We are not free until we exercise our ability to let go.

 One may float atop the waves of Knowledge,

   Dangling toes in splatters of Thought.

One may swim amongst the currents of Understanding,

   Grasping at the dynamic tides of Belief.

Or one may let go and sink into the abyss of Wisdom,

   Drowning prostrate,

Saturated in Emptiness.

True freedom comes from the openness and inhibition of living a life untethered to the confinements of rational thinking. Letting go of the restraints, the ties that bind us to programmed beliefs, judgments and perspectives.

We are not limited to our physical or mental walls. If we can imagine it, it can be. If we have dreamt it, it is already in the process of becoming reality, regardless of if it falls into the amorphous category of “rational” or not. We are not limited beings.

So then, we are our own brutal captors. It’s not our boss, spouse, family, competitors, society or financial situation that hold us back from shattering the walls that confine us. They have no bearing at all on our personal freedom other than carrying out a prophecy that we, ourselves, have set into motion. By merely allowing them to have any grasp at all on the direction of our personal decisions, we have willingly relinquished control over our own lives. 

Control—the polar opposite of letting go—is, in my opinion, where we all stray along our journey to pervasive personal freedom. As I had previously discussed in, 5 Tips For Brutally Butchering Your Life, So You Can Finally Live, control is just an illusion.

We try to obtain it, but it is slippery and illusive. It loves to tempt by way of falsely making us believe that we actually possess the power to control anything at all, and conjuring fear associated with the possibility of not. We can really only control our reactions and how gracefully we choose to thrive in this beautiful, sexy chaos.

We choose our path and many times we do it by way of resistance and, as human behavior proves itself time and time again, we beings tend to gravitate towards the path of least resistance. Something to think about that next time you are faced with a choice of any magnitude. Often times the path of least resistance resides in the space of shifted responsibility, not within the practice of letting go. 

Until we fully realize, assimilate and employ a life of personal responsibility, while exercising the practice of letting go, we will forever be at the mercy of others/external variables for our happiness and freedom. We are so accustomed to allowing the external to govern our mental and physical states that we are unaware of their stronghold. 

The advice that I remind myself of daily is this: Become aware. Let go and settle gracefully into the space of pure presence, unhindered by the illusion of control and unclouded by the limitations of rational thinking. I am a limitless being. 

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.”

~ Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

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Editor: Travis May

Photo: Pixoto/Robert Ting