CHAPTER 33
NIBBĀNA
"Nibbāna is bliss supreme."
-- DHAMMAPADA
Nibbāna
is the summum bonum of Buddhism.
However clearly and descriptively one may write
on this profound subject, however glowing may be the terms in which one
attempts to describe its utter serenity, comprehension of Nibbāna is
impossible by mere perusal of books. Nibbāna is not something to be set
down in print, nor is it a subject to be grasped by intellect alone; it is
a supramundane state (Lokuttara Dhamma) to be realized only by
intuitive wisdom.
A purely intellectual comprehension of Nibbāna
is impossible because it is not a matter to be arrived at by
logical reasoning (atakkāvacara). The words of the Buddha
are perfectly logical, but Nibbāna, the ultimate Goal of Buddhism, is
beyond the scope of logic. Nevertheless, by reflecting on the positive and
negative aspects of life, the logical conclusion emerges that in
contradistinction to a conditioned phenomenal existence, there must exist
a sorrowless, deathless, non-conditioned State.
The Jātaka Commentary relates that the
Bodhisatta himself in his birth as the ascetic Sumedha contemplated thus:
"Even as, although Misery is,
Yet Happiness is also found,
So, though indeed Existence is,
Non-existence should be sought.
"Even as, although there may be Heat,
Yet grateful Cold is also found,
So, though the threefold Fire exists,
Likewise Nirvāna should be sought.
'Even as, although there Evil is,
That which is Good is also found,
So, though 'tis true that birth exists.
That which is not birth should be sought.
[1]"
Definition
The Pāli word Nibbāna (Samskrit--Nirvāna)
is composed of "Ni" and "Vāna". Ni is a negative particle.
Vāna means weaving or craving. This craving serves as a cord to
connect one life with another.
"It is called Nibbāna in that it is a departure
(Ni) from that craving which is called Vāna, lusting.
[2]"
As long as one is bound up by craving or
attachment one accumulates fresh Kammic activities which must materialise
in one form or other in the eternal cycle of birth and death. When all
forms of craving are eradicated, reproductive Kammic forces cease to
operate, and one attains Nibbāna, escaping the cycle of birth and death.
The Buddhist conception of Deliverance is escape from the ever-recurring
cycle of life and death and not merely an escape from sin and hell.
Nibbāna is also explained as the extinction of
the fire of lust (lobha), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha).
"The whole world is in flames," says the
Buddha. "By what fire is it kindled? By the fire of lust, hatred and
delusion, by the fire of birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain,
grief and despair is it kindled."
Nibbāna, in one sense, may be interpreted as
the extinction of these flames. One must not thereby infer that Nibbāna is
nothing but the extinction of these flames.
[3]
The
means should be differentiated from the
end. Here the extinction of the flames is the means of attaining
Nibbāna.
Is Nibbāna Nothingness?
To say that Nibbāna is nothingness simply
because one cannot perceive it with the five senses, is as illogical as to
conclude that light does not exist simply because the blind do not see it.
In a well-known fable the fish, who was acquainted only with water,
arguing with the turtle, triumphantly concluded that there existed no
land, because he received "No" to all his queries.
"Once upon a time there was a fish. And
just because it was a fish, it had lived all its life in the water and
knew nothing whatever about anything else but water. And one day as it
swam about in the pond where all its days had been spent, it happened to
meet a turtle of its acquaintance who had just come back from a little
excursion on the land."
"Good day, Mr. Turtle!" said the fish. "I have
not seen you for a long time. Where have you been?"
"Oh", said the turtle, "I have just been
for a trip on dry land."
"On dry land!" exclaimed the fish. "What do you
mean by on dry land? There is no dry land. I had never seen such a thing.
Dry land is nothing."
"Well," said the turtle good-naturedly. "If you
want to think so, of course you may; there is no one who can
hinder you. But that's where I've been, all the same."
"Oh, come," said the fish. "Try to talk sense.
Just tell me now what is this land of yours like? Is it all wet?"
"No, it is not wet," said the turtle.
"Is it nice and fresh and cool?" asked the
fish.
