Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra) (45)

Why can't we let go?

Not being able to let go means our understanding of the principle is not thorough, or we understand it a little, but not completely. Once the principle is thoroughly understood, sitting here and contemplating, from our physical body to the entire universe, the mountains, rivers, and the great earth, the trichiliocosm, and the buddha-lands of the ten directions—if you reason it out according to this principle, everything goes from nothing at all to nothing at all; nothing is real. This requires entering deep into meditative concentration (samādhi) and engaging in deep and subtle contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on this principle, and acknowledging this principle. Without a genuine process of contemplative practice and acknowledgment, one's cultivation will not be effective, and there will be no power to subdue afflictions. When encountering specific situations, one still takes everything one comes into contact with as real, and thus grasps at it and becomes afflicted. With insufficient meditative concentration, insufficient merit, insufficient wisdom, and insufficient contemplative practice, one cannot realize the fruit of no-self.