Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If in our heart, we still cling to anything, -anger, anxiety or possessions-we cannot be free.
Thich Nhat Hanh
I watched another lovely dharma talk today from Deer Park Monastery...and it touched me deeply. I listened to a strong human being, in the form of a Buddhist monk, speak about his journey through the very challenging path of cancer. He spoke mostly about letting go of our notion of lucky or unlucky for our willingness to simply let Life do as Life does, bringing a variety of experience our way -pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. In the height of his cancer he refused to "fight" with the malignant cells in his body and chose to recognize them as just other living things wanting to live. He spoke to them daily in an attempt to explain to them that their clinging and fighting to take over his body would not bring them true freedom...his body would die and with it so would they. He offered them instead a cooperation and a union within him...so they, together, could transcend to true freedom. The cells just had to let go of their need to cling to him and he, in turn, let go of any idea of how life "should be", accepting all as it is. He developed a compassion for these cells and a renewed passion for Life, exempt from the "clinging" most of us do. He said something that struck me deeply. I can only paraphrase:
When we don't let go of grasping and clinging, we fail to simply enjoy the preciousness of that which we are clinging to.
Our clinging to Life and our ideas of how life should be stops us from truly experiencing the preciousness of Life itself.
Hmm! Please listen!
Plum Village ( May, 2019) Br. Phap Ho -Lucky or Unlucky? -Deer Park Monastery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3J0GleoaIE
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