Letting Go Of Results

The problem is not the mind’s function of planning how to get results, or the desire for the results, the problem is in the disjunction between what the mind plans or desires and what actually happens. If you do not get what you wanted, or if something interferes with your plans, tension can arise. But if you loosen your grip on the plans and desires, tension dissipates—that is the point of the phrase, “letting go of results.”

You get in the car to go buy groceries and get a flat tire. It was fine to have the plan, and wanting the have the groceries is good, but unless you accept that you have a flat tire and revise the plan your mind will be in a state of tension. You need to deal with the flat tire. Hanging on to the plan and desire to go to the store is the real source of the tension, not the flat tire.

To let go of the results you have to remember that dealing with the present moment is always more important than whatever you are planning or desiring to achieve. What you imagine or think is supposed to be happening will very often contradict what actually is happening. When you hang on to what you think is supposed to be happening, you are trying to live in this mental world rather than in the actual world. This fixation on the mental world obscures the more open, compassionate, wise self that can handle what actually happens.

If not dealt with, the inner tension of not letting go will express itself in ways that are unpleasant for you and those around you. It can be expressed as anger, depression, despair, or other emotions which influence your actions. In the extreme, people can become so attached to their mental world and blind to the real world that they use and abuse other people in the attempt to achieve some otherwise laudable goal. We see this when people lie, deceive, manipulate, and even torture and kill other people in the name of some religious or political ideal.

In spirituality, people are usually acting in the hope of some result—a sense of peace or oneness or love or however they conceive of it. Various means—prayer, meditation, studying scriptures, doing good deeds, thinking positive thoughts—are used in the hope of achieving the result. If they do not get the desired result—whatever they think they should experience is not there—they become frustrated. It is the same tension of being fixated on results rather than dealing with the present moment.

Yet what is actually being sought in spirituality is freedom from this inner tension, which perpetuates a strange cycle: you pursue spirituality to be free of this inner tension, but the unwillingness to accept that the tension is there makes it worse! The reverse process is to start loosening your grip on your spiritual aim—not giving it up, not seeing it as “bad,” but simply loosening you desire for results and accepting what is. At that moment, what is begins to change. Not holding on to some idea of how you are supposed to be or what you should be experiencing actually changes how you are and what you experience.

Letting go of results means just that—letting go, loosening your grip, recognizing that achieving results is not the true source of happiness. Happiness comes from accepting what is—including the desire for results, and the frequent experience of not achieving them. Both are a part of life for everyone, but the inner tension of resisting this truth need not be.

© 2011 Alan F. Zundel

Alan F. Zundel is a counselor, author, and teacher currently living in Eugene, Oregon. His talks are available to download for free at HeartAwake Center at www.heartawake.org.