THE FISH
The fish is apparently not a good symbol for yoga, which is precisely why it is a particularly good one.
Yoga and true spirituality thrive on true insight, and this is only possible beyond our expectations. Yoga wants to turn us from ‘robots’ into human beings – away from prefabricated thoughts and dead images and towards genuine experience and the living discovery of reality.
The fish destroys our expectations and opens the doors to what lies beyond the known.
Thus the fish is that which is beyond the mind. What has no mind cannot possess anything; every experience, everything that is experienced is only what it is – pure, unreflected being.
The fish is part of the water, merges with its medium and is inseparable from the current – in a way, it is the current itself. Its body is soft and curved like the water. It perceives every movement in the water.
It has no body temperature of its own, it is one with the temperature of its surroundings. When the water flows, it is in a state of flux; when the water freezes, it becomes still.
However, the fish is without spirit. Everything it experiences is only this experience. Every surge, every freeze is the same to him.
When the fish is eaten, it is a gift of nature, a gift of life to life, an expression of the universal divine to satisfy the hunger of others.
The fish is therefore a symbol for sacrifice – for the sacrifice of existence to itself. For we must be and suffer in being in order to grow. If we give ourselves like the fish, without spirit, offering our lives as a sacrifice for the greater life, then we can all grow.
The fish is therefore a symbol of the heart, because in the heart we can give ourselves to life. From the heart we can sacrifice ourselves for something greater and in this way become one with the ocean.
The fish also dives into the depths of the ocean of life. It is the explorer of the unconscious and of dreams. In the stories of our civilization, wise men often had to be swallowed by fish. In the belly of the fish we recognize our destiny, and from there, from this journey to the bottom of the ocean, we can emerge transformed.
The fish is therefore transformation – the journey to the bottom of being, the transformation of suffering into wisdom. The fish is the heart, the fish is one with the water, which is the ocean of life. The fish is without understanding, and because it is one with its medium, it always finds its way.
Beyond the mind, it is life, which is a sacrifice to itself. It is transformation and the depth of existence.
Matsya Yoga – Rebirth of the Sacred
