Some students are overcome with fear and apprehension when they try to "let go." They are dependent on ideas and attitudes they have accumulated. Attachment to ideas and attitudes is a huge obstruction. Dropping everything, or letting go, is a useful method of practice to overcome such obstacles. During retreat you should try to drop everything in order to reduce the number of obstructions in your mind.

When you return to daily life, you can, if you wish, reclaim your ideas and preconceptions. Unless you are thoroughly enlightened, it is impossible to live without them. All of your memories, experiences, ideas and attitudes combine to form your karma, and karma is a force that follows you everywhere. Some activities you cannot drop. You must eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, sleep when tired; otherwise you will not survive. As long as you are not enlightened, a self exists. You should realize, however, that it is illusory and impermanent. The best you can do is stick to your method and keep practicing.

Enlightened beings, such as Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, may take human form, but they have no selves. They have chosen to live in this world in order to help sentient beings. The self arises out of attachment to craving, anger and ignorance, but enlightened beings are not touched by the three poisons. Buddhahood is emptiness, yet emptiness does not mean non-existence. Emptiness means that all things lack permanence. There is objective existence, but nothing is unchanging and eternal; everything that exists changes constantly. This ever-changing nature is Buddha-nature.