Ultimate Reality - Nirvana Flashcards
how did SB gain enlightenment and knowledge of Nirvana
- underneath bodhi tree
- contemplating nature of existence
- mythological elements to the story –> mara: all that binds humans to the physical world
mara vs SB
- challenges SB to abandon his quest for enlightenment
- his chief goal was to ensure all of humanity was driven by the delusions of pleasure and enlightenment –> SB threatened this as he was trying to find a way out of samsara
- early vers: mara asks SB to take easy option (conventional religion)
- mara sent army to attack once SB sat under Bodhi Tree –> SB countered with 10 perfection (M)
- sends creatures to destroy SB body, but arrows turn into flowers –> mythological elements
- maras daughters: 3 fires, greed hate and delusion ‘the blessed one paid no attention’
- final stage of temptation: mara claimed no one could testify to the good works of all his lifetimes –> SB touched the earth as his witness
hagiographical and mythological interpretations of maras defeat
- psych: mara is seen as representing the conflicted mind
- physical: mara is seen as representing the senses
- hindrances: mara is seen as representing obstacles in life that hinder spirtual progress and divert to other matters that create attachment
- mara is seen as SB (and everyones) binding to the physical world
- mara is seen as representing a three fold attack on mind, body, and character of an individual in pursuing the buddhist path
4 meditative states (jhanas)
- unbroken attention to the object of meditation, detatched from the world, in a total state of calm
- thoughts are discarded, a sense of joy
- ‘ a state free free from thought conception..born of concentration’ nyanatiloka - state of equanimity, composed and with absolute attentiveness, but still clearly concious
- state beyond all differentiation, beyond pleasure and pain, beyond senses of joy and thought construction
- ‘ leaving a mind peaceful, tranquil, clear, a sharp tool ready to pierce into reality
- 4 further experiences including sphere of boundless consciousness, space, nothing ness and neither perception or non perception
SB sig insights due to enlightenment (3)
- insight into past lives
- allowed him to deliver practical examples into teaching
- jatakas tales
- main message: consistent and determined effort to perfect the qualities that led SG to reach enlightenment as sammasamB - obtained pure observational insight of the plight of other beings in samsara
- became aware that karma was instrumental in determining the very nature of our existence and in determining our futures
- ‘all that we are is the result of what we have thought’ Dhammapada
- B realised that for change and a transition from ignorance to enlightenment, we needed to understand karma and its origins - went through enlightenment and gained insight into true and perfect wisdom of how the barriers to spiritual truth can be destroyed through the cessation of dukkha
- ignorance –> enlightenment
- cycle turned due to suffering and ignorance –> suffering eradicated due to 3 MOS and removal of ignorance
- ‘the mind has come to the end of craving’ PC
- ‘this is the greatest unshakeable victory’ Piyadassi
what is nirvana
- removal of conventional truth
- beyond samsara, extinction of all suffering
- ## no difference between samsara and nirvana
how is nirvana described
- hard to describe in contingent language from samsara –> ‘a state which is said to be indescribable in our human words which are only designed to describe the samsaric human condition’ cush
- ‘human language is too poor’ –> Rahula
- peace no suffering, no fear
- enlightenment is the attainment/experience of nirvana
- like God, unchanging, refuge
what ISNT nirvana
- dukkha
what is nirvana like
- seeing reality
- understanding sunyata, heart sutra, M –> ‘nirvana involves a radically transformed state… free from the obsession with me and mine’ keown
- ‘there is no suffering, no stopping, no path’ heart sutra –> Nirvana does not have separate self existence
- nirvana and samsara are independent
- ‘no bliss higher than the peace of nirvana’ dhammapada
- ‘it is devoid of old age and death’ PC
where is nirvana and how do we get there
- destination, refuge, the other shore, asylum
- teaching
- sammasamB, no teaching
- ‘but nirvana can be achieved in this life’ rahula
how do we know about nirvana (N with/without remainder)
- buddhas life, experience –> all previous lives, interconnectivity ,karma, dependent origination
- scriptures
- can see people who attained in this life, Nirvana with remainder
- meditation to remove ignorance
- ‘nirvana cannot be understood, only experienced’ cush
- ‘the buddha considered he experience of nirvana to be irreversible and unforgettable’ gombrich
- nirvana with remainder - attained enlightenment and remain in samsara
- nirvana without remainder - dead :(
conventional understanding vs ultimate reality of Nirvana
- conventional: 33 synonyms in samyutta nikaya: the other shore, the stable, the island, the shelter, the refuge, heaven
- metaphors, images, links with other religions –> closest comparison to God in Buddhism, God is seen as akin to Nirvana, not Buddha
- ultimate: simply a state
- ‘the buddha felt the quality of his experience…to be ineffable’
- ‘it is not heaven, in the other wordly sense of the term’ erriker
enlightened beings apart from SB and nirvana
- T: arhats, wanting to become enlightened becomes a form of attachment
- it must become an instinctive action as you walk the path, no karma created
- ‘calm is his thought, calm is his speech, calm is his deed’ dhammapada
- ‘him who clings to nothing of past and present and future…him do I call a holy man’ dhammapada
