This is the final video in the first Chapter of the Nibbāna series.
Nibbāna and the Four Noble Truths are, respectively, the principal axiom and ontological roots of the Buddha’s teaching. An ontological analysis of them reveals that the Buddha’s teaching is
Apophatic: Nibbāna is the unstated ‘elephant in the room’.
Fractal: Every Sutta reflects the same design or image.
Ontologically coherent:
The Suttas are all based on the Four Noble Truths.
They all point to the same ineffable, inexplicable state.
Each one is an extended metaphor about the indefinable.
Thus the Buddha’s teaching is apophatic, fractal and ontologically coherent. No other tradition or system of thought—including modern science—can make this claim.
“Nanda, having comprehended your awareness with my own awareness, I realized that ‘Nanda, through the ending of the effluents, has entered and remains in the effluent-free awareness-release and discernment-release, directly knowing and realizing them for himself right in the here-and-now.’ … When your mind, through lack of clinging, was released from the effluents, I was thereby released from that promise.”
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The original significance of the term Nibbāna was undermined by scholars bringing in a speculative etymology, based on misinterpreting the element vāna as ‘weaving’. We don’t see any justification or explanation for this, apart from exegetical hubris. The Buddha often declares that Nibbāna is the cessation of suffering or the destruction of craving. He frequently uses terms like dukkhanirodho (cessation of suffering) and taṇhakkhayo (cessation of clinging) in the Suttas as synonyms for Nibbāna. If they are synonyms, there is no need to discriminate by insisting on a periphrastic usage like āgamma (coming to, approaching)— as if Nibbāna is a ‘thing’ or location somewhere ‘out there’ that one can go to.
Another important aspect of the problem is the relation of Nibbāna to the Holy Life, brahmacariya. For when the Holy Life is lived completely, it culminates in Nibbāna:
“What now, friend, is the Holy Life, and who is a follower of the Holy Life, and what is the final goal of the Holy Life?”
“This Noble Eightfold Path, friend, is the Holy Life; that is, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. One who possesses this Noble Eightfold Path is called ‘one who lives the Holy Life’. The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of delusion: this, friend, is the final goal of the Holy Life.” — The Cock’s Park (3) (SN 45.20)
In the Rādhasaṃyutta of the Saṃyutta Nikāya the Venerable Rādha puts a series of questions to the Buddha for explanation:
“Venerable sir, for what purpose is right view?”
“Rādha, it is for disenchantment.”
“Venerable sir, for what purpose is disenchantment?”
“Rādha, it is for dispassion.”
“Venerable sir, for what purpose is dispassion?”
“Rādha, it is for release.”
“Venerable sir, for what purpose is release?”
“Rādha, it is for extinction (nibbāna).”
“Venerable sir, for what purpose is extinction?”
“Rādha, it is not possible to answer that question. Extinction is the final end. The Holy Life is lived to reach extinction and it is the end.”
— Māra Sutta (SN 3.22.1.1)
When Venerable Rādha puts the question, Nibbānaṃ pana, bhante, kimatthiyaṃ? “For what purpose is Nibbāna?” The Buddha gives this answer: “Rādha, you have gone beyond the scope of questions, you are unable to grasp the limit of questions. For, Rādha, the Holy Life (brahmacariya) is merged in Nibbāna, its consummation is Nibbāna, its culmination is Nibbāna.”
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Today the deeper implications of the word Nibbāna are obscured by a set of disingenuous and misleading arguments based on a scholarly methodology borrowed from South Indian Brahmanism. Nevertheless, most Theravādins, dazzled by the brilliance of Ven. Buddhaghosa’s scholarship, accept his arguments as gospel.
That has led to an unfortunate situation where the sober voices of the forest practitioners are out-shouted by a politicized chorus of university-trained city temple scholastics. ‘I know, I see, that’s just how it is!’ they chant. Continue reading Nibbāna 20: Self-fettered by Views
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To explain the position of lustful beings in the world, the Buddha gives the simile of a man with a skin disease sitting beside a pit of hot embers:
“Suppose, Māgandiya, there was a leper with sores and blisters on his limbs, being devoured by worms, scratching the scabs off the openings of his wounds with his nails, cauterizing his body over a burning charcoal pit. Then his friends and companions, his kinsmen and relatives, brought a physician to treat him. The physician would make medicine for him, and by means of that medicine the man would be cured of his leprosy and would become well and happy, independent, master of himself, able to go where he likes.” — Māgaṇdiya Sutta (MN 75)
That man is simply trying to assuage his pains by the heat of the fire. It is an attempt to warm up, not to cool down. Similarly, the lustful beings in the world are trying to warm up by drawing near the fires of lust. There is no way that can be compared to the extinction and cooling down of the Arahants.
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According to the Buddha, Nibbāna is realization of the cessation of existence. Existence is said to be an eleven-fold fire; the entire existence is a raging fire. Lust, hate and delusion are fires. Therefore Nibbāna may be best rendered by the word ‘extinction’. Once the fires are extinguished, what more is needed?
Unfortunately Venerable Buddhaghosa, well-trained in the rhetoric of South Indian Brahmanism, was unprepared to appreciate this point of view. In his famous Visuddhimagga, and in the Sāratthappakāsinī and Sammohavinodanī commentaries, there is a long discussion on Nibbāna in the form of a discussion with an imaginary heretic (Vism 508; Spk III 88; Vibh-a 51). Many of his arguments are inharmonious with both the letter and spirit of the Dhamma. In fact, he argues directly against the Buddha’s teaching in the Suttas.
