
beginning, man did not know things existed, and so he had perfect knowledge.
·
Later,
he found out things existed, but made no distinctions between them.
·
Then, he
began to make some distinctions, but expressed no judgment about right and
wrong.
·
Now, he
makes his own judgments of right and wrong, and that leads to his own
preferences of likes and dislikes, and thus creating his desires and
expectations—the sources of his sufferings. In short, the human mind is like an
unbridled horse: it makes judgments, making what does not exist, exist, and
what does exist, does not exist. In the process, illusions and self-deceptions
are created, and they become the attachments or substances of the ego-self.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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