Good morning,
Friends.
This morning for the last talk on where we can find rest,
Where we can shelter ourselves from the storms of our complicated lives.
I'd like to explore with you a very small word that holds the entire path with within it.
That is the word let,
L E T,
Let.
And it sounds almost passive or too simple.
Yet the word let points directly to the heart of this practice.
It's so important to remember that it's actually etched on the inside of my wedding band and my husband's wedding band.
It's so important to remember to let.
Think about how often it appears in the teachings.
You know,
Let be,
Let go,
Let it come,
Let it pass,
Let love.
It's a simple and profound invitation of allowing.
And when we come to practice,
We're learning the art of letting be,
Right?
And at first the mind doesn't like that instruction.
It wants to analyze and fix and fantasize and achieve something.
But the practice of letting kind of like it whispers in the background,
You know,
Let the breath be as it is.
Let the body just rest as it is.
Let the heart feel what it feels as is.
To let doesn't mean that we are indifferent.
It means we're willing to see clearly to stop fighting what's here long enough to kind of truly understand it.
The Zen teacher,
Uh,
Charlotte Joko Beck,
She said,
Practice is about learning to experience life just as it is,
Not as we want it,
Not as we imagine it,
But as it actually is pleasant or unpleasant,
Beautiful or ugly.
And this phrase as is,
It has for me the same power as the word let.
It's a really clear relationship to the truth.
The word let invites us to open instead of close.
On Tuesday during our discussion period,
I had you make a tight fist to feel the effort of holding the fist close in a tight ball.
And then I had you release the fist,
Letting the fingers unfurl,
Letting the hand open.
And maybe you noticed that after holding your fist closed for so long,
The unfurling was slow and maybe a little stiff,
But then the sensation returned to the fingers and the experience of letting go.
It actually required less effort than holding the fist close.
Letting is not an act of doing.
It's the absence of struggle.
Lily brought up renunciation on Tuesday and um,
How it relates to this letting.
And I think,
Um,
I think that word can make some of us bristle a little bit.
But you know,
We're,
We're not living in monastic community and renunciation is often associated with,
Um,
With monastic community and letting go not only of our material possessions,
But also,
Uh,
Letting go of sensual pleasures,
You know,
And basically the world that is being advertised to us is the world that is all about sensual pleasures.
So I just want to mention the precursor to renunciation and that is refrain.
Refrain is really the beginning of wisdom and it's what we're training in.
Yeah.
You know,
It's our conscious choice not to act out of our habit patterns or our impulses.
When we refrain,
We are,
Um,
Kind of still near the edge of our wanting.
You know,
We,
We feel the pull of it,
But we don't follow it.
Yeah.
Like we might still desire to say that thing to that person or we might feel the pull to gossip or to follow our distraction and pick up our phones.
We might feel that pull,
But we choose to stay with the energy of wanting itself,
Knowing wanting rather than feeding it through our impulsiveness.
It's the pause that allows awareness to arise before reaction takes over.
Refraining keeps us safe and it steadies the mind.
And opens space where,
Where insight can grow and renunciation.
Renunciation is the fruit of our effort.
Like,
Um,
Renunciation is really no longer needing to hold on when the,
When the mind truly sees the nature of,
Of clinging of holding on and how it leads to suffering again and again and how it leads to struggle.
What happens is our heart,
Uh,
It begins to lose interest.
Renunciation isn't repression.
It's actually release.
It's like,
Um,
Refrain is saying,
You know,
No,
I won't react to this.
Whatever this is happening in front of me and renunciation says,
I don't need to,
I don't need to.
So let refuge in letting.
Ultimately,
Um,
The word let points to living from trust,
Um,
Trusting in the refuge of mindfulness,
Trusting in the refuge of wisdom,
Of love,
Trusting in the unfolding of this very moment.
And that trusting that we don't need to be in control for awakening,
For clear seeing to happen.
We can just let.
So dear friends,
Um,
And you know,
In your sitting and,
And in your daily life and you're living,
I just want to remind you,
Um,
To let go of what is not yours and to let be what is yours and to let the path unfold.
And it's not passivity.
It's actually the courage to trust this sitting and this letting as the poet or near Maria,
Well,
Rilke says,
Let everything happen to you,
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
So I offer this for your consideration and I appreciate your attention.
