Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute talk from a 1977 retreat at Camp Cedar Glen, Jack Cornfield explores the gap between insight and integration on the spiritual path. He opens with a personal story of recognizing his own habitual patterns—overcommitment, self-deception—and learning that retreat practice doesn’t erase old patterns but sharpens awareness of them, creating space for new choices. Drawing on Ram Dass’s experience in India and two powerful verses—the Diamond Sūtra on emptiness and Don Juan on impeccability—Cornfield articulates a central teaching: balancing the view that all is fleeting and dream-like with rigorous commitment to acting well in the world. He contrasts two approaches to practice: pursuing comfort and pleasant relationships, versus undertaking transformation so thorough it alters who you believe you are. The retreat then takes a practical turn, with detailed instruction on mindfulness of movement, breath, and thought; managing distraction and judgment without aversion; and working skillfully with difficult emotions like anger and fear. Cornfield emphasizes that awareness deepens gradually and continuously—like the gentle slope of an ocean floor—and closes with teachings on compassion as a natural fruit of clear seeing. Suited for practitioners new to intensive retreat.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 C CG.mp3
UUID: 3ce2f8be-0fe3-4685-885f-97ac68053517
Teacher: Jack Cornfield
Collection: Camp Cedar Glen (Jack Cornfield)
Date: 1977 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~5,898
And I just kind of sat there, and then I also realized that I didn’t want to do that, that that was okay, But that really wasn’t where I was at. That that really wasn’t what I wanted to do. And so I said, you know, I’m really not into it after all. And I’m gonna go for a walk and I’ll meet you later at this other place. And what I learned from that and a whole series of other incidences is that in terms of the way I see myself learning and changing, it’s not that you go off and you have these insights and you get quiet and you see things and then you change and you go back and you’re different.
Much more often what happens, and nobody told me so it was really hard for me, is that you go off if you do an intensive retreat and you see, you practice, you become more aware, perhaps a little bit. And you go back, and very often you find yourself starting just where you left off, even if you’ve been away six years as I was, not to speak of a couple of weeks, going back to just where you left off. The difference is that you have practiced a little more awareness so that you can see it more clearly. You say, oh, wow. I’ve really been doing this, And in the middle of that, that awareness kind of makes a space where you can begin to make some new choices and begin to change.
It wasn’t just that incident, but it was going back and getting my life very turbulent in terms of schedule. I had this schedule book and I was learning, counseling and therapy and I had clients and supervision and I filled up all the hours. And I realized there was no time left or anything. I was running around and I said I’d never do that again. And I did it again.
And it took me a while to extricate myself from that. I had a really beautiful teachings from from Ram Dass around that time after about a year or a year and a half. I went up to visit him in New Hampshire thinking perhaps he would understand. I didn’t have many spiritual friends. And I went and I told him my whole story, and I said, you know, here I am.
It’s just like I’m back into doing all this stuff that I did years before. What’s gone wrong? And he recounted his own story of going to India and being with Maharaj and being really learning a lot and getting very clear and very understanding, coming back and teaching, as you know, and turning on a lot of people. He said he’d been back for, I don’t know, a couple of years or some period of time. I think he was giving a talk one day in Los Angeles and he was standing there giving a lecture on the dhamma and how beautiful it is and this and that.
And realized that most of the time he was there, he was, like, checking out the first few rows of people, trying to figure out who he wanted to make it with that night. And when he saw what he was doing in his mind, he said he got really freaked out and he ran back to India and he said Maharajji Maharajji, it’s all gone. Maharajji said something, what’s all gone? Just go back and work with it. And he said after that, he learned that there were some things that were really helpful and important and that my misconception, which thought that I could go to Grand Central Station or anywhere else and still remain in that same place, that there were ways to work.
And some of those things that are really helpful are having spiritual friends and doing periodic retreats. And a whole lot of other things, most of which I’m going to wait for tomorrow morning to talk about in the second installment of this talk. Because I want to go back and philosophize a little bit rather than tell you what to do or what I recommend you might do when you leave. I have a whole long list for you in the morning, in that talk. I want to talk about two two things.
Let me read you a couple of quotes, one of which I’ve read before, one of which I haven’t, to illustrate them. The first is from the Diamond Sūtra, a beautiful Mahāyāna text. It says, in what manner manner may we understand the abiding in the real truth? So I say, thus shall ye think of this fleeting world, A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream. The Diamond Sūtra speaks of emptiness.
