Comparing Wisdom From The River To Life

The wisdom drawn from a river is an ancient metaphor for life and flow. The life of a river is expressed in it's flow just as our lives are a continuous flow of experiences. Like the river, our life has many twists and turns.

"Between the banks of pleasure and pain flows the river of life. If you spend much time on either bank you will miss out on life" ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj.

June is National Rivers Month where communities across the country hold events to spotlight the importance of their local waterways.  I thought it would be a good time to go with the flow and learn the lessons and legends of the river along with students across the nation who are studying from teacher selected library sources such as "The Waters of Life: The Facts and the Fables" and other suggested sources such as "How the Fly Saved the River" and "How Coyote Made the Columbia River".

“To protect your rivers, protect your mountains.” – Emperor Yu of China, 1600 B.C.

Lessons of the river can keep us focused on our journey whether it's for self-discovery, inner awareness, transformation, or recovery. The river of life brings daily blessings wherever it passes, but like water itself, there could be much more going on beneath the surface. Subtle signs on the surface can be symptoms of a more serious underlying problem that could be crucial to our survival if not detected early. All too often we resist the painful currents and miss the opportunity at hand to learn and to grow.

Lest we not forget the warning signals the crew of the Titanic received throughout the day before that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Incoming warnings and messages and the constant drop in temperature were just the surface signals of an ice-field that lie ahead and three-fourths of the iceberg that lay unseen beneath the calm ocean surface. The captain was busy at a dinner party in his honor and other crew were busy despatching commercial traffic that kept them from heeding the call to safety.

There are many parallels between the river and our lives. Some days we move aimlessly or meander through life with no map or compass in hand. We long for the river offering peaceful moments of serenity. Stay present for It can also catch us when we let our guard down, sometimes leaving us to start life over or do something different that will bring nourishment for our body, mind and soul.

The most important spiritual lesson we can learn from the rapids of life and the river is that the river knows no time. On the river, all you have is the "now". Yesterday and tomorrow have no value when we are out there navigating the rapids. You are totally immerced in the joy of the present moment. The river can drive the message home in simple wisdom if only we will listen. Either way, life will go on because the river of life never ends.

The Universal Search of man has been to find a river that satisfies every thirst of the body and soul ~ from the "River of Heaven' based on Rev. 22:1-2 by Glenn Pease

A river sings a holy song conveying the mysterious truth that we are a river, and if we are ignorant of this natural law, we are lost. ~Thomas Moore

You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it.  Indeed, you cannot grasp it just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket.  If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run.  To "have" running water you must let go of it and let it run. ~Alan Watts from "The Wisdom of Insecurity".

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. ~Kahlil Gibran