This post is sixth in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life". Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, Summoning Pure Desire, Interrupting Old Patterns and The Ecstasy of Asking.
I'm writing this week's post from India. While traveling through the Chennai airport a few days ago, I happened upon a billboard with a favorite line from the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna instructs the great warrior Arjuna: "Seek to perform your duty, but lay not claim to its fruits." In other words, strive to act boldly, but lay the results of action at the feet of the divine. Be not attached. Act faithfully and surrender the outcome.
This is sage advice, as meaningful today as it was several thousand years ago. We have little control over how things go in this world. We can either become attached to having things a certain way and suffer when they don't work out, or we can do our best in every moment, offering our highest contribution, and then surrender the outcome.
The latter is the essence of our 6th principle: Let it go.
We often want to dictate to the universe how our manifestations should show up. We want to be in charge of every detail...when, where, how, with whom. We are control freaks. Despite knowing the fallacy of this attitude, we become attached to attaining certain results and suffer when reality doesn't meet our expectations. The more we fixate on particular outcomes, the more we set ourselves up for distress. A pithy Zen aphorism declares, "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." Suffering is what happens when we resist our life experience rather than relaxing and letting go.
So what does it mean to let go? How does one do this?
In the Gita, Krishna did not tell Arjuna to hang up his sword and take a vacation in Hawaii. As one of the most powerful warriors in all the land, it was Arjuna's mission to fight. Krishna instructed him to fulfill his duty, to put forth his very best effort, yet to detach from the outcome. The fruits of his action were not his to claim.
There are several details of this story I find particularly revealing and powerful:
First, in this epic tale, Arjuna is pitted against warriors for whom he has great respect, many of whom are his own relatives. Arjuna sinks into despair at the prospect of engaging in battle. He doesn't want to fight. Krishna replies, "Your sorrow has no cause. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There has never been a time when you and I and the kings gathered here have not existed." So the first thing Krishna does is to remind Arjuna of his True Self, the immortal self that spans across time and space. He immediately puts things into perspective.
Second, Krishna reminds Arjuna that inaction is not a solution: "You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself - without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat." His instruction is very clear - centered in your understanding of the true self, offer yourself in service without hesitation, but don't fret over whatever happens next. Give up the need for any particular result. The fruits belong to God.
Finally, Krishna goes on to tell Arjuna that every action should be born from love. In other words, not only shouldn't you fixate on the outcome - that's the wrong place to put your attention - but you should surrender every deed as a love sacrifice to the divine. Everything you do, do it as a prayer. Do as an ecstatic offering. Do it in love.
After that, the outcome is immaterial. When you operate from love, success and failure are irrelevant.
Why is it we think one outcome is better than another, anyway? Being attached to an outcome is an ego response. We have an identity to uphold and, in order to reinforce that identity, we are hoping for specific things to happen. Success is a better outcome than failure because my ego feels better about it.
But, really, honestly, who are we to judge each infinitesimal outcome in the vast complexity and variety of the cosmic play? Isn't it pretty audacious, arrogant even, to think we could definitively conclude one outcome superior to another in the intricate tapestry of a lifetime? We've all had the experience of lamenting a challenging situation only to find later that, in fact, it held hidden blessings and lessons that were essential for our greater development.
My teacher says simply this, "If I succeed, I celebrate. If I fail, I celebrate. If it works out I celebrate, if it doesn't I celebrate. Nothing can rob me of my celebration, because there's no outcome to be had that is bad."
Surrendering our compulsion to control is relaxing. It makes things pretty simple. It takes the tension out of the body and mind. If failure is the outcome, then it's the perfect outcome. You are a divine instrument and your instrument is being played brilliantly. You can't even take your next breath but for grace. Release your sense of "doership."
Now, to be clear, this doesn't mean everything in life will suddenly be pleasant and trouble-free. Living in duality means that energies like greed, conflict, violence and poverty will still exist. Our world is full of many woes. That's why we are drawn to act in the first place. As social workers, peace-builders, healers, change agents, activists, environmentalists, clergy people, police officers, etc. we, like Arjuna, must fulfill our duty.
We must act. We must respond to the pure desire within us, which propels us along an evolutionary path toward greater wholeness, integration and remembrance of our true, divine nature. And on that path we surrender. This is not running away from life, but running toward life with arms and hearts wide open. We offer out best into the world, in love and service, and lay the outcome in the hands of the divine. We let it go.
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Posted February 25, 2008 | 07:52 AM (EST)