Picture yourself on a boat on a river. That is what life is like.

Picture yourself on a boat on a river. On this boat, you are pushing along off of the bottom with a pole. You are pushing the boat, but at the same time, the boat is carrying you.

There is no "you" beyond the boat.

By pushing the boat along, the boat is being caused to be a boat. If it were not set in the water, and being poled along, this aggregate of boards and nails might have the form of a boat, but it wouldn't, in fact, be functioning as a boat. If this same coming-together of wood and steel were in the desert, could it really be called a "boat?" It is your poling it along on this river that is causing it to be a "boat."

Picture yourself on this boat on the river. In that very moment, there is nothing other than the world of the boat. Just as your poling is what causes the aggregate to be a boat, the boat is also defined by the river, and the river is defined by the shore, and the shore is defined by the land just as the land is defined by the sky. In fact, everything in the universe is defining every other thing in the universe, and they are all defining the boat, and you are pushing the boat, and at the same time, the boat is carrying you.

There is no "you" beyond the boat. "You" are defined not only by that aggregate which we are calling "boat," but which actually is the whole universe, and not only by the functions of poling and being carried, but also by your form and mass, which pushes the boat a little lower in the river, which displaces some water, which moves some air, which you are breathing in and out.

At this very moment, there is nothing other than the world of the boat, which is utterly different from moments not on the boat. While you are pushing the boat, your body and mind and circumstances and self are all essential parts of the boat; and the whole Earth and the whole of space are all essential parts of the boat.

Life is like this. Just as you are pushing the boat and the boat is carrying you, life is what you are making it, and you are what life is making you. What has been described like this is that life is the self, and the self is life.

- Shokai, based on "Zenki" by Master Dogen