what i wanted to write was……..
I think that we do have some control over our response to life

I like your blog.
Best wishes

@Diane Glad you loved the article. Yes, freedom is it.

@Nick I don’t know that it is tricking into letting go. It is almost a paradox, really. You only can let go by, well, letting go. When you want to let go more than you want anything else, then you will. The fun is discovering what you want more than letting to.

@Roman It is his latest recording entitled Dying into the River of Existence. I don’t know if it is available on his website yet. I ordered it directly at the weekend intensive.

@Ryan YES! An attempt at, as you said, actively letting go is just another way of squeezing the apple. You can’t DO letting go. It is an undoing, a not doing. When you let go of control, even for a moment, it is a gigantic RELAXATION into being. Just like dropping the apple. I’ve noticed that people I work with will often “try” to let go of something, as if they are trying getting rid of something. That doesn’t work. Letting go, unfortunately is LETTING GO.

Thanks for the comment!!

@Adrian You’ve got it, too. You cannot negotiate. You cannot control by cheating your way into control. You go with what is RIGHT NOW. If life sucks right now, then let it suck! If you hate someone or something, there is nothing spiritual about pretending the hate isn’t there. Hate it! Feel it, watch it, allow it. No control, no attempt at control. And then guess what happens? When we allow, things shift. Awareness moves. And all is well. At least, that’s how my experience goes. Your mileage may vary.

@Davidya I love the river analogy. I always like to tell people that if you are floating down a river, it is far better to go with your legs in front, ready to bounce of a rock. If you turn and swim up stream or sideways, you will get SMASHED on rocks. If you’ve ever been tossed out of a raft in white water, you know exactly what I mean. Feet forward, head up, eyes straight ahead, and RIDE THE CURRENT. And always wear a helmet! LOL

@Stephen Control is subtle. When I say no control, I really mean none. I have no control over my behavior. Thoughts arise, actions are taken, all spontaneously. I know, kinda radical. But the fun question to ask, then, is “what is causing my life to move the way it does?” Look at THAT question, and life will forever change.

@Philip I hear what you are saying. When the OCD arises, when obsessive thoughts come, you use something like the Sedona Method to work with it. GREAT! But even then, your movement toward working with the Sedona Method is not under the control of the supposed self. It is part of Life expressing through you. Same as the thoughts. Having control really doesn’t matter. It is following those movements and letting life unfold. Much more fun!

@Jarrod A few questions for you: when you are controlling an action, who’s deciding to do that action? Who made the decision “go left” or “go right?” Where did the thought come from to make that choice?

@UpTake Suz Thanks for the comments. You know, I gotta go with Davidya on this one. I happen to ultimately agree with his final sentence. There is only One, and It is doing its thing. We are That.

@Eric Thanks! Illusion is quite correct. Inquiry shows that clearly, I completely agree. Namaste.

When I speak about this topic, I refer to it as the illusion of control. It appears we can control (if you look at it quickly and on the surface), but inquiry of depth will show we are not in control…not the world or ourselves.

Namaste,

~ Eric

Human experience falls into a range of perspectives. Feeling a sense of control is indeed superior to feeling being a victim. This process takes place even in the separation from mother as a baby.
As an adult we can go deeper and feel a sense of control over ourselves but let go of the world. Deeper, we discover we are the silence within and the person is just more environment. We have no control even of the thoughts that arise as they are not ‘me’. And it continues from there.

For much of the process, it vacillates between extremes. In this case, control or no control. In the end, in Oneness, the opposites come together. Then both and neither are true. Control itself becomes a meaningless question as there is only One.

I still think I’m in control of my actions, but there is no way to get enough data about everything else in the world to predict the outcome

Like “ought to” and “stay true”. Even when we are trying to allow, we are still trying. There are many layers to this.

Again, you say “try to control our thoughts”. Control is the opposite of allowing.

And you open with “Certainly we are in control of our behaviour”. The real question to that statement is who is the we? You have agreed with Tom, then laid exceptions. That is the voice of control.

In essence, I think you are saying we are not in control of the world outside but we are in control of the world inside. That is not what Tom is saying. But you do concede minds do have “a mind of their own.”

Your approach is correct but its worth seeing the game the mind plays to agree but not really.

Its worth noting that the only difference between inside and outside is the sense of separation. And that’s an illusion.

This is why I practice the philosophy of surrendering to God, the universe. I listen more closely to my intuition and go from there. We are given signs and co-called coincidences to help guide us.

That’s why I think we all ought to “go with the flow” and stay true to ourselves, listen to our intuition and trust that we are being led to the right places instead of trying to control the outcome tou our specifications. It almost never works.

The effect to me is a little like standing in a fast moving river. We can lay back in the sunshine and enjoy the trip to the ocean. Or we can decide we’re the captain, grab onto every passing twig, bump and spin against the banks, and so on.

The simple question of who is doing this is fascinating to observe over time. Kind of me, Self, and I (the one). In other words: me, myself, and I (laughs)

Maybe another way to “let go” is to “go with it”.

When there is an unwanted event for example, instead of telling myself: “i dont want it, i cannot control it, so i will try to let go”, which is somehow cheating: “i will let go so it will be better…”
There is sometimes a sense of negotiating there.

“I’ll let go so my control over it will be better afterwards.”

instead of saying that i ENJOY it. I’m in a fucking bad situation. Great! There’s life here. There’s energy.

i feel we cannot negotiate. just let go a little bit.

Very interesting. Looking into it recently I ran up against the notion that I was a solid entity that has an existing ‘grasp’ on control. And so I would need to perform an action to ungrasp the control. And then I would be a solid entity that was in a solid state of not grasping. But thats all rubbish.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but the grasping is not a solid property, it is an action renewed in the present. So there is no need to let go of it, just don’t perform the action of grasping.

Searching for a metaphor, it feels like letting go of control would require a similar action to letting go of my grip on an apple. The grasping would be a solid property of myself, and when let go, the ‘release’ would be a new solid property. But when I imagine I can see things more clearly, the situation is more like when people nervously fidget with their hands – you don’t need to ‘let go’ of fidgeting, just notice it and it stops.

Is any attempt to actively let go of the apple just another way of squeezing it?

Catch the currency….Freedom!