swimming with the fishes

In zazen I had an image of snorkeling with the fish in crystal clear water. The tropical schools of fish are brightly colored and captivating, and the water is warm. You get interested and follow a fish for a while, then another, enchanted and dazzled until you become a fish and swim in the schools, and in this rapture, you can drown. You drown because you forget the medium you are in, which includes the fish, but also the water, rocks, shells, sand, and sky. You forget to pay attention to the medium because you are hooked by the fish, and you can follow and become lost, too. These are our thoughts and emotions, which dart here and there, swim together in schools, and compel our attention. But we need to be aware of the medium from which the thoughts arise and in which they are held, or we will drown in our own lives.