"...letting replaces getting..." This says so much. 

It came to me awhile back that truth was not anything I came to know, hold, and live by. It was not something that I could write down or speak. Pride as much as shame, hope as much as despair, success as much as failure, gain as much as loss, faith as much as doubt were all part of truth. I came to see that paradox was the native tongue of truth, senseless, absurd or insane without experience. 

My "spiritual path" was alcoholism. Like the saint, the addict becomes more and more faithful to the object of their devotion, the revered choice of drink or drug (or wealth or power or fame or other worldly pursuits). 
Like the saint, the addict becomes less and less interested and attached to other things in their world. He or she will lose their car, house, teeth, family, and reputation yet never despair of or turn away from this “Beloved.” 
Like the saint, when--if--the addict finally reaches a bottom, he or she is almost zenfully clean of worldly trappings. The addict has found renunciation through over-indulgence, non-attachment through over-dependence: a reverse Zen yet nonetheless saintlike discovery about true freedom.
Yet in one aspect, the saint and the addict are the same: both are self-destructive (only the addict has a more literal interpretation of this vital spiritual practice).

 Ego appears to have a built-in obsolescence that worldly values look instead to repair. In essence, we are designed to fail in all of our earthly affairs. This is our Awful Mercy. It is the opportunity for our greatest freedom and deepest joy. But what has been made of us by the world says No. Surrender is not an option.