by Edward Traversa

Created on: April 28, 2008

All at Sea

There is a common metaphor used when describing the reality of life that utilizes a wave and an ocean. Perhaps you have heard of it before? No matter if you have, it will not hurt to hear it again.

Imagine the only thing in existence is a body of water that is known as an ocean; one vast ocean and nothing else. This ocean has always existed and always will. It is a timeless ocean. We can ponder what it may be like to be a conscious wave. From the perspective of a wave not knowing its true nature, it may look towards other waves and start the same process of separation that human beings participate in.

Within this ocean there are waves that have an unshakable belief that there true nature is that of a wave. As such they are unaware of the underlying reality of the ocean and continue on identifying themselves as waves. When a wave is compared to another wave it can be described in many ways. It can be depicted in terms of how high or low the wave is or how big or small it is. It can be described in terms of powerful or less powerful or similar or dissimilar. If there is a perception of a wave that is gently ebbing in and out it can be described as peaceful or beautiful. If the wave takes the form of a tsunami it seems to be about horror and destruction. Sometimes there seems to be a beginning to the wave and sometimes there appears to be an ending as it laps up against the shore; a pseudo appearance of birth and death and of coming and going.

An idea may form in the consciousnesses of the wave. This idea may be that "I am not as big as the other waves" or "I am not as peaceful as the other waves" or "I am not as beautiful as the other waves." A wave may perceive a beginning of its life as a wave and an ending of its life as a wave. The wave begins to suffer from the plague of ideas or more aptly from the plague of attachment to those ideas. It lives its life in fear. Fearing that it is disconnected and separate it may try to merge with other waves. Fearing its inevitable extinction it does not know how to embrace life and seeks only to extend the moments that seem peaceful or happy and minimize the moments that are not peaceful or happy.

Never realizing its true nature it seeks more moments of happiness or peace or connection, thinking that is the answer to the mystery of life. But the wave does not know life, it knows only fear where each of its movements are a movement away from fear and invariably back to fear. No matter what it tries, fear always

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