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Water is the most abundant metaphor on earth and can teach us much

• Water is everything: love, life, religion… even God. Water is the most abundant metaphor on earth.  Pam Houston
• It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things. Nicholas Sparks
• Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
• Water,  The ocean,  Rivers,  Learning

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Water is the very essence of life

• Life in us is like the water in a river. Henry David Thoreau
• Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. H. Auden
• Water is everywhere and in all living things – we cannot be seperated from water. No water, no life.   Water comes in many forms – liquid, vapor, ice, snow, fog, rain, hail.  But no matter the form, it’s still water. Robert Fulghum
• If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. Loren Eiseley
• We Love Water. We Thank Water.  We Respect Water.  We Are All Water.  We Are All One.  Masaru Emoto

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Little drops of water, by continually falling, have mighty power

• Prayer is like water – something you can’t imagine has the strength or power to do any good, and yet give it time and it can change the lay of the land. Jodi Picoult
• The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish good results while the strongest, by dispersing his effort over many chores, may fail to accomplish anything. Drops of water, by continually falling, hone their passage through the hardest of rocks but the hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar and leaves no trace behind. Og Mandino
• Dripping water wears away a stone. Margaret Atwood
• Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water. Ovid
• Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water. Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.  Buddha
• Little drops of water, little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land. So the little minutes, humble though they be, Make the mighty ages of eternity. Julia A. Fletcher Carney

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Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it

• Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Lao Tzu
• Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. Lao Tzu
• Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. Lao Tzu
• In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it. Lao Tzu
• In the struggle between the stone and water, in time, the water wins. Japanese Proverb
• Flexibility

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Like water, be flexible and adaptable

• The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher. Chinese Proverb
• Thus, flexibility, as displayed by water, is a sign of life. Rigidity, its opposite, is an indicator of death. Anthony Lawlor
• Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee
• A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.
• Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.  Margaret Atwood
• Adaptability

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Like water, flow around obstacles

• He sometimes behaves like water, flowing around the obstacles he encounters. Paulo Coelho
• If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.  Margaret Atwood
• Water its living strength first shows, when obstacles its course oppose. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Taking on a free-flowing attitude allows us to be like water. Water is the most powerful substance, able to wear away the hardest of obstacles and to pass through seemingly impassable places. Amanda Harvey
• Look at the stream, there are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? It simply flows over and around them and moves on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is. Zen Story
• Obstacles

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Like water, be both gentle and strong

• Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world. Brenda Peterson
• Gentleness,  Strength

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Like water, be formless and shapeless

• Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

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Like water, let things flow freely in your life …

• Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour
• Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness. Steve Maraboli
• Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. Brian Jacques
• Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.  Antoine Rivarol
• Let your tears come. Let them water your soul. Eileen Mayhew
• Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water.  They heal us as they flow.  Rita Schiano
• The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea. Isak Dinesen
• If you pump casually, you will pump forever. Pump hard to begin with and keep it up until you get that water flowing. Then a great deal will happen. Zig Ziglar
• Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. James Fenimore Cooper
• When you dig a well, there’s no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow, said Buddha. Deepak Chopra
• So let the mind flow like water. Face life with a calm and quiet mind and everything in life will be calm and quiet.  Thich Thien-An
• Go with the flow

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… or else they will stagnate

• Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant and rank. Paulo Coelho
• Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation … even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
• The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. William Blake
• Anger is like flowing water; there’s nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human. JoyBell C.
• If you dam a river, it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water.  English proverb
• A man’s life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other. John Burroughs

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Life is a current, flow with it

