The ocean is the greatest teacher. In staying on the Atlantic for a month it is amazing to witness constant fluctuations in tide, wind, current and temperature. Wave after wave the ocean is always different. Like the many passing moments in a day, the ocean changes constantly. At the same time, when you look out to the horizon over the ocean, it is just one expanse, singular and unbroken. I like to sit and hold my gaze off to infinity, where water and sky join together as one.
That the ocean is both many and one is an essential teaching on the path of yoga. Each day we encounter a myriad number of impressions. Each day we are tossed to and fro by oscillating waves of experience—conversations, sending and receiving, attending to business. In the midst of endless fluctuation, can you at the same time hold your vision steady on the one undivided space that underlies all things?
In yoga, the ocean is likened to awareness itself. Waves of people, thought and emotion come and go. So become the ocean, riding each individual wave as they appear, while at the same time staying fluid and infinitely supple as the wide, wide sea.
