Meditating to the Sound of Flowing Water

Meditating to the Sound of Flowing Water               

Meditation is central to the Royal Way life. In meditation, we can quiet the mind and discover our higher consciousness, which is beyond the mind. When we venture beyond the mind, we can experience our true nature, our divinity. We can have the experience of God. Michael Gottlieb, the master spiritual teacher who founded Royal Way and Royal Way Spiritual Center, taught many types of meditation, ranging from vipassana—sitting in silence, watching the breath—to active meditations that incorporate the body, such as tai chi and walking meditations. He also taught witnessing, which is a heightened, meditative state of awareness of all that is in and around us. In witnessing, we can meditate in nature. We can utilize the beauty and sounds of nature to achieve a quieting of the mind—and one beautiful way to do this is to meditate to the sound of flowing water.

The Spiritual Significance of Water

Water is vital for all life. Without it, every living thing would die. It covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and makes up as much as 80 percent of our bodies. In ancient times, water was considered one of the four elements that make up all matter: earth, air, fire, and water. 

But beyond its importance in supporting life, water has held a special significance throughout history, spanning religious and spiritual traditions the world over, including Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

For millennia, water has symbolized renewal, rebirth, and transformation. Water cleanses, heals, refreshes, restores, and purifies. It brings clarity and calmness. It flows with life’s changes, bridging the physical and spiritual worlds. It connects us to our body and its life-force energy, to nature, and to the sacred. 

Water’s spiritual significance is also an important part of Royal Way teachings. “Be like water,” Michael Gottlieb says. “Water never clashes with anything. If something gets in its way, water never argues for its rights. It simply goes around the obstacle or above it or beneath it. Water is never stuck in its posture.”  

The sound of flowing water—a waterfall, a gentle stream, the movement of waves at the seashore—can induce a meditative state, helping us clear the mind and embrace silence. Meditating to the sound of water allows us to tap into water’s tranquil, calming nature. It can bring both variety and an entirely new dimension and depth to your meditation practice.

Knowing this, it is not surprising that flowing water is prominent on the grounds of Royal Way Spiritual Center, an oasis in the high desert of Southern California. In the heart of the retreat center is the lush and beautiful Zen Park. And in the heart of the Zen Park is a waterfall that cascades into a series of ponds. Each pond gently flows into the next. Surrounding the ponds are a number of benches where one can sit and meditate, and adjacent to the ponds is a teahouse built in the Japanese style. The sound of flowing water fills the air.

How to Meditate to the Sound of Water 

How do we meditate to the sound of flowing water? Quite simply, we listen to it. Michael Gottlieb describes the experience: “If you sit near a waterfall, you listen to it. But do you interpret what the waterfall says? It says nothing, yet it says much—much that cannot be said. What do you do near a waterfall? You listen. You become quiet, silent. You absorb. You allow the waterfall to go deeper and deeper within you. Then everything becomes quiet and silent within.”

Michael urges us to listen without interpreting—that is, not to allow the mind to take over the experience: “To listen with alertness, without interpretation ... to see with awareness, without thinking ... to know without the mind is not as unusual as one might think. Do we use the mind to know love? Do we interpret the beauty of a tree? Do we interpret the singing of birds? No, we do not. We see and we hear without interpretation, and we know and understand without thinking.“The word for this experience is delight. Without thinking, we can be delighted in a garden filled with roses. Without thinking, we can be delighted when we hear the birds singing in the trees.”

So the sound of flowing water gives us an opportunity to focus, to quiet the mind. It can be a delightful way to savor silence and experience our true nature, our divinity.

Meditating to the Sound (and Sight) of Dripping Water

The Zen Park of Royal Way Spiritual Center offers another opportunity to meditate to water that is perhaps more subtle than the sound of a waterfall. In a quiet nook of the Zen Park, partially surrounded by a high stone wall and adjacent to the teahouse, is a bamboo drip fountain. Such fountains have deep significance in Zen philosophy. The tilting bamboo rod quietly drips into a stone basin filled with water, with intervals of silence in between. The rhythmic drip and the ripples it creates represent the impermanence of all things. They also serve as an anchor for our attention. They foster mindfulness by drawing our attention to the present moment, where we can experience a timeless state of consciousness. 

Conclusion

Water nourishes and restores our bodies, our souls, and the planet. Meditating to the sound of water is a powerful practice that can greatly benefit our physical and spiritual well-being. Water’s soothing qualities create the perfect environment for mindfulness and meditation where we can experience the depth of our true being—our divine nature.