Buddha
Whether it is letting go of a past hurt caused by a loved one, anger, resentment, jealousy, or even just material desires. Our desire to hold onto things keeps us from truly feeling free and living our life with as little worry as possible. That is why many Buddhist teachings talk about letting go. One of my better analogies about letting go came about while discussing how to overcome anger in a past relationship.
“Imagine your life like a gentle river that flows seamlessly along. You are in the middle floating peacefully as the river is taking you on your path or journey through life. Along the way you pick up stones and rocks that begin to weigh you down. This is the pain and harm caused towards you throughout life. As you continue to have new experiences that cause you anger, pain, jealousy, etc, you continue to grab more and more stones, weighing you down further. You become consumed by the water, your life is drowning and all you can feel is the pain that is caused by all the stones you have picked up along the way, never realizing that by simply letting go of the stones, you would once again rise to the top and float peacefully down the river through your path with life.”
Everything we cling and hold on to adds weight to our mind, bodies, and our energy. By allowing our past to grab hold of our present and remain there, we continue to give power to the person or things that have caused a disruption of our happiness and peace. It is important for us to recognize our unhappiness and take immediate steps to remedy the problem. As many have stated numerous times, finding happiness in difficult situations is ‘easier said than done’, and you are correct. If finding our inner peace and happiness came easy, the world would be a very different place. Unfortunately, it is much easier to find anger, hate, hurt, pain, jealousy, etc than it is to find our inner peace, compassion, and happiness. That is why we practice.
The quickest way to overcome the hurt caused by another is to learn how to forgive. First, you must forgive yourself for allowing the pain and hurt to effect your happiness. Then you must forgive the person or things that have caused you hurt. Once you have forgiven them, you must be willing to let it go and stay in the past. If you continue holding onto the past, it is like dragging a boulder behind you. Sure, you might get where you are going, but the weight of your past makes the journey hard, painful, and exhausting. Let go of the past as you would let go of something physical.
Try this exercise for letting go of your past. Imagine yourself on a tall bridge looking down over a river. The river is deep and moving rapidly and flowing behind you. As you are on top of the bridge, imagine the hurt and pain from your past. Imagine yourself taking that hurt and physically placing it in a canvas bag tied with rope. As you seal the bag, you show gratitude and thanks for your experience with the hurt, knowing that you will never feel this hurt again, as it will no longer be able to effect you as it has so many times. Now imagine tossing it over the bridge and watch it fall, farther and farther down until it finally hits the water. You watch the hurt splash and then rapidly move down the river, quickly floating out of sight…forever.
Do this exercise every time you want to get past negative emotions, and you will begin to understand how much easier it becomes to let go of things and the true power of letting go and being at peace.