How is Meditation like filling a sieve with water?

A wise teacher, instructing his students to meditate, told them, “The process is like filling a sieve with water.”

All of the students were confused by this statement. How was it possible to fill a sieve with water? Some thought it meant meditation was very difficult, and others thought it meant they could only expect temporary gains from their practice.

Discouraged, they stopped meditating. One student, however, approached the teacher and asked him to explain. The teacher took the student to the edge of the ocean, gave him a sieve, and told him to try to fill it with water. The student scooped the water into the sieve, but it immediately ran out.

The teacher took the sieve from the student and said, “I will show you how.” The teacher threw the sieve into the water, where it sank almost immediately. He told the student, “The sieve is full of water now and will stay that way forever.

Meditation works the same way. It’s not about scooping small amounts of Spirit into your individual life, but about dropping yourself into the ocean of Spirit and merging with that Spirit more and more each day.”

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