Letting Everything Go

Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

Johnny Cash "Hurt"

     As Alzheimer's progresses, Hob gradually loses all connection to the life he had known. As a senior meditation teacher (in Thich Nhat Hanh's Zen order), Hob knew very well that we are to let go of absolutely everything - even Buddhist teachings! But unless our practice is very advanced, actually letting everything go is far from an easy - we suffer because of, and in proportion to, our futile clinging.

     “… the story was like a golden thread for him, a connection to a teaching that he needed when everything else was dissolving.” 

       Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle. “Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows. A Couple’s Journey through Alzheimer’s.” Penguin, NY, 2008.



                              There is no place to seek the mind:
                              it is like the footprints of the birds in the sky                         Zenrin Kushu

                              Nothing lasts forever

                              Even cold November rains                                                              Guns & Roses "November Rain"

 

See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/01/studying-way.html