People come with problems...they say, "this bad thing is happening to me." I say, "Good. Wonderful. You can use this to surrender more deeply. Don’t try to solve the problem, fix the problem, or get what you want...give it all away. You will become a miracle."
If what you want is freedom, if you want is to be awake, then surrender all. Surrender your arrogance, and your humility. Surrender your self, and what is not yourself. Surrender your ignorance and your knowledge, surrender even surrender. When you cannot give anymore, when you are at the very end, the absolute end, when all has been given up, given away, surrendered, even then, take one more step towards Silence. When there is only emptiness, give away the emptiness. When you have given away so much there is only death, give death away. Give everything away. Hold nothing. Hold nothing. Do not accumulate anything. Give it away. Desires? Nothing but thoughts. Let them go. Insults? Give away the righteous burning of pride and vanity. Anything that remains is in the way, so give it away. Let it go. It wants to go. Everything wants to go on its way. Don’t hold them back. Let them go.
Hear a mallet on a drumhead. Hear it? There is the initial thud, and then a moment or two of reverberation. Then it is gone. The sound must go. Do not hold it in your mind. Let it go. If you don’t, you won’t hear the next rhythmic beat. You will only hear what has already happened. If what has already happened is not released, you will only hear the echoes of concepts, of memory. You will not hear the music of Silence, of life. And without this music, we become sad and lonely. Let everything go. Please. Let it go. When everything has been given away, only Silence remains. Not even a self remains, for that has been given away. The giver is given away. The self is given away. Thoughts are given away. Words are given away. Resistance is given away. Will is given away. Nothing remains. Nothing remains. Only Silence.
In Silence, we transform, we become reborn, we are resurrected from darkness to light. From confusion to clarity. From suffering to ease. From anxiety to freedom. Let everything go, so it may return, as Silence.
From within this surrender, from within this emptiness, from within this constant return to openness is a new life, a whole life, a joyous life. It is miraculous and cannot be explained. It cannot be anticipated. It cannot be controlled. It cannot be fathomed. It can only be lived, and in this living we become real, we live in reality. Within reality, there is more joy, more pleasure, more peace, more contentment than we can ever hope for. How does all of this happen? I don’t know. But it does. Within Silence, letting all things go, our truest life happens, our highest purpose is fulfilled, our greatest longing is realized. How does this happen? I don’t know. No one knows. But it does.
You will become nothing, and thus become everything. You will need nothing, and thus have everything. You will be open, and thus all things can happen. You will be without pretense, and thus sincere; without masks, and thus authentic; without cleverness, and thus honest; without guile, and thus trustworthy. All because you become nothing, by giving everything away. With nothing to protect, only peace remains. This is what we love about the holy ones, the sages. How does this happen? No one knows. But it does.
If you can’t give it away, throw it away, fling it away, kick it away. Just don’t let it stay. Let nothing stay. Hold nothing. Keep nothing: neither the sadness nor the joy, neither the fear nor the courage, not even realization, not even insight, not even enlightenment. Let everything go. And then the hands that hold, and the hands that release. And the thought of surrender, and surrender. All of it goes. From Silence to Silence. Just that.