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Guided Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be

So, good day, good afternoon, good morning, good night. Good greetings to all of you.

As an introduction to this meditation, I think that Buddhist practice has a strong association with letting go. For some people, that's inspiring; for some people, it's not. Sometimes, instead of letting go, teachers will encourage us to let be. Letting be is a kind of letting go. We're letting go of our ways in which we don't let things be—the ways that we want to fix them, or push them away, or let them go even, or hold onto them. All these ways we get involved with what's happening.

Letting be is a very important part of Vipassana^[1] practice, especially in the deeper, quieter places of meditation. But these two come together in a very significant way. We have to hold these two together: letting go and letting be. We let go of what is unwholesome and unhelpful, and we let be what is wholesome and helpful. We let go of that which interferes with our compassion, or freedom, or the best qualities of who we are. Whatever interferes with these best qualities of ourselves, we let go of that interference so these qualities can flow through us. And we let be those good qualities.

To learn to distinguish between what is wholesome and unwholesome, and how to let go, is part of this practice. It's a little bit simplistic, but we can understand that in the teachings of the Buddha, what is unwholesome always comes along with craving, some form or other of compulsive desire. And that itself also comes along with tension, contraction, straining, or an obscuring of our wisdom and our connection to ourselves. There is a closing down that happens. What is unwholesome is unhealthy in a certain way, or has a certain level of suffering or pain inherent in it.

As we get more sensitive in mindfulness, we recognize more and more that underlying tension, suffering, strain, and pain that is in the unwholesome, the contraction. We have a better sense of this is what we let go of: we let go of the tension, the contraction, the tightness that's around this, or the pushing that's around it.

What is wholesome has a flow to it. It has an opening quality to it, a sense of being nourishing, or a goodness or rightness to it that seems to flow, and maybe sometimes even radiate or glow. It just feels like there's an ease to it, and I'm closer to happiness than to pain and suffering. To learn to recognize those two, and let go of the unwholesome and allow the wholesome, are two very important movements of this meditation practice.

We can't always let go. Sometimes, especially if we let go in unwholesome ways—like we don't like something and want to push it away—even with the unwholesome, it's best just to let it be. Because if you really let something be, then it lets go of itself if it's unwholesome. If it's wholesome, if you really let it be, it often can grow or expand or morph into something more beautiful. So letting be is often a wonderful practice to do. But at times, it's quite appropriate to let go.

We begin the meditation that way, by a version of letting go, which is relaxing. This is letting go of the muscular tension we carry.

Assuming a posture that allows you to be both alert and relaxed, gently closing your eyes.

Take a few moments to gentle yourself into your body, to gentle yourself into this living body that you have. Center yourself here in this body, as if the body is your meditation hall. The body is the location that you enter to meditate.

And then taking a few long, slow, gentle in-breaths, and long, extended exhales. Breathing in deeply enough so that you really feel your torso expand and stretch, and really feel your embodied existence. And in the exhale, to relax and settle into this embodied existence.

And then letting your breathing return to normal.

As you exhale, relax the muscles of your face: around your eyes, your forehead, your cheeks, and your jaws. Maybe there's also a little relaxing in the mouth. Maybe the teeth are touching each other firmly; can you let the teeth fall away from each other just a little bit?

Exhale, relaxing the shoulders. All around the shoulders, a little bit around the curve of the shoulders into your lower arms, the shoulder blade area.

And then to soften in the belly. As you soften in the belly, simultaneously, maybe you can relax your arms and your legs, a releasing of the holding in the body.

And also, perhaps relaxing any tension or contraction in the mind. And as you do so, quieting your thinking. As if you have a volume knob and you can turn down the volume on your thinking. Softening in the mind.

And then as you're sitting here, is there anything that would be appropriate to let go of? It's not needed right now; it's not useful right now. Maybe it's even unwholesome.

Chances are, most of your thinking is not needed right now. Even if thinking is about good things, if we can let go of it, maybe then you can feel or sense something within that's wholesome—some embodied feeling of rightness or goodness, tender care, love, warmth, a clear sense of honesty, honest presence with what is.

