Meditation: The River

Written on April 5, 2005 As I was driving up to see Noah, Jess, and Jaimie yesterday, I fell to thinking about an interesting analogy – life as a river. I have been meditating for years on the idea that I am not a separate, isolated physical entity but rather part of a seamless whole, and yesterday I began thinking about that in terms of a river. I pictured someone standing on the bank of a deep, wide river and focusing on one tiny section of the water – perhaps a spot where there seems to be a small whirlpool. It would be easy for that person to imagine that the whirlpool is a separate, isolated entity, and that it somehow exists independent of the river itself. It would be easy, but it would be utterly wrong. In the same way, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that I am distinct and disconnected from the rest of the universe, but this, too, would be a mistake. Like the small section of the river with the whirlpool, I am a section of a river -- the vast river of life. I move because this river of life moves. I can no more be a separate, isolated entity than the whirlpool can be separate from the river. What’s even more fascinating is that this river of life that I am a part of is infinite. It has no banks and no bottom, no source and no mouth. Whether I am always aware of it or nor, I am part of an incomprehensibly powerful force that has no beginning and no ending and extends out forever in all directions. I might pretend that I am separate, that I live “my own life”, and that I’m responsible for thousands of important jobs, but I would be wrong. The river does all of the work. Like the little whirlpool, I just move along with it.