Water and meditation
Jenabean
New
Hey guys and gals!
I was wondering if anyone had heard of or had any first hand experience with incorporating water into meditation?
I ask because for me, if I believed in a God, it would be water. However I don't but I think you get the point. Water makes me feel so serene and at peace and the second I am submerged in it via a pool or lake etc it's like instant euphoria which wanes into tranquility. I think about it a lot when I am stressed out. I think about the sound it makes and the smell of it.
I wouldn't say I obsess about it because I still probably only think about it for a couple minutes out of every day (except when I am swimming) Anywho.. I was wondering if I could take the benefit of the peace I feel from water and bring it into my meditation somehow. Or would the physical stimulation defeat the purpose? Any thought are welcome 
Thanks!!
Comments
Never heard of it, but it can't hurt to try...
Go for it. Try it and see.
Yea I think I will. I just have to find a way to anchor myself or get comfy so I'm not fidgeting around and defeating the purpose.
FWIW...I did find this.....you can use the tool for visualization meditation or metaphor...you decide.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/meditate/water.htm
Here's a suggestion for meditating in the bath ....
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-meditate-in-the-bath-45117
@Vastmind
Thanks! I really like the imagery of the first one.. being the water in the bowl. I think it would help to cultivate feelings of doing good as well, that I was a small bowl of water helping to purify the minds of others. Very nice.
One of my favorite meditations is to envision water and then envision my mind as a pebble that was thrown and first caused ripples, but then slowly sinks to the bottom to rest in the sand. I know that's not exactly what you are talking about, but I find it a very relaxing meditation visualization.
I am a fan of water as well. But one thing I have found over time is that whatever 'ordinary' aspect is incorporated into Buddhist practice comes with a proviso ... it's not just a feel-good aspect; you still have to get to the bottom of it.
So, for example, water can be the salvation of a man in a desert and likewise it can be the death knell of a village in the path of a tsunami. It's never quite enough that something is pleasant or unpleasant.
@karasti
That sounds really peaceful! Taking it another direction.. Imagining the ripples after the pebble growing outward and slowly growing smaller and smaller in amplitude much like I hope my thoughts will. Until they eventually cease or case no ripples and the water is calm. Look at you getting my brain going! Thanks!
@genkaku
Thats very true, I have always marveled at the awesome power of water but I have never really considered the negative lights some may hold it in. The bringer of life and death depending on where you are standing. No offense to those who have been affected. I think even it's destructive qualities represent it's cleansing powers, the ability to "wipe the slate clean" the slate of course being entire shores. Oh water... If it were a man I would marry it. Was that weird? A little.. sorry
@Jenabean. As a child of six I and my playmates loved to toss pebbles in the water and watch the circles moving outward. In our minds this was not only great fun but seemed magical as well.
Actually, it's pretty common to have a little fountain in the meditation space. You can use the sound as a focus of your meditation, instead of the breath, like some meditators do.
@Jenabean
Part of Buddhist meditation includes the jhanas. In this teaching strong imagery of water is used.
"Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman's apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder — saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip; even so, the monk permeates, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal...
"Just like a lake with spring-water welling up from within, having no inflow from east, west, north, or south, and with the skies periodically supplying abundant showers, so that the cool fount of water welling up from within the lake would permeate and pervade, suffuse and fill it with cool waters, there being no part of the lake unpervaded by the cool waters; even so, the monk permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of composure. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born of composure...
"Just as in a blue-, white-, or red-lotus pond, there may be some of the blue, white, or red lotuses which, born and growing in the water, stay immersed in the water and flourish without standing up out of the water, so that they are permeated and pervaded, suffused and filled with cool water from their roots to their tips, and nothing of those blue, white, or red lotuses would be unpervaded with cool water; even so, the monk permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded with pleasure divested of rapture...
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-samadhi/jhana.html
With metta
@Jenabean I don't want to sound negative, it depends on why your practicing I guess.
Just be careful of forming attachment to anything. In Buddhism we understand clinging/craving causes suffering right?
Say one day you become allergic to water, would you suffer? That's what I'm getting at. Although it's ok to enjoy things just be mindful of why you enjoy things.
Do you like water because it's water or do you like water because it gives you happiness/pleasure. ?
@pegembara thank you I had no idea! I will have to read further myself and see where else water is mentioned
@Earthninja you're not being negative at all
Ive thought about this myself. If I'm being honest I BELIEVE I like water because it's water and because of it's qualities. I think it gives me happiness because of those qualities as sort of a secondary action. When I shower for instance I don't feel the same happiness and euphoria because the water is warm but I don't feel sad either. It's more like a nice treat. Great if it happens, fine if it doesn't. I admit I may grow somewhat sad if I was never allowed to wade into a body of water again so maybe that's something I need to work on. Thanks for making me think!
