The trouble with clinging is, the person who’s clinging is the same person who is trying to get free.  That person will be clingy about getting free.  Fixated about getting un-fixated.  If he/she WASN’T, he/she would be free.

So in emotion land–we’re sad about being sad, we’re happy about being happy, we’re be mad about being mad, we’re scattered about being scattered.  Clinging is the perpetuator.  Like an echo chamber.  That’s why the only medicine is letting go.  The de-perpetuator.  The un-fixated.  The non-resonating.  The non-feeding back.  The non-doing.

Sometimes I think about it this way–it’s the not-ok-ness.  When we’re in not-ok-ness, we’re not ok with it.  When we’re ok, we’re ok with being ok.  So how do we get out of not-ok-ness?  Be ok with it!

The closer I am to equanimity, the less it matters how I practice. So when I find myself unable to decide how to practice, I try to keep in mind that it doesn’t matter as much as I think.

I’ve been noticing that those beliefs about months or years-long trajectories to get through stuck pain or “get to” some kind of realization arise out of the part of me that’s resisting the moment (which is present as physical sensation, somewhere in the body).  When I find that sensation and hold it in equanimity, the beliefs (even really benevolent and virtuous ones about goals and the future) just turn off.  They aren’t necessarily false, but they are irrelevant to any particular moment of experience.