Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Four Rivers of Samsaraand#8221; is from the second talk from the 2009 UK Womenand#8217;s Order / Mitra Event titled and#8220;Generating Bodhi Mindand#8221; by Vajratara. She guides us through the second section of Tsongkhapaand#8217;s short text on and#8220;The Three Principle Aspects of the Pathand#8221;. The verses contain some strong and striking images for what it feels like being caught in Samsara and they come to life in Vajrataraand#8217;s talk. She relates how she nearly came to death herself swept away by a Indonesian river and that was just an ordinary river current, never mind the current of Samsara!
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
The Four Rivers of Samsara
[Music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you, and happy listening. [Music] There's quite a few images in there which I'll just have a bit of a deeper look at. The first one is being swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers. I don't know if you've ever actually had that when you've gone into a river and been swept away when the force of the river is more powerful than you. I've had that once when I was in Indonesia and it was absolutely terrifying because I had no control whatsoever. I'm a pretty strong swimmer. At least I thought I was a pretty strong swimmer. I thought, "I'll just get into this." Actually, I was hanging on to the side, so I didn't even go out. My depth of anything. I was hanging on to the side, got in there. As soon as my weight was in the water, I couldn't even hold on to the side. It was only because there was something further down the stream that caught me that I was able to get out. It's a terrifying thing to happen to you. That's what Sankapo is saying, that all beings are like that. We're all being swept away beyond our control in the four powerful rivers. The first river is desire. We're always wanting something more. We're never content with what we have. Part of that might be all right. Part of that is actually because we know in our heart of hearts we might get a sense that we can be something much more. We could be spiritual beings. We could achieve limitless wisdom and compassion. Why be content with where you are now if you can do that? Why be content with your unethical behavior? It's rotten. It's absolutely rotten. There's no excuses for it. Maybe in a sense there is an aspect of desire of Dhamma Chanda to really want to be liberated. But a lot of that desire we end up putting in the wrong things and looking for satisfaction in the wrong places, even looking for liberation in the wrong places. So we end up in this situation where we're always wanting the next thing because the next thing is going to make us happy. Only we're looking for that thing in the wrong place and it doesn't. It doesn't work over and over and over again. It doesn't work. But we never seem to learn our lesson. We're just caught up by this desire. We can't find a foothold. We can't find anything to cling on to. It's just repeated desire again and again and again. A bit like a hamster on one of those little wheels. Always looking for the next thing and not realizing that actually you're staying still. So that's the first river, the river of desire and then the river of Baba of existence. So we're always trying to confirm our existence. We're always trying to say to the world, I exist. I have these things. I live in this place. I have this boyfriend or girlfriend. Therefore I exist. Or it might be along the lines of I really hate you and therefore I exist. Or this is what I like and this is what I don't like. I am the kind of person who doesn't like barleycup and dancing on SWBO retreats and crocs. Therefore I exist. That's the kind of person that I am. I've now defined myself and I like certain things. I really like Sheffield. I've got such an identity thing about Sheffield which is really peculiar because I didn't even get brought up there. I'm completely a southerner. So it's a bit odd. But in a way that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to create an identity for ourselves all the time. Create an existence. And it's very painful. It's very, very alienating because what it means is that if I'm trying to define my existence all the time, I'm doing that in opposition to other people. So if I become the kind of person who doesn't like barleycup and doesn't like crocs and does like Sheffield, well what happens, what's my relationship going to be like to a person from Suffolk who wears crocs and drinks barleycup? That you might be thinking really nervously, oh my goodness, she doesn't like crocs. She won't be my friend. So in some sense, and it's all right, I've got over it, I drink barleycup. Not crocs, yeah. I haven't left Sheffield and I don't wear crocs but I think possibly that's the next day. Crocs, not Sheffield. So anyway, in a way what we're doing is by defining our existence all the time, we just get swept up in our own opinions of ourselves and it alienates us from others. It's very painful to experience because we separate ourselves off from others. And the third river is the river of ignorance, our video. So the way Banti talks about ignorance in this sense is quite interesting because he says it's when we see everything in terms of what we can get out of it, everything in terms of our own utility. So he is the example of a tree. A tree becomes something that's just going to give us a load of matchsticks, which basically means a load of money, instead of being a manifestation of life, of growth, of beauty. So instead of seeing the beauty of the tree, you just see the matchsticks. And in a way that's what we're doing all the time. We're seeing things in terms of what we can get out of it, what we can get out of people in fact. So instead of people being this indescribable sort of crystallization of conditions, sometimes you get this sense of you've been doing the metaphor a lot and the people are just absolutely fascinating, and you can't get to the bottom of them, and you can't sum them up or predict what they're going to do. And you just love them for it anyway. You can get this sense of just loving the mystery of other. But if we're trapped in a video, it means that instead of seeing them as this kind of indescribably beautiful mystery, what we see them in terms of is, well, this person is going to comfort me when I feel down, or this person is quite practical, so they're quite useful as a DIY handyman, or this person can be my counselor, or my best friend, or my lover, or whatever. This person's going to be my entertainer, my home help, all those sorts of things. So we see people in terms of what we can get out of them, which is a great shame. It's a great shame because it really limits our communication with them. And usually, well, they don't conform to what we want them to be. They don't conform to our utility or our expectations. And we miss out on real communication. So we're swept away by this river of ignorance, of always looking at things in terms of what we can get out of them. And we're swept away by a river of views. So what we have is a map of reality that's completely out of date, and unhelpful, usually, unless it's based in the Dharma, or Banti's teachings, more specifically, as far as I'm concerned. Our map of reality is just a bit useless. But the funny thing about our map of reality that's a bit useless is that we're really stubborn about it, and it's our map, so therefore it's right. So if anyone else has got a different map of reality, we can get a bit annoyed about that. And if someone questions our map of reality, someone may be a bit wiser than ourselves, says, well, really is Sheffield, north of Scotland, and you're going, yes, because it's north of everywhere, because it's the north. It's the best place, it's the highest place in the universe. So it's got to be north of everywhere. He's a slightly stupid example. But in a way, what happens is we get into these views, and these views aren't just thoughts. They're not just thoughts that we have about reality. They're real opinions, very, very deep opinions that we hold about our own identity and about the identity of others, and our place in the world. And sometimes in meditation, you start touching what your real views might be underneath it and you realise that you've constructed a life based on this view, and that the view doesn't hold. And I've recently come back to the solitary retreat where I've uncovered a very, very deep view about myself, which goes something along the lines of, if I don't work hard enough, people are going to think I'm a slacker. So my whole identity is about me working for the Dharma, and that alone is going to do it for me. So that's a view. It's like, in any way, if you take someone from Sheffield about that, they go, you're not work hard enough. What are you talking about? But there's a view underneath there about myself, which is my whole identity, my whole identity. And in a way, it's attachment to rights and rituals, because what it's saying about myself is that's enough. I've just got to work really hard for the Dharma, and then I'll be enlightened. But actually, the work of the Dharma is much deeper than that. It's not just about constructing an identity. It's about really transforming your states of mind. So that's a little example of a view, but views are very deep. They're very deeply held. And most of the time, we're not even aware of what they are. And when we are aware, we do become aware of what those views are. It's very, very painful and very hard to undo. So we're swept away by this opinion of ourselves. And we're not in control. We're not in control. We're swept away by the rivers of desire, of existence, of ignorance and views. And we don't have control. And we can see this around us. It's not just ourselves, obviously, in this part of the text. Some people are talking about other people, and seeing it in other people. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [ Silence ]