The Wave

In a wave in the ocean, that water does not move along. Successive sections of the water just move up and down.

Some buddhists practice a meditation where you become aware of how thoughts arise out of nothing and pass away, continually. This is to start the experience of how what we call reality arises and passes away continually from the ocean of being behind that outer reality illusion.

So as the wave peak pops above a certain level, that is our reality illusion arising. The water molecules of the prior position are not related to those of the current or future positions. All of the ones at the current position are related to each other much more strongly than to those 'before' or 'after'.

This is a challenge for causality. It is a challenge for discussions on free will and determinism.

But what if you were in that water on something buoyant. You would just bob up and then down as the wave 'passed'. So let's say you started your floatation device travelling to keep at the weak of teh wave. The molecules of water 'ahead' are there before they rise under you. So that is pre-determined.

But you can place yourself 'here' on the wave, or 'there, or more to the left, and so on.

That would mean that both free will and determinism are operating in the same scenario.

But a more interesting consequence of the whole of existence passing away and arising constantly is that in this moment, everything is related. All parts of that arising form one complete coherent group.

I heard that Idries Shah once won the spanish lottery. He described it as easy. Oh, yeah, they said. Yeah. And the next week he took a ticket and won again.

My friend and I were talking about all sorts of things in the sportsbar. We had been talking navy and seafaring stuff because he had been in the merchant navy and was reminiscing a bit.

At a brief pause in the conversation, we looked at the TAB screens. We both spotted 'Mister Hornblower' in the list. He took a $4 each-way bet. He collected $192.

If you can be in this moment, then your are in touch with all that is also in the same moment.

(The Idries Shah story is unverified. Never bet more than you can afford to lose.)