Liquid Zen

8. Great Waves

In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves.
O-nami was immensly strong and knew the art of wresting. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public was so bashful that his own pupils threw him.
O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his great trouble.
"Great Waves is your name," the teacher advised, "so stay in this temple tonight. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land."
The teacher retired. O-nami sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as waves. He thought of many different things. Then gradually he turned more and more to the feeling of waves. As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea.
In the morning the teacher found O-nami meditating, a faint smile on his face. He patted the wrestler's shoulder. "Now nothing can disturb you," he said. "You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you."
The same day O-nami entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in Japan was able to defeat him.

Well, I'm not O-nami, but I often bring this story to my mind. I know I have a reasonably good paddling skill set, but I am often intimidated by new or big rapids. Sometimes they throw me! As O-nami turned more and more to the feeling of the waves, I turn myself more and more to the feeling of the water, to use its flow to carry me through the rapids, to sweep me where I want to go down the river.
Sometimes when I'm scouting I deliberately look where the main flow of water is going and consider how it will get me where I want to go. Is there something I would want to miss? Is there something I would want to play with? How can I best follow that flow? How can I best use it?
There's nothing like a little meditation.

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