The River Cannot Go Back
La rivière ne peut revenir en arrière -- de Kahlil Gibran
On dit qu'avant d'entrer dans la mer
une rivière tremble de peur.
Elle regarde en arrière le chemin qu'elle a parcouru,
depuis les sommets des montagnes,
la longue route sinueuse qui traverse forêts et villages.
Et devant elle,
elle voit un océan si vaste,
que d’y pénétrer
ne parait rien d’autre que de devoir disparaître à jamais.
Mais il n'y a pas d'autre moyen.
La rivière ne peut pas revenir en arrière.
Personne ne peut revenir en arrière.
Revenir en arrière est impossible dans l'existence.
La rivière doit prendre le risque
d'entrer dans l'océan
car alors seulement la peur disparaîtra,
parce que c'est là que la rivière saura
qu’il ne s'agit pas de disparaître dans l'océan,
mais de devenir l'océan.
=====
Questions pour faire germer la réflexion : Que signifie pour vous que de devenir l’océan ? Pouvez-vous partager un moment pendant lequel vous avez été confronté à la peur de perdre qui vous étiez, seulement pour vous transformer en une identité qui était plus grande que vous ne l’imaginiez ? Qu’est-ce qui vous aide à perdre votre identité de rivière pour embrasser l’identité d’océan à chaque moment ?
By Kahlil Gibran.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does becoming the ocean mean to you? Can you share an experience of a time you faced the fear of losing who you were, only to enter into an identity that was much greater than you could imagine? What helps you shed your riverhood and embrace your oceanhood in every moment?
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105 Past Reflections
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On Feb 21, 2024 SURAJIT SEN wrote :
According to me becoming the ocean means that from a minor unrecognized individual , I have become a major recognizable individual with more power & more responsibilities . When I was a teacher, there were limitations with my work , responsibilities,with the passage of time I went on to become Principal when things changed a lot. My firm determinations,never to give up attitude & yes I can do it ... made all the differences which turned me in to a confident man.
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On Jan 19, 2024 Vinod wrote :
If it’s fear, anyone can either overcome it or because of fear retract his steps. So it’s a figurative illustration of some thing else, an inevitability in time, death and since it doesn’t end there but joins the ocean, it’s referring to the soul in us merging with the supreme.
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On Dec 31, 2023 Willem Jacobs wrote :
Beautiful lyrics I wil try to make a song from It Its very inspiring. thank you
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On Nov 5, 2023 Alba wrote :
This metaphor arose in front of my eyes when I was going through a crisis of fear, I didn't even know why I felt bad. After rereading it, I cried; Because I realized that it was pure fear of being alone after losing the friendship, that for some reason the others also left.
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On Sep 9, 2023 Karl Constantine Folkes wrote :
This poem inspired me to compose my own poem called “Gibran’s ‘River’ Courses Our Lives” posted online on poetry.com.
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On Aug 22, 2023 Dalia Hegab wrote :
This is idealistic for year 10 students as they are starting a new page of their lives and it seems that everything is new for them.
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On Jul 26, 2023 leonard wrote :
This is a metaphor between rivers and oceans, which represents the journey of life and personal growth.
Rivers represent the individual paths we take in life. They start as small streams, similar to how we begin our journey as children, with limited knowledge and experience. As rivers flow and progress, they encounter obstacles like rocks, bends, and sometimes even waterfalls, just as we face challenges and obstacles in our lives.
Throughout their course, rivers can change their direction, merge with other rivers, and grow in size, reflecting how our experiences, interactions, and decisions shape our lives. Rivers are also influenced by the environment they pass through, much like we are influenced by the people and circumstances around us.
Ultimately, rivers flow towards the ocean, which represents the vastness of knowledge, wisdom, and the broader perspective of life. The ocean symbolizes the culmination of experiences, understanding, and enlightenment. Just as rivers find... [View Full Comment]
2 replies: Eva, Hamzageetham | Post Your Reply
On Jun 30, 2023 Sethumadhavan Parappurath wrote :
Oceanhood can mean anything like becoming the part of an established institution making the dream business success or simply enhancing one's power of control etc. Poetically it is vast power without control.
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On Jun 6, 2023 Dan Healy wrote :
It's comforting when facing death, we become one with the infinite.
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On May 15, 2023 JOY CHACKO wrote :
Your past reflects your future. Experience add growth in your life. To shape you bigger and bigger in life as you never imagined when your started your journey.
