What the Buddha Taught 6
As there is no permanent, unchanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. So quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. It is a series that continues unbroken, but changes every moment. The series is, really speaking, nothing but movement. It is like a flame that burns through the night: it is not the same flame nor is it another. A child grows up to be a man of sixty. Certainly the man of sixty is not the same as the child of sixty years ago, nor is he another person. Similarly, a person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another. It is the continuity of the same series. The difference between death and birth is only a thought-moment: the last thought-moment in this life conditions the first thought-moment in the so-called next life, which, in fact, is the continuity of the same series. During this life itself, too, one thought-moment conditions the next thought-moment. So from the Buddhist point of view, the question of life after death is not a great mystery, and a Buddhist is never worried about this problem.
As long as there is this ‘thirst’ to be and to become, the cycle of continuity goes on. It can stop only when its driving force, this ‘thrist’, is cut off through wisdom which sees Reality, Truth, Nirvana.
CHAPTER 4
THE THIRD NOBLE TRUTH:
NIRODHA: “The Cessation of Dukkha”
The Third Noble Truth is that there is emancipation, liberation, freedom from suffering, from the continuity of dudkkha. This is called the Noble Truth of the Cessation of dukkha, which is Nibbana, more popularly known in its Sanskrit form of Nirvana.
To eliminate dukkha completely one has to eliminate the main root of dukkha, which is ‘thirst’, as we saw earlier. Therefore Nirvana is known also by the term Tanhakkhaya ‘Extinction of Thirst’.
Now you will ask: But what is Nirvana? Volumes have been written in reply o this quite natural and simple question; they have, more and more, only confused the issue rather than clarified it. The only reasonable reply to give to the question is that it can enver be answered completely and satisfactorily in words, because human language is too poor to express the real nature of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality which is Nirvana. Language is created and used by masses of humman beings to express things and ideas experienced by their sense organs and their mind. A supramundane experience like that of the Absolute Truth is not of such a category. Therefore there cannot be words to express that experience, just as the fish had no words in his vocabulary to express the nature of the solid land. The tortoise told his firend the fish that he (the tortoise) just returned to the lake after a walk on the land. ‘Or course’ the fish said, ‘You mean swimming.’ The tortoise tried to explain that one walked on it. But the fish insisted that there could be nothing like it, that it must be liquid like his lake, with waves, and that one must be able to dive and swim there.
Words are symbols representing things and ideas known to us; and these symbols do not and cannot convey the true nature of even ordinary things. Language is considered deceptive and misleading in the matter of understanding of the Truth. So the Lankavatara sutra says that ignorant people getstuck in words like an elephant in the mud.
Nevertheless we cannot do without langguage. But if Nirvana is to be expressed and explained in positive terms, we are likely immediately to grasp an idea associated with those terms, which may be quite the contrary. Therefore it is generally expressed in negative terms a less dangerous mode perhaps. So it is often referred to by such negative terms as Tanhakkhaya ‘Extinction of Thirst’Asamkhata ‘Uncompound’, ‘Unconditioned’, Viraga’Absense of ddesire’, Nirodha ‘Cessation’, Nibbana ‘Blowing out’ or ‘Extinction’.
Let us consider a few definitions and descriptions of Nirvana as found in the original Pali texts:
‘It is the complete cessation of that very ‘thirst’, giving it up, renouncing it, emancipation from it, detachment from it.’
‘Calming of all conditioned things, giving up of all defilements, extinction of “thirst”, detachment, cessation, Nibbana.
‘O bhikkhus, what is the Absolute? It is , O bhikkhus, the extinction of desire the extinction of hatred, the extinction of illusion. This, O bhikkhus, is called the Absolute.
‘O Radha, the extinction of “thirst” is Nibbana.
‘O bhikkhus, whatever there may be things conditioned or unconditioned, among them detachment is the highest. That is to say, freedom from conceit, destruction of thirst, the uprooting of attachment, the cutting off of continuity, the extinction of “thirst”, detachment, cessation, Nibbana.
The reply of Sariputta, the chief disciple of the Buddha, to a direct question ‘What is Nibbana?’ posed by a Parivrajaka, is identical with the ddefinition of Asamkhata given by the Buddha (above): “The extinction of desire the extinction of hatred, the extinction of illusion..
‘The abandoning and destruction of desire and craving for these Five Aggregates of Attachment: that is the cessation of dukkha.
‘’The cessation of Continuity and becoming is Nibbana.
And further, referring to Nirvana the Buddha says:
‘O bhikkhus, there is the unborn, ungrown, and unconditioned. Were there not the unborn, ungrown, and unconditioned, there would be no escape for the born, grown, aand conditioned, so there is escape for the born, grown, and conditioned.
‘Here the four elements of soliddity, fluidity, heat and motion have no place; the notions of length and breadth, the subtle and the gross, goo and evil, name and form are altogether destroyed: neither this world nor the other, nor coming, going or standing, neither death nor birth, nor sense-objects are to be found.
Because Nirvana is thus expressed in negative terms, there are manny who have got a wrong notion that it is negative, and expresses self-annihilation. Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it as the annihilation of the illusion, of the false ideae of self.
It is incorrect to say that Nirvana is negative or positive. The ideas of ‘’negativve’ and ‘ppositive’ are relative, and are within the realm of duality. These terms cannot be applied to Nirvana, Absolute Truth, which is beyond duality and relativity.
