The teaching is a raft, not a possession.
The Buddha's own image: you build a raft to cross the flood — only a fool carries it on his head afterward. Even the dharma is let go of; clinging to the cure is still clinging.
The raft simile is the tradition's guard against its own success. The Buddha built it into the teaching that the teaching is instrumental: it is for crossing a specific flood, and a person who has crossed and still carries the raft has misunderstood what it was for. This is why Buddhist schools can differ so radically on doctrine without either side claiming the other has lost the faith — the criterion is whether a teaching works to end suffering, not whether it matches a creed. The same passage warns against the opposite error too: grasping the teaching wrongly is like seizing a snake by the tail.
The teaching is like a raft, made for crossing over, not for holding onto. Understanding this, you let go even of teachings — how much more of what is not the teaching.
Majjhima Nikaya 22 (Alagaddupama Sutta, rendered)The Buddha's own warning against turning the path into property.
The same ground, other faiths
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