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On Apr 29, 2023 Vahe wrote :
I am not sure if this poem is authenticated to have been written by Kahlil Gibran. I wonder in which of his books has it been listed?
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On Mar 27, 2023 Billy Bharath wrote :
A perfect reference to human life and its many challenges and our ability to overcome
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On Mar 6, 2023 Monica Rosales wrote :
Beautiful, fear freezes you abandonment frees you.
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On Mar 5, 2023 Tofa Sualauvi Su’a wrote :
What an amazing lesson of how we overcome fear and how taking risks can change like ves!
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On Mar 5, 2023 Vidur Jyoti wrote :
River doesn’t tremble with fear, it is ecstatic, it is excited.
It’s goal about to be accomplished.
It sees the ocean with wide spread arms, waiting, inviting, raging
Whether she is a bride going to be one with the beloved
Or a daughter returning to her parental home
The question is immaterial
It is about to surrender the identity bestowed upon it by the ocean and the sky, it is about to experience the eventual dissolution,
It is aroused, it is awakened, it is rapturous, it is joyous, it is fervent but it is not afraid
It is about to achieve what it had been seeking through the forests the gorges the plains and the mountains
It doesn’t experience fear, it is just thrilled, just awakened
slowly and slowly it discards its banks, sands become one with sand and water with water.
There was no river, there is no river.
Probably Gibran didn’t have an exposure to the concept of individual consciousness piercing the envelopment which seemin... [View Full Comment]
1 reply: Seeker | Post Your Reply
On Mar 5, 2023 Maya Rajan wrote :
To merge with the Supreme consequences.....the universe
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On Feb 13, 2023 Morgan Wand wrote :
Hello awakin.org admin, Your posts are always well-referenced and credible.
1 reply: Maya | Post Your Reply
On Feb 6, 2023 Ronald Chesser wrote :
To the awakin.org admin, Thanks for the well-written and informative post!
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On Dec 29, 2022 Michael wrote :
We were born with the free will to flow with change. Change is good.....ther river is the flow of change. The Ocean is the gathering place for all the individually, all the wealth of life.
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On Nov 30, 2022 AMELIASTELMACH wrote :
These words move me to tears. I'm left awestruck in the wake of having read these words
1 reply: Deborah | Post Your Reply
On Nov 25, 2022 Bernadette wrote :
The Ocean is there to remind us that we are all ONE and that one day each one of us will join the infinite ocean!
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On Oct 1, 2022 Michaela wrote :
The Sea is the collective unconscious that, if we are wise, we will endeavour to connect with while we live rather than imagine that we are a divided river.
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On Jul 30, 2022 Steve wrote :
Do not fear the end, you enter the timelessness of the universe.
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On Jul 21, 2022 Deepinder Singh Chawla wrote :
What a beautiful line about the river.. *it's not about disappearing into the ocean... but of becoming the ocean"*... really awesome
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On Jul 6, 2022 Rajeswari wrote :
Ocean is the ultimate consciousnes.s and river is the ego ie limited consciousness .Till we realize we are not the body the fear of losing it will continue (.once we know the truth concentrating on the ultimate ) then there s no river but only ocean exist .....
1 reply: Rajeswari | Post Your Reply
On Jul 6, 2022 Rajeswari wrote :
Ocean is the ultimate consciousnes.s and river is the ego ie limited consciousness .Till we realize we are not the body the fear of losing it will continue (.once we know the truth concentrating on the ultimate ) then there s no river but only ocean exist .....
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On Jul 6, 2022 Rajeswari wrote :
Ocean is the ultimate consciousnes.s and river is the ego ie limited consciousness .Till we realize we are not the body the fear of losing it will continue (.once we know the truth concentrating on the ultimate ) then there s no river but only ocean exist .....
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On Jun 11, 2022 Sara wrote :
My daughter had issues and always wanted to go back (to way it used to be) and now I am going to read this poem at the celebration of her life. She has gone forward to her new life with the Lord.
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On Mar 30, 2022 Mary wrote :
My biggest fear was I would turn into my mother who was very ill with alcoholism. I trembled with fear. Love of family helped me shed river hood and embrace ocean hood. My life has been vast with love, compassion and sheer wonderment.
1 reply: Jack | Post Your Reply
On Mar 25, 2022 Abu Teno Ali wrote :
I rather live with fear than to be afraid...
Embracing your fear makes you d ocean
Embracing your fear makes you d ocean
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On Feb 2, 2022 PRUSH wrote :
becoming the OCEAN mean that you have enter the internal BLISS of GOD.
