rays

Hello. I'm sitting on an island in the Maldives, right by the water. I hope you can hear me.

Whilst here I've been enjoying some scuba diving. It's always a great pleasure to plunge into the ocean. It's like entering a different world: one that one would never suspect existed, until one puts one's head under the water and enters that world. And this is a bit like spirituality, isn't it? We can exist, we can live out our life, without ever entering that realm. We may be totally unaware of its existence. But if we do enter, then what a world it is. It's like the tropical reefs here, full of surprises, beautiful.

There's one thing I wanted to mention specifically, which I saw just the other day whilst diving, the rays: there were many eagle rays. We spent several minutes just swimming gently with them, watching them. And I love the way they move, with waves rippling through their wings. It's pure grace. I reckon it's because they don't have bone. You know, I grew up in England, and there we're encouraged to have a stiff backbone, be very rigid.

That's not the way of spirituality. It's not the way of our buddha nature. Our buddha nature is very relaxed. It's a relaxed state of being. It's really the opposite of having that stiff backbone. And when we too are dwelling in our buddha nature, our movements become graceful. You may have noticed it if you've been with a living master, or seen some video footage. Oftentimes, just the way the hand moves, or the body: it's effortless, pure grace.

And this is what the eagle rays were reminding me of, the other day. Just watching them reminded me of the grace, not just graceful motion, of course, but the inner feeling of grace that comes to us, when we too stick our head beneath the waves, plunge into spirituality, and relax into our buddha nature.