Search results for: "Nibbana"
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- Stupid about Pleasure… After all, when you’ve reached that level you know for sure that there’s a deathless, that you’re destined for nibbana. You’ll have at most only seven more lifetimes and they’re all going to be human lifetimes at the very least. And a sense of security can develop around that thought. Because of that sense of security, it’s possible …
- The Core of Experience… If you say that there’s no core there, then when kamma ends in the attainment of nibbana, there’d be nothing left. Nothing would exist there. And the Buddha wouldn’t have gone to such trouble to say that an arahant after death can’t be said to exist or not exist or both or neither. It would be obvious: The arahant wouldn …
- Delight in the Dhamma… And finally, the Buddha says to delight in two things that are actually epithets for nibbana. One is “the unafflicted,” the other is “non-objectification”—“unafflicted” in the sense that you’re not causing any pain to yourself, any pain to anybody else—totally without disturbance; a happiness that doesn’t have anything to eat away inside. As for “non-objectification,” objectification is the …
- Straightening the Arrow… The Buddha has you keep in mind the perception that nibbana really is the true happiness that’s going to satisfy any desire the mind would have for well-being or security or peace. It’s a Good Thing. As the Buddha once said, if you perceive nibbana as something unpleasant, that perception is really going to get in the way of your practice …
- Focus on What You’re Doing… As Ajaan Fuang once said, “If we could push our way into nibbana, we would have done it a long time ago. It’s more subtle than that.” You focus on the causes. And there are two kinds of causes. There are the causes for suffering, and there’s the path that leads to the end of suffering. The path doesn’t cause release …
- The Perfection of Freedom… That’s what nibbana is all about. The word nibbana means unbinding, loosening up all the constraints on the mind, so that it’s totally unbound by space, time, or any conditions at all. That’s the only possibility of total perfection at all. Meanwhile, though, there is the conditioned freedom we have in the present moment, which is what enables us to choose …
- Expanded Possibilities… Prior to meeting Ajaan Fuang, I’d always wondered if someone who attained nibbana would be dead or defeated—in other words, seeing that there was nothing worth desiring in the world, so you just give up on desire. But with Ajaan Fuang, I saw that that was not the case. He’d learned to re-channel his desires and actually found something that …
- Beyond Inter-eating… There is one verse in the Canon where they talk about feeding on nibbana. You feed on it freely in the sense that there’s no cost, there are no drawbacks—you’re not harming anybody, you’re not harming yourself, you’re not harming other people. But most of the descriptions that discuss the issue of feeding with regard to nibbana say that …
- The Raft of Concepts… It’s there for you to judge the concepts you’re bringing to the path, to see which ones fit into the strategy of the path to that dimension — nibbana — and which ones don’t. The Buddha never says that he can offer an empirical proof of the teachings on kamma, rebirth, or nibbana. But he says that if you do adopt these ideas …
- Learning from the Precepts… one is the area of making merit, and the other is the practice leading to nibbāna. Making merit is considered to be a lowly practice. Of course, it’s better than not making merit but it’s more than that. It’s not divorced from the practice leading to nibbāna. After all, you make merit for a good life in future lifetimes, and part …
- Safety All Around… Look at his names for nibbāna: Nibbāna wasn’t the only name for the goal. The goal was also Harbor. Refuge. Safety. Security. The Secure. The path there starts with his teaching us how to provide safety for ourselves. When we follow the teachings, that’s how we take refuge—and how we find refuge. We’re protected in all directions, and the protection …
- In the Context of the Path… What do you make the raft out of? You have to make it out of the things you find on this side, because there’s no nibbāna yacht that’s going to come over and pick you up, no nibbāna bridge already made over the river. You have to put things together yourself. Make a raft out of the twigs and branches and leaves …
- Fangs in the Static… So even though if you’re born in a poor house, you might have the opportunity to meet with a true Dhamma—unlike people who were born in Bangkok back in those same days, where they were taught by the monks that the path to nibbana was closed, the path to jhana was closed, so monks should engage in social services. Which means that …
- Virtues Bright & Neither Dark nor Bright… Or as Ajaan Lee said, “Nibbana is easy. Everything in the world has to be maintained. Once you gain nibbana, though, there’s nothing you have to maintain.” Of course, getting there isn’t easy. But once you get there, you can put all your burdens down. What’s interesting is that there’s an overlap between bright kamma and the kamma that’s …
- Precept Meditation… Maybe there is something to this nibbana business after all. It really would be something good, something worth trying to attain. So the precepts not only help develop the skills you need for concentration but also provide a context and motivation for gaining discernment and insight. As for the eight precepts, those move into another area of training for the mind. Again, Ajaan Suwat …
- Right View… Or that you can’t create nibbana: Of course, the Buddha never said you create nibbana. You go there. There are actions that take you there. Right view about action is that there are four kinds. There’s action that gives good results within the cycle of rebirth, action that gives bad results in the cycle of rebirth, action that gives mixed results, the …
- Refuge… There was a belief in Thailand for a long time that the time for nibbana was past. Even the time for jhana was past. This is what all the brightest minds in Bangkok were saying. But then there were some peasants’ sons up in the Northeast who said, “No. Why should there be any time when nibbana is open or not open? It’s …
- In Training… The ajaans talk about the pleasures of nibbāna, how amazing it is. Ajaan Maha Boowa once said that if he could take nibbāna out and show it to other people, nobody would want anything else. So you’re looking for that kind of freedom. You’re training for that kind of freedom. You’re following that old principle that if there’s a more …
- A Good Path to Be On… Samsara doesn’t have any endpoint aside from nibbana. If you don’t go to nibbana, then you keep wandering around, bumbling around. Whereas when you’re on the path, you develop a skill that engages all of your heart and all of your mind. So each step on the path is a good step to take. It’s a good path to be …
- A Safe Space Inside… There are no “ends” out there in samsara, there are just “means.” They only real end is nibbana. You may not be sure whether you can attain any of the ends that you want, but you can be sure that your means are good. Those are the things you can be sure about. You can look directly at your intention and directly at what …
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