Lost he feels at every turn of life. A sense of hopelessness sneaks its way into his mind when others depend on him too much for his liking. A seemingly never ending battle leads him to find sanity through solitude, so he goes into the woods alone.
There he finds himself a spot almost entirely out of a movie scene, with water roaring and an open view of the mountains that hugged the land around him. Setting down his things his body encourages him to lay down and rest on this uneven, but best of the bunch, rock. Uneven as it is, and as muddy and wet as it was, it was enough to ease the tension that had been been building up in his body. For not even he can remember how long it has been. Stillness was all it took for him to feel, of non-action from a seemingly never ending battle. He knows that he must continue on, the battles will always come. Even so, he just wants to rest for the moment. From the physical and psychological pain and suffering that he still endures. So for now, for this moment, he will just lay here in the sun and be nothing.
His eyesight is set on the blue sky above, nothing can waver his attention to it, not even the roaring echo of the the river running down near where he now lays. The sound of the water endlessly sprinting its way down through the mountains grasps his attention. Not taking away from his peculiar concentration on the blue sky above, but rather serving as a needed accomplice.
Even though his eyesight is set above, the picture of the river is painted for him through the sounds that meet his ears. He listens as the water smashes into rocks, twisting and turning its way through nature’s obstacles course. He can see how deep the water goes, its edges, when it narrows and when it slows. The sounds begin to register as waves to his senses, the sensation brings about a courage in him to explore it further. Fully allowing himself to become part of the environment around him, he was the blue sky above, the water rushing below, the trees and rocks, the wind. He was floating through time and space itself. He has forgotten where his body ends and the sky begins.
All this, imagined in an instant… like a flash in his mind. Then almost as if someone had turned the keys of an engine on, his mind went right into dissecting that moment. From the emotions it brought him, the feelings and sensations, to the realizations he gained from understanding his emotions towards the moment itself.
Out of the many lessons he got highlighted through his stillness one stuck out the most to his perception and that was what he understood from the running water he hears but does not see. The water, no matter how many turns and twist it must do, never stops pushing forward. Its force rivals that of time itself, ever flowing, but the river moves faster. It knows its destination and doesn’t have an ounce of doubt about its direction, no matter how many times in crashes and falls. It just forces itself onward, taking its place in the universe, not just waiting for it to happen. It makes it happen.
The biggest realization he gained however was not one from the moment itself or becoming the moment. It was a hidden layer, a secret encoded in the very fabric of the cause and effect of his every action and non-action. Be nothing.
Not to be misunderstood as do nothing, be nothing is meant to be interpreted along the lines of not labeling yourself as anything. It is when we begin to label and associate things in life such as problems, successes, pain, joy, loved ones, and hated ones. Labeling things and attaching yourself to that label traps you into a game, it is the Chinese finger trap of life.
There is a duality to everything in life so when you take on a way of being and see only that way, you are blatantly ignoring the other true reality that mirrors that which you hold to be true. Both being true because neither could be without the other also being. So if duality is to be understood, and you are a man who is carried by his morality, than accepting the dual truth to everything is the next path of the journey to enlightenment. Making sure to not lose his morality and force himself to watch as he fall down further than where he started.
Being nothing really means to allow yourself to be anything and everything needed at any given moment in order to continue forward in congruence with your philosophy of life. Water becomes whatever the environment it is put into, but water always remains water. While sometimes its in large quantities and summoning a force propelling it forward, it can also be scooped up, put into a cup, and remain still. With no complaints, it doesn’t associate itself with the destination of the river, it is prepared to change at will because it understands what it is.
Water is the teacher to the embodiment of the path of nothingness. The path of being able to be everything and anything, that you are nothing at any given moment.
