Before the first wave ever rose,
The ocean opened its eyes,
And as you grow soft and still tonight,
You'll gently remember that you're not the wave,
You're the ocean itself.
Hello,
My dear friend.
My name is Jacob,
And I'm here to remind you that you've done enough for today.
Truly,
It is enough.
In this gentle talkdown,
We'll ride the playful currents of Alan Watts' wisdom and Ram Dass' loving awareness as the ocean remembers itself through you.
With each breath,
Old stories dissolve,
The unknown becomes a playground,
And forgiveness blooms like moonlight on water.
So,
Let your body grow heavy now.
Let these words carry you.
Allow yourself to be gently returned to the wonder that you never left.
And now,
Let's begin.
My friends,
Come,
Sit with me here in this moment.
Just for a little while.
Let everything else soften.
You don't have to fix anything,
Achieve anything,
Or become anyone different.
You're already welcome exactly as you are.
You know,
It's really quite a cosmic joke we're all playing on ourselves,
Isn't it?
Here we are,
These little bundles of stardust wrapped in skin,
Pretending we're these separate,
Solid,
Terribly important little me's marching through time,
Checking boxes,
Collecting wins and losses like they actually define us.
And yet,
If you stop,
And I mean really stop,
For just one honest second,
You can feel it.
The whole universe is breathing through you,
Not to you or for you,
But as you.
Ram Dass used to laugh that big warm laugh of his and simply say,
I am loving awareness.
And in his own playful way,
Alan Watts reminded us that trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth,
Both of them pointing at the same delicious,
Ridiculous,
Sacred truth.
So,
Let's play with it together,
Shall we?
Imagine for a moment that you're not the little wave on the surface of the ocean that's been taught to worry about crashing.
You are the ocean itself.
The wave is simply what the ocean is doing right now.
It rises.
It curls with a sparkle of sunlight on its back.
It builds.
It roars as it breaks on the shore.
And then,
Without any effort at all,
It slides back into the water it never actually left.
Did the ocean lose a single drop?
Did it gain anything?
No,
It was always whole,
Always playing.
That's you.
That's every single one of us.
And here's where the real dance begins,
Beloved.
Most of us spend our whole lives clutching at that wave identity with white knuckled hands.
We grip to the past like it's a life raft.
Old hurts,
Old betrayals,
Or old stories about who we were supposed to be.
We carry grudges like heavy stones in our pockets and regrets that cling to us like barnacles on an old hull.
The mind says,
Hold on tighter,
This is who you are.
But the ocean never holds on.
It doesn't need to.
Letting go isn't some grand spiritual achievement you earn after years of struggle.
It's the most natural thing in the world.
It's simply relaxing the fist.
It's noticing the story you're telling yourself.
I was wronged.
I failed.
I must protect this little me.
And smiling at it the way you'd smile at a frightened child who's afraid of the dark.
Ah,
Sweet one,
It's only a wave.
Let it dissolve back into the water.
Feel how your shoulders drop when you do that.
Feel how the chest softens.
That little exhale.
That's the ocean remembering itself.
That's you coming home.
When you truly let go,
Something miraculous opens up.
The unknown.
Oh,
We're so tired.
Terrified of it,
Aren't we?
The mind wants a map.
A guarantee.
A five-year plan with bullet points and footnotes.
It wants certainty like a child wants a nightlight.
But the unknown is not the enemy.
It's the playground.
It's the vast,
Starry mystery where the ocean gets to surprise itself.
Ram Dass used to say the next step is always right in front of you.
Even if you can't see it yet.
Alan would chuckle and remind us that life isn't a problem to be solved,
But a wonder to be experienced.
So step into the unknown with open hands.
You don't have to figure everything out today.
You don't have to control the tide.
The ocean already knows the way.
And every single time you surrender into that not knowing,
You discover you were never lost at all.
You were simply being invited deeper into the play.
The unknown is where life gets to be alive.
It's where the magic happens.
It's where new waves are born.
And right there,
In that wide open,
Spacious unknown,
Forgiveness blooms like wildflowers after rain.
Forgiveness isn't about condoning what happened.
It's not a polite little ritual.
You perform so you can call yourself a good person.
No.
Forgiveness is seeing,
Really seeing,
That the other person who hurt you or the version of you that you keep judging so harshly is also just a wave.
They are the ocean too.
Doing exactly what the ocean is doing in that moment.
Even if it looks messy or cruel or confused.
When you forgive,
You're not letting them off the hook.
You're finally unhooking yourself from the illusion that any of us are separate.
You forgive yourself for believing the story of the wounded little wave.
You forgive the world for not following your script.
And suddenly,
Those heavy stones in your pockets turn into smooth sea glass.
Beautiful,
Rounded,
Glinting with light,
Shaped by the very tides you once fought against.
You want to know the real practice.
It's so simple,
It's almost embarrassing.
Be here now.
Not the now your mind is already imagining.
Five minutes from now.
Not the now of yesterday's regrets or tomorrow's plans.
This now.
The one with the slight ache in your back.
Or the warmth of your hands.
Or the sound of your own breathing moving in and out like gentle waves on the shore.
Just this.
And when the mind wanders,
Because it will,
The darling little monkey,
Smile at it.
There you go again,
Pretending you're a separate wave.
No scolding,
Just gentle amused love.
That's the Ram Dass in you.
And then laugh at the whole beautiful play.
That's the Alan Watts in you.
Alan Watts loved to remind us that we've been taught to think of life as a journey.
A long pilgrimage with some serious goal at the end.
Success,
Enlightenment,
Retirement,
Heaven,
Whatever it might be.
We rush through the present moment,
Always preparing,
Always on the way to somewhere better.
But he would point out with the characteristic chuckle that we completely missed the point the whole way along.
Life isn't a journey.
It's more like music.
More like a dance.
You don't dance in order to arrive at a particular spot on the floor.
The whole point of the dance is the dancing itself.
You don't listen to music just to reach the final note.
The music is fulfilled in every single moment as it unfolds.
When you truly see this,
The constant striving begins to fall away and you start to move through life with grace,
Playfulness,
And deep joy.
Presence.
Because ultimately,
My friends,
The universe isn't a serious place.
It never was.
It's a dance,
A song.
It's God,
Or Tao,
Or Brahman,
Or whatever name you love most,
Playing hide and seek with itself.
Letting go,
Leaping into the unknown,
Forgiving every misstep along the way,
Just so it can keep the game delightfully alive.
And right now,
In this very breath,
It's winning.
Because it's playing as you.
So relax,
Beloved.
You're already it.
You always were.
And the punchline?
You never left home.
And just like Ram Dass likes to say,
We're all just walking each other home while already being home.
Doesn't that make you want to smile at the next person you see?
Because they're not other.
They're the ocean too,
Just wearing a different wave today.
Namaste.
Or as Alan would say with that mischievous wink,
Well,
Here we are.
