Lesson of the Day: Water
"Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merily
Life is but a dream."
It seems so obvious, this little ditty we sung growing up – but until I was sent it in an email today by Paul, I didn’t concentrate on the words at all.
Go on – go back and read the words…
Interesting, no?
The words ‘things are as they are’ echo in my mind.
While thinking of water, and what it means to go with the flow while heeding Thomas Moore’s cauiton to do so without being the ‘common man’.
I sense an inherent tension here…and to explore it I thought I would share a story.
Below is a shortened version. I found it contained in the book I am currently re-reading, "The Tao of Pooh" (as in Winnie, the Pooh). The full story is found in the chapter called "the Pooh Way", which is an attempt to apply an English translation to "Wu Wei"* – literally ‘without causing or making’.
"At the Gorge of Lu the greatest waterfall plunges thousands of feet, its spray visible for miles. In the churning waters, no visible creatures can be seen. Imagine the surprise when K’ung Fu-Tse, standing near the edge, saw an old man being tossed about in the churning frothy waters. Calling to his disciples to help him rescue the victim, by the time they caught up, the old man had climbed onto the bank and was walking along, singing to himself.
Hurrying to catch up with him, "you would have had to be a ghost to survive that, but you seem to be a man" said Kung Fu-Tse, "what secret power do you have to survive that?".
"Nothing special the old man replied. "I began to learn while very young, and grew up practicising it. Now I am certain of success. I go fown with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don’t struggle against the water’s superior power. That’s all"
Hmm.
Some water quotes to muse on:
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"Muddy water, let stand – becomes clear" – Lao Tzu
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"You don’t down by falling in the water, you drown by staying there" – Edwin Louis Cole
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"Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is unnoticable” – Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.
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"Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it" – - Lao Tzu
*For those wanting a deeper understanding of Wu Wei here is a poem from the aptly named "Book of Wisdom" – "Tao tay ching", translated by Man-Ho Kwok:
"Usually people read because they want to know But the more you study the tao the less you want knowledge And as you want less and less You come closer and closer to not doing Wu Wei - this is the way to get things down. The best way to run the way Is to let it take its course" thanks also to Charlie for keeping my focus on water and its healing properties simply by being! And to get yourself out of the way of it."
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