It is common that when people first learn of Buddhism they often gravitate towards the idea of Nirvana. Many have in their minds of a place of bliss. Although many Buddhist would claim it is different and distinct from the concept of heaven, if you asked them to describe they are likely to respond is being a place of no pain and suffering where you will never regress and be surrounded by pleasantness of all kinds. But such a description is very similar to the heaven that one goes to after death espoused in other religions. However, such a belief is erroneous as Nirvana is describing the world we see as much at is the one we don't.
It is stated that Buddha entered into Nirvana after his meditation under the Bodhi tree, and while he was still a human, as such it is clearly not a destination one goes after death. Because of this many Buddhists explain that Nirvana is more accurately described as a state of being; so if one achieves the wisdom of the Buddhas during this lifetime, he is said to have entered or achieved Nirvana. But how can it be that Nirvana be a state of peace, nonregression, equanimity, and contentment when we are still in living a mortal life in a world so filled with defilements and evils? Does one in Nirvana not see or experience these negativities, or are they so disconnected from life that they lose all feeling and connection to the world. For the longest time, I had believed that for a Buddhist to achieve enlightenment was for one to cut oneself from all worldly attachments and concerns. Without attachments, one would have no fear of pain or longing for pleasure, and thus end the cycle of death and rebirth.
However, if that were the case, then why would the Buddha himself show such great concern for people so as to foster countless relationships and teach innumerable beings? Therefore, Nirvana or enlightenment is not achieved through a physical or mental disconnect with the world.
So we know that Nirvana is not a place that we can arrive at. Additionally, Nirvana is not a state that we can achieve even through the ending of all attachments and the cycle of death and rebirth. So what then is Nirvana? Interestingly, in many Buddhist Sutras the word Nirvana is not even used, rather the words Enlightenment or Wisdom is used in its place. So what then is this wisdom that we are to seek? It would be foolhardy to presuppose to know the full magnitude of the wisdom that the Buddha has achieved and then endeavored to teach us. However, in regards to the question what is Nirvana, I think the answer is clear.
Nirvana and this world is one in the same. There is no escape or transcending. In fact, the Buddha and ourselves are one in the same as well. Now, this is not a theory, this is stated by the Buddha and stated in many Mahayana Sutras. Some might say that the Buddha espousing hyperboles or platitudes and that he could not have truly meant that a man and a Buddha is one in the same. However, if we were to just discard the teachings and sutras that we don't comprehend or agree with we are not then practicing Buddhism, but just worshipping our own selfs.
The idea that the Buddha and a person can be the same may seem like a ludicrous proposition, but answer this question: Is your hair and your arm one in the same? How about your heart and your eyes? Obviously your hair is separate and distinct from your arm, but they both hold characteristics of you, they both contain the same DNA, they both sprung from the same first cells. Yet if we remove your hair, are you no longer you? Or even if we remove your arm, your eyes, your heart, are you no longer you? Of course you are still you, so what makes you you is not located in any of those things. What if we take away the most personal thing we have, the thing we most identify with ourselves, our brain, then are we finally no longer us? Sadly, losing all of these body parts, or at the very least its functions is quite commonplace, yet no one would ever say a person who needs a heart transplant, or someone in a irreversible coma is not longer themselves. So even though we treasure our bodies and feel it makes us who we are and is a reflection of our individual being, in the end our body parts can be separated and ripped apart and it would not affect who we are because what makes us who we are is not located in our bodies. So our physical bodies does not prohibit the Buddha and a person from being one in the same because our bodies are irrelevant.
But how can we such lowly beings be one in the same with a Buddha? But ask yourself, how can a lowly hair be one in the same as your heart, or eyes, or brain? Yet they contain the same DNA, and sprung from the same cells, and fed off the same nutrients, and shared the same common goal of keeping your body functioning. So what is it that makes one the same as another? What if we shared the same origin as the Buddha, we sprung from the same ignorance, we are charting towards the same wisdom. The Buddha and us are truly one in the same, it is only from our delusion and ignorance that we have started to discriminate and view things that are the same as different, and view ourselves as different and distinct. And the Buddha is the one that is trying to show us that the differences that we see, the individualism that we breed, is like a body trying to separate itself.
