Every evening before going to sleep, mentally build a bonfire to destroy some aspects of your life you have created around your ego.
—Swami Kriyananda
Self-definitions and attachments are some of our main obstacles on the spiritual path. What would you like to let go of — or what are you letting go of right now?
Please share your thoughts and inspiration in the comments.
30 Comments
I am working on letting go of the need for excitement. I am always feeling the need to go somewhere and do something. It’s hard to just sit there and be calm. Of course, I get practice in being calm through meditation, but I also try to spend some time each day reading, or sitting in my garden drinking tea, just enjoying the moment.
Love this one.
Thank you for this discussion.
I have been working on letting go of the occasional feeling of anxiety or nervousness. Asha’s Sunday service talk yesterday at the Village gave me extra inspiration to do this. She said that God is attracted to vibrations similar to His own — it’s more inviting to Divine Mother if we are calm and peaceful, opposed to anxious or nervous. I want to attract the Divine and know God, so I’d like to be more calm. :)
That’s a really sweet sincere wish Meera! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Avital! :)
I would like to let go of any control that other people’s thoughts and feelings could have over me.
When Swami Kriyananda’s The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita was first published, a friend who was fighting cancer and going through chemotherapy (if I’m remembering right) was very moved by that book. It was inspiring her to let go of everything that wasn’t real: her ego, her attachments, her “story” and identification with the tiny little reality of her life. At the end of her life, Swami Kriyananda said that she had reached in herself a place where pleasure and pain couldn’t touch her — so she must have been pretty successful.
As for myself, I’d like to let go of the sense that I am the doer. Not sure how to do this except for more meditation, and just remembering that beautiful phrase — “God is the doer.”
I’d like to let go of the mental habits that say “this is what I think”, “this is who I am”, “these are what my self-defined limits are”. Only a little peek into that territory so far, but it seems really worth it!
I’m am letting go of all my stories: this happened to me when I was six, this is what happened in my relationship, this is why such-and-so happened. I feel like all those stories are just my ego’s version of events! I have been feeling much more spacious since I began this process!
Recently I realized that in letting go we actually invite much more to come to us. I always liked to be in my comfortable spot and was averse to too many changes in my life. However, last ten years I have had to move from one house to another, from one city to another due to some reason or other. I am again in the middle of shifting our residence and this time I decided to simply embrace the change gracefully and flow with it rather than having the initial reaction of – ‘Oh,NO! Here we go again’. I felt that in that moment I actually learnt the lesson that God was trying to teach me for many years. The lesson is – Letting Go of the reactive process even in not so significant events and inviting much more freedom and inner joy on its behalf.
Hello everyone!
It’s been not too long since,I started following Swami ji’s talks and am in regular practice of yoga and meditation.
I have heard many gurus and spiritual masters talk and explain ordinary people like us about life and how to live it.But,I have to admit that the way Swami Ji talks and connects is exceptional.He makes the deepest of knowledge and wisdom sound so easy and doable.
Last week,I went through this talk about “letting go” and I decided to practice letting go my thoughts,where I make plans for future.I realised that HE is the one and only who plans and decides,we are his children who need to understand that whatever HE will do /does for us is THE BEST PLAN.
So,it’s a wonderful feeling to surrender that thought to HIM ,saying that “HIS PLAN is my plan.”
I am trying to imbibe this thought into my daily life these days.
Hope,these thoughts help my sisters and brothers at Ananda too.
It is lovely that through these comments we are collectively “Letting Go” of our attachments. Wonderful idea to share the inward journey so that all of us can together benefit in the process!
I was in a romantic relationship a year ago. I became obsessive and controlling to the point where I could hardly function. I told her I wasn’t ready or a relationship hoping that some time down the line we might get back together after I had sometime to work on myself. We agreed to meet a couple days ago and i made my first approach at cleanin up the mess I had made. She made it more or less clear that she was happy with the discision to break up. I was hurt by this and continue to hold onto the possibility we could still have a chance. It seems like it would be healthy to move on and let her go. I guess Love doesn’t have to make sense and I still don’t understand or know anything.
I was fired from a job over a year a go. And have not worked steadily since. I felt it very easy to slip into blaming others and feeling that I was treated unfairly. My reputation was tarnished. My heart closed. Oh, the anger! I couldn’t meditate!
I’m not free of this by any means. And it’s difficult because the person who fired me is not a kind person. But very recently I allowed a visualization of seeing her surrounded in light dancing with the masters; Bowing to her as my divine mother. During grievance meetings I saw her as the guru.
This has been the hardest thing to free myself of. But loving her as the divine gave me hope that soon I will be free. I’m meditating again and I’ve reopened to the flow of divine grace and forgiveness.
I guess I would say my life has been about letting go of one thing after another. One of the most difficult things for me has been letting go of both self judgement and the need to “look” a certain way to the outside world. Recently, I was able to let go of a deep self judgement that’s been with me for a long time. Interestingly, in it’s release, the need to look any way other that myself to the outside world has much diminished too! I’m much more centered, relaxed and very grateful. Certain there’s a challenge around the next corner though:)