Oh WELL..

Just recall that a few days ago, I was talking about well – a water source. I’m actually rather fascinated by well, I remember during my childhood days, one of the many attractions at my maternal grandmother’s house is the well she had, besides many durian trees around. Yup in those days, durians were seasonal and pricey, but we needn’t pay a single cent to eat the savory fruit. Oh, how I had digressed. Back to the well.

I liked to play by the well, very much to the adults’ dislike. The water was so refreshing, so clear. Taking a quick bath by the side of the well during a hot day was unarguably the best treat. Ha. That well wasn’t that deep and I could see the bottom of the well quite clearly. Besides the clear water, there were rocks, sand and noticeably some greens. I would just stare at the bottom or try and learn to draw out some pails of water myself. Oh drawing water from a deep well using just a pail (with string attached) needs quite a bit of practice, surely.

When I grow older, but still young, I began to question.

- Is the water from the well, rain water? Erm.. Rain can get in obviously, but it can’t be just rain water. In my own kampong house back in the 80s, we collected rain water with huge containers. The rain water was then used for washing and cleaning purposes around the house, including daily showering of the pigs and the pig sties. But if the rain water was left untouched for a few days, I would see many mosquito larves floating within. In other words, collected rain water appeared stale and it was not meant to be used from drinking or cooking purposes.

- Who puts in the water? I had noted, we can draw out pails and pails of water, but the level maintained the same. This is so cool! But why?

- The water may appear a little cloudy during stormy days, but otherwise, it is often very clear, very fresh. Why? Tell me, please.

- I drank from the well directly. A natural response, I guess. I feared the collected rain water. Looking at the swimming mosquitoe larves had that repelling/close-to-disgusting effect. Haha..

- Who is the first one being so smart to dig so deep into the ground in search of water? Really so smart.

Of course, many of my “queries” were answered (or partially so) by now. Still, I find well pretty amazing.

Another magical observation I have missed :
If we were to draw some water from the well often enough (daily, maybe), the water remains fresh. If we choose not to draw from the well for weeks, the well will never have the problem of spilling over. On top of that, the water of an unused well will also become stale, much like the collected rain water I talked about earlier. This is the part I like best. And of course, an interesting saying I heard years before re-surfaced :

布施犹如井中水，一边吊打一边盛，
三日五日不打水，何曾淹到井槛边。

这一句话有一点禅意。试着领悟。 :o)

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有一位圣者这么说：

这次如果失败，也不要指责自己，
下次再不断的用心，失败没有关系，
但是我们要得到教训。