On the non dual scene, which metaphor illustrates better the plaguing illusory sense of self than the Wave that feels separate from the Ocean, and mighty independent with its own power?
Given the rising mercury at our last meeting before the summer break, we first got our feet wet with Wayne Liquorman: The ocean and the wave
“All there is, is Ocean. It is not an object, it does not exist IN something. It is ALL.”
“The waves are the objects of the Universe. They are movements of the Ocean. These waves have qualities and characteristics. In these movements, things happen. All the wave is, is the Ocean”
Then we went diving at the deep end with Dorothy Hunt by reviewing “Ten Misconceptions about the Shoreless Ocean and its Waves”:
A wave has a solid, permanent, separate “self,” separate from the Ocean that gives it its life, its existence, its breath, its movement, its senses, its experience.
A wave must eradicate all faults and delusions, control all of its movements, do many special practices, train for eons, accumulate special powers, and so become worthy in order that one day, it can become water.
A wave can know the Ocean as an object, can produce the Ocean, can possess the Ocean, can control the Ocean, can “attain” the Ocean, can judge what should or should not be the Ocean’s movements.
The Ocean prefers one wave over another, that only a very special wave gets to be Ocean water, that the Ocean only pervades certain forms, waves, movements; that only calm, “good” waves get to live in the Ocean.
A storm at sea means the wave has misbehaved or is unworthy, or that the clarity or muddiness of Ocean water is the accomplishment or failure of the wave.
A wave that is enlightened rather than the Ocean that wakes itself up from its own forgetfulness as what it is, Source.
Once its true nature is remembered, the wave will always behave according to a fixed set of rules, will never be moved by feelings of joy or sorrow, like or dislike, and that it must “hold on” to a still mind, hold on to the Ocean’s still depths.
A “master” wave can give or bestow upon another wave its wetness.
In order to become the Ocean, there is a shore where the wave needs to arrive in the Shoreless Ocean!
A wave’s arising or disappearing means the beginning or ending of its Life as the Ocean.
Didier made a demonstration on the blackboard at how the 5 senses and the clever thinking human mind, hold the illusory wave together, as if a wave could possibly crest, exist independently and never dissolve back to where it arose from and what it is made of.
The last words could be those of Jeff Foster:
“Stop comparing, you are life itself. You are unique; your journey is wholly original. We may all be expressions of the very same ocean of consciousness, but at the same time, we are all unique expressions of that very ocean, totally unique in our wave-ness!
Don’t compare yourself with anyone else! When you start comparing, you devalue your own unique, irreplaceable gifts, talents and truths and disconnect from your unique present experience. Don’t compare this moment with any image of how it could, should, or might have been.
Healing is possible when you say YES to where you are now, even if it’s not where you dreamed you would be 'by now'. Trust, and trust sometimes that you cannot trust. Perhaps even your inability to trust can be trusted here, and even the feeling that you cannot hold the moment, is itself already being held..."
Have a great summer and see you refreshed after the break! Surf's up!