• Let go of control and allow yourself to be swept away by the powerful currents of life. Leo Babauta
• Life is water, and we tend to push too hard, thrash about, force things, struggle. Instead, learn to float, learn to allow things to become effortless. Leo Babauta
• Everything in the universe flows. You can’t get ahold of water by clutching it. Let your hand relax and you can experience it. Wayne Dyer
• Life is safe; flowing with the current of being is the simplest way to live. Resistance never really succeeds. Controlling the flow of life is impossible. Deepak Chopra
• Going with the flow doesn’t mean giving up, giving in, or being swept along to places you don’t want to go. It just means accepting that there are certain currents in life that are pointless to try and fight. Fighting will only frustrate and exhaust you. Save your energy for the ways that it can be useful and stop wasting it on resisting the inevitable. Amanda Harvey
• I asked an endurance swimmer, “How is it possible for you to swim for twenty hours? What kind of mental attitude do you have?” She said, “I believe that the water is a friend. It wants to help me. It does not fight against me and I do not fight against it. We are working together.” I often think of that when I am in the ‘swim’ of life. The waves and currents and the tides hit us all at times, and it is not always easy to say, “The water is friendly.” It requires an act of faith, a volitional act; it means work, but most of all it requires a will to believe. the more we use this will, the more it becomes a part of us and the more natural becomes its application. Marcus Bach

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Life is a tide; float on it

• Always be like a water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface.  Santosh Kalwar
• When the tides of life turn against you and the current upsets your boat, don’t waste those tears on what might have been, just lie on your back and float.
• When I struggle and try to organize the Atlantic to my specifications, I sink. If I flail and thrash and growl and grumble, I go under. But, if I let go and float, I am borne aloft. Marie Stilkind
• Life is a tide; float on it. Go down with it and go up with it, but be detached. Then it is not difficult. Prem Rawat

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As if in water, immerse yourself fully in life to experience it properly

• We can’t feel the wetness of water by looking at photographs of water; we must immerse ourselves in it. Michael Bernard Beckwith
• A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life. The reflections of the moon on one thousand rivers are from the same moon: the mind must be full of light. Hung Tzu Ch’eng
• Immerse yourself in what you do

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Create a sense of purpose to give your life a forceful current

• A being without an aim in life, or not possessing the requisite concentration of purpose to assist him in resisting temptation, is like a cork floating upon the water, driven hither and thither by every wind that blows. Karl G. Maeser
• A man’s life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other. John Burroughs
• Purpose

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Water the important things in your life, in the right amounts at the right time …

• All relationships will die if they aren’t nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it’s not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.  Patti LaBelle
• Attention is like sunlight and water for a plant. What we pay attention to will grow. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream. Lao Tzu
• For a plant to grow well, you have to water it a little every day. If you just pour a bucket of water on it once a month, it will most likely die between waterings. The same applies to meditation. Matthieu Ricard
• It is fully legitamite to nurture yourself before reaching out to others. You can’t give someone a drink of water from an empty glass.  Take good care of yourself and you’ll gain genuine insight into how to care for others.  Stephen Covey
• It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crops. George Eliot
• The grass is always greener where you water it.
• There is a little plant called reverence in the corner of my soul’s garden, which I love to have watered once a week. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• While intent is the seed of manifestation, action is the water that nourishes the seed. Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve true success. Steve Maraboli
• In our consciousness, there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds every day. Thich Nhat Hanh
• The only thing that endures over time is the ‘Law of the Farm.’ You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest. Stephen Covey
• Life is like farming

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… but don’t water the weeds in your life

• Your life is your garden, your thoughts are the seeds. If your life isn’t awesome, you’ve been watering the weeds.  Terry Prince
• Don’t water your weeds. Harvey Mackay

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Attain a mind like still water through the practice of stillness and meditation …

