14 Quotes About Letting Go
From the Tao to Buddhism to wabi-sabi, the deepest skill is the willingness to release — outcomes, control, the way things were. These quotes are a small school in the open hand.
“Your right is to the work itself, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits of action be your motive; nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
“Established in yoga, perform action, having abandoned attachment. Evenness of mind, in success and failure, is called yoga.”
“He whose mind is undisturbed in sorrow, who craves no pleasure, and from whom attachment, fear, and anger have departed — he is called a sage of steady wisdom.”
“When a person dwells on the objects of the senses, attachment to them is born. From attachment, desire; from desire, anger.”
“Whoever offers me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water — that, the offering of the pure-hearted, I accept.”
“The Gita is for action — for action without attachment, in the world, by anyone, in any role.”
“To do your work without grasping for its fruit is not weakness. It is the highest possible relation to action.”
“The whole Gita is contained in two verses — 2.47 and 18.66. The first is how to act. The second is how to surrender. Together they are the entire path.”
“You have the right to action, but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.”
“The four phases of the flow cycle: struggle, release, flow, recovery. Skip any one and you cannot get the next.”
“A.R.E. — Are you Accessible? Are you Responsive? Are you Engaged? The three questions every adult attachment asks, every minute.”
“When you understand the meaning of impermanence, all clinging falls away. When clinging falls away, the heart is light. When the heart is light, the mind is free.”
“Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Once you accept this, the world stops being a disappointment and starts being a marvel.”