Does the above title make the entire letting go experiment thusfar a hogwash? I hope not. This one is to remind myself to keep it a gentle experiment and not turn stringent about this business of letting go.
For much as
we may try, some things cannot be let go of completely. Memories are such and painful
ones stick really well. As do our emotions associated with them.
I am very
inspired by this interview with the Dalai Lama. The interviewer asked the Dalai
Lama if he ever felt guilt and remorse. He said he did and narrated this story.
An elderly
monk once asked the Dalai Lama if he should try a yoga regimen. Thinking the
monk was too old for yoga, he advised him not to. Dejected, the elderly monk
took his life so that he would be able to do yoga in his next birth.
The
interviewer was aghast (just as I and now you). He asked the Dalai Lama how he
could ever get over something like that. And the Dalai Lama simply said, “I
won’t ever. It will always be with me” (paraphrased).
He admitted that although it continued to live inside him, he did not allow it
to get so overbearing that it overshadowed everything else. He accepted his emotion
and kept a check on it with compassion.
I am no Dalai
Lama and doubt I ever will be. But this story is so very inspiring. Most of us
live with some form of pain – be it guilt, remorse, or something else that we
find to fret over.
So if we can
find a way to accept it, live with it but not let it overshadow our existence,
I think there is hope for us.
For it is not
possible to let go of certain things. We just have to make our peace
and find a comfortable way to live with them. And perhaps that is another way
of viewing the letting go experience.
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