Hanging On, Letting Go

"Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a Holy Instant, when the Light that was kept hidden in God's Son is freed to bless the world. Now is He free, and all His glory shines upon a world made free with Him, to share His Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook, 194, 5:1-4

There is an old Indian parable about a monkey who stuck his hand into a bottle to get to a piece of fruit. His hand went in just fine, but once he had clutched the fruit in his little fist, his hand would no longer fit through the opening of the bottle. Unwilling to let go of his prize, he was easily captured by the man who had put the fruit in the bottle (which was attached to a rope) for just that purpose.

We are just like that monkey. Unwilling to let go of people and things that keep the drama of the ego alive, we remain captives of our own illusions. Unwilling to let go of the smokescreens we maintain, we insist that what we cling to is a part of life, a part of happiness, a part of our fulfillment. And as we cling and hang on, we are willing slaves to our own illusions.

What is it like to be free? To not grasp anything, to allow everything? We have been assured by the Awakened Ones throughout time that Freedom is our birthright and our True Nature. So why do we, like the monkey, hang on to the very people and things that seem to obscure our awareness of Self and Freedom?

No person or thing has the ability to imprison us. Neither do they have the ability to give us anything at all. We are our own captors and jailers. We choose to use other people and things to imprison ourselves, to absorb our time and attention so completely that we don't notice our hand stuck in the bottle. Or to keep us absorbed in stories of guilt and need and debt and obligation. Smokescreens all.

And yet, we can change our minds. We can let go. Letting go doesn't always mean the end of things or relationships. But it does mean they will no longer be smokescreens for fear and guilt, no longer used to imprison our awareness in limited and destructive ways. By letting go, we allow what is untrue to be corrected and healed by Truth, which is always Present. By letting go, we allow all people and things to move to their Highest Good, which is always some version of Awakening. The miracle is the healed perception that helps us let go, even in the midst of doing.

Hanging on to illusions, or letting go and letting Truth heal our perception... every minute of every day we are choosing Truth or illusions. Like the monkey, we fear that if we let go our treasure will be lost. What we have forgotten is that by this voluntary imprisonment of our awareness, we have obscured our Real Treasure.

Hanging on is the costliest thing we've ever done, resulting in our greatest losses. And letting go is certainly the highest and best investment of time and energy... revealing the Infinite Storehouse of Treasure that is our Awareness of God.

"The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook, 197, 3:1-2