• Once you have been in deep water, your experience of going into shallow water is never the same. Swami Premodaya
• Calm the winds of your thoughts, and there will be no waves on the ocean of your mind. Remez Sasson
• Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try as hard as you can to calm the water with your hands; you will succeed in agitating it further.  Let it stand undisturbed a while, and it will calm down by itself.  The human brain works much the same way.  Koichi Tohei
• Imagine that your mind is like a calm, clear lake or a vast empty sky: Ripples appear on the surface of the lake and clouds pass across the sky, but they soon disappear without altering the natural stillness. Kathleen McDonald
• When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization. Matsuo Basho
• Balance is the perfect state of still water. Let that be our model.  It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface. Confucius
• In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact. David Allen
• Still waters run deep
• Waters from many rivers continually flow into the ocean but the ocean never overfills. In a like manner, desires and attachments constantly flow into the mind of the Illuminated One, but he or she, like the ocean in its deepest depths, is totally still and never disturbed. Bhagavad Gita
• Do not keep agitating the waters of your mind. Do not hold what you do, dropping it over and over into the clear waters of your mind endlessly making ripples. Let go of what you do.  Let it go like a pebble dropping, sinking to the bottom of the lake.  If you do not chase it, if you do not plunge in after it, the ripples of its passing will once again return to stillness.  Sheng Zhen
• When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, exactly like water. Its color is silver. And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it. The sound is soft, like flute notes rising up, like the words of glass speaking. Then there comes a point when you must shatter the blindness of its words, the blindness of its light. Anne Spollen
• They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming. Hermann Hesse
• When the restless activity of your mind slows down, when your thoughts stop rushing like waves on a windy day, then you will start getting glimpses of the sweet taste of inner peace. Remez Sasson
• Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind. Shunryu Suzuki
• Mind can be compared to an ocean, and momentary mental events such as happiness, irritation, fantasies, and boredom to the waves that rise and fall on its surface. Just as the waves can subside to reveal the stillness of the ocean’s depths, so too is it possible to calm the turbulence of our mind to reveal its natural pristine clarity. Kathleen McDonald
• ‘When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind – then anything may serve as a medium for realization. Matsuo Basho
• Stillness,  Meditation

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… for when your mind is still like water, you can see a clear, undistorted reflection

• Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius
• The best reflections are there when the wind, water and you are still. Peg Huxtable
• We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see. Taoist Proverb
• Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed. Indra Devi
• When we are able to make ourselves as still within as an untouched mountain lake, we have an exquisite reflection of all that is in and around us. Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
• One cannot reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others. Lao Tzu
• Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being. Rumi
• Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.  Hans Margolius
• The moon is one, but on agitated water it produces many reflections. Similarly ultimate reality is one, yet it appears to be many in a mind agitated by thoughts. Maharamayana
• Excitement is the drunkenness of the spirits. Only calm waters reflect heaven in their bosom. Marguerite de Valois
• On the still calm waters of surrender the reflections of clarity appear. Bryant McGill
• According to Democritus, truth lies at the bottom of a well, the water of which serves as a mirror in which objects may be reflected. I have heard, however, that some philosophers, in seeking for truth, to pay homage to her, have seen their own image and adored it instead. Charles Francis Richter
• If you do not shut off the mind, it will be like stirring up the waves, then looking for the reflection of the moon. Hung Ying- ming
• Let the mind be like the lake that reflects all of the clouds passing over it without any sticking to it. Zen Proverb
• When water is still like a mirror it can behold the Moon. Rumi

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When the mud settles and the water is clear, you can see clearly

• Who can wait quietly until the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action? Lao Tzu
• Our minds are like a large vase of water with sand in it that has been stirred up. After some time of stillness, the sand settles, clarifying the water and allowing us to see. The resulting clarity, which is beyond concept, is wisdom beyond concept. M. Gunder
• Do you have the patience to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?    Lao Tzu
• Muddy water, let stand becomes clear. Lao Tzu

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Through stillness, sink deep beneath the surface

• Searching with my mind is like swimming on the surface – swim the whole ocean and I will find nothing. I sink to the place of stillness within. From here the inner presence nourishes me with living waters. From here my prayers carry much power. From here the voice speaks to me sweetly. Helps me in my day-to- day affairs. Tells me truths long forgotten by my race. John Kehoe
• We have surface time, which is the time we move through every day, but we need to reach the rhythms of deep time. Like the ocean is all waves and movement on the surface, we need to sink through time to the depths where the true rhythm lies. John O’Donohue
• The mind is like the Pacific Ocean. It waves, depending on the atmospheric conditions.  But even when it’s at its most tumultuous, if you learn to drop down twenty or thirty feet under the water there is just gentle calmness and stillness.  And it’s always present. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths! Rumi
• I would rather sink to the bottom of the sea for endless eons than seek liberation through all the saints of the universe. Shih- t’ou
• Stillness

