Q. How does one pursue a practice that asks you to let go in a world that demands you to hold on?
A. Let’s suppose that you have a golden dish but are not aware that it is made of gold. Because you see it only as a dish, it is nice and valuable to you only while it stays as a dish. When it loses its shape as a dish for one reason or another, it becomes useless to you since it is not a dish anymore. Then, you are likely to give it up and discard it.
However, the fact is that although the shape of the dish disappears, gold, the essence of the dish remains unchanged and has countless uses because it can be made into other beautiful things such as a vase or a cup. Sentient beings have been so addicted to the form of the dish since their births that they can’t recognise gold easily. So, when you are told to let go, you are advised to let go of the name ‘dish’ and its image for a while in order to realise that the essence of the dish is gold.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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