First Buddhaghosa gets the heretic to put forward the idea that the destruction of lust, hate and delusion is Nibbāna. But actually the heretic is simply quoting the Buddha word, for in the Nibbāna Suttaof the Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta, Nibbāna is called the destruction of lust, hate and delusion: rāgakkhayo, dosakkhayo, mohakkhayo idaṃ vuccati nibbānaṃ.
The words rāgakkhaya, dosakkhaya and mohakkhaya together form a synonym of Nibbāna, but Buddhaghosa interprets it as three synonyms. Then he argues directly against the Buddha in form of the imaginary heretic, that if Nibbāna is the extinguishing of lust it is something common even to the animals, for they also extinguish their fires of lust through enjoyment of the corresponding objects of sense (Vibh-a 53). This argument ignores the deeper sense of the word extinction as it is found in the Suttas.
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Meaning is dependent on context. The definition of a word depends on the context of the sentence it is in. Similarly the meaning of any experience depends on one’s background ontology.
Commentators such as Buddhaghosh obscured the meaning of the Buddha’s teaching by shifting its context to a religious philosophy instead of a transcendental practice. In many cases they argued directly against the Buddha’s point of view.
That is because they wanted to make ‘sense’ out of the words of the Buddha without doing the practices he taught and getting the direct experience. They were working with words and symbols, but Nibbāna is ineffable and undefinable. It can only be experienced, not described.
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The previous section began to explore the direct meaning of the word Nibbāna in terms of the Theravāda Suttas. It seems plain enough in that light. But the commentators didn’t appreciate the deeper connotations of Nibbāna in the context of Dependent Origination (paṭicca samuppāda), so they developed a new etymology of their own.
The speculative misinterpretation of the commentators is based on South Indian yoga philosophy, specifically the approach of Śāṇkarācārya. He used grammatical word jugglery to redefine the words in the Buddha’s original teaching to support their views. Yoga philosophy is based on development of the will, whereas the Buddha’s approach is through direct observation of what is. These two approaches couldn’t be more different, yet many people confuse them.
The Buddha’s method transcends will through consciousness; transcends control through direct observation. According to the Buddha, Nibbāna is realization of the cessation of becoming. Existence is said to be an elevenfold fire; the entire existence is a raging fire. Lust, hate and delusion are fires. Therefore Nibbāna may be best rendered as ‘cessation’, ‘appeasement’ or ‘extinction’. Once the fire of becoming is extinguished, what more is needed?
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There is a reason you can’t experience Nibbāna and reach enlightenment. ‘Buddhist’ religious organizations have simplified, distorted and obscured the original teachings of the Buddha. If this continues much longer, the practices that brought the Buddha and his original disciples to enlightenment may be lost forever.
We want a future where practitioners can reach Nibbāna ‘in no long time’, as it was during the time of the Buddha himself. It’s my experience that with proper background (Right View) and careful practice of jhāna (Right Concentration) a determined person can reach the goal in 120 days or less.
What gets in the way of this is time. Most people feel they don’t have time to read through the complete Theravāda Suttas. I read them as a monk, and it took me two years.
The same goes for practice. People think they don’t have time for the level of intense practice required to actually attain enlightenment. Well, do you have time to die? Death is inevitable. Don’t you want to do something about that?
And many people are caught up in ‘buddhist’ religious organizations that perpetuate the distortions and misunderstandings that keep them from realizing nibbāna for themselves.
But actually, you just need to understand the gist, the overview of the Buddha’s teaching. And you just need to practice in a way that multiplies the effectiveness of your practice through a synergistic combination of methods.
I attained Stream Entry in less than 100 days by studying a summary of the Buddha’s original complete teaching. And I did it independently, by practicing intensively under the direction of a realized Master.
I am just an ordinary person. Anything I have done, you can do too. I committed myself fully to discipleship with a realized Master. This relationship of discipleship is the key for real attainment.
In the previous section we discussed how scholastic monks, eager to showcase their exegetical skills, unnecessarily complicated and distorted the meaning of nāma-rūpa in the Buddha’s teaching. Something similar happened regarding the word Nibbāna. Here too the semantic developments in the commentaries are unsupported by the Suttas. We find needlessly complex explanations of the etymology of the word Nibbāna, such as vānasaṅkhātāya taṇhāya nikkhantattā: ‘Nibbāna is so called because it is an exit from craving, which is a form of weaving.’
Wait: what? Taking the element vāna to mean a form of weaving is as unnecessarily complex and misleading as taking nāma as some kind of bending. The commentaries define craving as a kind of weaving, in the sense that it connects one form of existence with another; and the prefix ni- is said to signify the exit from that weaving. This approach is straight out of Indian scholastic commentaries on Vedānta, which also employ obscure misinterpretation of word roots to twist the text into bizarre renderings. The resulting confusion blocks any attempt at realization.
But we do not see this kind of forced, indirect etymology and interpretation anywhere in the Suttas. The Suttas use the word Nibbāna in the sense of ‘extinction’ or ‘extinguishing’, as a fire that runs out of fuel. This direct sense brings out the true essence of the Dhamma. An even better translation might be ‘appeasement’.
The Dharmasar Solution 