The Swimmer
An
anxious man, always trying to foresee every possible eventuality so that he
could prepare counter – measures, came to a yoga group. There he took up to
reading historical and legendary incidents in the scriptures, so that he
would get to know how spiritual people behave.
‘You’ve
no need to do that,’ an experienced disciple told him. ‘Our teacher tells us
to try to become enlightened ourselves, rather than just reading about the
enlightenment and enlightened actions of others.’
‘But how
is one to know what to do?’ replied the new disciple, and he went on as
before.
He
happened to be an expert swimmer, and the senior one day asked him whether
he could demonstrate the racing dive he had heard about. The swimmer readily
agreed, pleased to be able to show his skill, and they went together to the
swimming baths. The expert changed into swimming trunks, and they walked
together along the side of the baths towards the diving boards. The swimmer
was on the side next to the water. Suddenly the other gave him a violent
push, and he fell into the bath and went under. He came to the surface
quickly, climbed out and looked inquiringly at the senior, who said:
‘You went
in to the water sideways, in quite a tangle trying to recover your balance,
didn’t you? Have you ever gone into the water like that before?’
‘Why, no.
Who would ever go in like that? Unless he was pushed, of course.’
‘Then how
did you know what to do? You say you’ve never practised it. Why weren’t you
drowning? How is it that you could come up so quickly? I was ready to help
in case you got into trouble, but you had no difficulty at all. What exactly
did you do?’
The
swimmer laughed. ‘I don’t know exactly what I did. I just made the proper
movements to come up – I don’t know what they were. But of course I came up
at once, because I’m a swimmer. A swimmer would always come up quite easily;
he doesn’t have to practise that sort of thing, because he’s a swimmer, he’s
a swimmer.’
‘In the
same way you’ve no need to rehearse or practise for life’s unexpected turns,
if you’re a yogi. You’ll meet them in some proper way, because you’re a
yogi, you’re a yogi.’
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