Nothing that happens on the surface of the sea can alter the calm of its depths

Still waters run deep

Each of us is like the waves and also like the water. Sometimes we’re excited, noisy, and agitated like the waves. Sometimes we’re tranquil like still water. When water is calm, it reflects the blue sky, the clouds, and the trees. Sometimes, whether we’re at home, work, or school, we become tired, agitated, or unhappy and we need to transform into calm water. We already have calmness in us; we just need to know how to make it manifest.

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean And billows wild contend with angry roar,
'T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth And silver waves chime ever peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flyeth Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.

..the flat surface of a perfectly calm ocean [which] disturbs us.. ..by all the unknown that is hidden in the depth.

Have you ever seen flowing water?... Have you ever seen still water?... If your mind is peaceful it will be just like still, flowing water. Have you ever seen still, flowing water? There! You’ve only ever seen flowing water and still water, haven’t you? But you’ve never seen still, flowing water. Right there, right where your thinking cannot take you, even though it’s peaceful you can develop wisdom. Your mind will be like flowing water, and yet it’s still. It’s almost as if it were still, and yet it’s flowing. So I call it “still, flowing water.” Wisdom can arise here.

'T is the brook's motion,
Clear without strife,
Fleeing to ocean
After its life.

The water of the river is the calmest, where the deepest.

"How still,
How strangely still
The water is today,
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.

~ "Sea Calm

Still waters run deepest, they used to tell me.

'It is the calm and silent waters that drown you...' (p172)

So my great love for thee lies tranquil, deep, Forever; though above it passions fierce, Ambition, hatred, jealousy; like waves That seem from earth’s core to the sky to leap, But ocean’s depths can never really pierce; Hide its great calm, while all the surface raves.

Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.