A Mind Not Swept Away by the Current

A river flows without ceasing. Standing on the bank and looking on, you can see the direction and speed of the current. But once swept into it, it becomes hard to tell where you are being carried. Our minds hold a current just like this. When we fail to notice the force pulling the mind along, we come to speak and act exactly as our thoughts dictate.

Wanting to see, wanting to hear, wanting to have, wanting to feel still more — one wish leads to the next. Getting one thing brings a moment's satisfaction, but soon we go looking for another. When we follow desire without noticing that it has arisen, the mind loses any place to rest. Rather than simply condemning the wanting mind, we must first look at how it arises and how it pulls us along.

There is also the wish to show others 'this is who I am.' The more the wish to be recognized and admired grows, the more easily we are shaken by others' reactions. When we are caught by the thought 'I am right' or 'it must be done my way,' it becomes hard to hear anything else. And the very delusion of not knowing what is pulling us along only makes this current run stronger.

Practice is not about forcing the river to stop. It begins, as when watching the current from the bank, with noticing the desire and stubbornness arising right now. Observe: 'here is a mind wanting to have,' 'here is a wish to show myself,' 'here I am, unable to let go of my own thinking.' When we no longer grasp that feeling as though it were the whole of who we are, a small gap opens in the habit of acting on it immediately.

This gap is not indifference or resignation. It is the space where, before reacting exactly as the mind pulls, we look at what is actually needed. Even with something we want to say, we can hear the other person out to the end; even when something feels like it must be had right away, we can look again at whether it is truly needed. Awareness helps us choose more clearly in everyday life.

The teachings liken nirvana — freedom from the fierce current of affliction — to a safe island. Safety does not come only once the river itself stops; it points instead to a peace in which one is no longer swept away by that current. A moment of calm in the mind does not mean nirvana has already been reached. Today's small act of awareness is practice for taking that teaching into our lives.