Part of key topic Fruits of the Practice
Glosses: Letting go
Also a subtag of Cessation of Suffering
See also: Release
157 excerpts, 11:16:47 total duration
12. “What is the Pali word for letting go or relinquishment? Is this the opposite of upādāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pāli] [Relinquishment] [Clinging] // [Release] [Progress of insight] [Ajahn Pasanno]
Sutta: MN 37: Sabbe dhammā nālaṁ abhinivesāya–All dhammas are not to be clung to. [Conditionality]
Sutta: SN 46.1: ...based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release.
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta [Mindfulness of breathing]
2. Comment: Ajahn Chah said that Nibbāna is letting go, but this is difficult to do at deep levels. [Ajahn Chah] [Nibbāna] [Relinquishment] [Suffering]
Responses by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Yatiko. [Self-identity view] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
1. “Could you speak more about the concept of relinquishment, giving up, and how it relates to giving?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Relinquishment] [Recollection/Generosity] [Generosity] // [Clinging]
2. Comment: It’s not so easy to let go of people who have been in my life forever to cultivate new friendships. [Relinquishment] [Spiritual friendship]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Judgementalism] [Virtue] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Views]
1. Comment: Even though I’ve seen the fruit of awareness in and of itself many times, the doubt is still so deeply embedded that there is not that place of letting go. [Knowing itself] [Doubt] [Clinging] [Relinquishment] [Tranquility] [Proliferation]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Faith]
Reference: “Goal-Oriented and Source-Oriented Practice,” Dhamma Talk by Ajahn Pasanno, August 10, 2013.
6. “Reflecting on your talk earlier about letting go...Wondering if you can speak about maintaining a practice during retreat and also in ‘normal’ life under circumstances (where one has to make many important decisions).” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Meditation retreats] [Lay life]
7. “I have a hard time ending or letting go of relationships after they no longer serve me or prove to be unskillful people...Is this attachment to person or aversion/ fear etc of the unknown?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relationships] [Relinquishment] [Clinging] [Fear]
6. “Is this similar to the Buddha’s teaching to let go of the path?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Eightfold Path] [Relinquishment] // [Ajahn Chah] [Not-made-of-that] [Right Effort] [Ajahn Mun] [Thai]
Sutta: SN 1.1 Oghataraṇa: Crossing the Flood.
17. “You were talking about the positive aspect of relinquishment, and that’s what will motivate giving up, that positive aspect of giving up and letting go. When it’s painful giving up and you give up, you can say, ‘Wait, I’m just focusing on the negative aspect of giving up, I need to switch my mind to the benefits of relinquishment?’” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Suffering] [Appropriate attention] // [Self-identity view] [Clinging] [Humor] [Humility]
4. “With the succinct teaching “know and let go,” I notice a tendency in the mind to go through the motions of that without really being able to enter into it – what do I do about that?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] [Truth] [Perfections]
14. “Ajahn Pasanno, in your Dhamma talk “Letting Go of the Wheel,” you described a driver who saw an oncoming car cross into his lane and let go of the wheel. Is this a metaphor?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Similes] [Death]
Quote: “When there’s death in your face, you don’t start negotiating. You have to be willing to let go.” [Relinquishment]
Follow-up: “So do you let your merit carry you?” [Merit]
4. “When Ajahn Liem says, ‘Practice is just for practice,’ what arises for me is that any time I put a meaning on practice, there has to be an ego state that arises around that meaning....It’s like letting go even o fthe idea of practicing in order to become enlightened.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Liem] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Self-identity view] [Becoming] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Liberation] [Relinquishment]
Quote: “Practicing for Nibbāna is just another kind of desire.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Nibbāna] [Desire]
7. “In the context of deep love—like between spouses or between parent and child—what is the application of the concept of non-attachment? What does it mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Family] [Relinquishment] [Relationships ] // [Characteristics of existence] [Compassion]
Quote: “A really loving gift is giving that person the autonomy to be a human being but to really care for them.” [Generosity] [Self-reliance] [Human]
13. “I am still very attached to my husband and children. I don’t want to relinquish the intimacy I share with my husband. I will suffer when they are gone. How do I reconcile this practice of relinquishment with the reality that I am a wife, mother and householder? With love.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Gratitude] [Family ] [Lay life] [Relinquishment ] // [Spaciousness] [Suffering] [Clinging] [Cause of Suffering] [Communal harmony]
Quote: “Relinquishment is a skillful acknowledgement of the areas where we do create suffering.” [Relinquishment ]
Story: Visākhā, the stream enterer who raised 20 children. [Great disciples] [Stream entry] [Culture/India]
Quote: “Families that grow up with strong spiritual models are an incredible blessing.” [Mentoring]
