A Quiet and Flowing Life Like Water

 A Quiet and Flowing Life Like Water


When someone asks me, "How do you live?" I reply, "I live like water." This doesn't mean that I do nothing amidst the situations and events given to me. It simply means I continue doing something without much thought or attachment. When Wonhyo described the state of Nirvana as "deep and tranquil like true suchness, far removed from the ten marks," I cannot fathom what that tranquility is or whether it is the same as the tranquility I feel. However, at least when I express my state in words, my mind is neither cluttered nor confused.


This quiet and flowing life like water is not stagnant. When facing phenomena, I do not refuse the will and effort to interpret them subjectively. Nevertheless, I do not cling to them. The vitality of the fish, wind, and moss that I encounter as I flow like water is an unavoidable situation given to me. When Merleau-Ponty spoke of "being-toward-the-world," might he not have meant this existential destiny of embodied humans? I exist within the world and am oriented toward the world. When I contemplate my situation, I find myself to be a being-toward-the-world.

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