Monday, December 10, 2012

Peter Russell: Letting Go of Nothing


FORA.tv hosted the 2012 conference on their platform earlier this fall. Now the videos are being made available for free for those who did not buy access at the time of the conference. In this lecture, Peter Russell (Institute of Noetic Sciences) speaks on the practice of letting go. His books include From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness, Waking Up In Time: Finding Inner Peace In Times of Accelerating Change, and The Brain Book: Know Your Own Mind and How to Use It, among others.

Letting Go of Nothing

Peter Russell: Letting Go of Nothing from Science and Nonduality on FORA.tv

"Just let go," we're advised. "If only I could let go," others complain. The call goes back a long way, to the core of the world's spiritual traditions. Surrender, non-attachment, accepting the present, relinquishing ego, forgiveness-they all entail a letting go. Holding on, they claim, limits perception, creates tension, veils our true nature, and lies at the root of much our suffering. Letting go, on the other hand, brings relief, ease, joy, and love.  But letting go seldom seems easy. That is because we usually approach letting go as something to do. We may know it is the opposite-an undoing-but that does not make it any easier.

Peter Russell will explore what leads us to hold on, how we become attached to our beliefs about what we need and how to get it. He will also share his latest thinking and practices on how to allow letting go to happen spontaneously.

Peter shows that the key is giving up all trying and effort. The mind in its natural relaxed state is already at ease. We do not need to do anything to find inner peace, we simply need to release the various thoughts that keep our minds busy and tense. The beauty of this approach is that nothing needs to be changed or eliminated. It is simply dropping all resistance to the present moment. Herein lies true freedom.
~ Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, The World Business Academy and The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest. At Cambridge University (UK), he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. Then, as he became increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the human mind he changed to experimental psychology.

Pursuing this interest, he traveled to India to study meditation and eastern philosophy, and on his return took up the first research post ever offered in Britain on the psychology of meditation. He has written several books in this area -- The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God.

No comments: