The Reflecting Wake

One day while watching boats afloat in the river I noticed how a small boat in the middle of the river can ride the waves and wakes without moving left, right, forward or backward, just moving up and down gently, then I came to notice the platform that I was sitting on, and it was shaking like mad! Why was this so? I got up and started to investigate and just like that! I found the problem with the practice.

It was hard to put in words at first, but I came to call it “The Reflecting Wake”, where waves encounter large obstacles such as a wall or a dock and reflecting back, crossing with original waves and creating instability at the crossing location. The same phenomenon was seen later when a large ship came side by side to the small boat and the wake passing underneath the boat reflected back off the ship, causing instability to the boat.

What does this have to do with the Buddha’s teaching?

Find out in the “Death of the Shadow…” under “Pages” on the sidebar.