The new F-word?

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I recently saw a book in the bookshop called “Fuck it: the ultimate spiritual way”. My first reaction was that the author was encapsulating the Buddhist idea of “letting go” within a western framework. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realised that there were important differences between letting go in the spiritual sense, and the idea of saying “Fuck it” to things.

This letting go is what A Course in Miracles calls forgiveness, and Gary Renard jokingly refers to as "the new F-word". So what is the difference between these approaches?

The first important difference lies in making the apparent problems in the world real. To say fuck it to something means that you believe the problem really does exist out there in the world. What you are doing is attacking the problem, but declaring that you won’t do anything to solve it.

When you choose to forgive something, on the other hand, you recognise that the error that you see outside yourself is merely a mistake, and does not require direct intervention on your part simply because it has no real power to harm you or anyone else. The difference is important, even though your actions in the physical world may appear to be the same. The difference lies in the way you feel. If you have forgiven something, you have achieved a level of inner peace about it. It no longer troubles you. To say fuck it to something, however, is to hold on to the anger, judgement, and attack about it.

It should be clear to anyone who is serious about inner peace that holding on to attack and guilt in any form is extremely disruptive. It is the root of all psychological suffering. Worse, by repressing your anger about the situation in this way, you will most likely fall into a state of depression. You are trying not to care about something that you do, in fact, deeply care about. This is only possible if you suppress your feelings. But by suppressing your feelings you are also suppressing your love, your carefreeness, and your creativity. This is the complete opposite of achieving inner peace. Inner peace can only come from complete psychological freedom. And psychological freedom can only exist in the absence of repression of any kind.

In other words, to be truly happy and peaceful, you must not suppress anything. In order for this to be possible, you must let all your belief in the value of attack, anger, and guilt go. It is natural for you to try to get rid of those things, but you cannot do so by bundling them into the box of the unconscious, because by doing so you are actually holding on to them, and they will resurface at the first opportunity.

So while I understand the author’s intention, I do not think his approach goes far enough. Instead of saying “fuck it” to the world you see, I suggest you say “forgive it”.

This might not agree with our western mindset that often favors strong individualistic solutions and self importance. It’s cool to say “fuck it” to things. It gives you a sense of importance, power, and superiority. But in the end, it simply will not work. It’s time to let your ego go, stop fighting the dreams you have made, and say “forgive it” instead.

Forgiveness *is* the ultimate spiritual way.

In Peace

Igacim

(The School for Inner Peace)

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