Coracle news
Two Halves: Relinquishment
Posted Saturday 22 October 2011
Some of things we reflected upon when pondering Relinquishment and Unlearning….
Letting go
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
Handing oneself over
The word surrender itself means to “hand oneself over” or “entrust oneself”. It is not about outer capitulation but about inner opening. It is always voluntary, and rather than an act of weakness, it is always an act of strength.*
Sit with this quote for a while. And with this quote in mind consider the following video clips.
What do they do to you? for you?
Non-violence and inner opening
Interior surrender is often precisely what makes it possible to see a decisive action that must be taken and to do it with courage and strength….Whether it’s a matter of holding your ground in a dispute with your boss, handling a teenager with tough love, or putting our life in the line for an ideal you believe in like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., action flows better when it flows from non-violence, that is, from that place of relaxed, inner opening.*
Sit with this quote for a while. Is there any reaction or feeling to this? Any experience that come to mind? Anything significant for you personally here?
To leave behind…what?
Why must the gate be narrow?
Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened.
To come into the woods you must leave behind
the six days’ world, all of it, all of its plans and hopes.
Wendell Berry
* Quotes from The wisdom way of knowing, Cynthia Bourgeault