Mirage And Foam

Translated by Dhammacaro

I have heard: there was a monk who learned meditation from the Buddha and then went into the forest to practise. He tried to do so, but he didn’t become enlightened. So he thought that he should come back to learn more technique from the Buddha. On the long the way back to the Buddha’s temple, he saw a distant mirage, so he took it as a meditation object by reflecting, “This mirage, occurring in summer, reveals an image to people in the distance, but when they approach it, it disappears. It is the same with this self, it looks real to us, but in fact it is non-self; arising and ceasing.” He understood the self as non-self, and then he walked further.

Not for along on his journey, he got to the Aciravadi River. He felt tired, so he decided to take a bath and rest there. After taking a bath, he was sitting under a tree and watching the strong current. He saw the foam which springs from the impact of the strong current; arising and ceasing. He took it as a meditation object, as well, by reflecting, “This body is like the foam due to arising and ceasing.” Then he realized the truth of existence and headed for the Buddha’s temple.

When he got to the temple, he went to see the Buddha and reported all that he had seen on his journey. The Buddha said to him, “That is right, monk, this body arises and ceases according to its nature, as the foam and mirage arise and cease of their own accord” and added, “Monk, he who knows that this body is like foam, he who clearly comprehends that it is of the nature of a mirage, he should destroy the illusory images and pass beyond those illusions.” At the end of the Buddha’s speech, he reflected on that speech and became enlightened.

This sutta shows that what we see (and so also with thinking and hearing) is not always real. We can become distracted easily if we don’t realise the truths. The truth of existence is that mankind begins with birth, lives for a while and dies at the end. The Buddha said, “All compounded things are impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self, there is no permanent entity.” Life is fragile, it has no essence, it is just like the mirage and the foam in the sutta.