water as an example for being

by Ness Song, written for Yenma Yenmalalibyila vol. 2

Moon lady, by Ness Song, 2022

The more we learn about the world and ourselves, it becomes increasingly clear to me that perhaps we know nothing at all. Whilst for some that might seem terrifying, I believe it to be encompassing and empowering. For it is with a learner’s mindset and a knowing that we know nothing at all that we can truly decide and discern truth for ourselves.

A water molecule has three atoms: two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom. Without speaking too scientifically on the matter - because I am not a scientist - I admit, I am becoming increasingly inquisitive and enraptured by the magic available to us in these particles that join together to form molecules. Water is the most common substance found on earth and all living things rely on water in order to exist and survive. It is the only substance that can exist in three different forms, liquid, solid and gaseous.

Lao Tzu refers to water as “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.”

Our traditional understanding of strength and power is defined by the current cultural and societal systems and structures in place. Systems that thrive upon doing, performance and execution. Rather than being, living, flowing and existing. By holding, forcing and doing - we feel we can bend the structures of our reality to fit what we think we want to see in our lives and whilst this is true to an extent - It is largely unsustainable as a practice to maintain for the entirety of our lives.

It is also the culprit of burn out, conflict and mass frustration.

This piece of writing delves into the swell of understanding that I know most of us are coming to, through our journey's anyway. That our doing aspects need to be balanced with more being aspects and that the doing aspects of our world have brought us this far, but that a new understanding of being in our world needs to be cultivated if we are to overcome the current challenges we are facing as individuals and as a planet.

Omid Safi discusses the disease of being busy in a piece written in 2014. As a state in which we are never at ease.

Reality looks different and difficult for those of us who need to work in order to survive. Our world is facing so many challenges, existential threats and an apathy epidemic; that all overlay and interplay to create a paralysis that keeps us from seeking the full being of our lives, but also in doing so, continually perpetuates the same systems that thrive on us feeling stuck, not enough or paralysed in fear.

I believe that this is just the beginning of our collective story. That how things currently stand are not how they will always be, and that we can collectively show up for each other better by showing up for ourselves. If we all did our inner play, our civilization would be a whole lot more civil.

Inner play is a practice that calls us to be curious about ourselves and our experiences. It empowers us to build a better relationship with life and the versions of ourselves that experience difficulty, trauma or sadness. Inner play can often be difficult to grasp or understand because the noise outside ourselves prevents us from forming a clear picture of our inner worlds in the first place.

Without this understanding it can be difficult to even understand that there is inner play to do. Inner play has also been called inner work or shadow work - and whilst undeniably acknowledged, the words we use for these practices are so crucial to our engagement with them, or consequent lack thereof.

W.B. Yeats once wrote: “It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on a battlefield”

I call it inner play because it is exactly that. An opportunity to play and discover, to learn and to invite in healing of the pain that lives behind our discomfort, our challenges and the frustration in our lives. At its core - Inner play is a form of introspective self care that helps us grow emotionally, psychologically, interpersonally, spiritually and creatively - by encouraging us to let go of harmful beliefs, attachments, habits, people and patterns.

Since the beginning of my journey with inner play, my understanding of myself has evolved and blossomed. Without sugar coating it - it involves a lot of space opening, filling and feeling into this space and allowing what has been ignored, suppressed or shunned from my experience to breathe their stories into my awareness so that these stories can integrate themselves into my being. The alternative is operating out of a place of unconsciousness - directing my efforts and reactions from a place of unhealed hurt and trauma, which I very much did for the longest while.

I am truly blessed to have been able to find teachers and guides who have been able to share their insights and wisdom into my inner world. Providing a lense on things I might miss because of the noise that surrounds us or the closeness of my heart’s hurt to its own story.

I believe that water offers incredible understandings, movements and tools for our lives, our journey’s and our inner play. For the movement towards a greater understanding of oneness with ourselves and one another and forgiveness of each other and ourselves. We rely on water in so many different ways; not just to function in our human bodies, but to play, to drink, to shower and bathe, to cleanse and to release.

Dr. Masaru Emoto was a Japanese scientist and one of the world’s leading water researchers. He studied the scientific evidence of how the molecular structure of water transforms when exposed to human words, thoughts, sounds and intention.

His work led him to refer to water as a “blueprint for our reality”. Stating that emotional energies and vibrations could change its physical structure.

