How to Let Things Go

August 12, 2024
Zen priest Masuno (Don’t Worry) touts the merits of living a more unencumbered life in this wise and succinct guide. Contending that letting go is nothing less than a “survival skill” in an age of information overload, Masuno shares brief lessons on letting go at work (set aside one’s feelings in order to “get along with... adversaries”; accept personal weaknesses rather than working fruitlessly to overcome them); in personal relationships (observe rather than automatically intervening in others’ problems; accept that it’s impossible to fully know another person—“when you don’t understand, let it go” is the key to a happy marriage) and on social media (maintain “a certain distance” so as not to engage in “futile battles”). Masuno has a knack for turning a phrase to make familiar advice memorable—learning from one’s mistakes, he writes, is a way to “remake how we carry the past with us”—even if truisms like “worrying over little things... only makes your life more difficult” might elicit eye rolls. Still, the stressed will find much to appreciate.