And from within what is wholesome, becoming aware of your breathing. As you breathe in, allowing and letting be what is wholesome. As you exhale, let go of what is unwholesome, or what is not necessary now, just here.

Quieting the thinking so there's a greater, almost embodied awareness of embodied wholesomeness.

And if it's easy enough, letting go of what is unwholesome. And if it's not easy, let it be. That is similar to just leave it alone; don't be involved.

To let go or to let be, which allows you to be more present here.

To let go or let be, that is the question. And then the time comes when the question is what to let forth, what to express and allow to move through us.

In the end of a meditation, in the end of any significant Dharma^[2] activity, there's an ancient, long-standing tradition to dedicate the merit. For some of us, the idea of merit isn't quite understandable, maybe. But the Buddha defines merit as happiness. So, to dedicate the happiness, dedicate the benefits that have come from our meditation together for the welfare and happiness of others. To have a clear kind of opening and inclusion of the world.

So that, with all beings, may we live in such a way that the world benefits from us, and especially those who suffer. The tremendous challenges of the African-American community in this country, the challenges of Asian Americans, Native Americans, immigrants of all kinds, the poor, those struggling with drugs, poverty—the list goes on.

May it be that our practice, and our good hearts, and the goodness within that we tap into, the wholesomeness—may we dedicate it to making this world a better place for all beings.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free.

Dharmette: Refuge (5 of 5) Refuge in Freedom

So, the topic this week has been refuge. One of the probably most important, or among the most important religious sentiments a Buddhist can have. Of course, the word "religion" or "religious" isn't in the vocabulary of some people who practice Buddhism, but it is associated with a deep feeling, inspiration. It's the source of inspiration or the quality of inspiration that goes in the direction of freedom, goes in the direction of insight, goes in the direction of aligning our life, attuning our life with the wholesomeness and the freedom we are discovering with the practice, with the deep sense of knowing and connectivity and intimacy that comes with doing this practice. Like, here is a valuable way of living, here is a valuable place from which to be in the world that is deeper than what happens to us when we're spinning around on the surface of things. The stories and ideas and memories, preoccupations and thoughts based on our desires and fears and animosities. To learn to let go of the spinning mind, the agitated mind, the surface mind that we can often live in, and discover that there's a deep mind or deep heart that we can come from.

I made that distinction between wholesome and unwholesome, and that one way to have refuge in action is we take refuge in the wholesome. We take refuge in doing that which is beneficial. For me, the wholesome feels like it comes from our depths. The unwholesome feels like it's skimming the surface of our life and our experience, and it involves the surface tension. If that surface tension can really relax and really allow ourselves to come from the depths, then we have something so good that it's worthwhile being our refuge.

What we discover through meditation practice is represented by the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha^[3]. When we go for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, it's really a way of saying I go to refuge with the inner Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—that which resonates with these beautiful external refuges.

The Buddha said, "Make a refuge of yourself." There's this kind of "come here, don't be so looking outward." Even when he used synonymously "be a refuge to yourself," he then immediately followed, giving a synonym for that, which is "be a refuge in the Dharma." There's something about discovering the Dharma within us; we become the Dharma. Practice is not to make us different than who we are, or to brainwash us in some way, but to free up what's most profound and deep and meaningful. So, a source of support that's within us—the Dharma. To discover, in some kind of way, we are the Dharma when the surface tensions fall away and this wholesomeness can come forth. Then, taking refuge in our actions, being able to distinguish between wholesome and unwholesome and move in the direction of the wholesome. As we do this, the Buddha talked about two other refuges that exist.

The first I'd like to mention is the Four Noble Truths^[4]. In talking about the Four Noble Truths, I think of them as first and foremost deep insight. So we live in a wholesome way, we settle the surface mind, the tension. We're able to drop down and really find a way to be connected and intimate with this lived experience, with a quiet, focused mind. We really begin seeing more and more clearly what's happening here. With that, we start seeing something of the underlying process—the movement, the unfolding of how our psychological and heart-mind move and operate.

