Letting Go

The truth is, we want to cling, but in order to journey forward we must learn to let go. Its like mountain climbing on a steep slope, you get four good “holds” on the mountain, and if you feel you are safe there in that precarious spot, it would be easy just to hold on—forever! But to make forward progress, you’ve got to let go again and reach forward to the next higher “grip point.”

You don’t let go of everything all at once, of course. That would send you plunging down the slope. But as you can, ultimately every grip point must be transcended for the next “station” of your journey. So practically speaking, what do we grip that must be transcended? Several critical areas come to mind, self, God, and the belief systems (or the dogmatic structures) between them that sustains both.

In order to move forward, as Tom Cheetham suggests, it is necessary to abandon our childish attachments to everything: to ourselves, to God, and to the world. I agree. Strangely, we find ourselves at this critical juncture in our day. It is our task now to work with what faces us. We did not choose this as a project. But it is ours to work with and respond to. The work of the Order, I believe, is to do just this. As we explore further, I will take a closer look at the three detachments I have suggested here, and then at the project of learning new wisdom that I mentioned earlier.