Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
Children attending their first swimming lessons have a healthy fear of putting their faces underwater. They are afraid they are going to drown. This is the feeling we can get when we go deeper in meditation and begin to break loose from some of our long-cherished emotional attachments.
When I was first meditating, I had the same fears everyone has. All kinds of struggles were going on inside me, and it took time and effort to overcome them. But once the waters closed over my head and I began to get my bearings in these new realms, I knew this was what I had been looking for and longing for, and all my energy went into diving deeper.
When we put our heads under and dive deep, leaving selfishness on the surface, we find a joy that is a million times what any surface sensation can give, and a love that at its fullest expression embraces all of life. Initially we may fear losing the sensory satisfactions that lie on the surface, but waiting far below are joy, love, life.