1. Recently, as I lay in a care bed, a concertina of sage metaphors concerning Water came to my mind. They urge that one should live life as water does – in form, content, and behaviour. This little collage of modern and ancient words on the Life of Water counsels how one should perceive fear, death or joy in one’s life.
Mindfulness for Reality – Thich Nhat Hanh
2. The famous Vietnamese Buddhist philosopher, Thich Nhat Hanh, taught the value of Mindfulness, of self-awareness moment by moment, for leading a calm life and dealing with vicissitudes that are part and parcel of day-to-day life. He contended that mindfulness – being self-aware – was not only a means to a more productive day but a way of understanding interbeing: the connection and co-dependence of everyone and everything.
3. In a documentary, Walk with Me, he illustrated interbeing in the following way:
- A young girl asks him how to deal with the grief of her recently deceased dog. He instructs her to look into the sky and watch a cloud disappear. The cloud has not died but has become the rain and the tea in the teacup. Just as the cloud is alive in a new form, so is the dog. Being aware and mindful of the tea offers a reflection on the nature of reality. He believed this understanding could lead to more peace in the world.
You are the Ocean – Advaita
4. The Good Placeis an American TV show. One does not readily associate meaningful thoughts or reflections with American scriptwriters. Still, the series’ final episode contains a gentle, moving farewell by a character as he prepares to “walk through the door” into non-existence.
5. This view of human finitude stems from the Hindu philosophy of Advaita, a non-dualistic school of thought rooted in the ancient Upanishads (spiritual values). It teaches that the individual self-soul (Atman) is the ultimate reality, with the perceived world as an illusion (Maya). Buddhism emerged from ancient Hindu philosophical roots in the 5thcentury BC. It gained appeal by simplifying paths to the Enlightenment. Its interpretation and presentation are more vivid, practical and straightforward than Hinduism’s complexity enunciated in the Vedas.
6. This excerpt from the dialogue evokes Buddhist-flavoured imagery of waves and the sea to talk about death and continuity:
“
Picture a wave.
In the ocean.
You can see it, measure it – its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through
And it’s there, and you can see it, and you know what it is.
It’s a wave.
And then it crashes on the shore, and it’s gone.
But the water is still there.
The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a little while.
That’s one conception of death for a Buddhist:
The wave returns to the ocean,
where it came from,
and where it’s supposed to be.”
River to Ocean: The Courage to Become
7. Colonel Prakash Tewari is an Indian Army veteran. He is dedicated to spiritualism and guiding inner transformation. He is a champion of sustainability and social innovation, working with several international organisations. As a prominent social activist, Col. Tewari is deeply involved in Corporate Social Responsibility, both nationally and internationally, to create meaningful social impact at the ground level.
8. Recently, he published the following, inspired by the poem “A Lesson from the River” by the great writer, Khalil Gibran:
It is said that before entering the
sea, the river trembles with fear.
She pauses, looking back at the
path she has travelled —
from the snowy peaks where she
was born,
through winding valleys, dense
forests, and narrow gorges.
Every stone, every turn, every drop
of her journey has shaped her.
And now, before her lies the vast,
endless ocean.
To step forward feels like surrender.
To enter the ocean seems like
disappearance.
She fears she will lose herself – her
name, her identity, her flow.
But she cannot go back.
No one can.
In the river’s world, there is no
Returning.
To go back is impossible.
To stand still is to stagnate.
So, the river gathers her courage.
She flows forward.
She lets go.
And in that moment of surrender,
fear fades.
Because the river does not
disappear into the ocean —
She becomes the ocean.
Life often brings us to such
Thresholds —
moments of transition,
uncertainty, and fear.
We look back at what we know,
and hesitate before what we don’t.
But growth lies forward.
Peace lies beyond.
And becoming requires a leap.
So, if you find yourself trembling
today – standing at the edge of
change –
Remember the river.
Flow forward.
Become the ocean.
All around us is in Flux – Heraclitus
9. Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 500 BC) wrote: “No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man”.
10. Heraclitus’ point was that life is always in flux; everything is constantly changing. Thus, no one can bathe in the same river again: The flowing water and the person stepping in are different each time. Buddhism echoes this with anatta (no-self), perceiving the ego as an illusory aggregate in constant change, akin to a river’s water.
11. In effect, everything flows; there is no fixed identity in a dynamic universe. This thought is central to Stoicism and Existentialism, reminding us that stability is illusory amid perpetual transformation.
Treat life as a River – Bertrand Russell
12. British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s famous river metaphor comes from his essay “How to Grow Old”. He writes: “An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they becomemerged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.”
13. In effect, the conduct of our lives should match the course and life of a river: In youth, ego-centred passions reign; gradually, with ageing, they give way to broader interests and become more impersonal, and ego begins to diminish; finally, one’s concerns merge with the universal, and death loses its terror. His point is that if we stray from this course – for example, malignant narcissism or megalomania into our old age – we are destined to be a disturbed soul in our existence.
14. As the style of his short, blunt Autobiography shows, Russell also offers practical advice in the above context. He said, “[As you age] make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.”
Water prevails over Fire Strategy – Ho Chi Minh
15. During the opening phase of the First Indochina War (1946 – 1947), Ho Chi Minh outlined the following strategy for the poorly armed Vietnamese to defeat France’s armed might. This strategy eventually evolved into full-scale guerrilla warfare, which first defeated the French and later, the Americans.
- “If two stones collide with each other, both would break. This means that strategies must be used around the enemy’s capacity. France has tanks and artillery, so we destroy their roads. France uses planes, so we dig trenches for them. France wants a quick victory, so then we wage a prolonged war. Reasoning in this way, we certainly win. The enemy’s position is like fire, our position is like water, and water will always prevail over fire.”
Snippets
16. Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges: “Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river.”
17. Thich Nhat Hanh: “Each sensation is a drop of water in the river” and “meditation is the practice of sitting on the banks of the river, observing the passing sensations”.
18. Thich Nhat Hanh: Consciousness is mindfulness and awareness. It is the deepest river of Self-Knowledge.
Postscript: The quotes above attributed to him are transcriptions from my notes taken during his talks in Hanoi around 15 years ago. They may or may not be accurate, but in any case, the substance of the message remains.
Rakesh Ahuja
23 June 2026