It speaks of, if you’re really willing to listen, how every moment experience arises out of nowhere and passes away. No two moments ever alike. Each one unique and different arising and vanishing. To see that emptiness, to understand that, like a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream. And if you even feel the quality of your life that’s passed, it’s like a dream, you know, isn’t it?
Did that happen? All those things. The other quote is one I’ve read before from Don Juan. He says, for me the world is incredible because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable. My interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here in this marvelous world, in this marvelous time.
I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you’re going to be here for only a short while. In fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it. Practice for me, learning to do it, is a balance of two qualities. One of them is the quality, to use Don Juan’s words, the quality of controlled folly, of really seeing the absurdity and the dreamlike quality of life, that it arises and passes away into nothing. Gives a lot of spaciousness and a lot of place for lightness and and playing with it.
Real emptiness. That’s balanced, on the other hand, with the quality of impeccability. If you think that it’s all empty and it’s all groovy, it’s all one, then you suffer an awful lot because you get lost in that and caught up in that. That’s just an idea. Even though it’s all one, still you have to cook breakfast and you have to pay your rent and you have to deal with your friends.
You have to deal with your lovers and your children and your parents. And to not see that, to not see that that too is a part of this reality is to deny a whole part of life that’s really essential. And so it’s a balance of having that perspective of joy, of seeing the change of things, so you don’t get too caught up and yet being impeccable. Yet doing what you do with that controlled folly fully, really totally. That kind of leads into the other point that I want to make.
There are two ways of doing spiritual practice. The first way is undertaking it because it’s pleasant or it gives you relationship with a lot of nice people and because it starts to make your life more comfortable. But I think those of you, especially those who’ve done more than one retreat, really see how your understanding of the Dharma and your practice has made your life lighter and more comfortable and more pleasant relation to people and circumstances around you. The other way of undertaking spiritual practice, rather than making a life that’s comfortable from it, is undertaking it with such earnestness and such fullness that you allow it to completely transform who you think you are and how you relate to the world. That it takes you through death, really, that it’s so all encompassing in your devotion to understanding and to doing it, in the time and the energy that you’re willing to work with yourself and your consciousness, that instead of being something that just makes your life pleasant and comfortable, you go you really allow yourself to be transformed and to kind of come around in the circle.
Although it is true and really important to honor that there are many kinds of paths and many ways of working, including those which are fully just in the world, working with your family and your job, your circumstance at home. The people that I know that I most respect who have the deepest wisdom and the most full compassion. Many of them have come to that through long years of intensive practice. Those who haven’t, like Elizabeth Kubler Ross, as an example, have come to it through long years of the most intensive sadhana in her work of really being so honest and so aware and so giving with the dying people that she worked with that it totally transformed her being. This retreat has been a good retreat in a lot of ways.
It’s been one of the least disciplined of any retreat we’ve taught and talked about how we might change them in the future and make them a little more disciplined. Also, there’s certain energy, especially in California, which is one of because there are so many different trips and things going on of therapy and spiritual things and whatever, that people get caught up and take things lightly. You can take them lightly and you can live comfortably, but you’re really missing the boat. Doesn’t mean that you have to take your time off from your life and do several years of intensive vipassana. But what’s possible it’s very hard for me to let you even know.
What’s possible is so deep and so meaningful and so full. If you’re willing to look at your practice and your life in that second way, to really look at yourself, to come to the question of who you are, to come to the to the center of that question of what this life is about. If you do that, it’s really transforming and it’s so enriching. And all of the people that I love and respect for that quality are people who did it impeccably with a lot of discipline and a lot of perseverance over a long time. And somehow I feel like that’s an important message to give you.
I know that what you can get in the retreat is important and helpful and many of you have some good understanding in your practice. There’s a lot more. It’s a lot deeper. You don’t have to rush. It’s not a not a rush thing, but it’s a thing of commitment and of work.
I’d just like to say a couple words about the practice now. It’s possible to do the practice in an impeccable way. And if you’re willing to do that, you will see in one day what kind of understanding is possible. What I mean by doing the practice impeccably is not something out of the range of possibility. What I mean is that from the moment you get up in the morning or from the moment that you get up, excuse me, If you’re willing to pay attention to every movement you make, you’ll see an incredible difference in the level of concentration, level of awareness, the penetrating power, the personal power of mind.
