Giving Up

My grandfather recently passed along the aphorism: "Many people want to serve God, but only as advisors." Parisa's sermon this past Sunday exposed the hubris of this popular position, which often takes the shape of our stubborn insistence on things working out exactly the way we envision. Success looks like this. Happiness like that. Everything else amounts to failure. Sound familiar? 

Sohan Qadri: #2076

When we let go of what we think life should look like, we are better able to see what life really is, and find therein an abundance. In Parisa's words: "We look to one another for help in letting go of what we think things should be like in order to let the good, to let God, work through us." The good life has as much to do with receiving gratefully as it does with producing tirelessly. Often, leaning into reality requires more courage and resolve than unceasingly building fantasy.


Last week, Punjabi artist and poet Sohan Singh Barhing, popularly known as Sohan Qadri, passed away. Both his spiritual and artistic temperament typified the "let go, let God" way of being in the world. When asked about his painting technique, Qadri responded: "For me to paint a picture is more of a ritual, it reaches somewhat further than mere painting. It is a way to call forth the powers that are hidden in the emptiness of the canvas...[I]f you don’t feed this canvas with something, then you will never get a picture painted. You are the food, the artist is the food, He must let himself be completely swallowed." For Qadri, the first step towards creation is the destruction of assumed or perceived form. As we read in the Rig Veda: "Break the form and reach the essential."


How, then, do we strike the balance between letting go and giving up? Or perhaps more accurately, what do we need to proximately give up so that we don't ultimately give up, or give in?


Please: continue the conversation.