More on self-image

Yesterday we took a look at how the mind gets trapped by its own self-image. Stephen Levine speaks to the same issue in his book, A Gradual Awakening:

We're constantly building a new image of ourselves and wondering what's next. We have allowed ourselves very little space for not-knowing. Very seldom do we have the wisdom not-to-know, to lay the mind open to deeper understanding. When confusion occurs in the mind, we identify with it and say we are confused; we hold onto it. Confusion arises because we fight against our not-knowing, which experiences each moment afresh without preconceptions or expectations. We are so full of ways of seeing and ideas of how things should be we leave no room for wisdom to arise. We desire to know in only a certain way, a way which will corroborate our image of a rational, separate, autonomous self. When we open our minds, our hearts, not trying to understand, but simply allowing understanding to occur, we find more than was expected. When we let go of our ignorance and confusion, we allow our knowing mind to arise.
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By clinging to what we think we know or don't know, we block our deep knowing. By gently letting go of everything - not through force, not by slaying it, but simply seeing all the content as passing show, as process and flow - we become the whole of our experience and open to our natural understanding.

It might be useful to further define "letting go." Letting go means not dwelling on something which has come to mind. It also means experiencing that quality of non-grasping awareness which pulls nothing from the flow - experiencing a great spaciousness which simply lets everything come and lets everything go.

I like what Levine says about letting go meaning not dwelling on what comes to mind. Many people believe "letting go" means "getting rid of". Can you see that such a belief is really about control? And that's the opposite of letting go! The thought or feeling may still present itself but we don't dwell on it or get involved in it. So let go of the self-image. Just don't dwell on it, don't get involved with it. Slowly your identification with it will dissolve and you will know that spaciousness that Levine describes.