| Riding Transcendental Waves: Part 1 |
Page 1 of 2  Riding Transcendental Waves Surfing and Meditation An interview with Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler) Part 1 Q: Most surfers probably regard a good tube ride as the highlight of a solid session in the water. No other manoeuvre is quite like it. When the surfer gets inside the tube, time seems to distort as he flows with a twisting curl of energy – it’s an incredible feeling. Jagad Guru: Then why does he have to keep going back in search of the tube? That’s the trap they’re in, trapped searching for the experience that comes with the tube. They want to keep merging with the void, being part of that energy. It actually comes down to simply wanting to forget their misery, so they can exist and not be aware of any of their problems. I mean everybody is always searching for everything to be in its right place. But there are always all kinds of problems. So generally a surfer goes into the water to forget his miseries and get away from it all – to get away from the hassles. But even in the water there are hassles; the waves break on you, the water is cold, all the other people out there are hassling you, and so on. So surfing is a search for happiness which is natural, and the tube ride is just another medium or means to come to that situation of being happy. Someone else might get that very same feeling from skiing or some other feeling where everything seems to fit. But it’s never for long – although everything fits together perfectly for a second or two, it never lasts. Q: Is that a meditative state? Jagad Guru: It is a natural condition of the spirit soul to be one, to be feeling that harmony, while simultaneously existing as an individual, and still feeling yourself as an individual. So the question should be where to find that pleasure in the long run. How to actually have that feeling all the time rather than having to struggle and getting it once in a while if you’re lucky. The answer is to dovetail your will with the will of the Supreme Person. Like if you’re surfing for example, you don’t “make” the tube, you fit into a particular situation and you fit in perfectly. The tube is there, it’s going on, now you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to fit into it. Sometimes you’ll stand on the beach and the tube is breaking and then you imagine yourself; “There I am.” You mentally project yourself fitting into this, maybe this tiny little wave breaking on the sand. “Ah, look at that,” and you imagine yourself one inch tall riding this perfect 40 foot wave that’s actually only six inches high. So the idea is that you’re trying to fit into a reality that’s already there. So you have to dovetail your situation, you have to place yourself so that you’re in harmony with the situation which is already there. When you speak about God, the Supreme Being or the Supreme Person and you talk about dovetailing your will with His, then you’re talking about your whole life being dovetailed in such a way that through your whole life you actually feel that oneness – that freedom from anxiety. You actually feel a complete liberation, but even more so, because you’re not just dealing with one little energy of God, namely the water or this one little surf spot, but you’re dealing with the entire existence. Then the wave you are riding is your entire life. |
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