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Quench your thirst for there is water all around you …

• Look at you, screaming you are thirsty and are dying in the desert when all around you is nothing but water! Kabir
• Love is the only water that can quench the heart’s thirst. David Kam
• A good teacher will lead the horse to water, an excellent teacher will make the horse thirsty first. Mario Cortes
• Don’t drink by the water’s edge. Throw yourself in! Become the water. Only then will your thirst end. Jeanette Berson
• You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
• A lifetime without Love is of no account.  Love is the Water of Life.  Drink it down with heart and soul! Rumi

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… but remember that an over-indulgence of anything, even pure water, can intoxicate

• Follow the wisdom provided by nature. Everything in moderation – sunlight, water, nutrients. Too much of a good thing will topple your structure. You can’t harvest what you don’t sow. So plant your desires, gently nurture them, and they will be rewarded with abundance. Vivian Elisabeth Glyck
• An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate. Criss Jami
• Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. Mark Twain

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Never try to quench your thirst with salt water

• Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst. Walter Weckler
• Samsaric pleasures are like salt water, the more we indulge, the more we crave. Geshe Sonam Rinchen
• Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; the same is true of fame. Arthur Schopenhauer
• Kissing is like drinking salted water, you drink and your thirst increases. Chinese Proverb
• The attempt to satisfy greed is like drinking salty water when thirsty. When lost in greed we look outward rather than inward for satisfaction, yet we never find enough to fill the emptiness we wish to escape.  The real hunger we feel is for knowledge of our true nature. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

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Learn to let go of control and surf the waves of life

• Learn to let go of control, and surf the ever-changing wave. Let unpredictability rule, let randomness be the force of our life, let spontaneity be the rule. Leo Babauta
• You never really know what’s coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity. Alysha Speer
• Going with the flow is responding to cues from the universe. When you go with the flow, you’re surfing Life force. It’s about wakeful trust and total collaboration with what’s showing up for you. Danielle LaPorte
• Life is a continuous ebb and flow, like the seasons, like the ocean’s waves. When we learn to “ride” with them, our life becomes easier, with less resistance.  Romy Macias
• Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. Jonatan Mårtensson
• You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Henry David Thoreau
• The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore. Cyril Connolly
• Life comes at us in waves. We can’t predict or control those waves, but we can learn to surf. Dan Millman
• It isn’t by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves. Ken Kesey
• The ocean

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Let the waves of thought, desire and emotion pass through without effecting your equanimity

• Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. Jonatan Mårtensson
• Let the wave of memory, the storm of desire, the fire of emotion pass through without affecting your equanimity. Sri Sathya Sai Baba
• I also like to think of physical symptoms and stressful thoughts or emotions as waves on the ocean of life. They rise and they fall. Instead of going rigid in the face of them, I try to calmly and steadily ride the ups and downs. Toni Bernhard, J.D.
• You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Calm the winds of your thoughts, and there will be no waves on the ocean of your mind. Remez Sasson
• Desires are just waves in the mind. A desire is just a thing among many. I feel no urge to satisfy it, no action needs be taken on it. Freedom from desire means this: the compulsion to satisfy is absent. Nisargadatta Maharaj
• Go with the pain, let it take you. Open your palms and your body to the pain. It comes in waves like a tide, and you must be open as a vessel lying on the beach, letting it fill you up and then, retreating, leaving you empty and clear. . . . With a deep breath–it has to be as deep as the pain– one reaches a kind of inner freedom from pain, as though the pain were not yours, but your body’s.  The spirit lays the body on the altar. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• Desire,  Emotions

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Ride waves of passion, love and wisdom

