Week 2021-30: On Letting go

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." (Havelock Ellis)

"By letting go it all gets done." (Lao Tzu)

"Hanashi, 'letting go' means that when one strategy does not work you let go of it and try something new." (Frederick J Loveret, "The Way and the Power: Secrets of Japanese Strategy", 1987)

"It is wisdom that enables letting go of a lesser happiness in pursuit of a happiness which is greater." (Dhammapada)

"Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day." (Zen saying)

"Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself." (Deborah Reber)

"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness." (Thich Nhat Hanh)

"Meditation is a skillful letting go: gently but with resolution." (Ajahn Sumedho)

"Meditation means to be constantly extricating yourself from the clinging of mind. By letting go of even the thought ‘I,’ and 'me' what is left? There is nowhere to stand and no one to stand there. No separation anywhere. Pure awareness. Neither this, nor that. Just clarity and being." (Ram Dass)

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go." (Herman Hesse)

"Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be." (Alan Watts)

Week 2017-03

[#assumptions, #errors]
"Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions." (Frank Herbert, “Dune - Children of Dune”)

[#wisdom, #knowledge]
"To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of eternal things; to knowledge, the rational knowledge of temporal things." (Saint Augustine)

[#skills, #growth]
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." (Henry David Thoreau)

[#love, #desire]
"Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company." (Milan Kundera)

[#letting go, #control]
"Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself." (Deborah Reber)

[#limits, #balance]
"Sometimes we have to travel to the edge of ourselves to find the center." (Buck Ghosthorse)

[#change, #perception]
"If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it." (Mary Engelbreit)

[#appearances, #errors]
"Be suspicious of anything that works perfectly - it’s probably because two errors are canceling each other out." (Dave Bartley)

[#teaching, #practice]
"Never forget that, at the most, the teacher can give you fifteen percent of the art. The rest you have to get for yourself through practice and hard work." (Tan Soh Tin)

[#reason, #action]
"Those who will not reason perish in the act: Those who will not act perish for that reason." (W.H. Auden)