When you teach children to swim, the first thing to do is not to teach them how to move through water, nor the strokes that are need to swim along its surface. Rather, the first thing to teach, which is the hardest, is to trust the water to bear them up.
To know that the water will do this—because of what it is and what they are—is to float effortlessly. Only swimming or drowning requires effort. Only swimming or drowning can be done wrong. Floating is easy and anyone can do it. It only requires two things: to relax and breathe naturally.
This is the starting point for mastering any and all of the challenges that you may encounter on the path ahead. The world is the water, and you are the child. It will bear you up, and it will carry you. It knows everything, and it can do anything. You need only learn to trust and say “Yes!” when it asks you to surrender. Only then can you go where you must and do what you are called to do.
This is simple wisdom—too simple for many. You must master it nevertheless. This is the first thing to learn. All else will flow from it over the course of time.
[art: Christine Gupta]