AFL

AFL v Letting go??? What is the link between AFL and letting go? Well, first of all, AFL here does not stand for Australian Football League, but Acknowledging & accepting, Forgiving, and Letting go.

From the abbreviation you can see there is two things before letting go: Acknowledging & accepting and Forgiving. In Buddhism letting go has been emphasised all the time, especially during meditation. If you have been to a meditation course, you may be familiar with the saying “let go of the past and the future, stay in the present moment”. Well, easier said than done.

Have you encountered difficulty in letting go? I guess we all have. It is indeed much easier said than done. Why? Many reasons I guess. But the common one is that we don’t accept them. We tend to push them away. Put it this way, when we start meditating, we want to stay focus in the present. So when we have some kind of thoughts — maybe about future or past, or maybe just a random one — we get agitated. We feel annoyed because these thoughts screw up our attention in the present. So our reaction normally is rejecting them. But the art of letting go is the contrary. We should welcome them and accept them. If we don’t, they would use more force to get in. So next time, try to accept them.. open the door of your heart, allow them to enter you. However before you could accept these, you should have acknowledged the presence first.

Sometimes the ones that want to come into us are those of negative feelings and emotions, such as pain, guilt, despair, sadness, etc. You name it. Well, that is when the Forgiveness comes into the equation. First stage to deal with them is by accepting them — let your door open widely for them. Let them in. It is painful, sometimes can get so painful, but just accept it with all your heart. Then… after they came in, forgive them — forgive yourself for whatever wrong doings you have done, or even just simply forgive the bad feelings. Just say, I forgive you…. come my dear…. my beloved one…. Or you can try other lines. The point is, we should develop our forgiveness towards these negativities. They can’t be punished, the more you want to punish them, the more you are going to suffer. So yeah, just be gentle and forgive them. [I know it is easier said than done... but if you develop enough loving kindness to yourself, you may find it easier to do this --- loving kindness meditation would help to develop the love for yourself and others].

Last stage — let it go. Things come and go. When they leave, just smile at them and wave them goodbye. Nothing stays the same… so let go of things that have passed.

May you all be well and happy….

This entry is inspired by Ajahn Brahm’s talks