Let Go

It’s interesting when one hears about the concept of letting go. There are many that say this without clarifying what it actually means. What are you supposed to let go of ? It can’t be dreams - dreams give birth to innovation and are the reason for human progress. If they mean giving up on dreams it’s a huge issue at a philosophical and psychological level. 

What about letting go of attachment? Maybe but then the question is attachment to what ? Is it the attachment to love ? Can’t be unconditional love. It is an emotion like no other. There are no expectations of any kind . It is a state of mind that has no parallel. How about attachment to the past ? One can’t live in the past or the future the only time one is alive is now. (I have written about this earlier) and so yes one can agree to the concept of letting go of the past. How about attachment to a grudge ?  This too makes sense as holding on to something that happened in the past and having a negative frame of mind due to said thing is the same as living in the past.  So attachments that keep us in the past are worth letting go of.  

What about attachment to the expected outcome ? Or an attachment to something that may or may not happen in the future ? This comes about from the need to be in control of everything;  it is impossible. No matter how well you plan; there will always be variables that you have not accounted for that can change the outcome.  

In essence anything that keeps you living in the past or the future is futile and is worth letting go of. Now I don’t mean memories. Memories are good they help teach us and keep us grounded in the present. But to obsess over the same memories trying to make them real again is foolhardy. This can be let go of as there is no way that the past can be repeated. It may be reenacted as a play or a story but cannot be repeated. (History might show it different - multiple people making the same mistakes all over again, not learning from the past. the exact circumstance are never repeated but new actors , new variables reach the same conclusion)    

Letting go is part of the Dao “The Way”. One of the important concepts of the Dao is to live in flow. Simply put in harmony without trying to control or manipulate situations. A is A and one can let go of all philosophical and physical constructs that try to say otherwise.  There is a piece of American slang that captures this concept beautifully (it originated in the 1940’s I’v been given to understand) “It is what it is”. Unfortunately it is used in a defeatist context. 

C