“Don’t recall. Let go of what has passed. Don’t imagine. Let go of what may come. Don’t think. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t examine. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t control. Don’t try to make anything happen. Rest. Relax, right now, and rest.” -Tilopa
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Replying to @SonOfEmerson
I've always been conflicted about instructions like this. On the one hand, if one can actually let go - and I mean let go absolutely - then freedom will indeed come instantly. Yet for most people, even experienced meditators, letting go absolutely is extremely difficult.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @SonOfEmerson
The sudden/gradual, immanence/distinction tensions have gone on for a long long time....explored quite brilliantly by Sam Van Schaik (and others, I'm sure). May be less conflicting if one is able to take the pointers, not as a way to be free 'instantly', but as a way of training
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The problem, seen over and over again, is that most students really, utterly fail at that. There are better ways to get from there to here, IMO, especially for people expressly conditioned to cling to everything. If you can integrate into the culture, say a Zen temple, OTOH...
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The inability to recognize the cultural contingents of practice is a problem that repeats over, over and over again. The failure of yoga in the West is a good example. Buddhism, too.
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Interesting point - please say more.
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I am in the fortunate position of being two links of association away from many of those tasked with this stuff; too far to be entangled, close enough to understand broad strokes. You can't just bring the practice into a foreign culture. It won't "click". Too much baggage. E.g.:
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- Metta, compassion and love-based yogic practice DO NOT WORK for majority of westerners. - Social structure inimical to gurus, ashram, sangha etc. Those that flourish often (really often) are cults. - Scientism vs. mysticism; porting language is hard, stuff lost in translation.
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As for "letting go", this has an extremely specific meaning. Worse, it has several extremely specific meanings depending on what lineage it comes attached to. Just saying "let go" is a command; conveys 0 relevant semantic content. You are generally not supposed to "do" anything.
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If I tell you to let go, and you now spend all your energy on trying to let go, this is not very productive. If you do get the point, the instruction is already superfluous. To get you from not getting the point to getting it, many ways, but generally it's a product of culture.
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"let go!" is an adaptation of ::whacks with stick:: which is the ancient traditionpic.twitter.com/r3gDzrN9nO
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- Which, for its part, is a proven technique that produces results. Less convinced about the other one.
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