Emoto began exposing water to different stimuli, conditions and environments and freezing it in 1994 and taking photos of the resultant crystals using Magnetic Resonance Analysis technology and high-speed photographs. Some of his most famous experiments saw Emoto take photos of water after playing different kinds of music to it, exposing it to words of kindness and words of hatred or blessings. Through his work he demonstrated how water exposed to loving, benevolent and compassionate intention results in aesthetically pleasing physical molecular formations in the water. While water exposed to fearful and discordant human intentions resulted in disconnected, disfigured and unpleasant physical molecular formations.

Numerous other researchers and professors have investigated and delved into the consciousness and capacity of water for memory. Researcher and senior director of French medical research organisation INSERM - Jacques Benveniste was the first to coin the phrase ‘Water Memory’ in 1988, and whilst his published research was considered fringe at the time, his work laid the foundation for further research and exploration of the science of water.

In 2001, professor Bernd Kroplin from the institute for Static and Dynamics for Aerospace Constructions of the University of Stuttgart, published his findings about Water Memory in his book “World in a Drop” using a darkfield microscope.

The experiments carried out demonstrated the impact of external inclusions and influences on numerous water samples.

Inclusions of different species of flowers producing different magnified water droplet structures, suggesting that particular flowers were evident in each different droplet of water.

The scientists undertaking this experiment believed that as water travels - it picks up and stores information from all the places it travels through - further elucidating and investigating the notion that water has the ability to store and retain information.

As beings made up of predominantly water - it is important to reflect deeply on how crucially important what we consume and cultivate within our experiences is.

Whether that be mental, physical, emotional, social or spiritual stimuli - is what we are consuming, empowering us to thrive or forcing us just to survive?

Depending on our age - water makes up around 70-90% of our bodies and water molecules characterise the very structure of our DNA & genetic material. When we reflect upon the power and potential of water - we must also reflect upon our own power and potential. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158; the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%.

Our world is made up of 71% water and when we are looking for life on other planets, the first thing we often look for is water.

There is arguably a strong case for the understanding of the impact of our collective consciousness on the structure, health and condition of our world. Our ability to look within ourselves, lends space to ourselves and in turn a greater capacity for care and custodianship for our planet.

What we consume, how busy we are and how we feel are all deeply interconnected. When the systems outside ourselves are invested deeply in swaying our purchases and how they relate to our state of consciousness, body, mind, spirit and interconnectedness with one another - it can often feel too difficult to resist or overcome. When the world’s problems feel bigger than us, when it feels like no one else cares or is doing anything positive or good in the world - it can often feel too difficult to resist or overcome.

Our focus on what we can do often lies in what we can ‘do’, of which resisting and overcoming are integrally related.

Through my work, I hope to inspire you to cultivate a different understanding of overcoming or resisting. One that is not rooted in the effort of holding, forcing and doing things outside yourself. But rather of turning inwards and allowing what already lives and breathes within ourselves, to express itself freely. To flow forth the different aspects of our beings and create the most vibrant tapestries of our expressions in this lifetime.

Expressions of great wisdom achieved through learning and healing from our most painful experiences. Capable of acting from places of connectedness and love for humankind and ourselves.

Our actions do not need to be immense but rather through the actions of many, our impact will be.

Your actions don't need to be bigger than yourself - a simple smile to a stranger, a kind word to a friend, checking in with a struggling family member, picking up one or two pieces of litter when you see it. All these things flow easier when we do the inner play.

Not necessarily because the actions become easier themselves, but because we become better equipped with a tool kit of compassion, empathy and understanding. Tools that we are only able to truly and genuinely apply in situations where other's are trying our patience - once we have applied them to our own wounds and hurts.

I believe that if each human on the planet was to commit to doing their own inner play - I know most of our society's ills would slowly but surely receive the attention they are so desperately calling for.

By taking the time to be present with ourselves, to listen to what our experiences have taught us and what it has to say, to give ourselves the space to hear our own heart and explore our soul. To soften in the face of the need to close ourselves off to protect ourselves. It is the easiest and greatest way to overcome the constant onslaught of hopelessness we face each and every day. Our greatest journey from here will be to cultivate the strength of softness in our hearts, our being and our experience.

Given that everything on earth is based on water and liquid, I say with confidence that we need to place much more awareness and attention on the water we consume, the water that we are and the way that water is affected on our planet. To understand deeply how we can affect and are affected by external forces as beings of immense power made predominantly of water. Our very existence depends on it. I am confident we will rise to the occasion.