What is the Importance of Water in Spirituality?

In Lao Tzu’s acclaimed Tao Te Ching, water is considered to be the highest goodness. When we practice spirituality, we want to be like water, always very fluid and gentle. While water also has tremendous power, such as in the case of hydro electricity, the sages-of-old focused on water’s gentleness and ability to reach very deeply and profoundly, to nurture the roots of all living beings of the forest. Water is life! Water is used in many traditions around the world, such as baptism in Christianity. Water symbolizes Purification and the Grace of God in this example. In Buddhism, water symbolizes kindness and compassion. As practitioners of meditation, we visualize the water as a means to reach down deep into the earth. We begin by visualizing water as way to nurture our own roots of goodness, and then as a means to nurture and connect with the good roots of other living beings within the forest of our life. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “As I am, so I see”. It seems that the potential for the inverse of this, as I see, so I am, is also true. This can be realized through the meditation of visualizing water, which in turn will help to nurture the seed that will eventually become the lotus. ---- For classes or more information on Thay Heng Chang (Thay Hang Truong): www.compassheart.com Contact us: [email protected] Soundtrack: A New Beginning from Bensounds.com