"No, it is not nice and fresh and cool," the
turtle replied.
"Is it clear so that light can come through
it?"
"No, it is not clear. Light cannot come through
it."
"Is it soft and yielding, so that I could move
my fins about in it and push my nose through it?"
"No, it is not soft and yielding, You could not
swim in it."
"Does it move or flow in streams?"
"No, it neither moves nor flows in streams?"
"Does it ever rise up into waves then, with
white foams in them?" asked the fish, impatient at this string of Noes.
"No!" replied the turtle, truthfully, "It never
rises up into waves that I have seen."
"There now," exclaimed the fish triumphantly.
"Didn't I tell you that this land of yours was just nothing? I have just
asked, and you have answered me that it is neither wet nor cool, not clear
nor soft and that it does not flow in streams nor rise up into waves. And
if it isn't a single one of these
things what else is it but nothing? Don't tell me."
"Well, well", said the turtle, "If you
are determined to think that dry land is nothing, I suppose you must just
go on thinking so. But any one who knows what is water and what is land
would say you were just a silly fish, for you think that anything you have
never known is nothing just because you have never known it."
"And with that the turtle turned away and,
leaving the fish behind in its little pond of water, set out on another
excursion over the dry land that was nothing.
[4]"
It is evident from this significant story that
neither can the turtle, who is acquainted with both land and sea, explain
to the fish the real nature of land, nor can the fish grasp what is land
since it is acquainted only with water. In the same way Arahants who are
acquainted with both the mundane and the supramundane cannot explain to a
worldling what exactly the supramundane is in mundane terms, nor can a
worldling understand the supramundane merely by mundane knowledge.
If Nibbāna is nothingness, then it necessarily
must coincide with space (Ākāsa). Both space and Nibbāna are
eternal and unchanging. The former is eternal because it is nothing in
itself. The latter is spaceless and timeless. With regard to the
difference between space and Nibbāna, it may briefly be said that space
is not, but Nibbāna is.
The Buddha, speaking of the different planes of
existence, makes special reference to a "Realm of Nothingness" (Ākiñcaññāyatana).
The fact that Nibbāna is realized as one of the
mental objects (vatthudhamma), decidedly proves that it is not a
state of nothingness. If it were so, the Buddha would not have described
its state in such terms as "Infinite" (Ananta), "Non-conditioned"(Asamkhata),
"Incomparable" (Anūpa-meya), "Supreme"(Anuttara),
"Highest" (Para), "Beyond" (Pāra), "Highest Refuge" (Parāyana),
"Safety" (Tāna), "Security" (Khema), "Happiness" (Siva),
"Unique" (Kevala), "Abodeless" (Anālaya), "Imperishable"
(Akkhara), "Absolute Purity" (Visuddha), "Supramundane" (Lokuttara),
"Immortality" (Amata), "Emancipation" (Mutti), "Peace" (Santi),
etc.
In the Udāna and Itivuttaka the Buddha refers
to Nibbāna as follows:-
"There is, O Bhikkhus, an unborn (ajāta),
unoriginated (abhūta), unmade (akata) and non-conditioned state (asamkhata).
If, O Bhikkhus, there were not this unborn, unoriginated, unmade and
non-conditioned, an escape for the born, originated, made, and
conditioned, would not be, possible here. As there is an unborn,
unoriginated, unmade, and non-conditioned state, an escape for the born,
originated, made, conditioned is possible.
[5]"
The Itivuttaka states:
"The born, become, produced, compounded,
made,
And thus not lasting, but of birth and death
An aggregate, a nest of sickness, brittle,
A thing by food supported, come to be, --
'Twere no fit thing to take delight in such.
Th'escape therefrom, the real, beyond the sphere
Of reason, lasting, unborn, unproduced,
The sorrowless, the stainless path that ends
The things of woe, the peace from worries, -- bliss.
[6]"
The Nibbāna of Buddhists is, therefore, neither
a state of nothingness nor a mere cessation. What it is not, one can
definitely say. What precisely it is, one cannot adequately express in
conventional terms as it is unique. It is for self-realization (paccattam
veditabbo).
