6. Learning To Let Go Of Hope And Fear.

From Das Mile Gompa.

At the very root of our human condition, we find two emotional extremes. These are HOPE and FEAR.

If we don't know WHO and WHAT we are, then our lives are governed from beginning to end by the whole gamut of emotions that arise from these two.  Everything between these two extremes are but shades in the grey scale of hope and fear.

This is the supreme paradox of our existence!

We lurch through our lives  passing through a constant stream of changes, some of them good, some of them bad, many of them somewhere in between, and yet  all the while that which is experiencing all of it remains unnoticed!!

Imagine the freedom of KNOWING that what you really are is  always present, unaffected by the travails of life, and changeless....   Imagine the freedom of knowing this not merely as an idea, but as a living, unshakable certainty.  What you ALWAYS ARE, is not and can never be  affected by hope or fear, or any of the myriad emotions in between!

How would, KNOWING THIS  change our lives?

If we are the mountain but pass through life identifying only with the mists, the clouds, the ever shifting currents that swirl in ceaseless movement around us, then we are no different from the 'beggar, whose begging bowl is made of pure gold'.  If we do not know that we hold 'pure gold' in our hands, of what use can it be to us?

Our freedom lies in KNOWING WHO WE ARE...