Available.
Letting go is not a decision of the mind – it is coming into the now, where feeling leads and the mind becomes a tool again.
I know how to let go in theory. I have written about it, practiced it, explained it to myself while lying awake at 3am. And still I catch myself doing it as a project of the mind: deciding to release something, then checking every hour whether it is gone yet – which is just control wearing a new coat.
So one morning I asked directly: how can I truly let go? The answer does not add a technique. It moves the whole question out of the head – into the now, where feeling leads and the mind goes back to being what it always was: a tool. It is the same balance "Surrender & Decision" describes, the river and the steering – compressed here into a few lines.
The letter begins mid-answer, as if the question were still hanging in the air. Let it land.
Dear traveler,
By putting your thoughts / your mind in the background and giving your feeling, your heart, the lead.
You feel in the now. The now is intuitive. Thinking mostly happens not in the now but in the future or the past. Both are illusions – and so is the attempt to control them.
True letting go means coming into the now. Being present. Turning your attention to your feeling and letting your feeling guide you fully and completely. Follow what feels light and good. Choose again when it does not feel good. Give yourself over to this natural flow (surrender). And use the mind only for practical things (as a tool).
That is letting go, surrendering, and acting intuitively. Only when you let go are you "available" for our guidance. And you connect with your true self. Then you are You! And the suffering can end. Suffering happens in control. Suffering teaches you to let go.
Thank you for being here.
If something in these letters stayed with you, take it along – think about it, write your own answer, or just let it sit.
And if not today, that's okay too. There's no rush.
Until next time,
– Jan