Analytical Study of the Raft in Buddhism

Abstract

In the Alagaddupama Sutta, the raft is concerned with the dhamma, the dhamma should be seen as instrumental to achieving religious goals; it is not an absolute to be clung to. So the Buddha says “you should abandon the dhamma, all the more what is not the dhamma”. This statement has led some interpreters to suggest that the enlightened person, having crossed over from saüsàra to nibbàna, does not live by the dhamma, that the Buddha’s teachings are to be abandoned once enlightenment is attained. But such an interpretation of the parable of the raft is unwarranted. The Buddha does not mean that one gives up living by the dhamma after achieving enlightenment. Enlightened existence is not a life beyond good and evil with no ethical and religious principles.