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On Feb 2, 2022 PRUSH wrote :
becoming the OCEAN mean that you have enter the internal BLISS of GOD.
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On Jan 31, 2022 Marlene wrote :
I am so completely and utterly in love with Khalil Gibran. He paints such beautiful and vivid images with his words.
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On Jan 21, 2022 C. S. Krishnamoorthy wrote :
From the estuary it would appear as if the river is Disappearing into the sea. But the sea again suckles the stream at its source and it's flow continues. So it is not " Disappearing" But emerging again and flowing along it's path in full majesty. So it is a cycle - flow, merge, disappear and appear again.
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On Jan 18, 2022 Heera Nawaz wrote :
Beautiful! How to remove fear. I am quoting this poem in my upcoming book, 'I Emerged a Butterfly; -Heera Nawaz
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On Dec 8, 2021 Margaret Forde wrote :
The river is me! I know it’s not easy but inevitably it’s speeding forward.. no going back now! I love this poem have I learned anything before I become part of the vast ocean I am ok but anxious that I failed somehow
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On Dec 1, 2021 Pat Tallant wrote :
How very true - but it is hard to enter the Ocean as the river is a path well used / lovely poem
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On Nov 23, 2021 Priyansh wrote :
This moment comes at a time when the river is not prepared at all, the transformation happens in that little window that changes one forever.
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On Nov 20, 2021 Corporal Mouse wrote :
The proximity of the surrounding land guiding the river in which I am being held unwillingly, drowning, struggling to breathe or maintain any foothold, at least offers a glimmer of hope.
The prospect of entering into a vastness of an ocean is not one I relish or eagerly and calmly look forward to, despite my grudging acceptance ofits inevitability.
I thought I was walking on one of those 'rocky paths leading to the best views', hand in hand with another soul who had found me as a mate; together in a one-ness.
Then all of a sudden, the plans, and hopes of space to allow my long suppressed and un-dared-todreams dissolve without Explanation, Hesitation or Negotiation.I end up being chucked in ariver with no way out but being spewed into some ocean at the beginning of January, with maintaining 'good will' as the way of providing some buoyancy to keep a bit of my head above water.
There must be a more positive way of looking at this but I can't see it at the moment. ... [View Full Comment]
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On Nov 20, 2021 Jan wrote :
As I prepare myself emotionally for work as a hospice volunteer, I feel deep gratitude for the trust people have in a stranger (me), and fear that I don't know enough... I don't know what enough would look like, but I feel like I need to know how to handle every possible need for the dying and their family. I know I'll never know enough. I remember that during my labor with my daughter, I felt terror in my drowning--which is what the lack of control over my body felt like, but as I stopped fighting the process, I felt a deep calm. I wonder if death is something like that. I'm an atheist so I'm not praying for wisdom, but this poem feels right and like drowning and calm and imevitability. â¤ï¸
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On Nov 20, 2021 Ian wrote :
And the winds, sun and moon act onthe ocean and form clouds which in turn shed rain on the mountains and forests and form streams which become the river ...
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On Nov 20, 2021 Rose wrote :
I am fighting entering the ocean - if I relax and be still my entry will be smooth - worrying will do away and I will become part of something bigger and better
breath and flow
breath and become
breath and flow
breath and become
1 reply: Nikhil | Post Your Reply
On Nov 19, 2021 Aj wrote :
Human life resembles the river, the course of its running through the cascades that rush her speed , the falls from where the river leaps into lower grounds but yet it reinforcesit's route through the valleys, prairies , villages, cities and their canals that directs the river towards its merging withthe sea. Life is full of surprises from our birth to our death. Withits ups and downs, hopes and disappointments, joys and sadnesses, successes andfailures. But it's beauty is much appreciated than ugliness. Like life, the end is the result of being a part of something bigger, and there's no going back to its beginning.
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On Oct 13, 2021 Dearest Vargas wrote :
We need to conquer our fears...to take the chances...to take the risks... For we cant go back... We only had one life...
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On Aug 26, 2021 Karl Constantine Folkes wrote :
On our winding journey of life, we are like the river, coursing it's way gingerly and with trepidation toward the sea, knowing, in some unexplainedmanner, that it is our fearful destiny to explore the vast universe of that inward journey toward the Self, inviting us to find solace, and even completion, by embracing that which was, that which is, and that which shall evermore be, our final and eternal resting place.
