Blood / water

According to a popular belief, what we hear from within a seashell is not the sound of the sea, but the rustle of our own blood. About half of the human body mass consists of water. Although geography textbooks do not show it, human bodies, along with all other living things, are part of the great (blood/water) circulation of our planet. Figuratively exaggerating, we could say that our ancestors didn’t crawl out of the water, but instead, over time we simply became the walking and breathing enclaves of the primordial ocean, reaching towards the sun and swaying in the wind.

From a Buddhist point of view, too, it is impossible to distinguish oneself from one’s surroundings, and the idea of a separate self is a mere illusion. When the megalomania of constant improvement starts to overwhelm us, it can be refreshing to recognise not so much our own smallness or insignificance, but our being intertwined with life. By listening to ourselves, we could find recuperation in the primordial ocean still roaring in us.