The Two Currents Of Practice

When we come to practice there are two similes that are traditionally used. There are two streams, or currents in the flow of our life. One stream is a stream that in Buddhist practice were meant to go up against. We are going upstream from the current of greed, hate and delusion. The other current is a current of the Dharma. It’s said that someone who has tasted the first taste of liberation, has entered the current that leads to full liberation.

Transcript

So we've been stretching apart some of the fundamental teachings of the Buddhist path.

And we started out the year,

It's amazing that we're already in February,

We started out the year with the Four Noble Truths and I delivered them using the four elements of earth,

Fire,

Water and air.

And we spent the last couple of weeks on the fire element,

The second Noble Truth,

The cause of suffering,

The cause of stress and that's holding on,

It's the clinging that we all have.

And we again pulled that apart and looked at all the ways we hold on and they can be summarized in the teachings of these three fires or the three poisons known as greed,

Hatred and delusion.

And you know in looking at these we got to see that these are impersonal forces that exist within us and they also manifest as a spectrum.

You know we're not always in hatred but when at the culmination of our irritation that's where it ends up right.

So all those talks are available on Insight Timer if you missed something or want to check it out.

And today's topic is kind of an expansion of the Third Noble Truth which is that suffering can end and we can put out the fires of greed,

Hatred and delusion with what I was referring to as the water element.

So we at this point of the Third Noble Truth we're kind of entering the waters of practice and the waters of practice are really represented in sort of this cohesion and fluidity because water brings everything together in a way.

So it's a kind of the understanding that we're going into here.

And when we come to practice there are kind of two similes that are traditionally used.

There are like these two streams or currents in the flow of our life and one stream is a stream that in Buddhist practice we're kind of meant to go against.

We're going against the stream of the current of greed,

Hatred and delusion.

And we've talked about this you know against the stream of attachments and addictions,

Against the stream of compulsion and fear,

Against kind of the drive of our cultural norms.

And the other current is a current of the Dharma and it's said that someone who has tasted the first kind of taste of liberation of freedom has entered the stream or entered the current but it's not the current of greed,

Hatred and delusion.

It's the current that leads to liberation.

And so these two currents that are going on as metaphors in the practice,

One we kind of have to work against and the other we kind of enter and get carried along by.

And there comes a point in practice when we're kind of crossing from one current to the other.

If all your life is about this behavior of attachment and then you know then it becomes work in practice.

So if you sit down to meditate and your thinking mind is somewhere on the spectrum of greed,

Hatred and delusion,

There's a certain amount of working against that stream to come back to the breath,

To come back to this present moment.

And this is totally normal and it's all of us.

But at some point in practice the force of the compulsiveness of the mind,

It quiets down enough and at some point we switch gears in the mind and we enter this stream where it kind of,

It's kind of experienced like a gravitational pull that carries us towards a sense of ease and peace and freedom and space.

And when you enter the stream of the dharma you can feel that there's this pull towards goodness,

A pull towards something really wonderful.

And often this can happen,

You know you can have a momentary awakening.

This has happened to some of you just sitting in practice together.

Oftentimes you hear more about this stream entry when you're in a retreat setting.

The conditions are created so that that happens.

So at some point again these compulsions of the mind quiet down and when you enter the stream of the dharma you're sort of entering,

You feel this pull towards goodness,

Towards something really wonderful,

But not in a way that you're clinging to it.

It's just more like a flow.

And at some point in practice again you may get right into the junction of these two streams where you can feel the pull back and forth.

There's the wanting and then you enter back into spaciousness.

There's the not wanting and then you get pulled back into spaciousness.

So you may get caught a little bit in the stream of greed and aversion and delusion,

But you're able to pull out of that and find this other stream where you're sort of just floating towards a greater sense of freedom.

And it's really wonderful to at some point feel these forces,

To feel that momentum towards ease and peace.

It's almost like it's a beckoning in a way,

Like an invitation.

Another way of describing this experience of entering this stream is like we're going up a mountain.

If you've been hiking any of these mountains around us,

Going up a mountain,

It can be hard work.

Oftentimes you've got poles and it takes some effort.

And once you get to the top,

Then it's relatively easy to go down,

Given the situation maybe in your knees.

Maybe it's harder sometimes for others,

But generally speaking,

It's easier to go down because gravity's in your favor.

And at some point,

Practice is like that too.

So it's hard to go against the stream of aversion or it's hard to go against the stream of greed,

Of wanting.

But if we continue to go against those impulses,

The liberation with practice is like the gravity being in our favor.

It just starts to,

It's easier.

So when you enter the stream,

It has occurred for many,

Many people as a remarkable moment.

And it's a moment that has been around for a long time.

And it's a moment that has been around for a long time.

And it's what happens is that you're never quite the same when you've entered the stream of liberation.

And even though you might slide back into greed and wanting and not wanting,

Once you've tasted being in the stream of the Dharma,

The stream of liberation,

Even if you slide back to the other current,

You know,

You've been changed by the experience.

And it becomes easier and easier to slide back into the current of liberation.

For some of you on this call,

You know,

It's,

It's what keeps you coming back to practice.

Even after years of practice,

Maybe you've gone away and you got into the stream of,

Of greed,

Hatred and delusion for a while,

But then something draws you back to come and sit in community.

Something draws you back.

And that's,

That's the stream entry.

And it can also be an experience that you've had.

Often on retreat,

I had an experience early on in practice.

And what I later came to understand is sort of the stream entry.

And I remember,

I remember it clearly.

It was a state.

And when I went to speak to the teacher,

And said,

I had this great realization.

There's no self,

There's no me.

Everything is empty.

The teacher,

I remember this,

It was great.

The teacher just said,

It's just something else you have to let go of now.

That was true.

That was true.

And it let go of me.

But again,

I was never quite the same after that.

I had a taste of the freedom of the Dharma.

Because this tendency to cling and to hold on to an experience of freedom,

To hold on to an experience is just part of our being,

Realization or entering the stream.

It's a beautiful thing.

And it's a continuation of practice,

Moment by moment by moment.

That's what we're doing here.

It can happen at any moment.

It doesn't have to be on retreat,

It could happen just sitting.

Or the moment that you wake up and realize,

Ah,

No self.

It's really a beautiful thing.

And it's a moment of mindfulness.

It's a moment of really being free of greed,

Hatred and clinging.

It's kind of stepping into the other current,

Where we're not working against the forces,

We're just floating in our life.

And whether a person has entered the stream or not,

The practice of mindfulness is the same.

Like what's important is we continue practicing,

You know,

Making practicing and just having practice be a part of your life.

At first,

It may feel difficult to create a daily practice.

But then at some point,

Again,

You can't imagine once that practice is established as a habit,

It becomes a central part of your life.

You can't imagine not doing it every day.

And then realization just comes.

Sometimes you're just crossing from one current to the other,

Just coming back to the practice moment by moment.

The realization is almost incidental if it happens,

Because what's important is just to practice of freeing the mind from these forces that pull us around.

So we could do a whole deep dive into stream entry.

But I'd rather just keep practicing with you and see what comes.

So thank you for your your kind attention and consideration on this way of understanding the currents of entering the stream and the currents of entering the waters of practice.