Let Go or Be Dragged

Recently someone posted a meme that made its way to my Facebook page that proclaimed, “Let go or be dragged.” The attribution for this bit of wisdom was “Zen proverb.” Setting aside the value of the comment for a moment, which, okay, is fine in my book, what annoys me is the attribution. I’ve been doing this Zen thing for well past forty years, and I’ve never seen this “proverb.” Possibly someone can come up with a citation, it wouldn’t be the first time I missed something, but in this situation I don’t think it likely.

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 “hang in there,” as sort of a contemporary correction to the shadow side to the cat picture advice.

Now, while I’d say “Let go or be dragged” 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.

And the way itself is in a sense learning, if you’ll pardon one more slogan from the self-help industry, to “go with the flow.” So, again, I’m really not expressing any significant problem with the content.

But. However. How about a more accurate attributing of “Let go or be dragged”? Which near as I can tell is by “anonymous.” She has quite an oeuvre, some of it wonderful. And she should be credited where credit is due…

But then, maybe I’m just kicking against the stream.

Sometimes its hard to tell…