Once upon a time,
There was a beautiful river,
Finding her way among the hills,
Forests and meadows.
She began by being a joyful stream of water,
A spring,
Always dancing and singing as she ran down from the top of the mountain.
She was very young at the time.
As she came to the lowland,
She slowed down.
She was thinking about going to the ocean.
As she grew up,
She learned to look beautiful,
Winding gracefully among the hills and meadows.
One day,
She noticed the clouds within herself,
Clouds of all sorts of colors and forms.
She did nothing during these days but chase after clouds.
She wanted to possess a cloud,
To have one for herself.
The clouds float and travel in the sky.
They are always changing their form.
Sometimes they look like an overcoat,
Sometimes like a horse.
Because of the nature of impermanence within the clouds,
The river suffered very much.
Her pleasure,
Her joy had become just chasing after clouds one after another.
But despair,
Anger and hatred became her life.
Then one day,
A strong wind came and blew away all the clouds in the sky.
The sky became completely empty.
Our river thought that life was not worth living,
For there were no longer any clouds to chase after.
She wanted to die.
If there are no clouds,
Why should I be alive?
But how can a river take her own life?
That night,
The river had the opportunity to go back to herself for the first time.
She had been running for so long after something outside of herself that she had never seen herself.
That night was the first opportunity for her to hear her own crying,
The sounds of water crashing against the banks of the river.
Once she was able to listen to her own voice,
She discovered something quite important.
She realized that what she had been looking for was already in herself.
She found out that clouds are nothing but water.
Clouds are born from water and will return to water.
She found out that she herself is also water.
And next morning,
When the sun was in the sky,
She saw the blue sky for the first time.
She had never noticed it before.
She'd only been interested in clouds and had completely missed seeing the sky,
The home of all the clouds.
She realized that this immense sky had been within her heart since the very beginning.
And this insight brought her peace.
She knew that her stability would never be lost again.
That afternoon,
The clouds returned,
But this time she did not want to possess any of them.
Pace and harmony existed between her and the clouds.
Her heart was completely open to the life that surrounded her.
And so that evening,
Something wonderful happened.
She received the image of the full moon,
Beautiful,
Round,
Within herself,
Like a jewel.
She could have never imagined that she could hold such a beautiful image.
There is a poem in Chinese that says,
The fresh and beautiful moon is traveling in the utmost empty sky.
When the mind rivers of living beings are free,
That image of the beautiful moon will reflect in each of us.
That was the mind of the river in that moment.
She knew that she is water,
The clouds are water,
The ocean is water.
And so there is no rush to get somewhere.
There is no need to choose between the clouds or herself.
She can go back to being herself.
For we are her community,
Her environment,
Her breathing.
And to exist peacefully as she was always meant to be.
We'll finish listening to that story with a breathing practice.
Completely exhale all the old air out of the body.
And as you inhale,
You can mentally say to yourself.
In this present moment,
I have arrived.
And as you exhale,
Relax your whole body.
Again as you breathe in.
In this present moment,
I have arrived.
I am home.
And as you exhale,
Let go of something you've been holding on to very tightly.
Another in breath.
In this present moment,
I have arrived.
I am home.
And exhale and let go.
And continue to breathe in this manner.
And as you exhale,
Let go of something you've been holding on to very tightly.
And as you exhale,
Let go of something you've been holding on to very tightly.
Thank you for your practice today.