It’s not so difficult because you’re doing the movements anyway. It’s not that you’re doing something extra. It’s just being willing to slow down every single movement. You’re brushing your teeth, you’re there for it. You’re putting the cap on, you’re there for it.
You’re lowering your hand, you’re opening the door, you’re turning the door, pulling your hand back. Every movement that you make all day long, if you can be there for it, you will see the kind of power that can come to the mind. It simply takes a slowing down and a willingness to do it. That’s how the practice should be done, and it’s that kind of practice which brings the greatest truth, the greatest fulfillment. So I would urge you all, take the time.
There’s no rush. There’s nothing else to do. Settle into the moment. Go very slow every movement that you make. In some ways movement of the body is a much easier thing to watch than mind stuff or the breath.
It’s pretty apparent. If you’re willing to be with your movement in that way, you’ll see that kind of awareness carry over to your sitting practice as well. Begin to pick up things in a very subtle way. So I urge you to at least do it as an experiment for one day. See, see for yourself.
It’s been a pleasure this evening. Please continue your practice. One don’t, okay, something that helpful is if you’ve been off for a while because something really caught your mind, you’ve been off in fantasy or worry or planning or whatever, you come back and you realize, gee, I’ve been on that one for quite a while. No need to judge that. Oh, I shouldn’t have done that.
I’ve wasted ten minutes. That’s just another another mind state. That’s aversion. And if that happens, you can say, oh, there’s judging, and be aware of that. But judging is an awareness.
So as soon as you notice, then come to where you are. Really, really simple, always to be here. And in being here, the moments of mindfulness start to get closer together. It’s really how it works. At the beginning of the retreat, you sit, you start to meditate, and there’s a moment of awareness in and out.
And there’s a long gap, like five or ten minutes, and you’re in San Diego or San Francisco or Hawaii or somewhere doing something. And then you come back, oh wow, I really was out there. Back to the breath. Okay, I’m meditating. In, out a few more times, and then you’re off again for ten more minutes.
And there are big gaps between the moments of awareness. As you keep bringing the mind back and practice more, the frequency of noticing gets greater. And in an hour, instead of having a moment every five or ten minutes, you start to have a few moments, and then you only have maybe a two minute gap instead of a ten minute gap. And then sometimes as you practice more, you get even closer together. At first, thoughts come and they’re way past, oh, I was thinking about something.
Then the moments of awareness get closer together and you see thoughts at the end. Oh, hey, I’ve been thinking about this. Mind gets quieter and you practice more awareness. At times, see thoughts in the middle. Oh, I’m in the middle of thinking about this.
When the mind gets really still, you practice for a while and you get a lot of moments of awareness coming close together. You can be aware of thoughts when they first arrive. Oh, there’s a thought coming. You can even be aware in a very subtle way of the movement of the mind before the thought even comes out of its little cave or wherever it comes from. Oh, you can feel there’s a kind of sensation.
Oh, there’s a thought coming. It’s that it’s possible to get that subtle when awareness gets frequent enough. And the question is, well, well, how do I make the awareness more frequent? How do I see? How do I listen?
Simply by coming back as often as you can to be present. And you just keep doing it over and over and being there, paying attention without judging, and gradually they get more frequent. You can see it in your practice. You’re more frequently noticing now than the first day you came here. Probably.
But there are a lot of ups and downs. And awareness too is subject to the law of impermanence. So that some hour you’ll sit and things will be quiet and you’ll be right on and really clear. The next hour you’ll sit down and it will feel like you’ve never meditated or worse, you know. That too.
So then you try and be aware as best you can of that and go with what’s happening. And that’s all you can do, and let it unfold as it will. Uh-huh. Thoughts are hard to watch in the beginning because they’re much more subtle than paying attention to body sensation. Just takes a little bit of practice, sometimes more than a little bit, but, what I would suggest for you to do in order to learn it, there’s no way I can articulate it better, is simply an exercise.
