Enlightenment is when a wave realizes that it is the ocean. Thich Nhat Hanh
This is the quote which greeted me when I opened my Insight Timer app this morning. It’s not the first time I’ve read it, but it still stood out as one I wanted to highlight and remember.
It can be such a self-indulgence to think of myself as somehow different or special. In 12-step groups, this common phenomenon is called “terminal uniqueness”. I want to be set apart from, not be a part of. Ego demands difference. Lack of humility is reinforced by ego. Setting myself up as somehow unlike all the ‘you’s means I don’t have to dig deep; I don’t have to take a look at my own actions, because some random ‘you’ out there caused me to behave in the ways I did. It wasn’t my fault!
One of the most profound gifts in my life has been the tearing-down of the walls which I thought separated me from you, it, them - all of the perceptual differences. I am ocean; I don’t decide what aspect of the ocean I will be—I am simply a part of All.
What freedom there is in that realization! I still have personal responsibility, but I know that there is a vastness to existence which I don’t need to explain. I just need to do whatever I perceive to be my next right action, and be free of any expectation of outcome. Easy-peasy! Except that I have to consistently remind myself to do so!
Today, I am grateful to know that I am the ocean. Every wave is constantly in motion, changing places, flowing under, over, and around, always simply All.
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