Letting go is the hardest thing to do.

Letting go is the hardest thing to do in life, but it teaches you the most about life, and yourself. 

The four noble truths of Buddhism are...

1. Life is suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The noble eight-fold path is how you attain it.

In other words, throughout our life, we are constantly feeling pain, discomfort and suffering and the reason behind this is that we try to hold onto things that are forever changing, impermanent, transient. Things like material possessions break down, decay and age; emotions (both positive and negative) change over time, stability fluctuates; relationships grow and shrink, come into existence and leave it and times of peace are ringed by war. In short, nothing is permanent. In fact, Buddhism looks at the world as a continuous series of phenomena, not a physical, stable thing. For example, a tree is not simple a that large, relatively cylindrical object covered in leaves outside of your window. It is (and has been) a series of events. Since it was a seed it was growing, it's structure changing, taking in water and sunlight, exuding carbon dioxide, blowing in the wind, dropping it's leaves in the fall and so on. These were the series of events that make up that thing we call a tree, it is not just that wooden sculpture we recognize as a stable hunk of matter.

 This is true of us as humans as well. I am not simply this fleshy sack of water and carbon I see in a mirror, for most of the biological matter that I consist of wasn't there a few weeks ago, or a few years ago. The cells that made up my body at birth have long since died, giving rise to new ones, creating an entirely new biological form which in turn died and gave rise to more, continuing the cycle. Then what am I? Just like the tree, I am change; the continuous series of phenomena that have made up my agency since coming into this world. I am my first breath and every breath sense then. I am my first step and every step sense then. I am every song I have played, every word I have said, every smile I have made and every tear I have shed. This is what I am... And when considering that, if we are a bundle of continuous change, there really isn't an "I" at all, in the conventional sense. The "I" is just a simple way of (rather inaccurately) describing the numerical identity of my body over time. There is nothing consistent other than that numerical identity; even our consciousness leaves us when we sleep. So there is nothing we can hold onto, nothing permanent, nothing stable. 

This is why life is suffering. So many of us refuse to accept this and believe that there must be some constant, unchanging, "forever" thing that they can lean on. It is reasonable that this had some part to play in our creation of the idea of God. What Buddhism teaches is that how we escape this suffering is learning to accept the truth of impermanence and being okay with it. When you do this, it becomes easier to accept loss, pain, and change. 

Now, the first comment that always is presented is that when you live this way, relatively "unattached" then you cannot experience things like true love, you cannot fight for issues that matter to you, and all in all, cannot live a full and happy life. This is a common misconception though, the idea of detachment that Buddhism fosters is not one that says you cannot enjoy things, you cannot love, you cannot stand up for what you believe in. It is that if those things were no longer there, you would not suffer in their absence. In no law of nature does it state that you cannot fully enjoy something if you don't feel empty and hollow when it is gone. This is what Buddhism tries to teach.

This is the hardest thing that one can be fully aware of and versed in during their life I believe. It is what I (now finally applying the label of Buddhist to "myself" after years of practice and study) aim for, and struggle with along with millions of others. I recently had to "let go" of someone who I loved dearly and although I'm well aware of the concept of universal impermanence, it hurts all the same. Today, I am a bad Buddhist, for my thoughts linger on what I no longer have, wishing for a different course of events that can never be. I am not content, and I am not "Blissful", the way those enlightened ones are. I let myself become attached to someone instead of loving them fully in the moment. So now, I must practice the noble eight-fold path, and live my life in the present. I must be aware, mindful and appreciative. Today I am a bad Buddhist, but what is today? Nothing more than a series of events that can change at any given time by my hand, yours or merely the clock's. Perhaps now I am not the bad Buddhist that I was a moment ago.

Letting go is the hardest part of life, but the most fundamentally necessary to be enlightened, in the present and to be Zen. Practice, Practice, Practice.