Great Waves

In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves.

O-nami was immensly strong and knew the art of wresting. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public was so bashful that his own pupils threw him.

O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his great trouble.

"Great Waves is your name," the teacher advised, "so stay in this temple tonight. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land."

The teacher retired. O-nami sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as waves. He thought of many different things. Then gradualy he turned more and more to the feeling of waves. As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea.

In the morning the teacher found O-nami meditating, a faint smile on his face. He patted the wrestler's shoulder. "Now nothing can disturb you," he said. "You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you."

The same day O-nami entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in Japan was able to defeat him.

My Thoughts: The wrestler O-Nami was disturbed by multiple thoughts which had brought him fear of defeat within him which made him to fail in his public bouts. Defeating an opponent requires more inner strength than the strength of body. This can be compared to our normal life. In our life, we need to come across critical situations which requires a lot of internal strength to make it a win-win situation. Only the internal strength make you take the right decision at the right time. Most of them nowadays go against law or dharma when they face critical situations. This is due to the loss of internal strength. At this state FEAR will conquer you. The fear of loosing something will make our mind do unlawful deeds. All negative thoughts will break your inner strength.