Letting Go
We have all known people who seem to doggedly hold on to things and ideas despite the fact that by doing so, they are merely prolonging an unpleasant situation. Being unable to let go at the appropriate time, is one of the greatest obstacles to development we face in life. This applies to people of all ages. We have tendency to cling to ideas, possessions, friends and relatives; a baby to its rattle; a boy to his girl-friend; a man to his political convictions; a woman to her children. Clinging to things has always been justified on the basis of stability. Constancy, single-mindedness, loyalty, saving and similar practices have been regarded as virtues by a people intent on preserving the status quo. They unquestionably have their place in the whole picture of life but for perfect harmony and compatibility with the Cosmic they must be mitigated by regular and periodic adjustment. To anyone who asks why, we simply reply that history has borne this out.
We view the Cosmic as a dynamic, vital entity, always in motion. By motion is meant vibrations of cosmic substance moving through time and space. This means that the cluster of vibrations which at any moment gives you an impression of a sound or colour passes on and another cluster of vibrations takes its place. Since we know a thing by the vibrations it emits, a thing is constantly changing as each vibration leaves its centre. Each new vibration that makes us aware of a thing is a change from the one before it. Therefore we say that everything is in a constant state of change. Nothing is the next moment as it was the moment before. This applies also to ideas, for as soon as we conceive an idea, it begins to undergo change. In a few days or in a few years, we may no longer recognize the idea we originally held, even though we think it has not changed in our consciousness.
We live in a cosmic system in which change is the order of the day. Cosmic patterns, the vibratory configurations of spirit energy that give us our idea of things, are constantly in a state of flux, changing from one form to another. The Cosmic moves and if man is to stay in step and synchronise with the cosmic requirements at all times, he must move with it. Most people acknowledge this, though acknowledging it does not change their tendency to cling to what has passed. This is because man has an innate resistance to change, a form of inertia that impels him to remain at rest while everything else moves on. Why such a paradox in man`s cosmic make-up?
The paradox arises out of the intrinsic structure of the Cosmic. The Cosmic itself is a system of paradoxes by our standards. It has an ebb and a flow. It has opposing forces in its dual polarity, forces which at the same time attract each other the again repel each other. This attraction and repulsion is an inherent part of the substance of the Cosmic. These forces are constantly at play, being the reason for the dynamism and great convulsions of nature we witness constantly. As part of the cosmic structure, we are subject to this eternal play of forces, though being blessed with consciousness; we are sensitive to it and respond accordingly. As it happens however, we only experience a sense of pleasure when we are caught up in an attraction to something; when we are thrown into situations which repel us we have a sense of discomfit. We have our periods of highs and lows, of exultation and depression. Since our consciousness finds depression distasteful, we tend to avoid it. We strive to hold onto our highs, to those things which gives us pleasure. There we have the first incident of resisting change for we do not want to change that which gives us pleasure.
Because of the intrinsic dual nature of the Cosmic, no single pleasure is permanent. Any pleasant situation will turn into an unpleasant one if we cling to it too long and refuse to let go; for the motion of the Cosmic will in due course present us with the opposite polarity in any given situation, in spite of ourselves. What we are attracted to one moment, we will be repelled from by the next. As an example, visualize some common pleasures. When you are hungry, the satisfaction of that hunger through eating begins as a pleasurable pursuit. In terms of harmonics, we can say that you are strongly attracted to the food. As you go on eating however, the attraction quotient diminishes and you become decreasingly attracted to the food. If we carried the illustration far enough, let us say eating to the point of discomfit, the food would lose its attraction altogether.
In another illustration, say that you were looking forward to getting out in the fresh air just to lie in the sun in a balmy day. You fell you could just lie there forever, in peace and ultimate contentment. After several hours the sun would be too hot, the prone position too uncomfortable, and the fresh air no longer as fresh as it initially was. Again, carried to the extreme, the whole situation could eventually repel you. If a hot shower attracts you, only so much time will elates before the running water annoys you and you will want to get out and dry off. In cultural pursuits, those who find pleasure in reading or listening to music or engaging in charitable deeds will find that the attraction point in any given situation has its terminus; that there is nothing that you can enjoy forever, at least not without a break.
That is the point to be considered. In order to maintain the pleasure quotient in all of our daily situations, we must never run any pleasure into the ground, so to speak. We must be ready and willing to let go, at the appropriate time, so that the things that attract us now will continue to be attractive in the future. We must practice moderation in our pursuit of pleasure, and when we feel the pull, the impelling urge toward a person, a situation, an idea, or a hobby, we must exercise a degree of restraint; use our mind power to set limits for us so that we control our destiny within the ebb and the flow of the cosmic tide. This is the path to harmonious living and the goal for every Rosicrucian.
You have the special knowledge that gives you an insight into the ways of the Cosmic and with this knowledge you can adjust and manoeuvre yourself into reasonably pleasurably situations as a way of life. You will change before the ebb and flow of cosmic motion forces you to change. You will get off your chair long before the sun and prone position begin to bother you. You will look for an alternative to be attracted to in the interim. You will stop eating before you are disenchanted with food. You will not impose yourself on your loved ones to the point of disaffection. You will not overdo anything. You will change before you are asked or forced to change and you will come close to finding eternal pleasure. You will learn to know, as so many Rosicrucians have, that letting go is not the end of the world. Actually it is a threshold to new worlds, each as beautiful and full of promise as the old.
As we travel through the Cosmic, there is no end to the conditions that can give us pleasure, for the Cosmic is always phasing between that which attracts and that which repels. Our only hazard is that we deny ourselves this vast reservoir of endless pleasurable experiences by not freeing ourselves from situations which have passed their peaks and will only draw us into the repulsive depressive phase of the Comic’s ebb and flow.
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