There is the story of the Tibetan Rinpoche who instructed his students to practice “extreme” letting go. He told them to stop whatever they were doing, let their limbs and muscles go limp, and literally fall down wherever they happened to be so they could “taste” the experience of releasing their clinging mind-states. He suggested doing this practice several times a day, and so they would crash to the floor or the earth on sidewalks, in office hallways, and in their kitchens. It’s like the X-games of letting go! Just beautiful, daring Death Drops over and over again. A gorgeous display of surrender.
This could seem ridiculous and maybe even dangerous... But lately, I’ve grown to understand the usefulness of this teaching, as well as my deep aversion to it, because I’ve had to recognize and accept the truth about myself: I’m a control freak. I hate letting go. I hold everything in my life wound up so tightly. My body, my habits, my to-do list, my story - I work so hard to keep the blob that is our lives form spilling over, I try and keep the blob in some sort of perfect mold. It’s exhausting. it’s effort that I no linger want to participate in.
And I know, that practicing and learning to let go, to relax and fall down, literally or metaphorically, into the reality of the present moment, is the only cure for it.
The Venerable Ajahn Chah says, “If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. And if you let go completely, you will have complete peace.”
I am willing to start at a little peace. Letting go intensely and fully in as many moments as I can. And maybe that just means falling over right here and right now. I actually think my body might thank me for the rest.
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needing nothing attracts everything.