17 Feb Koan 4

Water is the face of fire.

This is a family motto told to Kanako Iiyama by a family elder when she was seven.

Fire, flames of ever-changing light, represents each family member’s unique and short life. However, water, relatively calm and cool, is the perennial face or appearance of the family. As water extinguishes fire, the face of the family trumps the uniqueness of individual family members.

The motto is also a koan, a nonsensical paradox: how can things that cannot coexist, water and fire, be one thing? Perhaps the face or exterior of something is different from its essence.

Alternatively, while water and fire are seemingly independent things, they are actually interdependent and connected aspects of one thing; the expression of the everything in the now.

As well, while the surface of things often doesn’t noticeably change from how we remembered it a moment ago, the surface masks the essential nature of all things which is ever-changing.

Additionally, water has a reflective property which implies that in the face of water we see our self.