![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thisisit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/fish_background_divider_transparent-1024x299.png\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\nIn the tradition of Advaita Vedanta (or ‘non-duality’), the whirlpool or wave metaphor is used to show that all of existence is an indivisible whole. A wave cannot be taken out of the ocean. A whirlpool cannot be lifted out of the stream. After all, what are waves and whirlpools? Movements of water, that are not independent of the water in which they exist.<\/p>\n
In this metaphor, all of us humans are whirlpools, that form one day in the vast ocean of the universe. We spin for a while until we dissolve again in the water from which we came. But what was it that truly existed? The whirlpools? Or the water? The metaphor helps us remember that we are not separate from the world around us. Each of us is a unique and temporary window of the universe onto itself.<\/p>\n
In this heart-warming and humorous story of Eddy the whirlpool, we can recognize our own life-journeys. Because Eddy’s adventure is an archetypal life-journey: the journey of forgetting and remembering who we truly are.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\r\n\r\n
We just appeared in this world one day without asking to be born. We don't know much about ourselves or the world around us, yet we are naturally playful and happy.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
We are taught who we are and how to survive. A new identity is formed and our journey into the world starts.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
We made it. We survived. But now what? We are aging and can no longer ignore our mortality. The place we find ourselves is not what we imagined. Without joy there is no point to life. Something is missing.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
We fall into an identity crisis and start to doubt everything. What have we been doing all these years? We feel like we have lost something important on the way. We recall fragments of happy moments in our childhood. A timeless, causeless joy. When simply existing was enough to be happy.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
We ask advise from a friend who seems happy, despite all of life's challenges. But instead of getting an answer, he holds up a mirror. We suddenly recall that we were never really separate from the world around us. We remember who we are and always have been.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t
The whirlpool and the ocean are one and the same. From the viewpoint of the ocean, there is no beginning and no end. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do. Life is an endless journey, of child-like play and creativity. The ocean forever enjoys simply being itself.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n
\r\n\t<\/i>\r\n\t<\/i>\r\n\t\r\n\t\tAn ideal gift to explain non-duality to a friend, in the most gentle way.<\/p>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t