LET IT GO (video)

CC Liu, Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly; The Neighbourhood "Let It Go" from I'm Sorry..." EP directed by Daniel Iglesias and Zack Sekuler (Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment)

What is life in America really like? It is a lesson we all must learn wherever we are. (The Neighbourhood play the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, CA on July 14, 2013).

The big Buddha, Hong Kong (Anna Tam/flickr.com)

I'm from a little city with expensive taste where the cars don't run till the engine breaks. Wasn't spending pennies on a mass of things, but invested in a mess with this recipe. Couldn't quite see what the future held. And as days went by it would tell itself. Let it struggle just a little bit more, let it struggle just a little bit more.

Remember what the people said, remember what the people said, When it's said and done, LET IT GO.

 

Shouldn't try to fix it if it keeps getting better. Just let it go. Forget it for ever and ever and ever. Don't ever resent a letter inside a single word written. A little change can play lanes with the right vision.

 

Couldn't tell what would happen next. But as weeks went by look good would turn to best. Let it struggle just a little bit more, let it struggle just a little bit more.

Here I am, wasn't I? (TrevThompson/flickr)

Remember what the people said, remember what the people said, When it's said and done, LET IT GO.

 

If what they said was all pretend then it'd be different. If it depended on if anyone was listening, and I was listening.

 

And when they said that what I wanted was a figment, I had to turn the other cheek, but I was listening. Yeah, I was listening, listening to all.

Remember what the people said, remember what the people said, O, I wasn't listening, I wasn't listening, listening at all.

Letting Go

Dhr. Seven and Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

A better view of the Buddha (DCmaster/flickr)

The Buddha commended letting it go (internally-renouncing our clinging, particularly to those component "things" we take for granted as ourselves) and called it nekkhamma. It's a hard lesson to learn. It cannot be willed. Using willfulness will inevitably lead to egoism and selfishness rather than the selflessness (anatta) we seek. Why would anyone seek selflessness? Buddhism is all about "self," isn't it? Buddhism is actually all about FREEDOM. And getting to real freedom from all bonds and  all suffering, nirvana, is the result of stream winning, the initial stage of enlightenment. But there is no stream winning without insight-knowledge to this pivotal and ultimate truth -- the liberating truth of selflessness. Ordinarily, un-selfishness is very good karma. Super karma -- the actions of those with right view, namely, the NOBLE ONES -- is a result of a change-of-lineage based on knowing-and-seeing. What is known, what is seen? The self, just as it is. How is it? Not-self (impersonal). And if it is impersonal, which the nobles one know it to be, can we LET GO? We can by confidence in their enlightenment OR by our own knowing-and-seeing, by direct knowledge that depends on no external authority. It can be done. Let it go.

The Neighbourhood "Sweater Weather"