The Art of Letting Go

“Let it go.” We’ve offered and received this advice on countless occasions. And we know it is good advice. It makes perfect sense to drop the pain and move on.

Why then is it so difficult to do? Why do we struggle to let go of hurts and resentments, and why do we so readily harbor suffering in our hearts? Do we want the pain?

In holding onto our pain we become trapped by the past and stuck in limited versions of ourself. We’re doomed to repeat painful patterns of behaviour and we lose sight of our Buddha nature – our actual potential for growth and transformation.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. According to Buddhist psychology, we’re unable to let go of our pain due to the root delusions of anger, attachment and ignorance – mental distortions that set us up for grasping and suffering in advance. By applying Buddha’s wisdom to our daily life we can discover a step-by-step methodology to authentically let go. We can learn to distinguish between inner and outer problems, reflect on the role of our own mistaken expectations, open our hearts to forgiveness, and discover a brand new source of happiness from within.