Take some hour and sit down with the resolve in your mind that I’m only going to pay attention to thoughts. Forget about the body and the breath and other things. I’m just going to pay attention to thoughts and see if I can catch them as quick as they come. Whatever kind of thoughts come, visual ones, really loud ones, the kind that sneak up from the back like Joseph said, the really soft ones, many textures, whatever comes only to pay attention to thoughts. If you do that, try that as an exercise.
It may give you a sense of how it’s possible to be aware while sinking is happening without getting caught in it. K? Again, I think I talked about it a little bit. Sometimes, especially, the beginnings of retreats or when concentration and the mindfulness aren’t really strong, there’s a sense of a kind of split of the witness and the event that’s being witnessed. That’s fine.
Let yourself experience it that way. Don’t try necessarily and look at the witness, although at some point you might turn your attention to see if you can see who’s witnessing this. In its own way, when the mind gets quiet enough, the nature of how witnessing happens becomes clear too. It’s almost like a microscope. And when the mind becomes sharp enough and clear enough, it’s like turning the lens down and all of a sudden you can see certain levels that you couldn’t see before just because the lens wasn’t powerful enough.
And the witness in the power of that concentration and noticing dissolves into a process of witnessing without there being anyone, just moments of consciousness and new objects. You no need to struggle to see that because if the lens isn’t there, you just can’t see it. Simply pay attention to how your experience is and if you feel like witness watching thoughts, be aware of that. And if at times you feel like you’re really one with something and still aware of it, be aware of that way of being with it. That’s all.
What’s meant when it said not having a goal, it means not trying to get things to be a certain way. Normally, we set up a goal. I want to be this way, or I want my mind to be that way, or I want my body to be that way. Instead of getting into it trying to achieve something that’s fixed like that, rather saying, I’m just going to sit and walk and see how things are rather than trying to make them a particular way. Is that clear?
Because thoughts are particularly seductive in the sense that it’s easy to get caught up in the content of them, A very helpful tool in working with thoughts at this stage in practice is to use the mental notes. Note that thinking is happening by noting your mind thinking, thinking, kind of verbal note. When you do that, a lot of times the thought will disappear. Sometimes it won’t if it has a lot of energy. If it stays, then you can note thinking, thinking, and watch the thought, either continuing to repeat the note or just being aware of it.
If it goes away, then note that it ended and go to what else is predominant. It’s, important to understand a couple of things. The thoughts are an equally good object of meditation as the breath or body sensation. And that what you really want to watch is not the content of the thought is that about this or that or how do I see myself, but rather the process in tuning into the mind, to the nature of ourselves, to really understand how things are happening, you can see a lot if you let yourself look at what the process of your experience is rather than the content. That means to notice, oh, there’s thinking happening.
There’s thought. That’s it goes. Then there’s this happening, hearing, and feel the vibration, hearing this this kind of experience, and it passes. And notice how your experience is happening as a process rather than analyzing or getting caught in the content of a particular thought. One last question.
Having trouble with the difference between identifying with something and experiencing it fully. There’s a danger, as you pointed out, in using mental notes to make things go away. Thinking comes and you note thinking. It’s like hitting it with a baseball bat. Get out of here.
Boom. Or anger comes. Anger. Anger. Get out of here.
And you’re angry at the anger. You don’t like it. Okay? Again, as I pointed out earlier in the talk, those kind of judgments are not mindfulness. That’s judging.
I don’t like that one, I don’t like that one, I like that one, there’s a nice one. Okay? If you see yourself doing that, be aware that you’re doing it, and that’s all you have to do. Just notice that that’s what’s happening. In terms of the cultivation of awareness, rather than cultivating it in that way, is to let yourself experience what’s happening very fully.
Feelings are tricky, okay, because we have, especially with anger and things like that, we have a tendency and a long history in our culture of suppressing it and saying anger is bad and I can’t feel it. And if you don’t let yourself feel it and feel that it’s just another energy, you’ll always be running away and that energy will be bound up in you. So when feelings come that, especially ones that are difficult for you, let yourself get into them. Really feel them. Feel the anger or feel the fear or feel the depression.
But be aware simply that you’re feeling that anger. Okay? Don’t have to worry about you thinking, Am I identified with it? I’m so angry, but I know I’m angry. If you know you’re angry and you’re really feeling it, that’s fine.
