Floating Wood with a Hole

 

Floating Wood with a Hole

This Buddhist story primarily explains how difficult it is for sentient beings to be born as humans, and that being able to rely on the human body to encounter the Buddha-Dharma, which contains genuine liberating teachings, is even more extraordinarily difficult.

The following is an English excerpt of the Saṃyukta Āgama Sūtra, Fascicle 15:

At one time, the World-Honored One addressed the bhikṣus: “Suppose the entire vast land were a vast ocean, and there was a blind turtle whose lifespan lasted for immeasurable eons, yet it could rise to the ocean’s surface only once every hundred years. In this great ocean, there is a piece of floating wood with a single hole in it, drifting throughout the sea carried by the waves and blown by the wind, with no fixed location, moving east and west unpredictably. Could this blind turtle, which surfaces only once every hundred years, possibly encounter this piece of floating wood and poke its head through the hole in it?”

Ānanda respectfully replied to the Buddha, “It would be impossible, World-Honored One! If this blind turtle were to swim to the eastern part of the great ocean, the floating wood might be blown by the wind to the western, southern, or northern parts of the ocean. Thus, their paths may not cross.” The Buddha told Ānanda, “Although the blind turtle and the floating wood are vastly distant from each other and moving in opposite directions, making an encounter extremely difficult or unlikely, there’s a chance they would meet after a very long time. Yet foolish and benighted ordinary beings who transmigrate and drift without ceasing through the five destinies have hundreds of thousands of times less chances of temporarily obtaining a human form compared to the blind turtle’s chances of crossing paths with the floating wood! This is because these foolish and deluded sentient beings’ actions, speech, and minds have never relied upon righteousness and the correct Dharma. They do not practice wholesome dharmas or in accordance with the authentic principles of the worldly and the transcendent.

Therefore, they perpetually kill one another in cycles, or the strong oppress the weak. Because they constantly create boundless evil karma, they quickly fall into the three evil destinies, with little hope of escape, and being reborn as a human in the human realm will be a matter of many long eons hence, if at all.”

The Buddha added, “Therefore, bhikṣus, within the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths—suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path—you should all diligently and earnestly use various skillful means to generate a sense of superior intent, continuously studying the Four Noble Truths and other teachings, severing all fetters to ultimately reach the state of the fourth fruit and beyond!” When the Buddha finished teaching this sutra, the bhikṣus who heard what the Buddha taught all joyfully believed, accepted, and practiced it.

In the Buddhist story above, the blind turtle drifts and searches throughout the vast ocean. Isn’t the turtle like many ordinary people today, seeking the true principles and cultivation methods that genuinely lead to liberation and the path to Buddhahood? Aren’t those “wood-like objects” we gaze at from afar like the Buddhist temples and monasteries lining every street, which we assume to be places where we can find rescue and peace of mind, where we can eliminate afflictions and find salvation?  

However, one might unfortunately encounter fraudsters who use Buddhism as a cover for money and sex scams, preying on students who lack the ability to discern genuine teachers from fraudsters.

Or perhaps one frequently attends chanting ceremonies, mistakenly believing that this is true cultivation and can lead one toward achieving Buddhahood.

Or one might close their eyes, sit in a meditation posture, empty their minds, and imagine that this alone is the path to Buddhahood. However, this doesn’t even brush against the outer frame of the Buddhist gate! These people, who regard themselves as “practitioners” but who actually aren’t, may even commit the great transgression of false speech, which truly isn’t worth it.

It is extremely difficult for people who wish to study Buddhism on the correct path to be able to encounter someone who can teach them the correct views and methods. True Buddhist practice means following the stages of the Bodhi Path in the right sequence; you can’t skip steps or mix them up. In other words, truly encountering the “floating wood with a hole” mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures is indeed an extremely difficult and rare experience. It requires encountering a truly enlightened mentor who thoroughly comprehends the path of the Three-Vehicle Bodhi, understands its true principles, and can explain the content of the Buddha Bodhi Path and the sequential stages of cultivating it. Only then can we correctly hear, practice, and realize this path according to its content. If you have already encountered such a wholesome Dharma, you should treasure this opportunity because it is as rare as a blind turtle encountering a floating wood with a hole in the ocean. That is, you must firmly hold on to a Mahāyāna practice center where there is a truly enlightened mentor―go there regularly and listen to, contemplate, and realize the true principles so as not to waste your current human form, which is so difficult and precious to obtain throughout countless lifetimes, and so as not to lose your excellent karmic condition!  

#Buddha #Dharma #Bodhipath #Mahayana #Threevehiclebodhi #Buddhahood #karma #fournobletruth #enlightenment