Chapter 131அதிகாரம் 131 விடுதல் Letting Go

Grip a dewdrop tight and it breaks apart; look at it, and it is a flower.

Squeezed, a dewdrop is only water on the fingers; left where it lies, it shines among the petals.

Pull on a knot and it grips harder; turn it back and ease it, and it comes undone into plain rope.

If a branch gripped tight snaps, letting go is what saves the fingers.

The man who says, ‘The body changes, not the face,’ weeps on the day the mirror shows him otherwise.

The sprouted seed lets go of its shell; by that letting go, all that branches upward is new.

Even letting go is a hold; let go in anger, and its name is hatred.

The ornament is taken from the neck and laid down; yet the flesh is always searching for the place where its shape can be found.

Once the wings have grown, the nest is a prison; to let the wing go is to be a mother.

The hand that tied is the hand that unties; if it does not untie, that same hand is the fetter.

The more you tighten your grip on the world, the smaller it grows; the more you loosen your hold, the wider it grows.