And there was wonder, too: he learned to see the wind by watching patches of ruffles on the water’s surface. To be on the sea at dawn, with the clouds blazing pink and gold, the sky all kinds of blue, the ocean reflecting everything above, as that ball of fire rose above the horizon, was like being inside a painting.
Related Quotes
”We asked our students to observe water as a way of understanding the power of surrendering. (See the water exercise later in this chapter.) One student described his experience in this way:
I begin to wonder what’s so captivating about water. I can sit for hours looking at the ocean, a creek, lake or fountain, and feel totally absorbed as well as soothed. I wonder why. A breeze comes up and fractures the lake’s placid surface into a wild pattern of dancing ripples. Several thoughts about water come to mind. Water is dynamic, always different and never the same; water is flexible with a fluid adaptability, yet it has a collective force that’s awesome; water is without color of its own - it reflects beautifully the color and lights of its surroundings; water is. Water is? Sure, it never pretends to be something else. This is the essence of its being, its natural intelligence.
She grew larger. From within, Bird thrummed against her: his heels the mallets, her belly the drum. She could feel his hiccups, a microscopic ping. When he turned over, she felt the movement inside her stillness. What’s it feel like, Ethan asked, wondrous, and she tried to explain: what the ocean floor felt as the waves rolled out, then in. The librarian slid another book across the counter toward her as she ventured farther and farther from shore.
The Gates of Flame
“After a few days they knew they were close to the lake. The light ahead of them looked thicker, softer with the burden of water below. The thought of the lake made everyone happier.
In one of the many songs that define his teachings, a student asks the master, ‘I can contemplate the sky, but clouds make me uneasy. Milarepa, tell me how to meditate on clouds.’ Tell me, in effect, how I can achieve equanimity when the clouds get in the way of my seeing the empty, immense sky.
The student goes on and asks again about the difficulty he has in meditating on the calm beauty and serenity of the sea when all he can see is the waves.
Wise Milarepa, the young boy who turned his suffering into violence only to learn how to truly be with his pain, answers, ‘If the sky’s as easy as you say, clouds are just the sky’s play.’ He then adds that ‘waves are just the sea’s play.’ We can’t separate the clouds from sky or the waves from the sea. There is no space between our thoughts, however painful they might be, and our mind. ‘Let your mind stay within the sea,’ he advises, and so, too, ‘Let your mind stay within your mind.
The Gates of Flame
“After a few days they knew they were close to the lake. The light ahead of them looked thicker, softer with the burden of water below. The thought of the lake made everyone happier.