# The river and its banks

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-swan-river-karma-banks
- Themes: karma, rebirth, impermanence, process
- Life situations: questions about rebirth, feeling stuck

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Q&A simile for what carries karma between lives: crossing the Swan River each Friday it looks the same, but it's always different water; the banks guide the flow — that's like karma, channelling the ever-changing five aggregates this way and not another. And floods, droughts or government bulldozers can reshape the banks: karma isn't permanent either.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

It's like a river. You look at the river Swan, you know, just going over that bridge today again. Coming here from Serpentine. As you go over that bridge, it always looks the same. every week, every Friday. But of course, it's always different water flowing in that river. But the banks are always pretty much the same. It's like the banks what guides that flow of water. That's almost like a karma. It channels it can go this way, not another way. But the water is, you know, your five aggregates and you know what you take as your body and mind that is always flowing, never the same today as it was last week. probably hardly even a molecule of water in there today which was there last week when I came over it last time but nevertheless it looks the same because it's channeled in that direction but of every now and again there's a flood or a drought or the government decides to make another channel somewhere with big bulldozers so that karma is not permanent also sometimes that is also changed adjusted

## Teaching point

Nothing 'carries' karma; it's the shape of a flowing process, and it can be changed.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

The Swan River looks the same every Friday, though the water is always new; its banks guide the flow. Karma, says Ajahn Brahm, is like those banks, and floods and bulldozers can reshape them. Nothing is fixed. You've done more good than you could ever use up, so keep adding to it.

## Source

- [Expectations Cause Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 24 June 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z8q_FWbWa8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 46:02 to 47:18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z8q_FWbWa8&t=2762s