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It's the 10% Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Okay, everybody, how we doing?

Today we are talking about one of the most important and most misunderstood concepts in all of Buddhism.

Letting go or surrender.

What does this mean exactly?

Is it a recipe for passivity and how do you do it anyway?

Properly understood, letting go is a recipe for reducing stress and overthinking,

for not fighting with reality, for achieving equanimity in the face of whatever life throws at you.

However, as always, easier said than done.

This episode is the fourth in a series of special episodes we're doing where my executive producer, DJ Kashmir, identifies an issue in his life, in this case, surrender or letting go, and then goes out and talks to a bunch of Buddhist teachers about how to deal with it.

So the structure of this episode is a little bit different from our usual fare.

You'll hear me in conversation with DJ who will then play clips of his conversation with the teachers he reached out to.

And those teachers are Kyra Jewel Lingo, who's a former nun in the Plum Village tradition,

started by the Zen Master Ticknot Han, Vinnie Ferraro, who teaches at the Insight Meditation Society,

Spirit Rock, and also Prisons, and Matthew Brensilver,

who teaches at many of those same retreat centers, and before that spent

many years working in the field of addiction pharmacotherapy. I really enjoy this format. We'd be

curious to hear your thoughts on whether it's working for you. Hit me up in the chat over at

Dan Harris.com. DJ Kashmir and our trio of Dharma Maestro's right after this.

Before we get started, I just want to let you know about what's going on over at

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