So, if you keep in the present, you’ll see that, I know I’m angry, I know I’m angry. Oh, it’s gone. It won’t stay. At some point it’ll go away. So let yourself, when feelings come, feel them, okay, with awareness.
These kind of things are hard to articulate. It’s very difficult to put into words. There are also times when you’ll be able to deal with feelings in a more detached way. You’ll see anger come and it’ll just be like a bubble. The body will vibrate in a certain way or the mind will have this sensation, this feeling, and that will pass.
That’s also a good way to be aware of it. But particularly if it’s something that you’re afraid of or you haven’t let yourself feel, get into it. Sit there and feel it and know that you’re feeling it. And that takes care of the problem of identification because it changes by itself. When there’s nothing much happening in the mind, come back to the breath or a sensation or a posture.
The breath is a good anchor. It’s a good focal point to come back to when nothing much else is happening. Did you say something about attachment and love relationships? Say it’s to distinguish between attachment and commitment. And you can have commitment without attachment, right?
In other words, because of many reasons, past karma included, we find ourselves often in special relationships with certain people. Can be in that relationship and cultivate it with a sense of commitment to seeing where it’s going to go, commitment to each other without the sense of possessiveness or ownership, right, or thinking that it has to stay static in a certain way. And that’s a much easier way of relating to somebody because you can’t possess them anyway. And it is going to change, as everybody in this room knows. You know, you start out a relationship and there’s some energy happening.
If you’re attached to that particular energy continuing, as Chögyam says, Good luck. It doesn’t because everything is changing and you can have a commitment to watching the changes of energy between you unfold, but without thinking that it has to stay in one certain way because it won’t. And the more attached you are, more suffering there is. Richard mentioned something this afternoon which I think is an important thing to remember. In your life when you find yourself in situations, some kind of suffering, right, either with people or situations, use that situation in your life as deeply as you use your meditation practice to see what the cause of that suffering is.
Really to use life situations as a way of deepening insight into how our mind’s working, how attachment causes suffering. People have so many different motivations. They can be motivated by their own personal pain, right, and just the desire to find some way out of it. They can be motivated by faith. They meet someone or read something which just inspires this incredible faith.
Oh there’s something else, there’s something to understand. They can be motivated by just a desire to know, a kind of philosophical, deep philosophical want to know what’s what, want to know the truth. Another story which is always waiting to pop in. The Buddha had a cousin. I’m going to abbreviate it quite a bit.
Anyway, the cousin became a monk. He didn’t really want to. He was about to be married and anyway he found himself a monk and doing the practice. His heart was not in it at all, you know. And finally the Buddha saw this and through great psychic contrivance he allowed his cousin to have this vision of one of the heaven worlds.
And there he saw the most beautiful surroundings, most beautiful beings, men and women with bodies of light adorned with jewels. And particularly his cousin was fascinated and immediately attracted to these beautiful celestial women. And the Buddha said, If you practice like you’re supposed to, I promise you five hundred of these celestial devas. His cousin practiced. Anyway, as his practice deepened, of course he understood more that motivation fell away, right?
Because he saw the nature of the mind and the body, and as the story goes he was enlightened. It’s a nice story even though somewhat absurd, Simply because we don’t have to worry so much about our initial motivation. You know, people come for so many reasons and it doesn’t matter. If you do the practice in a sincere way, the Dharma is revealed. And the whole motivation and the whole inspiration for practice changes with that.
After all of that last story, there’s a certain conflict in my mind that causes causes even a little bit of a certain resentment sometimes about the way the talks are of, well there is this sort of essential conflict in the whole question of motivation where you know you are not supposed to I think that’s a common experience actually. Okay, it’s to distinguish clearly the difference between understanding that there are certain possibilities for mind development and the path to them. The path, which means the practice that we’re doing, is not to reach out for anything, it’s not to change anything. The path and the cultivation of the practice is exactly to settle back and be with however you are in the moment. And it’s always to come back to that understanding.
And that’s really simple. You’re feeling miserable? Great! Just experience that. And we all, we all say that it’s not that some people feel miserable and others don’t.
We all go through all the changes. And to understand that, the practice is simply a settling back and a willingness to be there for whatever is coming up in the moment. And in fact it’s that willingness to do that which brings a sense of balance. I didn’t understand. Well, like, the where the the where the motivation comes in also is in not allowing yourself or for me, not allowing yourself to be too willing not to settle back in the moment but to accept, you know, like when there are times when the concentration is really scattered and know and somehow that goes along It’s true, and that’s the difficulties of beginning of practice.
