Your life is a river
Life is a river and each one of our particular lives is a whirlpool. The eddy sooner or later dissolves (dies) and returns to follow the current of the river. If you want to know more about Zen, go directly to see the video at the end of the article.
Reading a book about him ZenTrying to understand what this philosophy of life consists of, I come across a metaphor of life that I liked.
The author sees life like a river. The waters of the river sometimes run into obstacles, a branch, a trunk ... forming a small whirlpool that later dissolves in the flow of the current.
Each of our lives is a whirlpool as life (the river) runs its course around us. Sometimes that whirlpool draws in dirt that does nothing but muddy the water. We don't let that cloudy water go back into the stream. The limits of our whirlpool are marked by our ego. Only by eliminating the ego can we let go of the cloudy water that pollutes our water.
The ego has no meaning in the river of life since we are all part of its waters. We are only a moment of energy that when it is exhausted it will become part of the river.
There is no point in clinging to the false security provided by the techniques we use to avoid suffering. Many turn to material things to forget how miserable their lives are. Others resort to meditation, but not to accept suffering but to escape from it.
In our whirlpool (in our life) the garbage will arrive in the form of suffering. We have to let it go as it entered. Focus on the present and don't run away from anything.
In the acceptance of life as it is, there is bliss.
I leave you this video to know more about Zen: (If you like this video you can see this one entitled what is spirituality that appears at the end of another article)