Letting Go – A Lighthouse for the Soul

Rob: Welcome Lao Tzu. My question is, how do we reconcile this idea of not getting wrapped up in external events, almost to the point of not caring. But it’s not really not caring. Of course we care. So how do we care without caring?

Lao Tzu: Greetings, all. It is my honor to be with you today, in this setting, within your circle, as you contemplate the deeper experiences of life, the meaning behind all that you experience. These are questions that everyone must grapple with at some point in their journey. So of course, all of us are so proud of the progress you are all making.

It is an interesting question, is it not? How do you go through life, filled with compassion for others, while at the same time recognizing it’s not your role to be involved in all that others are experiencing for themselves. And I would suggest to you that it is, in fact, an act of very deep caring [and] compassion to allow others to experience what they came to experience.

It may not be your path. You may look upon the events as something you would never choose for ANY society that would experience love and ask yourself, “Why would you do that?! How does that make the world a better place?”

But it is all for a purpose, so your act of compassion is to allow others to experience what they came to experience. Let them choose for themselves. If you go through life trying to control how others behave, how others think, what others believe, where is the caring in that? That would be you trying to impose your will on another. That’s not exhibiting a care for them. That’s, again, you trying to exert your control based on YOUR beliefs, based on your understanding within your own journey. They have theirs; you have yours, so allow them to be.

As your teammate said, let it be, not in an uncaring way, but with the mindset that you care enough for them to let them be who they are. Approach all events that occur to you in your life from that perspective. THAT is the loving response.

The only force in the universe that truly matters is love. Ask yourself every day, what is the loving response to anything that you see? If it does not feel like love, whatever it is that you witness, and you say to yourself, “I don’t see the love in that,” then choose, choose that that is NOT the way that you want to go.

And as you constantly come back, within your own heart, to that feeling of love for ALL that you see, exhibiting that caring enough to allow it to unfold as it must, then you will find that all that you see will change. It will morph. It will transition … perhaps slower than you would desire, but again, let it be. Let it proceed at the pace that it needs to proceed to bring as many along as the Divine Plan calls for.

Rob: All right, Yeshua, so how do we let go of whatever from the past that we were holding on to, if it doesn’t carry forward into the new? I think we find ourselves in positions of having to let go of things that we perhaps didn’t know we needed to, so how do we do that? How do we carry on with life, not knowing what to expect next?

Yeshua: Hello again, Rob. It is always a pleasure to come visit with you in this way, or in any way you choose, for that matter. As you know so well, we are always here for you.

So whether you understand it completely or not, I think you’ve stated the answer to your own question. You’re asking, how do you proceed in life, not knowing what you necessarily need to let go of. The first point is you recognize completely that not everything in your life up to this point is important to carry on into what comes next.

So in that regard, half the battle is won. You recognize that there are things that you are going to leave behind, but this should not be viewed with any sense of sadness, of depression, of melancholy. These are things that are simply not needed anymore.

Yes, they might have held some sentimental value, if I could use that word, something that you thought was important in the past and even in the recent past. But if it’s no longer necessary, then why would you choose to carry it forward?

So you had stated you’re not sure of what to let go. Well, that’s just it. As it becomes clear to you that this is no longer necessary, that it no longer serves the purpose that you thought it once held, then simply let it go you.

You have this vision, Rob, of carrying around a heavy suitcase, a bag filled with contents that you don’t need for the trip you are taking. Why are you carrying it? Set it down. Just let it go.

It should not carry sadness with it. If you don’t need it, then why would you be sad about leaving it behind? It just is what it is. It’s something that is no longer needed.

That’s not to say others don’t need it, whatever that object or belief might be. But for you, for where you are at this moment, simply ask yourself, “Is this necessary? Why am I holding on to it? What is my belief behind this that makes me think that I should be carrying this. Is it a belief in how others should act?”

You are coming to the realization each and every day, Rob, that any expectations you have about how others should act is not altogether a fruitful exercise. You very often find that they don’t meet your expectations, but they’re exactly that: YOUR expectations. And it has very little to do with the other person or persons.

Tag: Letting Go

Lao Tzu on How To Be a Dispassionate, but Compassionate, Observer

Yeshua on How To Let Go of What No Longer Serves