try swimming in the rain

I like it best if the water that I'm swimming in is rather warm, and the rain that is falling is cooler. And I find, with this pastime, that the contrast in temperature and the distinct forms of the water – the body of water around my body and the drops of water falling as rain – these distinctions, somehow, cause the mind to break free from some of its preconceptions. It's almost as if the mind is confused by experiencing the two forms of water so directly and at the same time: the warm, rather supportive, nurturing feeling of the water that I'm immersed in; and yet the cooler, staccato effect of the raindrops.

And looking around, one sees the raindrops hitting the surface of the water, splashing as if bouncing off the surface of the water for a few centimetres. It is beautiful to see this, with one's eyes just above the surface. It's as close as we can get to seeing that interface, that boundary. For of course, the raindrops are joining that great body of water, be it the ocean, a lake, a swimming pool, a river. The individual drops are merging into something much larger. And this is a reminder of how we, too, are nothing but a little raindrop, on our way back to an ocean of being.

So seeing all these raindrops – whizzing through the air with so much vitality, and yet, disappearing in the moment of a splash, into the ocean – seeing this, we should remember that we too have come from the ocean; just as the rain has come from a cloud, from water condensing in the sky after having evaporated from the ocean elsewhere.

There is a cycle to it, a lifecycle of water. And so it is with us humans. We come into being, just as a raindrop forms in the cloud. And for a while we live out our little life, no more than a raindrop falling to the earth. And then with a splash it is all over. And once more, we are part of the ocean.

So contemplate this, whilst watching the rain falling into the sea around you. Try taking a swim in the rain.