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Mind Waves
Shunryu Suzuki on calming the mind, the “practice” of meditation, and expressing your true nature.
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Imagine, for a moment, that you are a fish. You’re way out in the middle of the ocean, and a storm is raging. The surface of the sea is turbulent. Waves are rising and falling and crashing all around you, picking you up and tossing you about. You’re at the ocean’s mercy, up here on the surface of the sea, carried away by the rise and fall of its every wave. So, you dive down beneath the surface, and you swim deeper. The deeper you go, the more tranquil the water becomes. Swim deep enough, and you discover that, beneath all that chaos on the ocean’s surface, the water is comfortable and calm. The water is peaceful, deep down underneath it all, unaffected by the storms that rage up above.
Your mind is the ocean, in this cute little parable-ish story. Your mind is an ocean of consciousness; it is vast and it is deep. On the surface of your mind, storms of thoughts and emotions rage. In the depths of your being, there is peace and calm. The fish is your awareness, to continue the analogy. And the act of diving down beneath the surface of this ocean that is your mind is the practice of meditation.
