Itivuttaka 109

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('â', My good man, even though you are being carried along by the flow of a river, lovely & alluring, further down from here is a pool with waves & whirlpools, with seizers & demons. On reaching that pool you will suffer death or death-like pain.â Then the first man, on hearing the words of the second man, would make an effort with his hands & feet to go against the flow. "I have given you this simile to illustrate a meaning. The meaning is this: the flow of the river stands for craving. Lovely & alluring stands for the six internal sense-media. The pool further down stands for the five lower fetters.1 The waves stand for anger & distress. The whirlpools stand for the five strings of sensuality. The seizers & demons stand for the opposite sex. Against the flow stands for renunciation. Making an effort with hands & feet stands for the arousing of persistence. The man with good eyesight standing on the bank stands for the Tathṅgata, worthy & rightly self-awakened." Even if itâs with pain, you should abandon sensual desires if you aspire to future safety from bondage. Rightly discerning, with a mind well released, touch release now here, now there. An attainer-of-wisdom, having fulfilled the holy life, is said to have gone to the end of the world, gone beyond. Note 1. The five lower fetters are self-identity view, uncertainty, attachment to habits & practices, sensual passion, and resistance. See also AN 7:48 and AN 10:13. - --> - - - -