The ocean has a way of stripping from you all the trappings of life. All the distractions, all the glitter, and all the diversions melt away at the sight of the ocean. All the complications, interruptions, and commotions disappear when facing the ocean. All the interference, entertainment, and preoccupations fade quickly away with the onset of the waves. Nothing can lie to the ocean. Nothing can get in its way. Everything is stripped down to the bone by the ocean and then washed clean.
That’s why I head to the ocean whenever I’m confused. Whenever I need to think or figure a problem
out, I go to the ocean. When my thoughts
are foggy and my understanding falters, I go straight away to the waves because
I know they’ll get to the bottom of things for me. I know that nothing can stand against the
ocean.
So that’s where I went today, weighed down heavily with my
manmade problems. Attached to my foot
was a thick and heavy rusted chain, and attached to the chain was a heavy,
rusty iron ball. I walked slowly because
my burden was so heavy. Each step I took
was painful as I dragged the huge iron ball behind me. It scraped on the ground as I walked, digging
a trench. I wondered that if I were to
walk back and forth dragging the large iron ball behind me--back and forth,
back and forth--would I be able to dig my own grave?
 |
| The current sea. |
Down to the ocean I went, close to the waves, dragging the
iron ball behind me. I stood there and
looked out at the waves as they crashed in.
It was high tide, and piles and piles of shells were strewn about the
beach. I just stared and waited for the
voice.
“Who are you?” the ocean asked.
I said my name, not even sure if that was my name anymore,
really, so confused I was with the world and my situation.
“Who are you?” it asked again.
“I am,” was all I said.
“And why have you come?”
“I don’t know anymore,” I said. “I’m sad and uncertain and tired. I can’t keep doing this.”
The waves crashed in.
When they reached the iron ball, I felt a slight coolness slip over my
feverish thoughts. I felt a slight relief
as the water washed over the iron ball, a slight clearing of my heart.
“And why have you come?” the ocean asked again.
Then I remembered why I had come, but I felt a bit foolish
standing there in front of the greatest power in the world, attempting to
explain my feeble little manmade problems.
I thought of how stupid I must look.
“And why have you come?” came the question yet again.
So I told the ocean my problem. It was a stupid problem, a manmade problem
about money, or the lack thereof, actually.
I told the ocean about my fears, about my anxiety, about this foolish
money problem. And even as I said it, I
felt like a great fool.
The waves crashed in again and washed over the iron
ball. The water was so very
cold--numbing, actually. It could
easily cause hypothermia within seconds, but my mind and heart were so feverish
that I welcomed it. The hot and
tortured skin around my ankle from the old rusty chain felt blissful and
relieved with each wave.
Then the ocean spoke:
“There are cosmic laws
governing the tidal movement of gold, and this is understood by very few. Gold is a symbol mankind uses for human
energy, and it can only be acquired by an expenditure of that energy. Therefore, life force can be transmuted into
gold, and that gold can be stored up and used later. It represents the output of human energy or
work.
“Paper notes, or money
as they are called, used to represent gold, i.e., one dollar’s worth of gold,
five dollars’ worth of gold, twenty dollars’ worth of gold, etc. These paper notes could be traded in at any
time for the full amount of gold they represented, the full amount of human
energy. And as long as this was true,
people could be assured of trading their life force for the things and sustenance
they needed.
“Then a trick was
played, a dirty trick, indeed. At some
point, the notes no longer represented the gold, and there was no gold to back
them up. Therefore, the notes no longer
represented human energy expenditure but became their own entity. Then the connection between life force and
gold to money was severed, and thus began the bizarre idea of collecting the
paper notes for their own sake and not as part of the underground tidal
movement of gold. Soon people found
themselves desiring the map instead of the territory it represented.
“The paper notes no
longer represent human energy and life force.
There are those who sit in lofty offices and make millions and millions
of paper notes, and yet they expend only a fraction of the energy that, say, a
bricklayer might expend, who earns far fewer paper notes. In the money system, some people’s life force
is not worth as much as others. Of
course, that is a lie. It has all become
an illusion, and mankind keeps racing around and around the illusion.
“But there are things
that are not illusions, and you know what these things are. Life force manifests not only as energy on
the physical plane but as intelligence and knowledge on the mental plane. True wealth lies in the land, not in bank notes,
and in the ability to use that land in manifestation of the life force. True wealth lies in the animals and plant
life around you, in the ability to coax forth the gifts of the earth.”
I wasn’t sure I understood everything I had heard, but my
heart felt lighter and my mind felt more at ease. My problems were not magically cured and did
not disappear, but they no longer had power over me. They were simply part of a manmade game gone
terribly wrong long ago.
I looked down at my foot, never realizing before how easy it
was to simply remove it from the chains.
I slipped out quickly and cleanly.
The ocean washed the cuts clean, and I left the iron ball on the beach. Then I went home and made tea and
biscuits. The stored energy from the
flour in the biscuits and the sugar in the tea reached my body and warmed me
thoroughly. The energy from the sun--the
life force--had been stored in the grain and the sugar, and then I consumed it
and made it a part of me.
The tides of energy are all around us. They come in and they go out. They bring in and they take away. There are cosmic laws governing these tides,
which are predictable and reliable. It
is these tides, these waves, we must learn to ride.
