Often in this practice we speak of letting go of things; let go of thoughts, let go of emotions, let go of pain. Sometimes that is not exactly the right phrase, because letting go suggests that you need to do something.  A better phrase to work with is “Let it be.” Everything comes and goes by itself. We do not have to do anything to make it come, or to make it go, or to let it go.  We just have to let it be.

In order to let it all be, we need to grasp a difficult but essential lesson for meditation practice, and indeed for all aspects of our life:  Having pleasant feelings and avoiding unpleasant ones is not the purpose of our practice. The purpose of mindfulness practice is freedom.

So the important thing in meditation is not whether we experience pleasant versus unpleasant feelings, but rather how we relate to all those feelings.  If we relate with mindfulness – that is, simply noticing, simply observing – then in that moment we are free from greed for the pleasant, aversion to the unpleasant and delusion about what is really there. The practice is opening, it is accepting and, most important, it is liberating.