So what is Nirvana, Enlightenment, Wisdom? It is not a distinct place, it is not a distinct state, we are all in Nirvana because Nirvana and the world, ourselves and the Buddha are all the same. Once we comprehend that, we will be in Nirvana, and nothing that we see or feel will have changed at all.
It is stated that Buddha entered into Nirvana after his meditation under the Bodhi tree, and while he was still a human, as such it is clearly not a destination one goes after death. Because of this many Buddhists explain that Nirvana is more accurately described as a state of being; so if one achieves the wisdom of the Buddhas during this lifetime, he is said to have entered or achieved Nirvana. But how can it be that Nirvana be a state of peace, nonregression, equanimity, and contentment when we are still in living a mortal life in a world so filled with defilements and evils? Does one in Nirvana not see or experience these negativities, or are they so disconnected from life that they lose all feeling and connection to the world. For the longest time, I had believed that for a Buddhist to achieve enlightenment was for one to cut oneself from all worldly attachments and concerns. Without attachments, one would have no fear of pain or longing for pleasure, and thus end the cycle of death and rebirth.
However, if that were the case, then why would the Buddha himself show such great concern for people so as to foster countless relationships and teach innumerable beings? Therefore, Nirvana or enlightenment is not achieved through a physical or mental disconnect with the world.
So we know that Nirvana is not a place that we can arrive at. Additionally, Nirvana is not a state that we can achieve even through the ending of all attachments and the cycle of death and rebirth. So what then is Nirvana? Interestingly, in many Buddhist Sutras the word Nirvana is not even used, rather the words Enlightenment or Wisdom is used in its place. So what then is this wisdom that we are to seek? It would be foolhardy to presuppose to know the full magnitude of the wisdom that the Buddha has achieved and then endeavored to teach us. However, in regards to the question what is Nirvana, I think the answer is clear.
Nirvana and this world is one in the same. There is no escape or transcending. In fact, the Buddha and ourselves are one in the same as well. Now, this is not a theory, this is stated by the Buddha and stated in many Mahayana Sutras. Some might say that the Buddha espousing hyperboles or platitudes and that he could not have truly meant that a man and a Buddha is one in the same. However, if we were to just discard the teachings and sutras that we don't comprehend or agree with we are not then practicing Buddhism, but just worshipping our own selfs.
The idea that the Buddha and a person can be the same may seem like a ludicrous proposition, but answer this question: Is your hair and your arm one in the same? How about your heart and your eyes? Obviously your hair is separate and distinct from your arm, but they both hold characteristics of you, they both contain the same DNA, they both sprung from the same first cells. Yet if we remove your hair, are you no longer you? Or even if we remove your arm, your eyes, your heart, are you no longer you? Of course you are still you, so what makes you you is not located in any of those things. What if we take away the most personal thing we have, the thing we most identify with ourselves, our brain, then are we finally no longer us? Sadly, losing all of these body parts, or at the very least its functions is quite commonplace, yet no one would ever say a person who needs a heart transplant, or someone in a irreversible coma is not longer themselves. So even though we treasure our bodies and feel it makes us who we are and is a reflection of our individual being, in the end our body parts can be separated and ripped apart and it would not affect who we are because what makes us who we are is not located in our bodies. So our physical bodies does not prohibit the Buddha and a person from being one in the same because our bodies are irrelevant.
But how can we such lowly beings be one in the same with a Buddha? But ask yourself, how can a lowly hair be one in the same as your heart, or eyes, or brain? Yet they contain the same DNA, and sprung from the same cells, and fed off the same nutrients, and shared the same common goal of keeping your body functioning. So what is it that makes one the same as another? What if we shared the same origin as the Buddha, we sprung from the same ignorance, we are charting towards the same wisdom. The Buddha and us are truly one in the same, it is only from our delusion and ignorance that we have started to discriminate and view things that are the same as different, and view ourselves as different and distinct. And the Buddha is the one that is trying to show us that the differences that we see, the individualism that we breed, is like a body trying to separate itself.
So what is Nirvana, Enlightenment, Wisdom? It is not a distinct place, it is not a distinct state, we are all in Nirvana because Nirvana and the world, ourselves and the Buddha are all the same. Once we comprehend that, we will be in Nirvana, and nothing that we see or feel will have changed at all.