By being indifferent of the flood… Death is inevitable.
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I just wanted to add, when I see ‘Appatiṭṭhaṁ anāyūhaṁ’ , another image comes to mind. That of getting out of quicksand. Anyway that’s besides the point I think, the beauty of Blessed Ones reply is that, makes one wonder, what king of ‘ogha’ is that? what kind of ‘payoga’ is that?
Interesting Ajahn Brahmali is conducting a 2 Day Sutta Retreat (2nd and 3rd December ) …
Venue: Quakers Hills Community Centre, 7 Lalor Rd, Quakers Hill, NSW 2763
Start time: 8:30 am please be there before 8;30 to avoid disruptions
Inquiries-- sydneybhavana@gmail.com
We can participate online via zoom. A Dhamma friend shared the suttas to be discussed at this retreat and the first sutta is SN 1.1: Crossing the Flood (Ogha-tarana Sutta)
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So I’ve been pondering over this sutta since a few days ago one and off. And I was wondering if this “middle way” implies going “with” the current, as in being nobody, no action whatsoever, no subject at all… like, “go with the flow”, while being mindful of the fact that it is not “my” choice to be in the flood, but I happen to be in the flood, hence no room for attachment neither resentment.
Flood could be probably a metaphor for Karma, no?
In other words, does it imply a kind of “amor fati”?
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The flood is the attachments. Crossing the flood is a state of non-attachment / liberation from the attachments.
Standing still is asceticism and/or self mortification and equals negative attachment. Swimming is amor fati and/or hedonism and equals positive attachment.
Therefore both do not lead to the goal of liberation. Hence the necessity of taking the middle way.
I have a hunch that we could be very close to the historical Buddha here …
But isn’t karma a conseuqnce of attachments? As in, as far as I know, volitions make up Karma, basically any action that is volitional creates Karma, and volitional action out of ignorance creates attachments because of tanha.
I also took a look at the first response, and it seems to me that it basically confirms that the flood could mean Karma.
Just occurred to me thaf the flood could be a metaphor for the stream of consciousness.