“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

~ Yoda

many of us are motivated by and move through life with fear as our companion. in this transient world, whose very foundation is one of change, it is easy to grasp at illusions of security and desperately avoid loss. but in a world of change, we can’t avoid loss. in our desperate efforts, we suffer, because we expect life to be something other than what it is. in fear there is no freedom.

with practice we can train our minds and open our hearts, to expand our capacity to be with life as it is. when we live openness – not grasping or fearful of loss – there is freedom and the reality of change becomes potential for expanded love and opportunity to do good and be of benefit. loss opens space for newness. the cycle of loss and newness is written into life, into nature. we can look to it for guidance and comfort. day turns to night, and then the dawn of a new day returns. summer fades to autumn and autumn to winter. and then, out of winter comes spring and new life. spring is there all along, just waiting for the right conditions to appear, as is every season.

as i age and practice, desperation and grasping feel more like a death than the physical death that awaits my arrival someday. grasping and desperation feel like they are strangling-suffocating life…and yet fear is still present at times and in situations, so ingrained and patterned into my mind.

so, i practice letting go, i practice being free.

~j

(artwork of #Yoda from #Inktober2017)

#fear #loss #change #life #death #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #dharma #EngagedBuddhist #JMWart #JinpaLhaga #StarWars #TheForce