We see something called the Four Noble Truths—a very rich set of concepts that has different connotations, different applications, and different elaborations at different times. But at the heart of it, one classic way of understanding it is that we really start seeing deeply how limiting it is to crave, to contract, to be compulsive, to lose our freedom in a drivenness in our thoughts and thinking, our emotions, our desires, and our aversions. To really see that thirsting that's underneath it all, and to be able to see the possibility of letting go, to see beyond it to the freedom on the other side of it. So that we're not blinded by it, thinking this is what life is, and freedom is just giving in to all our compulsions, but we see on the other side of it something that's really wonderful—the level of peace and happiness and freedom that is possible. It's an insight to see. There are other aspects of this insight, but to really see this insight that shows us another possibility, and to take refuge in that insight. This is right.

And then the last refuge the Buddha mentioned is that when we have this deep insight and we realize that—or not necessarily we realize, but our heart realizes. The heart is given the space to really settle in and become whole and at ease and relaxed. Then there's a phenomenal letting go or releasing. It's not something we do, but a releasing, a stopping, an ending of something. Three things that we say over and over again. Because we say it, and I say it so repeatedly, we might kind of gloss over it or think, "Oh yeah, this is kind of Buddhist stuff." But it really lays at the heart of all unwholesome behavior, and so it's so significant. And that is greed, hatred, and delusion. That they get released, to let go. That absence of greed, hatred, and delusion—that is a refuge. To have experienced that refuge, that protection, that understanding, that value of being without greed, hate, and delusion, without these deep unwholesome tendencies, is the most powerful refuge we can have.

At the end of his life, the Buddha said that he had made a refuge of himself. What that means is that he had done the practice all the way to this complete letting go of greed, hatred, and delusion. He had done the wholesome things, he had really connected to something really valuable within that led him to this deep release. In doing so, he made himself a refuge for himself. He made himself safe for himself and safe from danger. That's the possibility for this practice for us. When we really go for refuge, take this refuge, we are affirming the value of doing this practice. We're affirming the value of following the Eightfold Path^[5], the Four Noble Truths, following the path of what's wholesome. We're affirming the value of this deep letting go of everything which is unwholesome.

And then, kind of putting ourselves on that path. As we do so, we make ourselves our own refuge. The further we go on the path, the more we will create this great inner safety. There's a way in which the greatest danger we have is not external to us. The greatest danger is how we react and respond to what happens to us in this life of ours. The clinging, the attachment, the closing down, the self-criticism, the ways in which we send arrows into our own hearts. To have made the heart, made ourselves safe for ourselves, that there's a place of refuge here no matter how difficult the world is around us. In here is a profound abiding refuge that comes with the absence of greed, hatred, and delusion.

And then finally, in one translation in the suttas^[6]—it's not quite right, it doesn't use the word sarana^[7], refuge—but there's one translation of the Buddha's teachings where the Buddha says, "Make yourself a refuge for others." The literal word that's used as refuge here is safety: make yourself safe for others. With this movement, once we discover the refuge in ourselves, then the opportunity is there that we become someone who is safe for others. And that is a wonderful quality. Not enough people in our world, in our society, have this sense of safety. So to let go and then be able to offer yourself as a refuge, as a support, as a compassionate, caring presence for others.

So, refuge. Thank you all for this week. Just a reminder that starting Monday, I'll be teaching the next week, but the teaching will also be part of another program that I'm doing for San Francisco Zen Center. We'll be joined on YouTube with the people from the Zen Center program. So I'm not quite sure how I'll teach next week. It'll be basic Vipassana teachings, but I think I'll try to shape them in a way that is in harmony with Zen teaching. In fact, the name of the program that I'm part of is called "The Harmony of Zen and Vipassana." You'll get more of that, because in the following two weeks after that—it's a three-week program—the Abbess of Green Gulch Zen Center, Fu Schroeder^[8], and former Abbot Paul Haller^[9] will do the 7:00 a.m. teachings. So you'll get a whole different flavor of practice for a couple of weeks, which should be quite enlivening, I hope.

So thank you all very, very much, and I look forward to our time together on Monday.