What the Buddha Taught 7

       Some popular inaccurately phrased expressions like ‘The Buddha entered into Nirvana or Parinirvana after his death’ have given rise to many imaginary speculations about Nirvana.  The moment you hear the phrase that ‘the Buddha entered into Nirvana or Parinirvana, you take Nirvana to be a state, or a realm, or a position in which there is some sort of existence, and try to imagine it in terms of the sense of the word ‘existence’ as it is known to you.  This popular expression ‘entered into Nirvana’ has no equivalent in the original texts.  There is no such thing as ‘entering into Nirvana after death.’ There is a word parinibbuto used to denote the death of the Buddha or an Arahant who has realized Nirvana, but it does not mean ‘entering into Nirvana.’ Parinibbuto means ‘fully passed away,’ ‘fully blown out’’ or ‘fully extinct’ because the Buddha or Arahant has no re-existence after his death.

           Another question arises: What happens to the Buddha or an Arahant after his death, painirvana? This comes under the category of unanswered questions. Even when the Buddha spoke about this, he indicated that no words in our vocabulary could express what happens to an Arahant after his death.  In reply to a Parivrajaka named Vaccha, the Buddha said that terms like ‘born’ or ‘not born’ do not apply in the case of an Arahant because those things-matter, sensation, perception, mental activities, consciousness-with which the terms like ‘born’ and ‘not born’ are associated, are destroyed and uprooted, never to rise again after his death.

           An Arahant after his death is often compared to a fire gone out when the supply of wood is over or to the flame of a lamp gone out when the wick and oil are finished.  Here, it should be clearly and distinctly understood, without any confusion, that what is compared to a flame or a fire gone out is not Nirvana, but the ‘being’ composed of the Five Aggregates who realized Nirvana.  This point must be emphasized because many people, even some great scholars, have misinterpreted this simile as referring to Nirvana.  Nirvana is never compared to a fire or a lamp gone out.

           Another popular question is: If there is no Self or Atman, who realizes Nirvana? Before we go on to Nirvana, let us ask: Who thinks now if there is no Self? We have seen earlier that it is the thought that feels, that there is no thinker behind the idea.  In the same way, it is wisdom, realization, that realizes. There is no other self behind the realization.  In the discussion of the origin of dukkha, we saw that whatever it may be, whether being, thing, or system, it is of the nature of arising; it has within itself the nature, the germ, its cessation, its destruction.  Now dukkha, samsara, the cycle of continuity, is of the nature of arising; it must also be of the nature of cessation.  Dukkha arises because of ‘thirst,’ it ceases because of wisdom. As we saw earlier, ‘Thirst’ and wisdom are within the Five Aggregates.

           Thus, the germ of their arising as well as that of their cessation are both within the Five Aggregates.  Buddha's well-known statement is the real meaning: ‘Withn this fathom-long sentient body itself, I postulate the world, the arising of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world.’  This means that all the Four Noble Truths are found within the Five Aggregates, i.e., within ourselves. (Here, the word ‘world’ is used in place of dukkha).  This also means that no external power produces the rise and cessation of dukkha.

           When wisdom is developed and cultivated according to the Fourth Noble Truth (the next to be taken up), it sees the secret of life, the reality of things.  When the secret is discovered, when the Truth is seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of samsara in illusion become calm and incapable of making any more karma-formations because there is no more illusion, no more ‘thirst’ for continuity.  It is like a mental disease which is cured when the cause or the secret of the disorder is discovered and seen by the patient.

           In almost all religions, the summon bonus can be attained only after death.  But Nirvana can be realized in this very life; it is unnecessary to wait till you die to ‘attain’ it.

           He who has realized the Truth, Nirvana, is the happiest being in the world.  He is free from all ‘complexes’ and obsessions, the worries and troubles that torment others.  His mental health is perfect.  He does not repent of the past or brood over the future.  He lives entirely in the present.  Therefore, he appreciates and enjoys things in the purest sense without self-projections.  He is joyful, exultant, enjoying the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful.  He is free from selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride, and all such ‘defilements,’ he is pure and gentle, full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy, understanding and tolerance.  His service to others is purest, for he has no thought of self.  He gains nothing and accumulates nothing, not even anything spiritual because he is accessible from the illusion of Self and the ‘thirst’ for becoming.

           Nirvana is beyond all terms of duality and relativity.  It is beyond our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence.  Even the word ‘happiness’ used to describe Nirvana has an entirely different sense here.  Sariputta once said: ‘O friend, Nirvana is happiness! Nirvana is happiness!’ Then Udayi asked: ‘But, friend Sariputta, what happiness can it be without sensation?’ Sariputta’s reply was highly philosophical and beyond ordinary comprehension: ‘That there is no sensation itself is happiness.’

