Simply, Purely Being

The human body can survive three weeks without food, three days without water, but only three minutes without air. Yet most of us will go our entire lives without experiencing true oxygen desperation. That primal moment when every thought, every desire, every fragment of consciousness collapses into a single burning need. Unless, of course, your spiritual teacher decides to drown you.

I first heard this story from one of my many yoga teachers. A young Hindu student, cocky about his spiritual progress, kept pestering his guru for advanced teachings. The guru's response was simple. He held the boy underwater until panic replaced pride.

The seconds stretched into an eternity as the student thrashed beneath the surface, his carefully constructed spiritual identity dissolving in the face of biological imperative. When he finally emerged, gulping air with animal desperation, the guru asked: "What were you thinking about down there? Your meditation practice? Your spiritual achievements? Or just your next breath?"