You Can't Grasp a River

A stream of river can't be grasped; 
once you try, it is no longer stream.

And so is Life.

...



When one drinks water,
he / she decides to drink it, then moves,
and feels the sensation of water going down
the throat.


We normally think of these actions and happenings
as a sequence - that the second comes after 
the first, and the third after the second - that each of
them can be fixated as something that "really" happened
at one point in time and space.




Is it true?


...



When you're feeling the sensation of the water
going down the throat, where is that "decision" that 
was made?  How can you tell that it existed?

Your memory?  Where else?


Are memories real?
Where are they?
Can you grasp them?




No mater how much you want to
preserve an experience, and preciously arrange 
them in order, it is going to be, at best, 
something like a set of specimen.

It's no longer IT.  No longer alive.



So, why bother chasing after a specimen butterfly
and LOOK at the real one?  :)




...



When you try to grasp the flow of water,
You'll most certainly fail.

Water stream is not a fixed entity that can be 
limited to exist in a certain point of time and space.
It is constantly renewing itself, and changing.


When we try to grasp Life, 
We'll most certainly fail,
since Life is a flow as well.


Life is HERE and NOW.
Flowing, like water.




Inquiry:

What is it that tries to intervene with
the present experience, here and now?

Can anything do it?





Some inspiring quotes:


“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will 
wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. 
As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding 
will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is 
another paradox: what is soft is strong.”
- Lao Tsu




“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. 
When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. 
When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. 
When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. 
Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
- Bruce Lee



"Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become
firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash 
is future and the firewood past. You should understand 
that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression 
of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the
phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes 
future and past. Just as firewood does not become 
firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to 
birth after death."

- Dogen