Putting Things Down

How often have you heard someone say, "I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders"?  What they are saying is that they have been carrying something around that has been burdensome, difficult, heavy, maybe even crushing.  Who is it that placed the burden there?  What exactly is it?  When we can see both the what and the who we soon can some to realize that we placed the burden on our shoulders ourselves; no one else has. And, just as we placed it there, we are the only ones who can truly put it down.  Others may help us, but our hands are the ones that have to reach up and put it down.  The same holds true for what it is we carry.  No one made it just for us.  There is no one out there who crafted the burden with us especially in mind.  When we can come to terms with the notion that what we carry and how we carry it is of our own making and our own lifting, then perhaps we can find our way to seeing that we too are the only ones who can put it down, feel the relief, and walk on with a lighter step.  The Buddha teaches us that, "everything is created by mind alone".  In the end, what we carry is created in our minds and it is there, in the unfettered light of being and seeing "just this", that we can begin to lift our burdens and get the relief we seek.