The Middle Path
Too scared to let go?
The word ‘choice’ means that we have options; that we have alternatives for everything. But there is a very interesting aspect to it. This choice made by the mind is actually a decision of ‘A’ against ‘B’. Whatever it has decided, whether ‘A’ or ‘B’, it is one-sided and, therefore, never total.
When one lives in totality, there is no choice. But this choice makes the human mind function in extremes. We all live through extremes because we have choices – either I will have this or I will have that. There is never a middle path for the mind.
The Middle Path
In the scriptures, our sages have always guided us to live in the middle and never in the extremes. Their message has always been very clear in this regard – stop choosing, stop clinging to choices and allow life and it’s beautiful, blissful moments to be as they are.
This is the middle path of the Buddha and of Krishna, and the way to reach the point of ‘choicelessness’, when we are not clinging to any particular side, but instead are in a state of let-go. This state of choicelessness simply means a state of let-go.
To realise the beauty of life and to live it, choices have to go, polarities have to go and eventually, the mind has to go. One has to learn to be in a let-go state, because sometimes the mind has the tendency to cling to the pain, to negative experiences, and even cling to thoughts in the form of memories. But for us to be in a state of let-go, we must constantly be aware of the functioning of our mind and its inherent tendency to choose between two extremes in all day-to-day situations. Observing this tendency of the mind constantly, will eventually make the let-go state happen. And the pleasure and showering of bliss is nothing but in this state of let-go.
The state of let-go is the deepest feeling of respect towards existence as it is. For instance, it is vital that the dew drops fall off the flower for it to blossom. Let-go is the key for the flowers to bloom and to flourish. And the flowers, which are unable to let go of the dew drops, remain dull and dry, and wither away.
Most of us cling to mundane things in life, too scared to let go of them and, as a result, lead a life full of despair, pain, and agony. Let-go is not just an experience of choicelessness; it is transformation of life into an utterly blissful and rejoicing state.
Osho says that when it is day, it is day, don’t ask for the night. When it is pain, it is pain, and when it is pleasure, it is pleasure. Don’t choose, allow it to happen.
Slowly, a great understanding arises. This understanding makes you alert, aware that you are separate from both. You are neither life nor death: you are just a witness. Remain in a let-go state, remain very passive and receptive. Just be, with no idea of becoming, and then great things start happening. They never happen to seekers, they only happen to those who know how to rest, how not to seek, how not to search, how not to grope. Seek and you will miss. Do not seek and find.
Tags: Abundance Art Of Life Let Go Practicing Mindfulness Relaxation And Awareness The Middle Path