I like being by the sea, but not actually in it, due to inquisitive seals.
Water as an element is one of the kasina practices.
@Jenabean - thought you might find this interesting. I posted it elsewhere a year or two ago and went looking for it when I read your post:
I was meditating on a private beach this past weekend and had an experience that I wanted to share. My wife and I were the only ones there and prior to meditating we were watching a small school of minnows. While still on shore, we tried to get closer but they scurried away again and again. While my wife sunbathed, I sat in the water and proceeded to meditate. The minnows returned and were soon all around me. Twenty minutes later, larger fish appeared and seemed to have lunch in mind. The minnows huddled around me, two of them went so far as to swim inside my bathing suit. But here was the interesting part to me: As soon as my mind said, "Oh look, a big fish." The larger fish all swam away as if their life depended on it. They returned again and stayed until the split second my mind noted them. The moment that my mind was distracted momentarily by their presence, they left. This happened three times in all.
As soon as my mind said, "Oh look, a big fish." The larger fish all swam away as if their life depended on it. They returned again and stayed until the split second my mind noted them. The moment that my mind was distracted momentarily by their presence, they left. This happened three times in all.
Could it just be the fish noticed small movements in your body, like looking down a bit? They're very sensitive to small vibrations in the water and small visual changes.
'Meditation' can involve literally almost anything, as a great Ajahn once said even if a non Buddhist has the right concentration whilst washing the dishes they are in a meditation. Maybe you should step back and understand what the term means, there are many forms of meditation...
But when you speak of water, this is a great focal point, why well many reasons. Firstly we are mostly water physically.. Secondly, water is in a constant flux, yet EVERYTHING is, however to the eye and ear how water is in a constant flux is more obvious, this can lead to realizations of EVERYTHING is in such a flux. Lastly, dependent origination, without water there would be no trees, without any trees no animals or humans, everything is one... Lots to think about IMO
While meditation, may be associated with many representations of reality, to mistake it for any particular representation is to impose upon it the very thing that meditation is not supposed to be....Opinion bound.
While such associations can be powerful, stimulating and potentially insightful,... the resulting attachment to finally finding something tangible to label the meditative process by can be a real seductive issue to ever move beyond.
Peace, like any other phenomena, comes and goes. The meditators job is to simply allow whatever is arising to be able to be free of our endless attempts at habitually molesting them. Whether peace or war or abject boredom visits, all the meditator is doing is not incorporating these visitors into another part of our ego's dream construction.
I think that is the core question. @how has also explored this idea of being attached to mind, physical etc. temporary states which come and go. I would suggest this may be a more developed practice not always accessible . . .
I would suggest that the affiliation or metta for water can be practiced on other life elements, which may initially be more helpful. For example 'water' can be used to unstick a solid situation (earth) put out a fiery situation, dissolve airy mind abstractions and merge with the ocean . . .
Hope that floats some useful ideas . . .
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Thus have I heard:
Water is the very essence of life, that which all of life on earth preliminarily emerged, and the element which supports and sustains us as we, within a womb, await our own birth....Water invigorates and refreshes; a beach is always a popular location, a swimming pool a constantly frequented venue.
People are inexorably drawn to water, and no matter which land-mass you live on, at some point or another, if you keep going, a body of water will impede your progress - and sometimes, not regrettably so.
For my part, I have always felt wonderful near water, and some Qi Gong sessions, practised by a river, or on the sea shore, have proven the most fulfilling moments....
Water can be as still as a mill-pond or as turbulent as a spring torrent cascading and tumbling down the precipitous walls of a mountain; it can be as shallow as a puddle, or miles deep; it can be transparent or unfathomable. Whatever it may be, we somehow cannot avoid connecting with it, at least - at the very, very least, one time a day.
If we consider that water is not important or conducive to a peaceful, settled and content state of mind, I would respectfully suggest that you go completely without it, for 2 days. Completely.
I think our attitudes to its irrelevancy would undergo a remarkable change, if we had to exist without it, even for a few hours.
@jenabean , this is really not apropos of water as an instrument of meditation, but feeling as you do (the holiness of water) I have a book to recommend: The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison. It's a novella; if you can ignore the way Harrison portrays females, an outstanding little book.
water is one of the six elements (six Dhathu, namely, water, fire, earth, air, space and consciousness)
when we do 'dhathu manasikara' - contemplation on elements that means we are meditating on one of the four type of mindfulness (sati pattana, in this case mindfulness of the body)
earth is within the body and out side of the body in the 'space'
same goes with 'water, fire, and air'
to know these we need 'consciousness'
contemplating [manasikara] on these is 'vidarshana/vipassana' or Insight meditation