Wish I could post some profound wisdom that would stay with you always. Or tell you something that would tickle your funny bone enough to make you smile off and on throughout your day.... but I have nothing of my own to share. I am merely an accumulation of many teachers and teachings of the years anyway...... so why not share something from one of them?
A simple fish nosing its way along the bottom is in itself a profound teacher, and like the deepest teachers, it doesn't even know it is teaching. Yet in its tiny, efficient gill lives the mystery of how to live as a spirit on Earth.
As we all know, by swimming, the smallest fish takes in water, and its gill turns that water into the air by which it lives. Though there are biological details that explain the mechanics of this, it is, in essence, a mystery.
The question is, What in us is our gill? Our heart, our mind, our spirit, a mix of all three? Whatever it is, like the smallest fish we must turn water into air in order to live, which for us means turning our experience into something that can sustain us. It means turning pain into wonder, heartache into joy.
Nothing else matters, and just like fish we must keep swimming to stay alive. We must keep swimming through the days. We cannot stop the flow of experience or the need to take it in. Rather all our efforts must go into learning the secret of the gill, the secret of transforming what we go through into air.
As you breathe, notice how turning air into breath is what keeps you alive.
Keep breathing slowly, and as you breathe, open your heart to the mystery of turning experience into feeling and pain into wonder.
Inhale deeply, and let the gill inside you work.
I hope your day teaches you something worth keeping. I hope you can dive into the deep of something you have learned. I hope you are hugged by another and held by the One who loved you into being..
A simple fish nosing its way along the bottom is in itself a profound teacher, and like the deepest teachers, it doesn't even know it is teaching. Yet in its tiny, efficient gill lives the mystery of how to live as a spirit on Earth.
As we all know, by swimming, the smallest fish takes in water, and its gill turns that water into the air by which it lives. Though there are biological details that explain the mechanics of this, it is, in essence, a mystery.
The question is, What in us is our gill? Our heart, our mind, our spirit, a mix of all three? Whatever it is, like the smallest fish we must turn water into air in order to live, which for us means turning our experience into something that can sustain us. It means turning pain into wonder, heartache into joy.
Nothing else matters, and just like fish we must keep swimming to stay alive. We must keep swimming through the days. We cannot stop the flow of experience or the need to take it in. Rather all our efforts must go into learning the secret of the gill, the secret of transforming what we go through into air.
Sit quietly and breathe slowly
As you breathe, notice how turning air into breath is what keeps you alive.
Keep breathing slowly, and as you breathe, open your heart to the mystery of turning experience into feeling and pain into wonder.
Inhale deeply, and let the gill inside you work.
Taken from The Book of Awakening, by Mark Nepo
I hope your day teaches you something worth keeping. I hope you can dive into the deep of something you have learned. I hope you are hugged by another and held by the One who loved you into being..
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