Letting go is just letting things be as they are. Not holding onto anything that would hold us back from moving on and becoming the human/humane person we are called to be. ‘When we learn just to let things be as they are they gradually lose their power over us’.

Letting go is not cutting off. It is not cutting ourselves off from ourselves. From our memories or our responsibilities. It is not cutting ourselves off from others. From our families or our communities. But it is letting go of our disappointment and despair.

A meditation on letting go.

Create a comfortable atmosphere. Set the scene with a small candle and a metal bowl. Sit on your own, or with a friend. Once seated, attend to your breathing. Remember some reactions that you feel it is time to let go of. Name them (eg sadness, resentment, anxiety, anger, etc). Hold these feelings with tenderness in your heart one more time. Then, when you are ready to let these feelings go, write them down. When the list of feelings you want to let go of is finished, think about the benefits that will come from letting these feelings go – once and for all. Take paper on which you have written the list of feelings you want to let go of, set them on fire with the candle and burn them burn in the metal bowl. At the same time, take the paper that you put to one side, on which you had written about the event you wanted to give up on, and burn it to ashes in the bowl. As the smoke rises like incense say ‘Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.’          

‘If you let go a little, you will have a little happiness.                                                                       
If you will let go a lot, you will have a lot of happiness’.  Ajahn Chah[1]