• I swim across a sea of quotes, splashing in the words and riding the waves of wisdom. Terri Guillemets
• Sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do is ‘ride the wave’. Eckhart Tolle
• The emotion of love comes and goes like waves. Enduring love of the awakened heart is not a feeling but an action. Dan Millman
• Passion,  Love,  Wisdom

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Know that who you are and what you do creates ripples across the pool of life

• We live as ripples of energy in the vast ocean of energy. Deepak Chopra
• I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
• How long after you are gone will ripples remain as evidence that you were cast into the pool of life?  Grant M. Bright
• I want to remind us all that the world is listening, all the time. How we are ripples out from us into the world and affects others. We have a responsibility – an ability to respond – to the world. Finding our particular way of living this responsibility, of offering who we are to the world, is why we are here. Oriah Mountain Dreamer
• Whenever someone awakens fully, it affects human consciousness at a collective level. It is like dropping a stone into a dark murky pond. Ripples of light!  Not one word need be spoken. Leonard Jacobsen
• Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived. Mollie Marti
• We are heirs to the results of our actions, to the intentions we bring to every moment we initiate. We make ripples upon the ocean of the universe through our very presence. Christina Feldman Jack Kornfield
• Every great decision creates ripples–like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences. Ben Aaronvitch
• Smiling a few more times each day may not seem like much, but it will send wonderful ripples through your brain, body, mind, and relationships. Rick Hanson
• Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. Robert F. Kennedy
• An emotion expressed within a group has a ripple effect and becomes shared by the group’s members. People are susceptible to “catching” other people’s emotions. Robert Emmons

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In particular, acts of kindness and giving can ripple far and wide

• I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
• Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. Scott Adams
• The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. Thomas Carlyle
• Every morning, establish the intention to be kind and loving that day. Imagine the good feelings that will come from treating people with kindness; take in these feelings as rewards that will naturally draw your mind and brain toward kindness. The results could ripple far and wide. Rick Hanson
• Kindness,  Giving

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Know yourself to be a drop of water in the ocean.  We are all one.

• In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence. Kahlil Gibran
• As the smallest drop of water detached from the ocean contains all the qualities of the ocean, so man, detached in consciousness from the Infinite, contains within him its likeness; and as the drop of water must, by the law of its nature, ultimately find its way back to the ocean and lose itself in its silent depths, so must man, by the unfailing law of his nature, at last return to his source, and lose himself in the great ocean of the Infinite. James Allen
• You are water. I’m water.  We’re all water in different containers.  That’s why it’s so easy to meet someday we’ll evaporate together.  Yoko Ono
• How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.  Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean. Jon J. Muth
• When a wave settles down, then it instantly recognizes that its source in ocean – infinite, silent, and unchanging – was always there. Tom Von Deck
• All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop. Kabir
• The ocean,  Oneness

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God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.

• Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths. Muhammad Ali
• God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color. James McBride
• If you wish to know the taste of seawater and you live on an island, set out towards the coast and keep going. When you reach the seashore all you then need to do is to bend down, put the finger into the water, and then into the mouth and you will know the taste of all the seven seas. So it is with freedom, it has but one single taste. Rinzai Zen Master Hakuin
• Colour

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As water carves stone, your thoughts shape your character

• Even as water carves monuments of stone, so do our thoughts shape our character. Hugh B. Brown
• Character

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Small leaks of negativity can sink a large ship

• Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times, but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink. Just so with the human mind. Let enough negative thoughts or improper thoughts get into the human mind and the person sinks just like a ship. Alfred Montapert
• An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.  Goi Nasu
• Negativity

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What can water teach us about desire?

