{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sam/sn1-1.htm","path":"bud/sam/sn1-1.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sam/sn1-1.htm","text":"Main index\nBuddhism index\nindex\nSamyutta Nikaya I.1\nOgha-tarana Sutta\nCrossing over the Flood\nFor free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma\nContext of this sutta\nTranslator's note:\nThis discourse opens the Samyutta Nikaya with a paradox. The Commentary informs us that the Buddha teaches the devata in terms of the paradox in order to subdue her pride. To give this paradox some context, you might want to read other passages from the Canon that discuss right effort.\nI have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's monastery. Then a certain devata, in the far extreme of the night, her extreme radiance lighting up the entirety of Jeta's Grove, went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down to him, she stood to one side. As she was standing there, she said to him, \"Tell me, dear sir, how you crossed over the flood.\"\n\"I crossed over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place.\"\n\"But how, dear sir, did you cross over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place?\"\n\"When I pushed forward, I was whirled about. When I stayed in place, I sank. And so I crossed over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place.\"\n[The devata:]\nAt long last I see\na brahmin, totally unbound,\nwho \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 without pushing forward,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 without staying in place,\nhas crossed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 over\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the entanglements\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of the world.\nThat is what the devata said. The Teacher approved. Realizing that \"The Teacher has approved of me,\" she bowed down to him, circumambulated him -- keeping him to her right -- and then vanished right there.\nRevised: Sat 17 October 1998","title":"SN I.1 Ogha-tarana Sutta","type":"page"}