Teachings from the Earth and the Element of Water

A Spiritual Teaching

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Last week I was deeply honoured to visit a Buddhist monastery, where I spent time in sacred communion with the spirit of the land and the element of water. Within this holy place, two sacred rivers converge and become one. Their energies weave together with the living pulse of the earth, the ley lines, the ancient stones, the temple, to create something truly extraordinary. A place where the veil between worlds grows thin, and the spirit remembers.

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The Teaching of the River

As I sat watching and connecting to the river, she started to show me something I needed to remember.

There are moments when the water cascades joyfully over rocks, moments when it curves gracefully around boulders and rises in the land. Yet always it continues moving in the direction of least resistance, finding its way home to the ocean.

In the language of spirit, that ocean is Source. It is God. It is unconditional love. It is the vast, luminous truth of who we are, where we came from, and where we shall one day return to, our home.

Within us lives a quiet yearning. Sometimes we cannot name it, yet we feel it. A longing for connection, for belonging, for something that feels just out of reach. That longing is the spirit calling us back to ourselves, back to our divine nature, back to the river’s flow.

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Remembering Who We Are

As we grow in awareness, we begin to recognise two aspects of our being, the human self, the ego self, and the eternal spirit self. As our spiritual self becomes more conscious, our true purpose in this lifetime begins to reveal itself. We find what the shamanic tradition calls the path with heart. We come home to ourselves, and in doing so, we open to love, peace, joy and contentment.

In shamanism, we speak of walking the edge. In Buddhism, it is called the middle path. Both speak to the same sacred balance, the dance between our human experience and our spiritual nature.

There are times when the ego pulls us under. When we forget who we are, suffering follows. Yet when we remember, when we turn back toward our spiritual self, we are given the strength and wisdom to flow forward once more, just as the sacred river flows, unceasing, toward home. All things pass. The flow is always there, waiting for us to return to it.

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The Ego and the Shadow

When we are lost in the ego state, we feel it, separation, isolation, loneliness, fear, anger. These are the feelings of forgetting. Of losing our thread back to the divine.

Transmutation asks us to hold both truths at once, the shadow self and the spiritual self.

Within the shadow we may encounter fear, anger, envy, judgement, insecurity, loneliness. These are not things to be ashamed of. They are the places within us that are calling for light.

If we spend our lives only exploring the shadow, we will never truly come to know the spirit, that luminous, eternal part of us will remain hidden, undiscovered, yearning.

If we live only in the spiritual light and turn away from our darker places, we miss the sacred opportunity for true transmutation, the alchemy of releasing what no longer serves us.

True growth lives in the balance. In the willingness to look at both.

All life is of the light. We can acknowledge our dark places without judgement, not to dwell in them, but so that we might bring the light in, and transform what is ready to be released.

We honour our humanity with deep compassion. Suffering does not diminish who we are.

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Staying in the Flow

To strengthen our capacity for transmutation, we must commit to staying connected, weaving our spiritual practice into the fabric of everyday life, not saving it for sacred moments alone, but living it.

Being human means the connection will ebb and flow. There will be times of profound union, when we feel the pulse of nature, the rhythm of life, the presence of spirit in all things. And there will be times when frustration, fear or anger rises, and the connection feels distant, just beyond our grasp.

In those moments of union and spiritual connection, the ego dissolves. The illusion of separation falls away. We are no longer apart from life, we are life, flowing with it, as it flows through us.

And in the difficult moments, the river teaches us again. Just as the water encounters rocks that slow its passage, boulders that redirect its course, so too does life bring its obstacles. The river does not stop. It does not rage against the rock. It finds the way. It continues.

When disconnection comes, and it will come, for this is the human experience, here are some ways to return to yourself:

✶      Remain present. Rather than reacting, pause and breathe. Focus on your breath. Consciousness is your anchor.

✶      Watch your thoughts without becoming them. When you notice you have drifted, simply return to your breath.

✶      Change your inner dialogue. The words you speak to yourself are either doorways back to the light, or walls that keep you from it.

✶      Remember this: what you learned in the light will carry you through the dark.

What you learned in the light will carry you through the dark.

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A Simple Practice for Reconnection

The Breath of Spirit

When you feel the connection slipping, return to the heart.

Place your awareness at the centre of your chest and gently place your hand on your heart. Breathe, slowly, mindfully, through the heart space. Breathe as if you are breathing into your heart. Breathe out as if you are breathing out through your heart.

Just three conscious breaths throughout your day can shift everything. This simple practice reconnects you to the vibration of the heart, gently transmuting the heavier energies of the ego, and guides you softly home to your spiritual self.

As we become still and harmonious within, the world around us begins to reflect that harmony back to us. The external shifts when the internal settles.

Remember too that the mind will try to pull you into the illusion of the past or the fear of the future. But only the present moment is real. Only here. Only now.

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A Personal Reflection

I share this teaching from my own experience. There came a moment during my time at the monastery when I too lost my footing. I was filled with fear from a previous experience that pulled me into the illusion of the past, losing my connection, my power, my sense of self.

And it was the river that brought me back. Its patient, ceaseless flowing reminded me of everything I know, everything I practice, everything I teach.

With that understanding, I stepped back into the flow.

The river is always flowing. And so are you.

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May you always find your way back to the flow.