{"id":13917,"date":"2016-09-12T01:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=13917"},"modified":"2016-09-11T15:53:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T22:53:17","slug":"let-go-or-be-dragged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2016\/09\/let-go-or-be-dragged.html","title":{"rendered":"Let Go or Be Dragged"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"giant<\/a>
\nRecently someone posted a meme that made its way to my Facebook page that proclaimed, \u201cLet go or be dragged.\u201d The attribution for this bit of wisdom was \u201cZen proverb.\u201d Setting aside the value of the comment for a moment, which, okay, is fine in my book, what annoys me is the attribution. I\u2019ve been doing this Zen thing for well past forty years, and I\u2019ve never seen this \u201cproverb.\u201d Possibly someone can come up with a citation, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time I missed something, but in this situation I don\u2019t think it likely.<\/p>\n

A quick google search reveals that other than a Western Tibetan lama citing it, the saying seems actually to belong to our contemporary motivational crowd. So, it more goes with that picture of a cat hanging in the air with the slogan \u201chang in there,\u201d as sort of a contemporary correction to the shadow side to the cat picture advice.<\/p>\n

Now, while I\u2019d say \u201cLet go or be dragged\u201d smells more Daoist than Zen, no doubt as a Zen person I can work with the saying. I mean true words. The current does indeed go on whether we agree with it or not, whether we like it or not. <\/p>\n

And the way itself is in a sense learning, if you\u2019ll pardon one more slogan from the self-help industry, to \u201cgo with the flow.\u201d So, again, I\u2019m really not expressing any significant problem with the content. <\/p>\n

But. However. How about a more accurate attributing of \u201cLet go or be dragged\u201d? Which near as I can tell is by \u201canonymous.\u201d She has quite an oeuvre, some of it wonderful. And she should be credited where credit is due\u2026<\/p>\n

But then, maybe I\u2019m just kicking against the stream.<\/p>\n

Sometimes its hard to tell\u2026<\/p>\n