           Nirvana is beyond logic and reasoning.  However much we may engage, often as a vain intellectual pastime, in highly speculative discussions regarding Nirvana or Ultimate Truth or Reality, we shall never understand it that way.  A child in kindergarten should not quarrel about the theory of relativity.  Instead, if he follows his studies patiently and diligently, one day, he may understand it.  Nirvana is ‘to be realized by the wise within themselves.’  If we follow the Path patiently and diligently, train and purify ourselves earnestly, and attain the necessary spiritual development, we may one day realize it within ourselves without taxing ourselves with puzzling and high-sounding words.

           Let us, therefore, now turn to the Path which leads to the realization of Nirvana.

 

CHAPTER 5

THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH

MAGGA: “The Path

 

The Fourth Noble Truth is that of the Way leading to the Cessation of Dukkha.  This is known as the ‘Middle Path’ because it avoids two extremes: one extreme being the search for happiness through the pleasures of the sense, which is ‘low, common, unprofitable and the way of the ordinary people’; the other being the search for happiness through self-mortification in different forms of asceticism, which is ‘painful, unworthy and unprofitable.’ Having first tried these two extremes and found them useless, the Buddha discovered through personal experience the Middle Path, ‘which gives vision and knowledge, which leads to Calm, Insight, Enlightenment, Nirvana.’ This Middle Path is generally referred to as the Noble Eightfold Path because it is composed of eight categories or divisions: namely,

 

1.      Right Understanding

2.      Right Thought

3.      Right Speech

4.      Right Action

5.      Right Livelihood

6.      Right Effort

7.      Right Mindfulness

8.      Right Concentration

Practically, the Buddha's whole teaching, to which he devoted himself for 45 years, deals in some way or other with this Path. He explained it in different ways and words to different people, according to their development stage and capacity to understand and follow him. But the essence of those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist Scriptures is found in the Noble Eightfold Path.

It should not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the Path should be followed and practised one after the other in the numerical order given in the usual list above. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible, according to each individual's capacity. They are all linked together, and each helps cultivate the others.

These eight factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline,  namely: (a) Ethical Conduct (Sila), (b) Mental Discipline (Samadhi) and (c) Wisdom.  It will, therefore, be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight divisions of the Path if we group them and explain them according to these three heads.

Ethical Conduct (Sila) is built on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings, based on the Buddha’s teaching. It is regrettable that many scholars forget this great ideal of the Buddha’s teaching and indulge in only dry philosophical and metaphysical divagations when they talk and write about Buddhism.  The Buddha taught ‘for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world.’

According to Buddhism, for a man to be perfect, there are two qualities that he should develop equally: compassion on one side and wisdom on the other. Here, compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance and such noble qualities on the emotional side or qualities of the heart. At the same time, wisdom would stand for the intellectual side or the qualities of the mind.  Suppose one develops only the emotional, neglecting the intellectual. In that case, one may become a good-hearted fool while acquiring only the intellectual side; ignoring the emotional may turn one into a hard-hearted intellect without feeling for others.  Therefore, to be perfect, one has to develop both equally.  That is the aim of the Buddhist way of life: wisdom and compassion are inseparably linked together, as we shall see later.

In Ethical Conduct (Sila), based on love and compassion, there are three factors of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood (Nos. 3, 4, and 5 in the list).

Right speech means abstention (1) from telling lies, (2) from backbiting and slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups of people, (3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip.  When one abstains from these forms of wrong and harmful speech, one naturally has to speak the truth and use words that are friendly and benevolent, pleasant and gentle, meaningful and valuable.  One should not speak carelessly: speech should be at the right time and place. One should keep ' noble silence ' if one cannot say something worthwhile.

Right Action aims to promote moral, honourable, and peaceful conduct. It admonishes us to abstain from destroying life, stealing, dishonest dealings, and illegitimate sexual intercourse and to help others lead peaceful and honourable lives in the right way.

Right Livelihood means that one should abstain from making one’s living through a profession that brings harm to others, such as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks, poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honourable, blameless and innocent of harm to others.  One can see here that Buddhism is vehemently opposed to any war when it lays down that trade in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means of livelihood.

These three factors (Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood) of the Eightfold Path constitute Ethical Conduct.  It should be realized that Buddhist ethical and moral conduct aims to promote a happy and harmonious life for both the individual and society.  This moral conduct is considered the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual attainments.  No spiritual development is possible without this ethical basis.

Next comes Mental Discipline, which includes three other factors of the Eightfold Path: Right Effort, Right Mindfulness (Attentiveness), and Right Concentration (Nos. 6, 7, and 8 in the list).

Right Effort is the energetic will (1)to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising, (2) to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already arisen within a man, (3) to produce, to cause to arise, good and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen, and (4) to develop and bring to perfection the good and wholesome states of mind already present in a man.

Right Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) is to be diligently aware, mindful and attentive about (1) the activities of the body, (2) sensations or feelings, (3) the activities of the mind and (4) ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things.

The practice of concentration on breathing is one of the well-known exercises connected with the body for mental development.  There are several other ways of developing attentiveness about the body as modes of meditation.

About sensations and feelings, one should be aware of all forms of emotions and sensations, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral, and how they appear and disappear within oneself.

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