Letting go is the essence of this story

Letting go is the essence of this story about Tibet's favourite yogi and saint, Milarepa. Long after his enlightenment, Milarepa went to collect firewood outside the cave where he had been blissfully practicing. When he returned he found in the cave seven metal demons with enormous bodies and eyes the size of cups. Some grinding barley and making fires, others were performing magical tricks. As soon as Mila saw them he became frightened. He meditated on the Buddha, uttered a subjugating mantra, but was unable to pacify them. He thought, "These might be the local deities on this place. Although I have been here for months and years, I have not praised them or given them any torma". So he sang a song of praise.

You nonhuman demons assembled here are obstacles.
Drink this nectar of friendliness and compassion and be gone.

The first three demons who were performing magic went away. Realizing that the remaining demons were magical obstacles, he sang a song of confidence.

It is wonderful that you demons came today.
You must come again tomorrow.
From time to time we should converse.

With this, three more demons vanished like a rainbow. The remaining demon performed an imposing dance, and Mila thought, "This one is vicious and powerful". So he sang another song, the pinnacle of realization.

A demon like you does not intimidate me.
If a demon like you could intimidate me,
The arising of the mind of compassion would be of little meaning.
Demon, if you were to stay longer, that would be fine with me. If you have friends, bring them along.
We will talk out our differences.

Then with friendliness and compassion, and with no concern for his body, Milarepa placed himself in the mouth of the demon --but the demon could not eat him and vanished.

Tibetan practices teach us that we benefit by honoring and feeling the demons. When the demons arrive we must recognize that they are part of the dance of life itself. When they threaten, it is only our illusions that are in danger. The deeper our bows to the changing powers of life, the wiser we will be and when we embrace them, they turn into rainbows. Every colour shines in the awakened heart.

That's Jack! Nx

Always preoccupied with letting go

Letting go has been my practice for years now. I think I really thought at the beginning of this practice, that at some future date, it would become a skill. At some point I would not have to practice any more. I guess what I was thinking was that this skill would look like other skills that I have 'mastered' in my life, like walking, or finding my way home or switching the channels on my television set. You know, tasks that are achieved with total mindlessness. At some point you wake up and think, who drove the car home? I guess I was hoping that one day I would stop and think, who "let go" a minute ago?

It seems like an odd measure of success, but as the practice of letting go is usually ushered in by some pain, it would be nice to think that we could set up a default system that would be alerted by the pain, and apply an application of 'letting go'. We could just enjoy our mindless day.

Not buying this delusional thinking. Me neither. My small self makes up such wonderful stories about only allowing sweetness into my life and the most efficient ways to make this happen. Anyway, as I was reading a passage from a Jack Kornfield book, looking for a particular story that I wanted to put on my blog, I found some words from him that were very validating. I wanted to share them with you.

"For minds obsessed by compulsive thinking and grasping, you simplify your meditation practices to just two words -- "let go" -- rather than try to develop this practice, and then develop that, achieve this, and go into that. The grasping mind wants to read the suttas, to study the Abhidamma, and to learn Pali and Sandskrit, then the Madhyamika and the Prajna Paramita, get ordinations in the Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, write books and become a renowned authority on Buddhism.

Instead of becoming the world's expert on Buddhism and being invited to great international conferences, why not just "let go, let go, let go" ? For years, I did nothing but this is my practice. Every time I tried to understand or figure things out, I'd say "let go, let go, let go" until the desire would fade out.

So I'm making it very simple for you, to save you from getting caught in an incredible amount of suffering. There's nothing more sorrowful than having to attend international Buddhist conferences. Some of you might have the desire to become the Buddha of the age, Maitreya, radiating love through out the world. Instead, just be an earthworm who knows only two words -- "let go, let go, let go" You see, ours is the Lesser Vehicle, we only have these poverty-stricken practices."

Can the continous practice of those two words, "let go, let go, let go", be our path?

Now I will write a post on my favourite Jack Kornfield story about letting go.