Water in the Cracks

Through my continuing practice of meditation - really, it's more my practice of mindfulness - I've come to see that

- my mind wants to worry - 

(I know there are a number of implications to this statement. It sounds as if my mind has a will of its own! I also wonder if this could be some sort of variation of the monkey mind?)

No sooner than I get over one worry or it resolves itself, I find another. There's no reprieve.
I've got to resolve this.

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"The highest form of goodness is like water" Tao Teh Ching, Verse 8

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I think the answer is to Meet my worry mind like water
...but what is water like?

"Water is fluid, soft and yielding... Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness" - Lao Tzu

It can find itself into the smallest nooks and crannies; it deeply penetrates something; contracting and expanding; irreparably breaking it open.

"Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence" - Ovid

Water benefits, it doesn't compete.
It pools in the lowest places, and like hope, can always be found in the seemingly lowliest, darkest, and loneliest of times.

So... what does it mean to meet my worrying mind like water?

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     Meditation is like water.

It slowly penetrates and seeps into the road. It ever so slowly, persistently, freezes and thaws; contracts and expands, until the road is littered with potholes, exposed and broken. So too does meditation do this to the hidden and inner workings of the mind. It may not be a quick process, but it's an unstoppable one. Patience. Persistence.


I only hope my patience and persistence continues.