"An example we often use in Buddhism is that of the wave and the water. The wave springs from the ocean and when you observe the phenomenon of the wave, you see there is a beginning and an end. You see the coming up and the going down, you see the presence and the non-presence of the wave. Before arising it seems that the wave did not exist, and after going down, we don't see it existing either. We distinguish between one wave and another wave. One wave may be more beautiful, higher, or lower than the other wave. So concerning the world of phenomena we have all kinds of concepts: beginning, ending; high, low; more beautiful, less beautiful - and that creates a lot of suffering.
But at the same time we know the wave is also water. It's possible for a wave to live her life as both a wave and water at the same time. As a wave, she belongs to the world of phenomena: she has a beginning, an ending, a coming up, a going down. She distinguishes herself from other waves. But if she has time to sit down and to touch her nature deeply, she'll realize that she is water. She is not only a wave, she is also water. The moment she realizes she is water, she loses all her suffering, about being there or not being there anymore. Water represents the noumenal world, the world of no-birth and no-death, no coming and no going."
(Excerpt from "Buddha Mind, Buddha Body" by Thich Nhat Hanh.)
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