A negative word need not neccssarily indicate a negative state. The Pali of Sanskrit word for health is arogya, a negative term, which literally means ‘absence or illness’. But arogya (health) does not represent a negative state. The word ‘Immortal’ (or its Sanskrit equivalent Amrta or Pali Amata), which also is a synonym for Nnirvana, is negative, but it does not denote a negative state. The negation of negative values is not negatiive. One ofo the well-known synonyms for Nirvana is ‘Freedom’. Nobody would say that freedom is negative. But even freedom has a negative side: freedom is always a liberation from something which is obstrcutive, which is evil, which is negative. But freedom is not negative. So Nirvana, Mutti or Vimutti, and Absolute freedom, is freedom from all evil, freedom from craving, hatred and ignorance, freedom from allterms of duality, relativity, time and space.
We may get some idea of Nirvana as Absolute Truth from the Bhatuvibhanga-sutta of the Majjhima-nikkaya. This extremely important discourse was delivered by the Buddha to Pukkusati (already mentioned), whom the Master found to be intelligent and earnest, in the quiet of the night in a potter’s shed. The essence of the relevant portions of the sutta is as follows:
A man is composed of six elements: solidity, fluidity, heat, motion, space and consciousness. He analyses them and finds that none of them is ‘mine’, or ‘me’, or ‘myself’. He understands how consciousness appears and disappears, how pleasnt, unpleasant and neutral sensations appear and disappear. Through this knowledge his mind becomes detached. Then he finds within hima pure equanimity, which he can direct towardds the attainmenet of any high spiritual state, and e knows that thus this pure equanimity will last for a long period. But then he thinks:
‘If I focus this purified and cleansed equanimity on the Sphere of Infinite Space and develop a mind dconforming thereto, that is a mental creation.. If I focus this prified and cleased equanimity on the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness...on the Sphere of Nothingness... or on the Sphere of Neitherperception nor Non-perception and develop a mind conforming thereto, that is a mental creation.’ Then he neither mentally creates nor wills continuity and becoming or annihilation. As he does not construct or does not will continuity and becoming or annibilation, he does not cling to anything in the world; as he does not cling, he iiis not anxious; as he is not anxious, he is completely calmed within (fully blown out within pacttam yeva parinibbayati) And he knows: ‘Finished is birth, lived is pure life, what should be done is done, nothing more is left to be done.
Now, when he experiences a pleasant, unpleasant or neutral sensation, he knows that it is impermanent, that it does not bind him, that it is not experienced with passion. Whatever may be the sensation, he experiences it without being bound to it. He kknows that all those sensations will be pacified with the dissolution of the body, just as the flame of a lamp goes out when oil and wick give out.
‘Therefore, O bhikkhu, a person so endowed is endowed with the absolute wisdom, for the knowledge of the extinction of all dukkha is the absolute noble wisdom.
‘This his deliverance, founded on Truth, is unshakable. O bhikkhu, that which is unreality is false; that which is reality, Nibbana, is Truth. Therefore, O bhikkhu, a person so endowed i endowed with this Absolute Truth. For, the Abolute Noble Truth is Nibbaa, which is Reality.’
Elsewhere the Buddha unequivocally uses the word Truth in place of Nibbana: ‘I will teach you the Truth and Path leading to the Truth. Here Truth definitely means Nirvana.
Now, what is Absolute Truth? According to Buddhism, the Absolutte Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent, and that there is no unchaning, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul or Atman within or without. This is the Absolute Truth. Truth is never negative, thought there is a popular expression as negative truth. The realization of this Truth, i.e., to see things as they are without illusion or ignorance, is the extinction of craving ‘thirst’, and the cessation of dukkha, which is Nirvana. It is interesting and useful to remeber here the Mahayana view of Nirvana as not being different from Samara. The same thing is Samara or Nirvana accoring to the way you look at it-subjectively or objectively. This Mahayana view was probably developed out f the ideas found in the original Theravada Pali texts, to which we have just referred in our brief discussion.
It is incorrect to think that Nirvana is the natural result of the extinction of craving. Nirvana is not the result of anything. If it would bbe a result, then it would be an effect produced by a cause. It would be samkhata ‘produced’ and ‘conditioned’. Nirvana is neither cause nor effect. It is beyond cause and effect. Truth is not a result nor an effect. It is not produced like a mystic, spiritual, mental state, such as dhyana or samadhi. Truth is. Nirvana is. The only thing you can do is to see it, to realize it. There is a path leading to the realization of Nirvana. But Nirvana is not the result of this path. You may get to the mountain along a path, but the mountain is not the result, nnot an effect of the path. You may see a light, but the light is not the result of your eyesight.
People often ask: What is there after Nirvana? This question cannot arise, because Nirvana is the Ultimate Truth. If it is Ultimate, there can be nothing after it. If there is anything after Nirvana, then that will be the Ultimate Truth annd not Nirvana. A monk name Radha put thhis question to the Buddha in a different form: ‘For what purpose (or end) is Nirvana?’ This question presupposes something after Nirvnana, when it pposulates some purpose or end for it. So the Buddha answered: ‘O Rada, thisquestion could not catch its limit (i.e., it is beside the point). One lives the holy life with Nirvana as its final plunge (into the Absolute Truth), as its goal, as its ultimate end.’
출처: https://storytellingis.tistory.com/3 [붓다:티스토리]