We abandon all need for life to be as we would make it … we drop allthoughts of purpose, goal, attainment and meaning … we strip ourselves naked and jumpinto a river, abandoning all demands that the river carry us where wewish. We cease all struggles, judgments and insistences, casting out our arms andfloating … us at one with that river … then, in perfect balance and union, all thought of “us” and “river”dropped away.
Then, wherethe current flows is just where we flow. Better said, there is just the flowing, carrying all where the waters will. By total yielding, all is nowtotally free.
But in my belief, some people have unrealistic expectations for Buddhism, thinking that one can maintain such states in all situations, in all times of life. I do not think it is so (just idealized old tales of long dead masters), nor need be so. Anyway, it is not true for us ordinary beings, the ones I know in this world.
Even the most gifted river swimmers among us will sometimes blink and cough and thrash around wildly when, from time to time, the water gets in the eyes and throat.
Yet, before we drown in panic and confusion, our training allows us to recover our balance, breathe smoothly and float once again.
(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
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