Isn’t it enough to just let go? Do I have to accept and embrace too?
It can be tempting to break this trilogy into separate pieces. But that would just make it easier for egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate to recall all the times it has attempted to either accept, or embrace, or let go, and—noting the dearth of significant results—dismiss each with “Oh yeah, done that, I know what that is, wish it worked for me…” Leaving all three components appended end to end, suggests engaging in any one of them, to some degree, engages all three and points to an exponentially more expansive experience. Viewing Accept, Embrace, Let Go as a single process has the added benefit of confounding ego. It makes it much more difficult for it to wrap its linear and illusory head around it. Fuses blow, circuit breakers flip, as it attempts to “understand” the net effect of applying all three (in any order or all at once!) to any given circumstance.
Other practice expressions seem to operate in the same way: Turning away from suffering and toward Life; encountering and transcending; seeing and seeing through; yes, please, thank you and I love you. They resist being separated into components. In considering each as a single process, it becomes apparent that it’s not enough to see without seeing through; it’s not enough to turn away from suffering without turning toward Life; it’s not enough to encounter without transcending; it’s not enough to be present without receiving and acting on the guidance of the intelligence that animates; it’s not enough to live from yes, please, thank you without embodying the “I love you” that naturally follows.
Expressions such as these can become potent maps for ending suffering. Often times in being aware of an ongoing conversation in conditioned mind—and then dropping it, I find myself in an in-between zone, somewhere between seeing and seeing through, somewhere between turning away from suffering and turning towards Life. The conversation seems to have stopped, but the attention is still on and maintaining an attitude, an orientation, a point of view—a narrow band of identity surrounded by infinite awareness. If the attention remains inside that narrow band of identity, it can seem a particularly vulnerable place. The next conversation will begin with the next breath as conditioning looks to carry the attention ever deeper into identification—to self-improvement, distraction, coping behaviors, pseudo Zen, self-hate. Anything to move the practitioner away from taking the next step into the wisdom and clarity of thisherenow and all ego-maintaining versions of conditioning talking to conditioning about conditioning.
This in-between zone can seem a pernicious place in practice, difficult to transcend. But with continued practice the tables turn. This is indeed a particularly vulnerable place—not for the awareness practitioner, but for egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate.
In looking to these unbounded expressions for guidance, it’s clear that seeing is the invitation to choose seeing through, that turning away from suffering is the freedom to turn toward Life, that encountering is the encouragement for transcending, that yes, please, thank you, is a place from which to choose love and laughter. I need not linger in that “vulnerable” in-between place expecting to notice, experience or feel something additional or different—the condition for taking the next step has already been met. I need only practice directing attention to Life.
Accept, Embrace, Let Go, again and yet again, may it be so!
Gassho
Chris