Uploaded April 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
There is a poster of Swami Satchidananda wearing a loincloth and standing in a yoga posture called the tree pose, with one leg up and his hands over his head. He is balanced there on one foot. This is nothing very unusual—except he is in this pose balanced on a surfboard riding down a very large wave. Underneath it says in big letters, ‘‘You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.’’ This is meditation. It’s true, we cannot stop the waves of change; they are the very fabric of our lives. Yet we can learn to surf, to be aware, to balance. Then our lives are no longer based on fear, and the state of balance itself becomes a way of living with beauty and ease.
There is a poster of Swami Satchidananda wearing a loincloth and standing in a yoga posture called the tree pose, with one leg up and his hands over his head. He is balanced there on one foot. This is nothing very unusual—except he is in this pose balanced on a surfboard riding down a very large wave. Underneath it says in big letters, ‘‘You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.’’ This is meditation. It’s true, we cannot stop the waves of change; they are the very fabric of our lives. Yet we can learn to surf, to be aware, to balance. Then our lives are no longer based on fear, and the state of balance itself becomes a way of living with beauty and ease.