1 reply: Karl | Post Your Reply
On Jul 12, 2021 Boulajoul Jamal wrote :
It's a nice poem that portrays man's persistence and courage.He should never retreats and steps back in any adventure he/she embarks upon.Once he enters he should never give up.Leaving his riverhood and embracing his oceanhood is a sign of maturity and integrity......
1 reply: Suzie | Post Your Reply
On Jan 1, 2021 Dr sicletica rebello wrote :
Well life is unpredictable
we cannot get always what we want
Like the river it has it's twist And turns
Ultimately the end is in the unknown land
Yet we keep on holding And fighting
For barren land
The list is endless
we cannot get always what we want
Like the river it has it's twist And turns
Ultimately the end is in the unknown land
Yet we keep on holding And fighting
For barren land
The list is endless
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On Jul 6, 2020 Minal wrote :
This is amazing... Simply put that one has to overcome fear as there is no other way then to overcome one's fear and move ahead in life.. Flowing water is the best metaphor for Living life fearlessly.
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On Jun 1, 2020 Barbara wrote :
Over 20 years ago I was dealing with my son's heroin addiction and the ripples of discord and dysfunction through out my entire family. I truly believed I would never escape the pain and believed my son would die. My therapist encouraged me to go to grad school to follow my dream of becoming a therapist. With much fear I proceeded and eventually became a clinicalsocial worker helping others in cultivating self awareness and resilience. My son eventually recovered and is now a director in an international private school.
3 replies: Rr, Megha, Lucy | Post Your Reply
On May 28, 2020 Sumit Bhatia wrote :
Very well shared! We often take big life decisions, moving from our comfortable zone to the uncomfortable one, the right one, the progressive one! We know that's right and developing, yet we tremble, try everything to stop ourselves. But once we determine a little stronger, take decision to move on, enter into the sea of life, we become the OCEAN! We do look back, memories come afresh, but it is the good memories and rewarding contentment, becoming better, becoming bigger, entering into a new orbit, certainly for good!
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On May 28, 2020 Manoj Gautam wrote :
The river , when it starts its journey from the mountains is destined to meet and be one with the Ocean.. It's only when the realization dawns on the river, that it first trembles , falters , unsure , sure and then accepts the ultimate merging...
what more can this make us realise , if not the oneness with the Divine....
what more can this make us realise , if not the oneness with the Divine....
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On May 28, 2020 catherine hegazi wrote :
let's get the ocean's take on this :)
3 replies: Manoj, Geoff, Tat | Post Your Reply
On May 27, 2020 Robert Greeney wrote :
Vast ocean seeds the more vast sky
With rivers past and future
Falling rains of every kind
Feed rivers flow and work
Ocean and sky keep rivers alive
The veins of planet earth
With rivers past and future
Falling rains of every kind
Feed rivers flow and work
Ocean and sky keep rivers alive
The veins of planet earth
1 reply: Catherine | Post Your Reply
On May 27, 2020 vaibhavi wrote :
Our lives improve only when we take chances and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
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On May 27, 2020 Sunil Mor, Bangalore wrote :
Oceanhood means complete soul consciousness of the divine world abonding the body consciousness of the physical world.Personal progress on entering into the soul world determines our experiences from time to time. These are pure celetial private indescribable experiences. Meditation, the art of going deep within helps to shed our riverhood slowly and steadily.
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On May 26, 2020 Sharon wrote :
To me the river refers to our "self" our "soul" and its flow thru life. One opens and lets loose of "self" becoming one drop in the ocean of life and love. "We are are all drops of one ocean" Baha'i Faith quote.
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On May 26, 2020 Patrick wrote :
And so it is with Divine LOVE (God by any other name), by entering into LOVE we become one with LOVE, and discover from whence we came in the first place. T.S. Eliot expressed this as well in Little Gidding. }:- a.m. (anonemoose monk)
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On May 26, 2020 Dave Brown wrote :
"The wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still"
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still"
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On May 26, 2020 Vandana wrote :
I am entering into this vast ocean right now. I usually don't add people on Facebook if I don't know them but since I started the Buddhist path and listening/meditating Buddha's teachings about having a open heart I am trying to check my own fear. It's opposite to what I learned from my culture conditioning. I was taught not to trust strangers. But if I have to move forward on this path I need to cultivate a loving kindness heart for all beings without any judgements and exceptions. I am still not sure if it's ok? But I need to take this risk so I can become a part of this ocean and lose this mind made Self.
