Isaiah 25:11 Meaning He Will Spread Out His Hands

Ogha: The Flood Four currents sweep beings along: sensual pleasure, becoming, views, and not-knowing. Spreading the hands to swim means the feet have already left the bottom, and every strong stroke is exactly what keeps the swimmer out there in the middle of it. Crossing came to the Buddha by neither halting nor straining, so a better stroke was never the road to the far bank.

Vipallāsa: Distortion Perception turns things over, and the foul gets taken as fair. Arms move in a manure pit precisely as they would move in clear water: the stroke is correct, the water is not water. Anyone will stay in filth for years once the eye has agreed to call it a lake.

Māna: Conceit Conceit is the habit of measuring: better, worse, the same. His pride is in his form, the reach of his arms, his rank above the others in the pit, and this measuring is the first thing to go under. Take away the ranking and someone in a pit is simply someone in a pit, free to climb out.

Saṅkhāra: Formations Formations are both the making and the thing made. Skill, fortification, pottery, trade: the craft of his hands is assembled work, held up by continued effort, and the effort now goes entirely into staying afloat. The hands that shaped the works and the hands beating at the water are the same hands, busy to the last.

Anicca: Impermanence Nothing that is put up stays up. Pride and craft come down in one motion, the high opinion and the high wall together, and the tipping was always inside them rather than in the shove that finally arrived. Grim to watch in Moab, and good news for anyone who notices it in their own work before the water rises.