The simile of a dog on a plank crossing a stream – Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda 

All conscious beings possess the ability to reflect or retrospect. This reflection can be done rightly or wrongly. To illustrate these two ways of reflection, we gave a simile – a simple one intelligible to anybody. The simile of a dog on a plank crossing a stream. We have mentioned this quite often. While crossing the stream on a plank over it, a dog looks down in to the water. Seeing a dog there, it either wags its tail in a friendly way or growls angrily. Or else out of curiosity it keeps on looking down again and again. Due to wrong attention it doesn’t understand what really happens. The dog thinks that it is looking because it sees. But the truth of the matter is that it sees because it looks. Every time it looks it sees a dog. Consciousness has such a delusive magical quality about it. This is because consciousness has the property of reflecting something. What does it reflect? Name and from. Let me first explain what name and form is before giving other similes……

Feeling, perception, intention, contact and attention are collectively called ‘Name’ (nāma). Why are they called ‘name’? Generally we recognize something with the help of a conventional name given to it. But a child gets to know something through feeling. Take for instance the case of a blind man. Isn’t it by‘feeling’ that a blind man gets to know something? Feeling gives him a ‘sign’or perception. Perception gives rise to an intention. Intention directs him to some point of contact. Now that is where contact comes in. Last of all comes attention. There are many critics who question this counting of feeling as the foremost among  constituents of name. As we sometimes pointed out, those who go by the commentarial tradition inadvertently put contact first. Did Ven. Sāriputta make a mistake? Did the Buddha himself go wrong? Definitely not. At this point we have to say something about consciousness……read more

Sermon 1 Bhikkhu K. Ñāṇananda 

 

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