We suffer because we don’t let go of ourselves. The habituated discriminatory mind is instrumental in continuing this suffering; meditation is the voluntary freeing of this life from suffering. There is no meditation without letting go of the discriminatory mind.
Since suffering is the refusal to let go of selfish concern, the remedy is always close at hand: we either give ourselves to it or not. Both suffering and freedom from it have everything to do with us.
In letting go of ourselves, we can be loved by the wisdom of true nature and be loving. Trying to use the mind to grasp fulfilment only builds doubt, resistance and fear of loss instead.
Sincere meditation practice is giving devoted attention to this life and its teachings, and by its nature, devotion is its own reward. As the discriminatory mind proves incapable of this thoroughness, it can be confidently surrendered, step by step.
Please don’t use this generous, boundless life to make and defend a petty, isolating self. Though no one and no thing can force us to let go of the discriminatory mind, the compassionate real nature of everything is always welcoming when we do. Suffering is created within a pristine stillness and nowhere else.
Willard Lee March 2026