The ebb and flow of life

During my first year in Japan, I hitchhiked for two weeks, visiting rural fishing villages on the west coast and relying on the kindness of the people I met. I visited tiny villages that had no hotels and very few tourists. Upon entering a village, I would find a kind-looking soul and pantomime that I needed a place to sleep. Sometimes my acting skills were not enough to get the message across, and sometimes I wound up in the house of a family willing to take in visitors for a small fee. I ate with my hosts and was then led to a simple room to sleep in.

In one village I had the privilege of staying with a remarkable man and his family. One night the man and I sat on a small wooden dock by the ocean. Using lots of gestures to help me understand, the man told me about his life. He was 63 years old. As a boy he'd been very involved in studying karate, but at the age of nineteen his life changed dramatically. Working on his father's boat in rough seas, he lost his balance and fell just as he was throwing a heavy fishing cage overboard. His left leg got caught in the line attached to the cage, and the damage caused to the muscle and nerves of his left calf was severe. He had been limping ever since. Once he realized he'd no longer be able to practice karate, he made a firm commitment to use his life as a fisherman to further his studies of the art. He read various books written by martial arts masters and then applied the principles of what he learned to his work life.

"One of the most important things I learned, he said, is to create a rhythm with your posture, movements and breathing that matches the rhythm of nature. When I injured myself on the boat, I was so involved in handling the heavy cage, I lost touch with the flow of my surroundings. I was fighting against the ocean, rather than moving with it. Guess what? The ocean won!"

"Notice the gentle ebb and flow of the ocean as we sit here now and the sound of the tide lapping against the pilings of the pier. As you sense the movement and sounds of the ocean, notice your breathing and feel your body responding."

I began to do as he suggested and felt myself being drawn into a parallel world that was outside my everyday awareness.

"Feel the life force of the ocean and without doing anything, allow yourself to move with the ocean. Breathe, move and feel your heartbeat. Invite your heartbeat to synchronize with the heartbeat of the ocean.

"Now you're becoming one with the water, and you might sense the fluids in your body ebbing and flowing like the ocean entering into a shallow inlet made of coral.

"Like the ocean, you can begin to feel the power of flowing without resisting. Flowing without fighting against. Water surrounds and moves past all obstacles, and you can do the same.

"Only flow.

"A single drop of water has no power. A single drop of water moving with the flow of the ocean forms a wave. The power of the wave comes from joining with. The same is true of you and me."

We sat there together for awhile. The man, the ocean and myself. Not separate, but together. In this moment, I sense all power is really One.

Such was my journey.