Letting Go (sutra)

Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (trans.), Pahana Sutra (SN 36.3), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Right view leads heart/mind to stop clinging.

"In the case of pleasant feelings, O meditators, the underlying tendency (proclivity, anusaya) to lust (greed, craving, clinging, holding on to) should be let go.

"In the case of painful feelings, the underlying tendency to resistance (hatred, aversion, dosa) should be let go.

"In the case of neutral feelings (neither-painful-nor-pleasant), the underlying tendency to ignorance (delusion, wrong view,confusion) should be let go.
 

The Struggle of Letting Go (BPS.lk)

"If a meditator has let go of the tendency

• to lust with regard to pleasant feeling
• to resistance with regard to painful feelings, and
• to ignorance with regard to neutral feelings,

then that person is called 'one who is free of (unwholesome) tendencies,' 'one who has the right outlook (right view).'

 

"Such a person has cut off craving, severed the fetters (that bind one to rebirth and suffering), and through the full penetration of conceit,* one has made an end of all suffering."

• "Conceit" refers in particular to self-conceit (asmi-mana), that is, "personality view," on both intellectual and the emotional levels.

What is the right view to be able to let go?

"If one feels joy, but knows not feeling's nature, bent towards greed (clinging), one will not find deliverance.

"If one feels pain, but knows not feeling's nature, bent toward hate (aversion), one will not find deliverance.

"And even neutral feeling, which as the peaceful Lord of Wisdom has proclaimed -- if, in attachment, one should cling to it -- one will be stuck in the Round of Rebirth and Suffering.

"And having done so, in this very life will be free from defilements, free from taints. Mature in knowledge, firm in Dharma's ways, when once that person's lifespan ends, this body breaks up, all measure and concept one has transcended.

• Catalan: pro-independence by exiled Carles Puigdemont
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah founder of Pakistan from India 1948