Excerpt from the Theravada Buddhist monk Bhante G explains that looking inward to realize the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena is the path to nirvana
The Ocean
Buddha spoke of “this ocean” we face.His disciples asked what he meant by “ocean.” He replied that the outside ocean is just a great expanse of water. But the real ocean is right here: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
Why is that? Consider the amount of things you have seen and are seeing now. How many trillion things have you seen in your life? An ocean of things! What about the ocean of sounds you have heard? Human sounds, animal sounds, music sounds, scolding sounds, shouting sounds. So many sounds! How many things have you smelled already? An ocean of things. How many things have we tasted? So many types of taste! That’s an ocean. How many things have we touched? That’s an ocean. How many things have we already thought? How many moments of consciousness have we had? All oceans!
One who crosses these many oceans encounters crocodiles, sharks, demons, and so forth. What do these hazardous creatures signify? So many millions of problems caused by greed, hatred, and delusion. These oceans are teeming with them. Yet if one mindfully moves across this ocean in a raft or boat, without sinking, without capsizing, avoiding all these dangers, that is the one who ends karma. That is the one who attains nirvana.
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka and the author of Mindfulness in Plain English. He is president of the Bhavana Society in High View, West Virginia, an organization that promotes meditation and monastic life.
Douglas John Imbrogno is a lifelong storyteller, editor, and multimedia producer based in West Virginia. He is the editor of What Why How: Answers to Your Questions on Buddhism, Meditation, and Living Mindfully by Bhante Gunaratana (Wisdom Publications 2020)