• Waters from many rivers continually flow into the ocean but the ocean never overfills. In a like manner, desires and attachments constantly flow into the mind of the Illuminated One, but he or she, like the ocean in its deepest depths, is totally still and never disturbed. Bhagavad Gita
• We cannot be free of nagging desires through suppression. This is like trying to keep a rubber boat beneath the water. But we remove compulsive desires altogether by understanding their nature. Vernon Howard
• But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one’s sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus. Buddha
• Desire

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Sometimes it takes hot water to find out how strong you are

• A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• We are like tea bags – we don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water. Jutta Baum Busche
• I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. Gilbert Chesterton
• Strength

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Live life as a fish swims in water

• …I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky. Mark Nepo
• Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water. T. Suzuki
• A little fish, overhearing a fisherman remark that water is essential to life, became panicky and swam desperately in search of water, until it reached the ocean and asked a wise old fish where it could find water. The old timer laughed and said, “Why, you’ve never been out of water. You’ve had water all the time, but you didn’t know it.” So it is with faith; you have it, it is with you. You simply have to realize and use it and it will grow.
• Looking for yourself is like a thirsty fish looking for water. Deepak Chopra

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Life analogies drawn from the mixing of water and oil

• You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together. Buddha
• Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

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Water analogies related to death

• So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o’er; So gently shuts the eye of day; So dies a wave along the shore. Anna Letitia Barbauld
• Man is like the foam of the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death. Kahlil Gibran
• Death

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When you try too hard, you sink.  When you relax, you float

• When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float. Zen Proverb
• To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. Alan Watts

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More practical advice we can learn from water

• Don’t throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.  Swedish Proverb
• It is wise to bring some water, when one goes out to look for water. Arab Proverb
• If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water. Bulgarian Proverb
• Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. African Proverb
• We cannot cross the sea merely by staring at the water. Rabindranath Tagore

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More thoughts on water and life

• A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs. Robert Townsend
• Give up your selfishness, and you shall find peace; like water mingling with water, you shall merge in absorption. Sri Guru Granth Sahib
• You never miss the water till the well has run dry.
• What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed. Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni
• Wounds are like water set to boil – they heal best left unwatched… Gabrielle Zevin
• You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there. Edwin Louis Cole
• Water which is too pure has no fish.  Ts’ai Ken T’an
• Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container. Wallace Stevens
• We are all bodies of water, guarding the mystery of our depths, but some of us have more to guard than others. Deborah Smith
• The people are like water and the ruler a boat. Water can support a boat or overturn it. William Shakespeare
• You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. Heraclitus of Ephesus
• Water seeks its own level and water rises collectively. Julia Cameron
• As an irrigator guides water to his fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives. Buddha
• Faith is like water in a river bed. The more you have, the smoother it flows over the rocks.
• Where the stream runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.  John Lyly
• Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it. Hannah More
• The mill cannot grind with the water that is past. George Herbert
• A great ship asks deep water. George Herbert
• All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath. Scott Fitzgerald
• As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. Bhagavad Gita
• Filthy water cannot be washed. African Proverb
• Taking back what you have just said is like taking back vinegar you’ve just spilled in your drinking water.
• The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water. Thich Nhat Hanh
• The true practice of meditation is to sit as if you were drinking water when you are thirsty. Shunryu Suzuki
• The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. Thich Nhat Hanh
• The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. Dogen
• Like a magician’s illusions, dreams and a moon reflected in water, all beings and their environments are empty of inherent existence. Though not solidly existent, all these appear, like water bubbles coming forth in water. Gung Tang
• Learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are calm. Gautama Buddha
• As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated “egos” inside bags of skin. Alan Watts
• You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here. Alan Watts

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• If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher. Debbie Macomber
• We have all passed a lot of water since then. Samuel Goldwyn
• I just bought a small condo overlooking the water. The water is in a cup, one floor below my unit. Jarod Kintz
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him participate in synchronized diving. Cuthbert Soup
• You can’t trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it. C. Fields
• Life without chocolate is like a beach without water.
• My wife’s a water sign. I’m an earth sign. Together we make mud. Rodney Dangerfield
• My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately, everybody drinks water. Mark Twain
• Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson
• Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed. Josh Billings
• If I walked on water, people would say I couldn’t swim. John D. Turner
• It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water. Franklin P. Jones
• Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow. Arthur Stringer

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