Sopādisesa and Anupādisesa Nibbāna Dhātu.
References are frequently made in the books to
Nibbāna as Sopādisesa
[7] and
Anupādisesa Nibbāna Dhātu.
These in fact are not two kinds of Nibbāna, but
the one single Nibbāna receiving its name according to experience of it
before and after death.
Nibbāna is attainable in this present life
itself if the seeker fits himself for it. Buddhism nowhere states that its
ultimate goal can be reached only in a life beyond. Here lies the
difference between the Buddhist conception of Nibbāna and the non-Buddhist
conception of an eternal heaven which is attainable only after death.
When Nibbāna is realized in the body, it is
called Sopādisesa Nibbāna Dhātu. When an Arahant attains
Pari-Nibbāna after the dissolution of the body, without any remainder of
any physical existence, it is called Anupādisesa Nibbāna Dhātu.
In the Itivuttaka the Buddha savs:
"There are, O Bhikkhus, two elements of Nibbāna.
What two? "The element of Nibbāna with the basis (upādi) still remaining
and that without basis.
"Herein, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu is an Arahant,
one who has destroyed the Defilements, who has lived the life, done what
was to be done, laid aside the burden, who has attained his goal, who has
destroyed the fetters of existence, who, rightly understanding, is
delivered. His five sense-organs still remain, and as he is not devoid of
them he undergoes the pleasant and the unpleasant experiences. That
destruction of his attachment, hatred and delusion is called the 'Element
of Nibbāna with the basis still remaining.'
"What O Bhikkus, is 'the Element of Nibbāna
without the basis'?
"Herein, O Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu is an
Arahant ... is delivered. In this very life all his sensations will have
no delight for him, they will be cooled. This is called 'the Element of
Nibbāna without a basis.
[8]"
"These two Nibbāna-states are shown by Him
Who seeth, who is such and unattached.
One state is that in this same life possessed
With base remaining, tho' becoming's stream
Be cut off. While the state without a base
Belongeth to the future, wherein all
Becomings utterly do come to cease.
They who, by knowing this state uncompounded
Have heart's release, by cutting off the stream,
They who have reached the core of dhamma, glad
To end, such have abandoned all becomings.
[9]"
[1]
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, p. 6.
[2] Abhidhammattha
Sangaha. See Compendium of Philosophy, p. 168.
[3] Khayamattam’
eva na nibbānam ti vattabbam Abhidhamāvatāra.
[4] Quoted from
Bhikkhu Silācāra's booklet, The Four Noble Truths.
[5] According to the
commentary these four terms are used as synonyms.
Ajāta
means that it has not sprung up on account of causes or conditions (hetupaccaya).
Abhūta (lit., not become) means that it has not arisen. As it has not
sprung up from a cause and has not come into being, it is not made (akata)
by any means. Becoming and arising are the characteristics of
conditioned things such as mind and matter, but Nibbāna, being not subject
to those conditions, is non-conditioned (asamkhata). See Woodward,
Verses of Uplift, p. 98, As it was said, p.
142.
[6]
Woodward, As it was said, p. 142
[7] Sa =with,
upādi = aggregates -- mind and body, sesa=
remaining. The aggregates are called Upādi because they are firmly
grasped by craving and ignorance.
[8] Since he will
not be reborn.
[9] P. 38, Woodward,
As it Was Said, p. 144.
---o0o---
Top | Contents | 01
| 02
| 03
| 04 | 05
| 06
| 07
| 08
| 09
| 10
| 11
| 12
| 13
| 14
| 15
| 16
| 17
| 18
| 19
| 20
| 21
| 22
| 23 | 24 |
25
| 26
| 27
| 28
| 29
| 30
| 31
| 32
| 33
| 34
| 35
| 36
| 37
| 38
| 39
| 40
| 41
| 42
| 43
| 44
---o0o---
Source : BuddhaSasana website, http://www.budsas.org
---o0o---
Layout: My Hanh - Thien Hung
Update : 01-10-2002
