There is a term that is used in the Dzogchen teachings called “release at inception.” It took a long time for me to come to a feeling understanding of what it means.
As young children, we built a structure of patterns to cope with the world. Eventually, we may come to see that these patterns no longer serve, and the beliefs that support them fall away. Nonetheless, these patterns are deeply engrained in the body, and long after we see through them with the mind, they can haunt us–literally–in our very cells.
As we repeatedly open to what is, the apparent time between the pattern asserting itself and the release of that pattern shortens.
For example, forty-some years ago, I discovered that when I had a feeling, my ability to identify that feeling might not surface for months. It had not been safe to express feelings in my family of origin. As my skill at allowing feelings developed–and as I learned to welcome them–I came to understand the quality of a particular feeling more and more quickly. The day came that anger or fear would show up, and I knew instantaneously what it was.
I have learned, however, that naming is not necessary. The first scent of the pattern wafts by, and is let go in the same instant. Release at inception.
There is a simpler way to express this that seems easier to understand. Natural release. The most natural thing in the world.
© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2013
photo credit
the heart of the matter 
This is quite lovely, Amrita. So clear
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Hi Amrita, nice to see a post after several weeks without.
Natural release is a lovely term. I used to carry a card around in my pocket on which I had written noticeletgo as a reminder. I blended the words “notice” & “let go” into one word to remind myself that when I became aware of a negative thought (or its always attendant emotion) I could immediately drop it without giving it any energy or further thought. I’d never heard of “release at inception” so I must have picked this up somewhere else. In the doing of it you find, indeed, that it is a naturally reflexive action. Returning is the motion of the Tao.
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