Crossing the Flood (Ogha Tarana )

When the Buddha was residing at Jethavanaya in Savathnuwara one night, a deity approached the enlightened one and asked how he managed to “Cross the flood (ogha)’ without drowning. Buddha’s answer was simple and direct,

‘I crossed the flood without staying still and with no exertion.’

Let’s examine this simple yet profound answer by the Buddha.

What the deity implied in her question was how the Buddha crossed the flood of Samsara. Tathagatha's reply addressed the specific context of the deity’s question when he said that he crossed the Samsara flood without staying still or exerting himself.

As his responses literally meant, the Buddha couldn't have crossed the flood if he stood still within the flood for that he would have got drowned. Similarly, had he exerted himself to keep afloat he would have drowned anyway due to exhaustion.

The Buddha went on to explain his response and preached that the worldly beings are hindered by four types of Floods or Oga , known as Floods of Sensuality, View, Existence and Ignorance, (Kama Ogha, Ditti Ogha , Bhava Ogha and Avidya Ogha)

He identified that the above four floods impedes one from crossing ‘Samsara’ by arresting his/ her spiritual progress towards complete liberation. The Enlightened one used the term Oga to stress the danger in these fetters making comparison to a destructive flood that cannot be crossed easily. It implies that the one who entangles himself in any of the above is dragged away into suffering similar to a person who gets drifted and drowned in a flood.

In terms of the flood of sensuality one gets drowned either way, if he stays still or if he exerts himself. The one who embrace sensual pleasures will stay with it being ignorant of the evil effects and eventually get drowned ending up with suffering, on the other hand the one who react with aversion and exert himself will not succeed in crossing either but will end up in suffering as well due to exhaustion. This relates to the adherence to the two extremes in sensuality known as Sensual Indulgence (Kamasukhallikanuyoga) and Self Mortification (Attakilamathanuyoga) both of which were rejected by the Buddha as extremes to be discarded.

What needs to be highlighted here is that in the situations of extremes discussed above, the person, whether he stays still or exerts himself attempting to keep afloat, is still remaining within the flood. Similarly, a person who grasp a thing as a pleasurable item and the other say for instance, who attempts to observe the impermanence of the object, both act on an object that is already perceived as a one that exists externally. Neither of them will be able to ‘cross’, the floods in the former instance and the Samsara in the latter.

In terms of the flood of view, a person who is caught up with the view; say an eternalist tend to stay still while a materialist would exert himself, both being deluded by the soul view. In either way they both will eventually drown and hence the liberation from suffering is not achieved through either way.

Flood of existence relates to craving to stay within the existence or to escape from it, for instance, craving for material existence or fine-material existence, experienced in dhyana states.

This is the reality within the world as revealed by the Blessed One in terms of experiencing through all six sense bases. For instance, an object that seem to exist externally is perceived as a thing, say a car or house, and will be known and responded according to the likes and dislikes, forming attachment or aversion. One can contemplate on the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness or soullessness of the object perceived. However, it should be noted that the error has already been made in determining an object that exists upon which the defilements as attachments or aversion are formed by one and impermanence, unsatisfactoriness etc. is observed by another. In relation to the flood example it is identical to either staying still or exerting to stay afloat while still being in the flood. The end result in either case is suffering!

The teachings imply that the right way to cross the flood is not by leaning to any of the extremes (staying still or excreting within the flood) but by swimming across skilfully,

Venerable Sudassana explains this further with the example of two people trapped within a  fire ball. One person stays still without any attempt to free himself from burning but the other jumps up and down, moves from side to side trying to avoid flames. None of the two survive at the end as both make no attempt to escape from the ball of fire. Similarly, says the Venerable, “the beings with ignorance are trapped in the worldly existences with no refuge.”

The Enlightened one recognised the flood of ignorance as the primary among the four floods as it forms the basis for the other three floods. Hence, he preached, by removing ignorance through the right view and by seeing things as they really are,  one can ‘cross’ the flood of ignorance and thus the floods of Sensuality, View and Existence, reaching complete liberation.