Letting Go: Not a Rationalization of the Status Quo

The Buddha named clinging as the well-spring of suffering. Just as a tapestry is composed of thread, suffering is composed of clinging. Individuals cling to views and conventions, to sense pleasure and to the sense of self. Ultimately, the strategies of clinging are attempts to create happiness and safety. But we can’t hold a river in our hands — the world will not stay still. In letting go, we are not released into a destabilizing world but instead let go into a heart full of confidence, a mind full of peace.

While letting go is deep medicine, it is not the medicine for all disease. Indeed, sometimes, letting go is misused as a rationalization of passivity or disengagement. But non-clinging actually increases the poignancy of suffering and the urgency of our moral concern.