My teacher Stan took me to the ocean one morning a few years ago with the idea of teaching me how to surf. Walking towards the water he told me that the ocean doesn't care who you are, where you come from, if you're rich or poor, it treats everyone that enters the same. With that statement being his only spoken instruction I quickly discovered how ruthless the ocean can be and how little it really cared about who I was. For the next two hours I watched Stan glide on wave after wave while my every attempt to ride was unsuccessful and rather painful. It wasn't until we decided to leave that Stan stood by my board and gave a certain push that allowed me to ride the only wave I've caught to date.
What Stan said early that morning left an impression and the importance of finding a teacher dawned on me. It wasn't until I had the help of a master that I could experience the feeling of riding a wave. We live in a time where there are plenty of teachers that can help when the ocean starts to dominate, some better than others and some that seem to have been destined to cross our path. The teacher or in some cases the Guru may help us through this mystery of life but ultimately it is our responsibility to learn the ocean and become masters in our own right. Through direct perception we learn, through the spoken words and actions of masters we move forward in our endeavour and as time moves on we transform into something new and great. This is the essence of practice, the essence of who we are, and the fight to understand peace no matter what our life situation may be. With the right push we can all move towards peace and learn to better understand the difficulties of the ocean itself.
