In defense of holding on, sort of

[Hoyu]

Re: In defense of holding on, sort of

Alan wrote:
John, I mean to ask this very gently. How hard might you be holding on to the tea ceremony? Being passionate about something, which you clearly are about the tea ceremony, can sometimes lead to holding onto that thing quite tightly, so tightly that is hard to conceptualize letting it also drop, letting it go. The process of holding on to and then letting go each aspect of the tea ceremony as it happens is one thing, but can you let the concept of tea ceremony go afterwards? Does it ever end (drop) in your mind, or is it always being held on to in there?

Hi Alan,
You just asked the million dollar question!
For me letting go of the Tea Ceremony would be akin to cutting off an appendage. Sure I could detach from my arm(by two definitions :shock: ) but unless the arm is causing a problem(gangrene) is there such a need? I see tea and my arm to be healthy attachments(especially when it's my arm attached to my body!). On such matters I don't let the idea of letting go become just one more thing to let go of. Don't hold on to letting go!

Gassho,
John

[AlanLa]

Re: In defense of holding on, sort of

I'm talking about wholeness here, John, both holding on and letting go. To hold the Buddha is precious, but for true liberation we also have to kill him at some time. Can you kill the tea ceremony?

Just to be clear, I'm not asking you to, nor am I even suggesting that you need to or should, just if you can. There's lots of parts of us (little buddha selves), that we can't kill, at least not yet at this point on our Path. But isn't that what the Path is about? Most of us hold on to them out of awareness, not even knowing how desperately we cling to them. But once we become aware of that little part of the self we are holding on to, then make it precious by dropping it. If we keep holding on to something so tightly in awareness, don't we defile it? Clearly you are aware of your hold on the tea ceremony, but doesn't the tea ceremony itself tell you that you also need to drop it? Doesn't killing the tea ceremony make the tea ceremony itself even more precious than it already is?

I'm trying to come to this concept of hold/drop as a whole process from a don't-know position. I'm investigating it in myself daily and part of that internal investigation is on here. Your views on the tea ceremony have given me a way to also investigate this externally. Thanks for your help.