the main principle
Thales enim Milesius, qui primus de talibus rebus quaesivit, aquam dixit esse initium rerum, deum autem eam mentem, quae ex aqua cuncta fingeret: si dei possunt esse sine sensu; et mentem cur aquae adiunxit, si ipsa mens constare potest vacans corpore?
Thales of Miletus, who was the first person to investigate these matters, said that water was the first principle of things, but that god was the mind that moulded all things out of water — supposing that gods can exist without sensation; and why did he make mind an adjunct of water, if mind can exist by itself, devoid of body?
After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water.
The water main under the highway failed, and, after a few hours under a boil-water notice, there is now no water at all. Jars of boiled water in the fridge and on the counter for drinking, but it was easy to forget about ‘other household uses’ until those needs arose. This led to a gathering of buckets and trips down to the local stream, which provides a more than adequate supply of running water (the use of potable water for some matters is absurd). The sun slants through the woods, causing the water trapped in the moss to sparkle. It is nice to get outside anyhow, and one carries the water to carry the water. One is always carrying something. Might as well be water.