Water

In Japan, there are women called Ama, sea women, who dive off the coasts to collect abalone, seaweed and even precious pearls. They train over years to suspend their breath to dive thirty meters slipping past rocky shoals and sharks. They are renown as robust traders who live to wise old ages to share their wondrous stories of the deep dives and big catches.

While they are part of a revered historical tradition dating back to the 8th century, some locals used to disparage them as half-naked sea nymphs for being too wild, outspoken and independent. Their glowing smiles needed no convincing as their self-sufficiency and healthy lives rewarded their adventurous spirits with priceless joy.

Within our own minds, we have a natural pearl of joy and peace. Call it the pineal gland, the left frontal lobe or brain plasticity, there are precious places of shining influence inside of us. Diving to polish these zones in meditation, our mental balance becomes a jewel of deep understanding and ultimate connection. We have to be a bit wild to open to the adventure of developing concentration. Then we can dedicate a whole lot of patient humour to swim with our emotional hiccups and habits of mind. 

Peace may start with just a drop of attention and eventually become a stream of clear lucid moments. At the very least, the time we spend observing our emotional tides come and go creates confidence to ride the waves and know they do dissolve. When we commit to fearlessly knowing our mind in meditation, again and again, the luster of practice reveals a raw and radiant life. ~ss