Being right

We are here on this tiny blue orb to learn many lessons—often we have to re-learn it many times as our stubborn ego just dogs us. Perhaps the greatest lessons of my life have revolved around the slogan that I heard and tried to learn many years ago was: “Let Go and Let God”—a notion that involves relinquishing ego’s attachment to, or fear of, something. The single most pronounced attachment for most of us, especially me, during our lives one has the very strong attachment of wanting to be right. There is nothing ego loves more than to be right, which makes it an important and satisfying attachment to practice letting go of.

I seriously doubt that there is no one on this planet who has not engaged in arguing about trivial matters that turned into huge disagreements, which had a net effect of following a road of self-righteous anger. And all of it probably seemed to be for no reason other than the need, the desire, to be right. Eventually we may look back with wistful amusement, realizing now that our fear of actually being was so strong then that another person’s opinion could energize this unwanted feeling. Ego’s strategy was to be right no matter what, a highly successful maneuver that effectively distracted us from genuine purpose. Letting go of an attachment to being right can be a fairly simple exercise.

So how can one choose to:” let go and let God”, in a quest to eliminate an attachment to being right?  You can handle it with these simple words spoken to another, which is rather hard—but becomes easier with practice—: “You are right about that”. It stems from a soulful decision you make that when given the choice between being right and being kind—one should  will always choose to be kind. Saying “you are right about that” will gradually open the entry point to a road that leads through: “letting go and letting God” to experiencing a more significant life.

Part of the meaning one gains by letting go is a movement toward real contentment. Most stress in our lives results from hanging on to beliefs that keep us striving for more, because ego stubbornly believes we need it. When we make the shift away from attachment, the influence of our ego fades. We replace attachment with contentment. Chasing and striving—and then becoming attached to what we chased after—is a source of anxiety that feeds: ”ambition”, but it won’t satisfy the need for meaning at our soul level.