May all beings be peaceful ðŸ™ðŸ½
May all beings be peaceful ðŸ™ðŸ½
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On May 26, 2020 Vicky wrote :
It's about what Identity means. How do we define ourselves? What labels do we attach to ourselves that make us who we are? Am I a river? If I'm a river, how can I be an ocean? I've always been a river. I know these banks, those rocks, these fish. What lies ahead is unfamiliar, and I'm afraid.
If we can separate ourselves from our perceived identity, we can become closer to a feeling of belonging to this unknown, of being a part of a whole, of being connected to the great Mystery. The river surrenders who she thinks she is and becomes unified with All.
If we can separate ourselves from our perceived identity, we can become closer to a feeling of belonging to this unknown, of being a part of a whole, of being connected to the great Mystery. The river surrenders who she thinks she is and becomes unified with All.
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On May 26, 2020 Anilkumar Pandit wrote :
Realizing the seamless connectivity of my Internal space with Universal space is akin to merging of river with ocean, albeit without any motion. Let's consider the river as a wholesome entity from source to ocean. It remains forever connected to the ocean. So also our internal space all through life time (berth to death and thereafter) remains connected with Universal space. This realization resolves the any turbulence at time of death as paralleled with the river about to merge in ocean.
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On May 26, 2020 Lucrezia wrote :
To me the reality of never being able to go back to past times in hindsight you wish you could, to be free of any and all regrets. To be at the end of your life and let go, to be in peace and love and know you are only a minute particle of what makes up the immense ocean, that nothing in your past really holds any meaning now and forever. In that way all sorrow, losses, hurts are shed and left in the river as you enter the ocean.
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On May 26, 2020 eszter wrote :
Becoming the ocean means being freer to expand and be more of who I am
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On May 26, 2020 Fatuma Namukasa wrote :
From being delivered in this uncertain world...we tremble and fear...that's why we scream when we are delivered...then slowly as reivers...we meander our ways...and become part of the ocean...the world...!!!
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On May 26, 2020 Nicole wrote :
I fully share and this is life. Becoming part of the ocean means that you embrace the change and the new world. Fighting it is a no go because it's there. You have to embrace and adapt. What helps is raising awareness and to do the best out of it. The good thing is that with time passing, one gets more experience and got probably also learnings that helps you to embrace a to adapt more easily.
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On May 26, 2020 deepti mirani wrote :
we all have traveled long way and jumping into something new always has anxieties. But at times, we need to take the plunge, with the trust that we wont get lost but rather grow infinitely.
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On May 25, 2020 Dolly Parikh wrote :
I feel I am at that point in my spiritual journey where I feel the little tremble. My girls who are 23-year old twins feel like I am getting deeper into joining a cult and I fear I will lose them if I go any deeper. The ocean is the vast consciousness that I naturally belong to and yet I feel alone and fearful of the next step. I experience the ocean within all the time and yet I am not ready to join it.
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On May 24, 2020 David Doane wrote :
The River Cannot Go Back is a beautiful statement by Gibran. Becoming an ocean means to me returning fully to that from which I came. I am a wave of being in the ocean of Being. I've had times of facing and losing my fear of death when I realize that in death the experience I'm having in the wave form I call me will subside and be thoroughly part of the Ocean once again. In moments that I have that awareness, I am in riverhood and of oceanhood which I embrace and of which I am.
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On May 22, 2020 Mariette Fourmeaux wrote :
Becoming the ocean means to surrender, to release the river banks that have held me confined and restricted. The river banks that have tried to define me and control me. I finally break free and surrender into the wholeness of my being, in unison with the complete truth.
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On May 22, 2020 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
Are there two separate identities-the river identity and the ocean identity? Or is there One identity? Outwardly, there appearstwo identities like the river and the ocean. But when they embrace each other and merge into each other, they become one. When I love someone deeply, I become one with her. There are no twos. In pure love there is only one. They may appear two. Pure love creates a union of two and they become one. When I consider myself as body-mind complex, I have a separate identity. Two different names and forms. My true
identity is nameless and formless. According to the ancient Vedanta philosophy, My True identity is Divine identity. It is not bound by my individual identity. When I merge into the ocean of Divinity, I become one with it. We may call it soul identity.
When I got deeply connected with my beloved I felt I was in a different , unfamiliar and unchartered territory. Since I had not traveled on this love path before, at times I felt the fear of the new territory.... [View Full Comment]