The Joy of Water
“Who says a water bottle is boring when Joy pours out?”
~Cute pic and quote by A.Void.
Water is the essence of life and one of the major elements after fire.
Water is the second element, yet most mysterious. As mist, ethereal. As water, fluid and flowing. As ice, crystalline.
Water has no color and no movement. Wind moves it, earth holds it, fire warms it. Moon governs it.
What to say of water, when 70% of body is of this element?
What to say about transparency - how it reflects and holds emotions, like that ubiquitous one, Joy?
What to say about cleansing- how it divests the impure to leave that which is?
What to say about water that stagnates, like when ego is as ice?
From fluidity to frozen, is this the pendulum of awakening— or another trick of the ego, seemingly fluid, but building a storm in the background?
How to master water, that elusive, feminine one?
Questions for Introspection, Reflection & Meditation
The image is light-hearted, but begs the question: can a mere water bottle contain joy? Can we imbibe emotions in water so that water resonates them? If so, can we use water and meditation techniques to clear stagnant energy and emotions in our bodies? Are there meditation techniques that use physical water as a way of clearing the old and focusing on presence?
There is an emphasis on the placement of water within the elements. Water is a major one—water is the second. How many elements are there? Why is water given this important placement as the second? Why is fire the 1st element and not water if 70% is water?
Have you ever felt your ego as ice? Frozen, unmoving, unrelenting? Or perhaps, more like earth, stubborn an unyielding? Can we use the 4 elements in regards to knowing when ego is there and when ego is not? How does presence or being present feel in relation to the 4 elements?
Awakening is likened to a pendulum—now with moments of clarity, now again in the grips of the darkness of ego. Can ego be fluid as water, or is it a pretense of the ego? Is presence the true fluidity of water, like let go, detachment and emptiness?
Are we to master the 4 elements or to balance them within ourselves? How do we go about doing that? Can meditation techniques be classified as one of the 4 elements?