4. “What does “know the mind as mind; know feeling as feeling” mean?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] // [Proliferation]
Comment: Self-view forms around the feeling from sense contact. [Sense bases] [Contact] [Feeling] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Volitional formations] [Perception]
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta. [Mindfulness of breathing]
11. “Can tudong be understood as a metaphor for practice? When we carry a lot of heavyweight stuff for a long time, we get tired and need to drop something.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Symbolism] [Clinging] [Suffering] [Relinquishment] [Tudong]
4. “Are the skillful means for dealing with not-self aas easy as know and let go?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] [Not-self] // [Discernment] [Truth]
10. “In regard to self and emotions, you acknowledge and embrace it but don’t hold tightly?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emotion] [Clinging] [Relinquishment] [Middle Path] [Not-self] // [Discernment]
4. Comment about working with not-self in direct experience in relation to discomfort and awareness of embodied release. [Direct experience] [Feeling] [Suffering] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Mindfulness of body] [Relinquishment] [Fear]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation]
12. Comment: I notice how the mind defends suffering because it’s so closely related to that idea of self. But if I let go of defending, what am I? [Clinging] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Not-self]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Learning] [Cessation of Suffering]
17. “What is the right point to drop or ignore the desire to identify with the Buddhist identity?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Relinquishment] [Desire] [Self-identity view] [Buddhist identity] // [Suffering] [Perfectionism] [Clear comprehension] [Conventions] [Ajahn Chah] [Right Effort]
2. “I was thinking about Ajahn Chah’s advice that all you need to do is know and let go. I’m wondering about knowing, developing, and letting go. Where does development fit in?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Knowing itself] [Relinquishment] [Right Effort]
24. “In the jhāna similies (MN 39.15), ‘He makes...’ seems very active. In dropping away things, is it a conscious dropping or an allowing?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Right Concentration] [Relinquishment] [Jhāna] // [Volitional formations] [Conditionality] [Right Effort]
Quote: “Ajahn Chah emphasizes the doing within a sphere of detachment and letting go.” [Ajahn Chah] [Relinquishment]
12. “Several months ago, I started to use the phrase: ‘I’d rather be loved than right.’ This small shift has had a tremendous impact in my life as I relinquish my need to be right, to control and to assert my ego into things.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Views]
21. “I have attended many deaths and that last breath appears to be really difficult to relinquish. Does this training really help? I have trouble relinquishing the small aches and pains in my body.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death] [Relinquishment] [Long-term practice] [Pain]
Quote: “The holding on is way more painful than the relinquishing.” [Clinging] [Relinquishment] [Suffering]
11. “Can you speak a bit about aversion and letting go? I’m dealing with the loss of my brother and the ending of a 15 year marriage. The painful memories are hard to process, and it is easier to push them away. I’d like to “know” and “let go” of them.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aversion] [Relinquishment] [Grief] [Relationships]
5. Comment: The mind can get caught on relinquishment itself. [Relinquishment] [Clinging] // [Compassion]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Views] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Self-identity view] [Appropriate attention]
18. “Before we relinquish the self, there needs to be a recognition of what’s going on. I often realize this minutes or hours later. Any suggestions for this initial step of noticing?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Mindfulness] // [Investigation of states] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Cessation] [Spaciousness]
2. “For some people, death comes with extreme pain. Part of being able to navigate through the dissolution of self requires clarity of mind. My understanding is that a lot of pain management involves morphine or other mind-numbing drugs. How does one navigate the pain?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death] [Pain] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Clear comprehension] [Health care] [Intoxicants] // [Fear]
13. “How to balance the practice of removing attachments but maintain responsibilities of caregiving to children or ageing parents?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Clinging] [Relinquishment] [Family] [Parents] [Ageing] // [Gratitude]
8. “When practicing letting go, is there any particular order to do so? For example, if I am attached to career, friends, and family (in order of increasing attachment), which shall I let go of first?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clinging] [Relinquishment] // [Unwholesome Roots] [Similes]
4. “Please speak about sense consciouness and how the release of attachment is acheived.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Consciousness] [Clinging] [Relinquishment] // [Delusion] [Insight meditation] [Knowledge and vision] [Feeling] [Contact] [Drawbacks] [Compassion]
Quote: “Dhamma practice is not difficult. There are only two things you need to do: know and let go.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Relinquishment]