The search

I have been surfing quite a bit lately. Surfing, well learning to surf is actually the main reason for me to be in Morocco. The winter season is good for surfing and there are enough tourists around for me to stay in the practice teaching yoga and, this time around, also mainly giving Thai Yoga Massage which has been a blessing; I can feel my intuition getting finer every day, my alignment when giving massage tuning-in faster, and I’m able to sense at a more subtle level. Surfing is a bit the same for me, although with surfing I am still at a gross level of sensitivity to the field: the ocean, the waves, and myself in it, with it. So tuning-in is more difficult, the alignment is poorer and my intuition is not that fine yet. But still, I feel the progress (some days) and most importantly I enjoy the search.

‘Search’ is a widely used word in the surfer’s vocabulary. I guess it refers most of the time to the search for the perfect wave and the perfect ride. For me that’s exactly it; and one should understand perfection as a relative term, more like excellence, which is always relative to your present circumstances, understanding and knowledge. A few days ago I had one of those sessions when, three times, I found the perfect position to catch a pretty big wave on my personal scale, and ride the wall of the wave without falling off my board. It felt so good, so perfect. Three times!

The sensation and feeling I had when I could read the ocean to position myself in the right spot, and I knew how strong I needed to paddle and when, and the moment I felt I was sliding and decided to take off… all this was me and my board in perfect communion with the field, we were as ‘one’ for those few instants.

After that day I’ve had so very little ‘perfection’! So the trick is not to fool yourself thinking that everyday will be the same. Because the search demands patience, effort, constant practice and a willingness to be surprised, for good or bad.

So when you put all these elements together: patience, effort, constant practice, openness to wonder... what is the difference between the search for the perfect wave and the search for our inner being in harmony with everything else? Or the search for a wider and more inclusive experience of reality? Or the search for an experience of interconnectedness? Or the search for your deep inner self?

Be sure that you will have to put all the above-mentioned elements into play if you are on the search (patience, constant effort and practice, a willingness and openness to be surprised...). There will be many days when you feel you aren't progressing, just not getting there ; there will be many times when you will be surprised at how all the work done with patience and trust in the past suddenly clusters together, and you are rewarded with an amazing experience. So what I understand is what becomes most important in the end is the search itself.