Ultimate Reality - Nirvana

Question 1

how did SB gain enlightenment and knowledge of Nirvana

Answer 1

• underneath bodhi tree
• contemplating nature of existence
• mythological elements to the story –> mara: all that binds humans to the physical world

Question 2

mara vs SB

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

hagiographical and mythological interpretations of maras defeat

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

4 meditative states (jhanas)

Answer 4

1. unbroken attention to the object of meditation, detatched from the world, in a total state of calm
2. thoughts are discarded, a sense of joy
   - ‘ a state free free from thought conception..born of concentration’ nyanatiloka
3. state of equanimity, composed and with absolute attentiveness, but still clearly concious
4. 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

Question 5

SB sig insights due to enlightenment (3)

Answer 5

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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

Question 6

what is nirvana

Answer 6

• removal of conventional truth
• beyond samsara, extinction of all suffering
• ## no difference between samsara and nirvana

Question 7

how is nirvana described

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

what ISNT nirvana

Answer 8

• dukkha

Question 9

what is nirvana like

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

where is nirvana and how do we get there

Answer 10

• destination, refuge, the other shore, asylum
• teaching
• sammasamB, no teaching
• ‘but nirvana can be achieved in this life’ rahula

Question 11

how do we know about nirvana (N with/without remainder)

Answer 11

• 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 :(

Question 12

conventional understanding vs ultimate reality of Nirvana

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

enlightened beings apart from SB and nirvana

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

cataphatic and apophatic language (strengths and weaknesses)

what are cataphatic descriptions

Answer 14

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

Question 15

examine different ways nirvana is understood

Answer 15

• 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’

Question 16

negative descriptions of nirvana

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

positive descriptions of nirvana (emotion)

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

positive descriptions of nirvana (knowledge)

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

positive descriptions of nirvana (will)

Answer 19

• nirvana is described as absolute freedom from all bonds and restrictions
• enlightened are still subject to natural laws but freed mentally

Question 20

positive descriptions of nirvana (conciousness)

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

positive descriptions of nirvana (form)

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

paradoxical descriptions and nirvana

Answer 22

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

Question 23

symbolic descriptions of nirvana

Answer 23

• 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’

Question 24

king melinda (how can I know what nirvana is without attaining it)

religious experience proofs

Answer 24

• 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

Question 25

king melinda and how can nirvana be described through metaphors and similies

Answer 25

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)

Question 26

king melinda and is nirvana caused

Answer 26

- 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

Question 27

king melinda and what is nirvana in this life like

Answer 27

- 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

Question 28

examine how nirvana is described and explained in buddhist scripture

Answer 28

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