Tibetan Buddhism & Culture · Chapter XIII
The Practice of
Letting Go
The hand that holds too tightly
cannot receive what is being offered.
Green Tara's open palm
has always known this.
Why We Hold On
There is something in the human mind that believes holding on is the same as being safe. We grip our plans, our relationships, our identities, our versions of how things should unfold — as though releasing even one of them would cause everything to collapse.
This is not weakness. It is one of the deepest conditioning patterns in samsaric existence — what the Buddha called upadana, the clinging that sits at the very root of suffering. We hold on because we are afraid. And we are afraid because, somewhere beneath the surface, we do not yet fully trust that something will catch us when we open our hands.
If you enjoy my articles and would like to support my creative work, you can make a small contribution below:
Chapter 12 invited us to trust the unseen path. But trust, for most of us, requires something more than willingness — it requires practice. And the practice begins with understanding precisely what we are holding, and why releasing it is not loss but liberation.
What Letting Go Is Not
Before we can understand the practice, we must gently clear away the most common misconceptions — because many practitioners resist letting go not because they are unwilling, but because they have misunderstood what it actually means.
It is not giving up, going numb, or pretending that what happened did not matter.
It is something far more courageous than any of these.
Letting go is not:
Green Tara and the Open Hand
Of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Vajrayana tradition, none embodies the teaching of letting go more perfectly — or more beautifully — than Green Tara herself.
Look carefully at her image. She does not sit in sealed, withdrawn meditation. She is actively turned toward the world — one leg drawn inward in stillness, one leg extended outward in readiness. She is simultaneously at rest and in motion. Neither grasping nor retreating.
But it is her hands that teach us most directly:
🌿 The Two Mudras of Green Tara
Right Hand — Varada Mudra
The gesture of supreme giving and release. Her right hand extends downward, palm open and facing outward — the gesture of offering freely, holding nothing back, giving without condition or expectation of return. Every time you see her right hand, it is teaching you: open. Release. Offer.
Left Hand — Vitarka Mudra
Her left hand is raised, holding the stem of a blue utpala lotus between her fingers — lightly, precisely, without crushing it. She holds the lotus just enough. Not so loosely it falls. Not so tightly the petals are destroyed. This is what letting go actually looks like — not white-knuckled gripping, not careless abandonment, but conscious, compassionate, perfectly calibrated holding.
Green Tara does not let go because she does not care. She lets go precisely because she cares so completely — she knows that true compassion never imprisons what it loves.
The Practice Itself
Understanding the teaching is one thing. Embodying it is another. Here are three simple practices rooted in the Tara tradition for ordinary daily life.
1. The Breath as Teacher
Every single exhale is a letting go. When you notice yourself gripping — a thought, a worry, a resentment — return to the exhale. Let the breath model what the mind is being asked to learn. Breathe out fully. Notice what remains.
2. The Tara Visualisation
Bring Green Tara's image gently to mind. See her right hand extended — varada mudra — palm open, facing you. Bring to mind the specific thing you are holding onto. Place it into her open palm. You are not destroying it — you are releasing it from your grip and allowing her boundless compassion to hold it instead.
A little support goes a long way! If you’d like to help me keep creating, you can do so at: Buy me a coffee
3. The Single Question
When clinging arises, pause and ask quietly: "What am I afraid will happen if I open my hand?" Do not answer immediately. Simply hold the question with the same lightness that Tara holds the lotus. Often the fear, once named, begins to loosen on its own.
We let go the way the lotus opens —
one petal at a time,
in its own perfect season.
A Closing Reflection
Green Tara's open hand has been extended toward us since before we knew we needed it. She has been waiting — not impatiently, not with judgment — simply waiting for the moment we are ready to release what we have been carrying alone for so long.
Letting go is not the end of caring. It is the beginning of a deeper, freer, more honest form of love — one that does not need the outcome to match the plan, does not need the path to look the way we imagined it would.
It is the love that Tara has always modelled — vast, responsive, and completely unafraid of the open hand.
Whatever you have been holding —
perhaps it is time to breathe out.
Her palm is open.
It has always been open.
And what she holds, she holds with infinite care.
The open hand is not emptiness —
it is the beginning of everything new.
The practice continues — and in Chapter 14, we turn to the invisible architecture beneath it all.
Aspiration for Bodhichitta
May the precious Bodhichitta, which has not yet arisen, arise.
May it never diminish, but grow and increase, further and further.
Dedication of Merits
By this merit, may we swiftly attain the omniscient state.
Having overcome all wrongdoing,
may we liberate all beings from the ocean of existence —
with its turbulent waves of birth, aging, sickness, and death.
If these reflections have brought some peace or gentle release to your path, you are warmly welcome to support this work at :
Thank you for reading. May you find peace, clarity, and great bliss along the path. 🙏
← Return to Tibetan Buddhism & Culture
Images are used for illustrative and editorial purposes only.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.