The wind, the tides, the moon, the sun, had created the ideal conditions; so from the sea a wave came into being. To the mighty infinite ocean, so deep and calm, the wave was simply a manifestation of its love, of life’s longing for itself.
As the new wave travelled across the vast ocean, she felt happy. She marvelled at the sound of whale songs, felt pleasure at the gentle warming of the sun, felt refreshed by the wind.
Although the wave was part of the sea, she could not help but see herself as different, separate from the sea. “I am a wonderful wave, I am different, I am separate” she thought, but at the very moment she thought these things she felt fear for the first time: “I am small, I am alone, I am vulnerable, I will die”.
And so her journey continued, rolling ever onward across the surface of the deep, calm, loving ocean.
The shore was now coming closer. She trembled as she knew that she would soon be dashed upon the rocks and that would be her death, the end of her. She felt terrified, alone.
Now the inevitable moment, the moment she feared for so long, was upon her; the wave smashed against the rock in a thunderous explosion of spray and foam. Her fear was unbearable but as she dissolved so too did her illusion of separateness. As she became enveloped in the loving embrace of the sea, she realised that she was returning to the sea. In that instant she knew that she had never been anything else but a part of the deep, loving and infinite ocean. She was never separate; simply a manifestation of love, of life’s longing for itself.
As the sea enfolded her she felt herself simultaneously larger and smaller, full of wonder. She knew that she had finally come home to her true state of love.
We are all like that wave, suffering the persistent illusion of separateness. In reality, we are no more separate from the universe than the wave is separate from the sea. Our ignorance of this reality is the root of all of our suffering.
We are simply a conscious manifestation of the Universe; we arise when the conditions are right, when we are free of the ego’s illusion of separateness and we become free of fear, of grasping and of aversion. In this moment we discover that our natural state is love.
If we practice and are fortunate, we will experience moments of egoless connection to all; in that moment we know that we are not separate; we know that separation would simply be impossible.
