30 Nov
2012
Posted in: Books
By    Comments Off on Swimming, Not Drinking

Swimming, Not Drinking

I love this line from Kamma and the End of Kamma:
We don’t have to drink the water we’re swimming through.

Here’s more:
To not drink in the ocean of samsara (the endless rolling on of habits and entanglements) means checking and restraining the pull of the senses, checking and putting aside the “programs” of the mainstream, and cultivating full attention and awareness…

Through following the Eightfold Path, you realize that you’re not as embedded in samsara as it might seem.

For a start, you never actually become anything for very long. Sure, you seem to go through periods of agitation and tension, but with practice there are periods of joy and humor–and as you get more skilled in attending to the mind, the habit of holding on to particular states loosens up.

You find yourself identifying with this or that state less and less; and that reduces the stress and turmoil.

Seen like this, human life is a great opportunity. Regardless of the effects that we inherit, we can always act skillfully and cultivate the mind; we can always move towards goodness, happiness and liberation.

“Kamma and the End of Kamma” by Ajahn Sucitto is available free in pdf form by clicking here. (Scroll down…the first page has no text.)

(image from A Whole World, by Couprie and Louchard)

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