Search results for: "Nibbana"
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- Truthfulness… The Buddha once said that there is really ultimately one thing that’s true, and that’s nibbana. And the only way we’re going to know what the true path to nibbana is by getting there. Then you can retroactively say, “Oh, that was the practice that got me to the right spot.” Everything else up until that point is experimentation. What you …
- A Game of Chess… Otherwise, how would you get to awakening, to nibbana? Nibbana, after all, is unconditioned. It’s not something that can be manipulated. You can’t use it as the path; you can’t use nibbana as the path to get to nibbana. You have to use conditioned things. So you’ve got the breath here. Now, sometimes the breath can be a problem, but …
- Delight… These are two names for nibbana, or two aspects of nibbana, but they also describe ways in which you practice. As you practice, you’re not afflicting anybody: You’re observing the precepts, finding pleasure in getting the mind concentrated, using your discernment to get past your defilements. You’re practicing non-affliction even as you’re headed toward the ultimate state of non …
- The Desire for Truth… In other words, you have to be true as a person to understand how true the statements are, so that you can get to the truth of nibbana. So how do you become more true as a person? The Buddha starts with his instructions to Rahula about how important it is to be truthful in reporting what you’re doing, what you’ve done …
- Skillful Desire… The only thing that doesn’t come from desire is nibbana. That’s not based on desire at all. But the path to nibbana is based on desire. Desire is part of right effort. And it’s the first of the four bases of success. In many ways it’s the most important of the four, because without desire the other ones don’t …
- Delight… But commenting on that bliss doesn’t add anything to the happiness of nibbāna. It’s hard for us to imagine—because so many of our pleasures are bound up in delight—that there could be something that doesn’t need delight. It’s good to think about, though. But it’s also good to remember that the path itself is something you have …
- Self View & Conceit… You may think that nibbana is off someplace else. A lot of us here think that nibbana is over in Thailand. Ajaan Fuang once told me that when he was a little kid he thought nibbana was up in the Himalayan Mountains. And you can imagine what the people in the Himalayan Mountains think: someplace else. Actually, nibbana is something we can attain through …
- A Goal Without Limits… Now, nibbana is obviously not a space, but the way the Buddha talks about how space is anidassana gives some idea of what the word means. The sutta says that you can’t draw pictures or draw words on space because it’s anidassana—it doesn’t have a surface. Some people translate it as invisible, but you can draw pictures on invisible things …
- Truths of the Will… Nibbana at the end of the path is not something you can will, but you can will the path to nibbana. So you’ve got to have faith in yourself. You’ve got to have faith in the path that will take you there. In terms of the raw materials, you’ve got this human body here. It breathes. You can watch the breath …
- Magha Puja… The second point of the teachings about nibbāna. This is the utmost, the Buddha said, and he added that all the Buddha say this. There’s nothing higher. It’s the end of all desires, in both senses of the term. In other words, it’s both the ultimate object of desire, and once it’s attained, there’s no need to desire anything …
- Wise About Pleasure… Finally, they get to nibbana. He asks, “What is nibbana for?” She says, “You’ve taken this line of questioning too far. Nibbana isn’t for anything. It’s where you’ve arrived.” There’s nothing else in the world that can qualify in that way. So look at your pleasures and pains as means. Some of them lead to that goal, and others …
- Alert… As Ajaan Fuang said one time, there are some people who think that those blanked out states are actually nibbāna. They hear that nibbāna is like the extinguishing of a fire. Well, fires go out, and that’s it. Nothing. But you have to remember that in the time of the Buddha, that’s not how they saw fire. There’s a fire property …
- Strength of Conviction: 2… After all, we’re practicing for nibbana but we’ve never seen it. The Buddha can’t take nibbana out to show us. Nobody can take it out. Ajaan Maha Boowa once said that if those who attained nibbana could take it out and show it to others, nobody else in the world would want anything else. That’s all they would want. But …
- Feeding on Ardency… He says, “If people could actually see nibbāna, if those who had attained it could take it out and show it to everybody else, no one would want anything else.” It’s infinitely to be hoped for. But of course, you don’t just depend on empty hopes. You feed yourself with the intentional elements of the path and then you observe. Here again …
- Unfabricated Happiness… The happiness of nibbana, the well-being of nibbana, the bliss—all that’s covered by one word in Pali, happiness, bliss, well-being, pleasure—the word is sukha: That’s not dependent on anything in time; it’s not dependent on anything fabricated; it’s not dependent on anything at all, which is why it doesn’t change. It’s in a different …
- The Third Noble Truth… But it’s good to reflect on where the path is going, because it turns out that the third noble truth is not just nibbana. In fact, as Ajaan Mun used to point out very clearly, the third noble truth is one thing, nibbana is something else. The third noble truth has a duty associated with it, whereas nibbana carries no duties. The duty …
- Practicing for Dispassion… The tradition is that it was on a full moon in May that the Buddha was born; then thirty-five years later, on a full moon in May, he gained awakening; then forty-five years after that, on the full moon in May, he entered total nibbana. So we’re commemorating three events tonight. It was on that last night, the night of his …
- Ask the Right Questions… If you’re just the five aggregates, the five aggregates are going to end at nibbāna. Does that mean you don’t exist anymore? Well, no. The Buddha said that when someone reaches nibbāna. you can’t say that they do exist, or don’t exist, or both, or neither. That’s because you can’t define them. They’re defined by their attachments …
- Dhamma Is a Quality of the Heart… He says it doesn’t really matter what name you give to nibbana. What’s important is you get the actuality. The Buddha described certain aspects about it. He called it the highest happiness, but he said that it wasn’t a feeling of happiness, so it doesn’t fall under the aggregates. What that means, he doesn’t say. He also said that …
- The Inner Saboteur… So they were trying to make sure that she didn’t escape to nibbana until they had gotten their revenge. Many of us, when we meditate, have a similar problem: not that there’s anybody standing behind us shaking us, but there’s a part of us that’s actually afraid of what would happen if we no longer had any greed, aversion, or …
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