Commentary on the Father and Son Compendium Sutra (XLV)

Why cannot we let go?

Our inability to let go stems from incomplete comprehension of the principle, or at best, a superficial understanding. Only when the principle is penetratingly understood will we realize, upon contemplation, that from our physical body to the entire universe—mountains, rivers, earth, the three-thousandfold world-system, and the Buddha-lands in the ten directions—all arise from nothingness and return to nothingness when traced back through reasoning. None possesses inherent reality. This requires deep immersion in meditative concentration to thoroughly investigate and realize this truth through observational practice. Without genuinely recognizing this principle through such practice, one's spiritual cultivation remains ineffective, lacking the power to subdue afflictions. When confronted with specific circumstances, one still perceives all encountered phenomena as real, clinging to them and generating distress. With insufficient meditative stability, inadequate merit, deficient wisdom, and incomplete observational practice, one cannot attain the fruition of non-self.