You know, there is a tendency to judge things when they come up and to get involved and to identify, and that’s just the stuff of mind that has to be worked with in the beginning. What happens is that still the same things come through the mind, right, for a long, long time. But just as you continue making the effort at least to just be there and to be as nonjudgmental as possible even though at times it’s going to come up. Over a period of time you find the mind letting go of those reactions to what’s there. And it’s just a gradual development of mind.
The Buddha likened the growth in Dharma to the sloping away of the ocean shore. He said just like the floor of the ocean doesn’t drop suddenly but slopes gradually to the depth. Just our practice is the same way. It’s not that you sit down and in one sitting you’re gonna, you know, eradicate all the troublesome qualities of mind. It’s not like that.
It’s a slow and gradual deepening of understanding and balance. But again just to reiterate what’s so important and so simple, that underneath and behind all this superstructure of words that we get involved with every night, that the whole path is just that settling back into the moment and continually reminding yourself of just that. I think we should walk now. If any of you have other questions you can come up. I often experience irritation.
That’s an important question, and there are really two answers to it. One is that it is it’s a quality of mind which you can cultivate just in the way that there’s a formula for cultivating metta or loving kindness. There’s also a way of cultivating compassion, relating the pain you see in others to the pain you’ve experienced in yourself. It’s interesting, last year something happened with the setting up of a retreat that just was not done right. And it was done not right in such a way that I became enraged.
And it doesn’t happen very often, but this time it really hit and it’s like steam was coming out of my ears. You know, it was really interesting to sit and watch it. Fortunately, I was three thousand miles away from the source. Anyway, one of the women we teach with, Sharon, just in second or third night after after the incident, she gave a talk on metta and lovingkindness. And just in the way she expressed it, and even then I was sitting there and just mulling this thing over my mind, you know.
But in her talking about the method in lovingkindness, I began to put myself in that other person’s I began to feel what he must feel like, you know, and that the thing he did which was so annoying to me was coming out of a very contracted space, and how painful that must be for him. And as soon as I could just appreciate, let go of what was done and see the place that it was coming out of, that it must have been coming out of, it’s like the anger just dissolved immediately and I could feel that sense of compassion. I could feel the pain of that constriction having been in it myself for the past few days. I can relate in that way. So that’s one answer to your question.
The other is that the more insight which is intuitive, it’s not thought out, Insight is just a sudden seeing of something you didn’t see before. The more insight there is into the selfless nature of this process, the less you have to defend or protect, the more tolerant and accepting and nonjudgmental you become. And it’s in that space that compassion is spontaneous. In other words, somebody comes in to the meditation hall and you’re sitting and they’re making a lot of noise, Whereas the initial reaction might once have been irritation and annoyance and watching them to be quiet. If you’re not holding on to quietness, if you’re not holding on to your space, you’re sitting there and sounds come through, Oh, hearing, hearing.
There’s no irritation. In that openness, then there’s just a lot of love and acceptance. And when people are in pain, you feel Chögyam used a very beautiful phrase to describe what compassion meant. People often, they invest a lot of mushiness into it, right? And I don’t think that’s compassion at all.
He described it as the feeling of basic warmth. It’s just the way you relate to people, that basic warmth, basic goodwill. And that comes from seeing more and more clearly the selfless nature. Yeah. It’s an important question because a lot of people have asked or thought that kind of thing.
Let me see how best to respond, best as I can anyway. The middle path is not even saying that it excludes excess. Okay? The middle path in its most subtle sense is that balance of mind which allows you to see things clearly, which allows you to be fully with what’s happening. The traditional teaching, in order to be able to let go of things, to become free, to become really fully here, they’re talking about different ways of working to let go.
The most simple way is that which we’ve been practicing here, which is to allow whatever it is to be there and simply to let go of it. Very easy. Easy in the sense that it’s a simple thing. It’s not easy in that there are a lot of things that come up that are awfully hard to let go of. You could see from the question before this, but you can see it as much in your own mind.
Which kind of thoughts? Which kind of fantasies? Which kinds of fears? Whatever.