The Wave

The theme for today is "The Wave".

The bigger world, the universe, is like the ocean
or rather, the ocean is a small part of the universe.
It is made of waves upon waves, one after another,
big waves with smaller waves called ripples

The "self" is a big wave that you ride on,
and that at the same time IS you,
or rather,
the very dynamic conversation between you and world.

It's a bit of a paradox:
this is a highly skilled activity and accomplishment
and at the same time,
impossible not to do.

The waves come and go
the patterns repeat, but never exactly;
none of the forms are solid and lasting.

This situation of impermanence
shows up in many ways
and is understood through many guises and metaphors.

Becoming full, becoming empty.
The rising and subsiding of the breath, or a thought.
Picking up or dropping
(all told, our community has spoken more about "dropping"
 than the other side, picking up).

Getting involved with something
or getting un-involved with it
which is, to get involved with something else,
the "next" wave.

These are two sides of the same thing
like a swinging door:
if you look from one side things are coming in
and from the other side, leaving.

Giving and receiving also have these two sides
giving is to lose something
receiving is to gain, but also to lose something else.

Attachment:  a word for resisting giving and letting go,
holding onto what is leaving, or wanting it instead of what is coming.
Aversion:  a word for resisting receiving and picking up,
not accepting what is coming, or holding onto what it might replace:
Two views of one experience.

Thus impermanence has two sides:
it doesn't mean things are going to just disappear and not come back.
How wonderful, the coming as well as the leaving!

The quality of water itself
is completely fluid and relaxed
which is why water is such a common metaphor
for flexibility, adaptabilty,
being, change.

The skilled surfer riding the wave
becomes like water too,
completely relaxed.

Relaxation:
easy come, easy go.
What is it really?

The fluid base and the main skill of success for any endeavor.
Where you touch the substance, the actual event of what is happening.
This needs re-creation moment-by-moment.

Meditation practices cultivate a state of relaxed alertness.

Not a state of low energy
but a state of "free" energy
like a spinning top that looks still from a distance.
Energy flows through the body and mind
one is alert, responsive.

Sometimes in meditation
one can get a sense of the big wave of self
the wave that one is:
at any moment it seems to be that way forever
and appears to be similar from one day to the next:
we think and tell stories about it that are also similar.

Sometimes the wave seems to dissolve and re-form.
This can be both relieving and exhilarating at the same time.
Relieving letting go of the old
exhilarating picking up the new.
This is the felt experience
of energy moving through.

Little practices of awareness in the right now,
feeling deeply into
the relaxation and movement of body and breath
are like little tipping movements
of the relaxed surfer
riding the big wave of life.

Or they can be like untying a bigger knot:
just a little loosening
starts a change to the whole pattern.

The knot and string are themselves, relaxed.
I think it's funny
that sometimes the unthinking wind
loosens the most carefully tied knots.

We define ourselves by our preferences
about the coming and going:
toward picking up/receiving/welcoming
and letting go/giving/wishing farewell.

It's all as natural as water running downhill
and full of real-world and emotional risks and challenges.

What are your experiences with relaxation?

With letting things go,
and receiving them with open arms
or picking them up with both hands?

Maybe today I am like water,
tomorrow, an old tree.