Just BE. Don’t beat. Photo: James Rheinberger
Silence is everywhere. Palms trees dance smoothly in a gentle wind. You can almost see a smile on their broad eaves. The clouds run fast in the blue sky and the air tastes sweet. “I cannot be here. This cannot be real.” This is what you think while paddling out on your surfboard looking at the horizon for the next set of waves.
Centuries of wisdom teach us nature has a deep magnetism; a deep power humans cannot instantly figure out.
It’s not like checking our personal bank account – it takes more than a phone call or an internet connection. But if we are able to follow nature’s flow, it will unconsciously direct us to another level of perception of reality. One that will bring us far away from the anathemas of the modern society: richness, fastness, power.
Material wellness has never brought spiritual health. The more you get, the more you want. It’s a never-ending cycle that we trick ourselves into thinking is important. To work endlessly for money will never equal satisfaction.
Taoism is a philosophy that is based on nature and its secret energy. That energy keeps everything living in the universe in harmony and order. When people realize that we are a part of the whole, they will also understand the principle of Taoism: it is a principle of Oneness.
The king element inside the Taoism is water. Its constant flow perfectly exemplifies the concept of action without action. So who better than surfers to understand the water. Who better to feel the water and discover nature through the feeling of the ocean, the waves and their energy?
Soul surfers are healers. Soul surfers are martial artists in the same way that Taoist monks left the society’s principles to follow Mother Nature (God?) and its beauty.
Pretend you you are in your car, driving to work. The flow of traffic is never ending. You can’t see the sky, can’t feel the breeze – you can’t feel the pulse of Mother Nature. All you can see is cars, buildings, and cement.
Inside the frenetic life we’ve built for ourselves – chasing profit, making pollution – we need to take a breath. We are creating a chasm between us and Mother Nature, but we are part of Mother Nature. As we move further away, we are becoming something else, at least spiritually. As we continue spewing pollution into our oceans and onto our beaches, we need to ask ourselves a few questions: Is this what we really want? Is this the promise of a better future? What will be the cost of this so-called “progress”? And what does surfing mean to all this?
Surfing, as a way of life, helps people rediscover the deep and intimate relationship that we hold with nature. When they find it again, it changes the way they interact with others inside modern society. There’s more balance, focus, confidence, patience, and love – all things things that we learn while training in many martial arts. It’s the pursuit of life and health over enrichment and power.
Balance is not only physical, but mental. Surfers can be out for hours without catching one good wave. This requires patience. But when the waves come, and the ocean suddenly changes, the surfer must ride the wave and conquer his fears. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how expensive your car is or how powerful you are… it’s just you and your wave. It’s just you and the present. Surfers are addicted to this feeling. The feeling of that eternal and perfect unity with nature and life in the present moment while riding waves. It is pure consciousness.
A tenant of many martial arts is to simply be, not to beat. That is how is should be with surfing. In the same way you shouldn’t strive for the most expensive car or the most powerful company, you shouldn’t concentrate on being the best surfer in the water. Just be. Just be like water, like Bruce Lee says.
So, now, stop. Breathe. Just go. Surf.
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
– Gandhi
