The Buddha: How to end DOUBT

Ajahn Chah via Ven. Sujato edited by Dhr. Seven, Ellie Askew, Wisdom Quarterly

Letting go makes us stronger (Herman Hesse)

The Buddha taught that the only way to truly end doubt is through contemplation of our own body and mind -- "just that much." Abandon the past; abandon the future. Practice direct knowing and letting go.

Sustain this knowing: Once we have established this knowing, we let go. But we do not try to let go without this knowing. It is the presence of this knowing that allows us to let go.

Carrying mountains? Climb them instead.

We let go of everything we did in the past, both the past good and the past bad. Whatever we did before, we let go of it. Why? There is no benefit to clinging to the past.

The good we did was good at that time, the bad we did was bad at that time. What was right was right. Now we can cast it all aside, let go of it, abandon it.

Events and choices in the future are still waiting to happen. All the arising and cessation that will occur in the future hasn’t actually taken place yet. So let us not attach too firmly to ideas about what may or may not happen.

Letting go is the easy part. Moving on is painful.

Let us be aware of ourselves and let go. Let's let go of the past. Whatever took place in the past has now ceased. Why spend a lot of time proliferating [making more of it and thinking thoughts on top of thoughts] about it? If we think about something that happened in the past, let that thought go.

It was a thing or phenomenon (dhamma) that arose in the past. Having arisen, it then ceased in the past. There’s no reason to mentally proliferate about the present either.

Once we have established awareness of what we are thinking, let's let it go. Practice direct knowing and letting go.

"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in your heart, we still CLING to anything -- anger, anxiety, or possessions -- we cannot be free" (Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh).