Tuesday—-my Uposatha Day, this insight came to me concerning this:
Neither standing nor swimming, I crossed the flood…
Ascetics outside of the Buddha’s teachings did either three things:
() Identified with the body to surmount the mind for liberation
() Identified with the mind to surmount the body for liberation
() Both
When the Buddha said neither standing nor swimming, he meant that he doesn’t identify with the body nor the mind as vehicles for liberation. Not identifying is how he crossed the flood: The flood of sensuality, the flood of existence, the flood of views, the flood of nescience.
I also don’t understand this sutta very much and I hope one of the Venerables could elucidate this one for us. I think by swimming with the current of the flood is letting the mind carry on with greed, anger and delusion and swimming against the current is when the Lord Buddha practiced mortification of the body. But I don’t understand what the Lord Buddha meant when he said not standing in the flood of samsara. How does one stand ? Can someone give examples of standing in the flood? Which religious practice of the day would be a good representation of “standing in the flood?”
I don’t agree with what the author said “When the Buddha said neither standing nor swimming, he meant that he doesn’t identify with the body nor the mind as vehicles for liberation.”
Tagging monastics and asking them to chime in is not the best way to get the discussion going because there is no telling when they will see the message.
Thank you for the links, but I am specifically seeking the answer of a Bhikkhu. I did not know that the rules dictate that you cannot tag a Monastic; even though I’ve been doing that since I’ve been here?
One thing to keep in mind is that this sutta is intentionally cryptic. It is inviting you to consider it and probe into the meaning. There is not necessarily going to only be a single definitive interpretation.
That said, I would say that a useful way of reading it could be that the sutta is drawing attention to a dichotomy that we can easily fall into. The first tendency is just staying stuck in the flood of rebirth and mental defilements ('standing’). This means not actually trying to get across the flood, which is what most people are doing. The second tendency is to fight against the ‘flood’ with too much force and willpower. It’s important to differentiate ‘force’ from energy here.
The word for ‘swim’ in the sutta is ‘āyūhati,’ which also means ‘to strive.’ It’s what the commentaries use for the accumulation or generation of kamma in dependent origination, which creates future rebirth. In this case, it would be the wrong attitude to striving, not striving in general.
I would say that the first extreme is indulging in your mind and body, and the second tendency is cultivating aversion to your mind and body. The ‘middle’ means not indulging the mind, but also not being averse or forceful in the wrong way. This is the same spirit you see in the two extremes mentioned in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, where there is indulging in sense pleasures and self-mortification. In the Buddha’s own biography, the self-mortification practices included him trying to force his mind by sheer will power.
“‘Why don’t I, with teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, squeeze, squash, and scorch mind with mind?’” (MN 36)
Again, this is just one way of relating to it that I think can be helpful.
If one gets a foretaste of extinguishment while abiding in jhana, and sees or knows this extinguishment at that moment directly in a provisional sense (AN9.47, provisional because the defilements are not yet really uprooted), then one must not stand still.
Although one has some foretaste of the peace or coolness of Nibbana, the task is not done. Buddha’s teachers did stand still. They experienced the great peace and coolness of arupa jhana and felt their task was done. They stood still. But this only means that one stops purifying and does not realy uproot defilements in deepest way. Then, standing still one sinks in the mud of defilements and samsara.
Buddha also directly knew Nibbana in a provisional sense but he did not stand still. He knew that this extinguishment of fires was still only a temporary extinguishment of fires, a provisional one, not a definitive one. He realised he had still a task to uproot the deepest way defilements exist. He understood he had to really cleanse his home and not swipe dirt under the carpet and be satisfied with that, as it were.
But once having directly known extinguishment (nibbana) in a provisional sense one also knows that to arrive at a non provisional Nibbana, is not only a matter of striving or swimming to another shore. It is more like cleansing this shore more and more and that way arriving at the other shore. The other shore is not literally arrived at by swimming to it. It is also not arrived at by standing still.
I think there are many ways to interpret this teaching that could be useful (likely a feature, not a bug). That could be one. Two others:
The sutta is talking about balancing energy. Venerable Bodhi’s translation supports this: “When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank; but when I struggled, then I got swept away. It is in this way, friend, that by not halting and by not straining I crossed the flood.” Standing still is staying on the near shore, not enough energy, sloth-torpor, being content with what one has achieved even though it is short of the complete cessation of dukkha, and so forth. Struggling is excessive energy, restlessness, haste, not consolidating what one has achieved, and so forth. Learning to avoid those extremes, one develops balanced energy.
The sutta is talking about using the raft of the Noble Eightfold Path. Standing on the near shore of existence and defilements, one is sunk and stuck in it. Trying to cross the flood by swimming leads to being swept away because one isn’t using the right tool which lends one the necessary strength to cross it. The right tool is the raft of the Noble Eightfold Path. Without that tool, the flood can’t be crossed.
‘Large deluge’ is a term for the four floods: the floods of sensual pleasures, desire to be reborn, views, and ignorance.
‘The near shore that’s dubious and perilous’ is a term for substantial reality.
‘The far shore, a sanctuary free of peril’ is a term for extinguishment.
‘The raft’ is a term for the noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.
‘Paddling with hands and feet’ is a term for rousing energy.
‘Crossed over, gone to the far shore, the brahmin stands on solid ground’ is a term for a perfected one.”
