the most difficult thing

Letting go is the most difficult thing

We humans have such difficulty in letting go at times. We enjoy something, we appreciate it, we love it, so we hold on. We want to keep that feeling. We want to keep enjoying, keep appreciating, keep loving. We want to keep. And in a way, there's something nice in that. It shows a certain appreciation in us, whatever it is that we're holding on to: a relationship, a friendship, life itself, or perhaps our own ego.

So when letting go is needed, there's a tremendous resistance in us. And a great sadness, anger perhaps, if we have to let go. And sooner or later we do have to. We can't hold on forever. But letting go itself implies that we're already holding on, and that's really the mistake. 

It's a tremendous challenge, but if we are really to live in truth and freedom and love, we need to live without holding on in the first place. We need to walk through life with our hands open, never grasping, never holding on to anyone, never clinging to a relationship, just open handed, always, always giving that person freedom, never trying to tie someone down with promises for the future.

Open handed: this is the way to be in life, but it's tremendously challenging. It means trusting in existence totally. It means trusting existence with our relationships. And as for the sense of self, the ego, that which wants always to cling to things, this is the place where we have most difficulty to let go – of our own sense of a separate self. And until we can do that, we will keep trying to cling to things, to people, to relationships, and to life itself.

So perhaps it's not a case that letting go is the most difficult thing, but living always in a state of let go, to live without holding, without grasping. This is the greatest challenge for a human being. And yet if we can do that, we will discover that we are buddhas, each and every one of us.