Drowning
The Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho (author of The Alchemist) offers a perceptive observation: “You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”
This insight perfectly illuminates the awakening journey. The issue isn’t choosing wrong-minded thinking—it’s remaining caught in its grip. We don’t drown by jumping into the ego river, but by staying underwater, unable to catch ourselves, never coming up for air.
What does “coming up for air” mean? Simply this: the presence to notice we’ve been captured by ego thinking. That moment of recognition—Oh, I’ve been completely lost in judgment—is the breath we need.
Many spiritual seekers exhaust themselves trying to avoid the river entirely. We develop elaborate practices and routines to stay away from ego waters, believing the path requires never falling in. But this approach inadvertently gives the ego more power, making it something to resist.
If we believe this world is real then we’re already swimming in the river. No intellectual maneuvering changes this fact. We’re fully submerged in identification with a name and body self, mindlessly caught in the current of separation.
So the real work isn’t avoiding the water—it’s not staying under. We do this by catching ourselves. By noticing we’re underwater. By shifting attention into the awareness that observes the drowning without being drowned itself.
From that spacious presence, we can truly breathe. We’re no longer fully enmeshed in the self we once took as “me.” As A Course in Miracles reveals: “The escape from darkness involves two stages: First, the recognition that darkness cannot hide. This step usually entails fear. Second, the recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could.”
The path to freedom moves through the river, not around it.
Join me in Thursday’s class where we’ll explore how to catch ourselves from drowning and discover the liberation that comes from learning to breathe. I look forward to seeing you then.