cataphatic and apophatic language (strengths and weaknesses)
what are cataphatic descriptions
CATAPHATIC
- positive, saying what nirvana IS
- accessible, upaya, conventional level of truth
- but can cause misconceptions (calling nirvana a refuge makes it seem like a place), beyond logical understanding
APOPHATIC
- negative, saying what nirvana ISNT
- retains ultimate level of N
- unclear picture on what N IS
examine different ways nirvana is understood
- M and T, conventional vs ultimate, with sunyata
- L and S, arhats
- ‘the typical law Buddhist does not aim for Nirvana as an immediate goal…hazy…recognise it as an ultimate goal for some other lifetime’
negative descriptions of nirvana
- likely to be the most accurate –> language cannot be used to describe nirvana, philosophical
- B describes nirvana in terms of what is not –> only way unenlightened can relate to it with any accuracy
- affirming its existence, but anything we believe about N may be misleading
- ‘there is monks an unborn, not become, unmade, uncompounded’ Udana
- ‘there is monks that plane.. of neither perception or non perception
positive descriptions of nirvana (emotion)
- emotion: nirvana is described as pure bliss/enjoyment, peace beyond all earthly turmoil, metta and karuna
- M: stressed enlightenment as an outward flowing energy of love and compassion
- L: only love beings we mistake as individuals
- Enlightened: loves beings even whilst recognizing they are impermanent, without self, empty of form
positive descriptions of nirvana (knowledge)
- nirvana is described as perfect wisdom, knowledge of things as they truly are
- seeing, being without illusions
- B can still makes mistakes –> telling monks to meditate death and they killed himself, shortsighted, not OP
positive descriptions of nirvana (will)
- nirvana is described as absolute freedom from all bonds and restrictions
- enlightened are still subject to natural laws but freed mentally
positive descriptions of nirvana (conciousness)
- E beings are said to experience a pure, blissful, radiant and infinite state of consciousness
- free of defiling habits and tendencies produced by karma
- B still meditated: renewal of spiritual energy
positive descriptions of nirvana (form)
- ideal of enlightenment expressed by B in symbolic forms, stupa and mandala
- Buddha figure, rupa are most prominent
- makes its possible to relate to incomprehensible ideas of enlightenment
paradoxical descriptions and nirvana
an attempt to describe indescribable using contradictory ideas
- leaves intuition a better chance of understanding once intellect is removed –> M favors
- shows there is not satisfactory verbal description
- nirvana should be attained by means of non attainment, N and samsara are one in the same, there is no goal or path
symbolic descriptions of nirvana
- avoid the drawback of making us think nirvana is only an abstract idea –> can speak to conscious and unconscious mind
- can be taken too literally
- M scriptures describe the Sukhavati, where enlightenment can be achieved in one lifetime, described enlightenment in an attempt to inspire the unenlightened –> pure land schools of jap and chinese B see it as the goal to be reborn there, instead of enlightenment itself
- Sangharakshita: Nirvana is expressed as a ‘harmonious disposition of images aglow with supernatural life and movement’
king melinda (how can I know what nirvana is without attaining it)
religious experience proofs
- look at experiences of those who have attained it and can understand what it is like, show and tell us
- look at fruits and can imply roots, W james
- must trust their not lying, principle of testimony and swinburne
- nagasena: knowing hands and feet being cut then you know that it hurts, so knowing from others who have achieved N do you know it to be good
king melinda and how can nirvana be described through metaphors and similies
concern the qualities of nirvana, not its form –> Nagasena
- ‘lotus is unstained by water’, N unsustained by all defilements (samara?) T
- water, cools 3 fires removes desires etc
- medicine, protects us, refuge
- wishing jewel, grants all our desires, frees you
- mountain peak, unshakeable, no seeds of passion can grow (attatchment)
king melinda and is nirvana caused
- the path to nirvana is not causing nirvana to exist
- can point the way to nirvana, cant show a cause for its production –> ‘unconditioned’, nagasena
- can climb a mountain but we cannot bring it to us
- like wind, we can feel effects but cannot grasp it, nagasena
king melinda and what is nirvana in this life like
- nirvana with remainder (arhats) can show what nirvana is like
- causes for physical pain still exist, but not mental pain
equanimity of pain - feel neither positive or negative about it - buddha calls body a wound, take care of it as you would do a wound, only as a tool to enlightenment –> no attachment
- arhat –> tree in wind, leaves shake, trunk doesnt, strong foundation, body affected not mind, nagaS
- ‘the thought of the arhat is developed, tamed..it is obedient and disciplined’ nagaS
examine how nirvana is described and explained in buddhist scripture
positive explanation –> cataphatic
- feeling, knowledge, will, conciousness, form
- ‘the truth’, ‘refuge’, island, asylum
- concrete, comparable to world
- difference between enlightened and unenlightened, difference between conventional reality and ultimate reality
negative explanation –> apophatic
- used by the B in terms is what is not
- ‘the plane of neither perception nor non perception’
- accurate, ineffable nature, mysterious
- positive gives partial answer, misleading
symbolic descriptions
- pure land schools, place of light and colour, in terms of images
- a cool cave
- L: helps to visualise aim
