Campbell Meditation Music – Disney’s Frozen, “Let It Go”
The film Frozen has caused a sensation, leading the successful revival of Disney. Frozen not only won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature last winter, but also won the Best Animated Feature Film and the Best Original Song (for Let It Go) at the Academy Awards in March this year. Idina Menzel’s Let It Go has set fire to the world through its popularity. As the title Let It Go literally suggests, Elsa could no longer conceal her gift – magic with ice – which she had to conceal. She would finally accept herself as she is and live more beautifully and confidently with that ability.
In fact, the title Let It Go itself sounds very good. When we keep something in our mind and regret about the past, we often hear that from our family or friends: let it go… it has already passed so let it go… let your mind be at ease now.
However, it is not easy to actually let go of everything from our mind even though we hear such advice through words. We keep tens of thousands of stories from life in our mind just like a container. If you look back at your life from the time you were born until the present, you can find yourself holding onto all of the tough stories that you cannot even describe in words. By our head, we logically know that the past that has already passed so it is no longer here but by our heart, we cannot accept that and feel agonized. An example would be if I broke up with my girlfriend and I kept that event in my mind, even though it is already in the past and I keep thinking about it and feeling the agony from that moment.
Then, what should we do in order to truly let go of the past events and always live joyfully in the moment? The method to actualize this has come to the world. In the Disney’s animation, The Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa sing a song called Hakuna Matata. Hakuna Matata means not to worry and to be happy. Nature, this world of Truth, does not keep the past in its mind and lives as it is, following the nature’s flow, because there is no existence called the ‘self’. However, only humans have attachments and the existence called ‘self’ and thus, we cannot live in the world as it is but live keeping all kinds of stories in our mind all the time. That is pain and stress.
Now, the method of eliminating that mind of pain and stress has already been spreading widely throughout the world. We, through that method, can eliminate the false mind of pain that the self has – let it go – and always live happily as it is, like nature.
“Let it go, let it go.” Like the lyrics that express Elsa’s earnest heart, we should let everything go. All of the stories that we keep in our mind are all futile illusions and useless stuff. Compared to this infinite Universe, the life that we live is less than 100 years. Seen from the viewpoint of the Universe, our life is a short period less than a second.
The time that has already passed will never come again. We live this life only once. But then should we continually worry, become burdened, and waste our entire life like this? The life will still be short even if you laugh and live happily and joyfully every moment. We should come to our original senses as soon as possible, throw away the false mind completely and live truly happily and joyfully with the true mind. In order to do so, we have to let everything go. We should let go of all of the useless, negative, false minds – attachments to the past, regrets, greed, and hatred held within our mind. However, it can never be done by yourself alone. There should be a method. Now, we all can live happily by letting it go through that method.
Let’s invest our time in the method of throwing away the mind and head towards the truly happy future for our life.
Burden
-From Teacher Woo Myung’s Book ‘The Mind’
Let’s cast off all the minds
gained through our lives.
Although there is nothing to have in life,
people are bound to the mind of possession
and they live trying to possess.
Thus, they live lives meaninglessly
and die by their own cunning.
Let’s shed the mass of minds that are our attachments.
Let’s live freely, having laid down those burdens.
Even if we come to have something,
let’s not live bound to karma.
Only living this way can make your true self,
and only this true self can live.