What ideas do you cling to?

I recently joined the meditation club at my college. After we finish our meditation, the leader (a professor from the religion department) reads us a short zen thought, which ends by asking the rhetorical question, "What is the one true thing?"

It occurs to me that while we strive to find the truth, on the way there, we have many perceptions that can block our vision of the truth. These are perceptions of what we believe to be true, ideas that we hang onto to give us some guidance and support, scraps of wood to cling to as we are swept down the rushing river of life. To continue this metaphor, we cannot find our footing in the river or a swimming stroke in this river while we are still preoccupied with hanging onto these scraps of wood, these ideas that we try to convince ourselves are true. Not until we let go and acknowledge that we know nothing can we see the truth.

Giving up everything we think is true is a very difficult thing to do. We are held back by the fear that if we let go of what we believe, we will drown in the river before learning to swim. However, the successes we can find will greatly outweigh the fears we had in letting go. This idea of letting go of all that we think we know can be found throughout all sorts of books, movies, music, etc., throughout the ages. In the movie Fight Club, Tyler forces the narrator to hit rock bottom, give up all his possessions, his ideas of what is and what should be, and even be willing to let go of his own life in order for him to discover who he really is. Tyler tells him, "It's not until you lose everything that you are free to do anything." Similarly, the Hassidic musician Matisyahu, in his song "King Without a Crown", sings, "You got to give yourself up and then you become whole." Only if you can give up all the ideas that you have clung to as truth will your mind be open enough and free enough to let you see the real truth.

What ideas do you cling to?