Be Like Water

“Be like Water”

Famously said by Bruce Lee. Yet, he was not the first to come up with the reference to water’s powerful force, yet unwavering and yielding flexibility.  

Nothing in the world is softer than water. The way of water is infinitely wide and incalculably deep, it extends indefinitely and flows boundlessly far. Increase and decrease pass without wreckoning. Up in the sky it turns into rain and dew; down in the earth it turns to moisture and wetlands. Beings cannot live without it, works cannot be accomplished without it. It embraces all life without personal preferences. Its moisture reaches even to creeping things, and it does not seek reward. Its wealth enriches the whole world, without being exhausted. Its virtues are disbursed to the farmers, without being wasted. No end to its action can be found. Its subtlety cannot be grasped. Strike it, and it is not damaged; pierce it, and it is not wounded; slash it, and it is not cut; burn it, and it does not smoke. Soft and fluid, it cannot be dispersed. It is penetrating enough to bore through metal and stone, strong enough to submerge the whole world. Whether there is excess or lack, it lets the world take and give. It is bestowed upon all beings without order of precedence, neither private or public, it is continuous with heaven and earth. 

- Wen-Tzu, a record of the teachings of Lang-tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching. 

You're mostly water.... Your body contains around 4 octillion molecules of H20. These water molecules floating around inside of you have been recycled for millenia. And there are SO many inside of you, that you currently have inside of you some (about 200 billion) of the same molecules that flowed through Jesus, Buddha, Lao-tzu, Einstein, and every other human that has ever existed on this earth. 

Not sure there is much else left to say here. The invitation is obvious. This seamless flow of actionless movement is not just the nature of water, but the nature of essence. The universe moves in the same way a glass of water does. Filling all voids. Ubiquitous. Soft, yet forceful. Everywhere, without effort. Moldable, yet without independent form. Life-giving and life-taking.

We don’t just mimic nature, we realize we are nature. We are the universe expanding. We are the big bang exploding. We are the constant flow of molecules birthing life over and over again. Filled with this wondrous enigma of consciousness time and time again.