a discussion of the spiritual components of Row Row Row your Boat
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,947
a discussion of the spiritual components of Row Row Row your Boat
a discussion of the spiritual components of Row Row Row your Boat gently down the stream (by Hugh Prather)
ROW, ROW, ROW…
We all begin in four-quarter time. We start off knowing everything is for fun—bedtime, mealtime, everything. True adults have forgotten that, but haven’t we been told that a little child leads us Home?
YOUR…
Row your boat, not someone else’s. Why? Because we’re all in the same boat! Heal yourself and you simultaneously offer healing to all the other passengers.
BOAT…
You are not your boat. You just row it. The body is a flotation device. Therefore you want to remain aware of how you treat it.
GENTLY…
God’s little joke. If you’re rowing gently down the stream, are you really moving the boat? No. You’re just not interfering. But it’s important to do something, because a gentle occupation keeps your ego gently occupied. Gentleness—which combines peace, love, and harmlessness—is the core of this song and of a spiritual path. Even when you try to row up the stream, if you row gently, you still are swept in the right direction.
DOWN…
Just lean into your destiny. Don’t anticipate. Don’t expect. Don’t brace yourself. Above all, don’t tell the river what must be on the shore around the bend. Develop the sense of letting the shore come to you, of letting today’s events come to you. In other words, when you stay in the present, you coast.
THE STREAM…
The stream knows where to go because the stream is Love. God is carrying you piggyback all the way Home. You don’t travel on money, your wits, health, time, good looks, or success. You travel on God.
MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY…
Notice that you get four merrilies for every three times you row. That’s a 33.3 percent return! A spiritual path is just learning what makes you happy.
LIFE IS BUT A DREAM…
Life is but a dream—it’s merely a dream. If you loathe a dream, or fight it, or worship it, your mind remains locked on it. But when you dream gently, when you float in the dream, and when you take the dream as it comes—remembering that your boat is in it but that you are not—then you infuse the dream with many merrilies. Merrilies are the waking state! Thus will you flow into the vast ocean of God’s great merriment, where you are free even of rowing, and the smile of God is your smile forever.
ROW, ROW, ROW…
We all begin in four-quarter time. We start off knowing everything is for fun—bedtime, mealtime, everything. True adults have forgotten that, but haven’t we been told that a little child leads us Home?
YOUR…
Row your boat, not someone else’s. Why? Because we’re all in the same boat! Heal yourself and you simultaneously offer healing to all the other passengers.
BOAT…
You are not your boat. You just row it. The body is a flotation device. Therefore you want to remain aware of how you treat it.
GENTLY…
God’s little joke. If you’re rowing gently down the stream, are you really moving the boat? No. You’re just not interfering. But it’s important to do something, because a gentle occupation keeps your ego gently occupied. Gentleness—which combines peace, love, and harmlessness—is the core of this song and of a spiritual path. Even when you try to row up the stream, if you row gently, you still are swept in the right direction.
DOWN…
Just lean into your destiny. Don’t anticipate. Don’t expect. Don’t brace yourself. Above all, don’t tell the river what must be on the shore around the bend. Develop the sense of letting the shore come to you, of letting today’s events come to you. In other words, when you stay in the present, you coast.
THE STREAM…
The stream knows where to go because the stream is Love. God is carrying you piggyback all the way Home. You don’t travel on money, your wits, health, time, good looks, or success. You travel on God.
MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY…
Notice that you get four merrilies for every three times you row. That’s a 33.3 percent return! A spiritual path is just learning what makes you happy.
LIFE IS BUT A DREAM…
Life is but a dream—it’s merely a dream. If you loathe a dream, or fight it, or worship it, your mind remains locked on it. But when you dream gently, when you float in the dream, and when you take the dream as it comes—remembering that your boat is in it but that you are not—then you infuse the dream with many merrilies. Merrilies are the waking state! Thus will you flow into the vast ocean of God’s great merriment, where you are free even of rowing, and the smile of God is your smile forever.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,947
My mother in law pointed out that usually Row, Row, Row Your Boat is sung in rounds by mulitple people. I think that gives it even another dimension of truth when you think about it!
__________________
__________________
yes...thanks
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
