I have had a love, hate relationship with water for many years. I could not swim and this was a major reason. But I still cannot swim but I am not scared of water as much as I used be. So, over the past 4 years I have become less paralysed by water so that I could enjoy water activities like getting into a pool, kayaking, canoeing and I recently went whitewater rafting.
Water has taught me great many lessons about life apart from over coming my paralysing fear of it.
Water has a natural quality of flowing. It flows through everything. Even through hard rocks. I remember walking through some tunnels in Jasper, Alberta carved by water. The water no long flows through them but they certainely used to. It also has a way of finding it's way. I remember reading that water stopped flowing because of some geological changes and that after a while it carved out a new way for it to flow. So now it has a new direction to flow. Probably, many years later, if that avenue closes it door, water will find another direction. It never stops flowing. I find that a lovely quality. Our life is the same. It too flows, just like water. It has to flow, otherwise we fail in our own growth.
But in that journey, it encounters obstacles, some hard and others easy. Through it all life must find a way. It can find a way. It's ironic that I find myself getting bogged down with difficulties in life and sometimes attached to plesant things. If my life is like water I need to cultivate the ability walk past both because getting bogged down and getting attached are both hazards. They will both hinder my natural flow of life.
Another quality I see in water is it's state of balance. I don't know much science behind water currents and waves and etc. But this time when we went whitewater rafting, I realised that one can to some degree work with the flows and currents of water to guide the raft through. While the water looks out of control and scary, there seem to be some patters to it that if one know how to, can guide through it. I think, this quite similar to life. As Ajhan Brahm says, life is out of control so relax and enjoy the ride. I believe him to be correct now after my own experieces of it. I think we try to control and manouver life too much instead of flowing with it's tides, it's currents and patters. It has it's own ways and we need to work with it's patters to stay afloat. Most of us forget that and that I believe is the reason why we stress out so much, get in to problems unnecessarily. We just need to relax and join in the ride!
I also find disturbances in water whether they are as huge as tsunamis or as small as ripples are also interesting teachers. I think ripples are like our normal day-to-day emotions-both negative and positive. Ripples happen when the water is disturbed by an object. Just like ripples, when the mind encounters an object, it creates a wave in the positive or the negative direction. Ripples don't last forever. They arise and they gradually lose it's intensity and die. So do our emotions be they positive or negative. But we mess around with these naturally arising emotions. We hold on to our emotions by wanting more of it or wanting less of it. It's like the water not letting go of a ripples. What a mess that would be?! So, we essentially create a mess in ourselves. Instead trying to grab hold of our emotions or get rid of our emotions, we must simpley let them arise and let them cease just like ripples. How peaceful life would be if only we learnt to do that.
A tsunamis of emotions?! Well that's a hard one. Well I guess that's when people hurt themselves and others in very harmful ways.
You know how if water gathers in one place, it creates breeding grounds for mosquitoes and usually harmful things for humans. Well, I see life in the same way. When we hold our life, by way of not forgiving, not letting go, trying to control, I see that we essentially block our flow of life and make it a breeding ground for basically greed, hatred and delusion.
Water is pure and can benefit all. So can life if used well. Water has taught me many lessons. While there are many to share, I shall leave the rest for those who read to fill. I think I have become less scared of water partly because I see how much it's connected to life.
No comments:
Post a Comment