I am chatting with Judith on IM and she's come up with a wonderful image.  Thought i'd share it here :

"i have this wonderful image - mantra - way of thinking - we are clay, if we are brittle we dry up and crack into a million pieces - dust - but if we stay maleable and fluid we can always reshape or be reshaped"

Reminds me of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, where he uses three symbols and images in the novel: the potter's wheel, the caged bird, and the river.

"The potter's wheel, once set in motion, turns for a very long time and then eventually stops; it is similar to the wheel of the ascetic, the wheel of thinking, the wheel of discrimination which revolve for a long time in Siddhartha's soul."

His use of the river as a metaphor too is powerful - as a symbol for the flow of life, its continuity, and its ability to hold myriads of things while still representing unity and oneness.

Something to think about in a world that so often puts you in hard-cast moulds, that clips your wings and cages you and drowns you rather than letting you go with the flow of discovery.