Nibbana

Extinction of craving and grasping

The Brahmin youth Kappa poses the following question to the Buddha

“To them that stand midstream,
When the frightful floods flow forth,
To them in decay and death forlorn,
An island, sire, may you proclaim.
An island which none else excels,
Yea, such an isle, pray tell me sire.”

And this is the Buddha’s reply to it

“Owning naught, grasping naught,
The isle is this, none else besides,
Nibbāna - that is how I call that isle,
Wherein Decay is decayed and Death is dead.”

The Buddha’s reply makes it clear that the term Nibbāna stands for the extinction of craving and grasping. The ideal of owning naught and grasping naught is itself Nibbāna, and nothing else.

Nibbana The Mind Stilled – Volume III – Bhikkhu K. Nanananda  Page 309

Nibbana

Why Nibban regarded as unfalsifying?

“In whatever way they imagine,
Thereby it turns otherwise,
That itself is the falsity
Of this puerile deceptive thing.
Nibbāna is unfalsifying in its nature,
That they understood as the truth,
And indeed by the higher understanding of that truth
They have become hungerless and fully appeased.”

The first verse makes it clear that imagining is at the root of aññathābhāva, or otherwiseness, in so far as it creates a thing out of nothing. As soon as a thing is conceived in the mind by imagining, the germ of otherwiseness or change enters into it at its very conception.

So a thing is born only to become another thing, due to the otherwiseness in nature. To grasp a thing tenaciously is to exist with it, and birth, decay and death are the inexorable vicissitudes that go with it.

The second verse says that Nibbāna is known as the truth, because it is of an unfalsifying nature. Those who have understood it are free from the hunger of craving. The word parinibbuta in this context does not mean that those who have realized the truth have passed away. It only conveys the idea of full appeasement or a quenching of that hunger. Why is Nibbāna regarded as unfalsifying? Because there is no ‘thing’ in it. It is so long as there is a thing that all the distress and misery follow. Nibbāna is called animitta, or the signless, precisely because there is no-thing in it.
Because it is signless, it is unestablished, appaihita. Only where there is an establishment can there be a dislodgement. Since it is not liable to dislodgement or disintegration, it is unshakeable. It is called akuppā cetovimutti, unshakeable deliverance of the mind,because of its unshaken and stable nature. Due to the absence of craving there
is no directional apsiration, or paidh.
Similarly suññata, or voidness, is a term implying that there is no essence in Nibbāna in the substantial sense in which the worldlings use that term. As mentioned in the MahāSāropamasutta, deliverance itself is the essence. Apart from that, there is nothing essential or substantial in Nibbāna. In short, there is no thing to become otherwise in Nibbān.

Nibbana The Mind Stilled – Volume III – Bhikkhu K. Nanananda  Page 289

Nibbana

No Proliferations

It is because the Tathagatas are non-prolific that nippapanca is regarded as one of the epithets of Nibbana in a long list of thirty-three (Sanyukktha Nikaya IV 370 Asankathasanyukktha). Like dukkhupasama, quelling of suffering, papancavupasama, ‘quelling of prolificity’, is also recognized as an epithet of Nibbana. It is also referred to as papamchanirodha. ‘cessation of prolificity’.

Nibbana The Mind Stilled – Volume III – Bhikkhu K. Nanananda  Page 263

Nibbana

Here and Now

How can one be certain here and now that this existence has ceased?

This might sometimes appear as a big puzzle. But all the same, the Arahant experiences the cessation of existence as a realization. That is why he even gives expression to it as: “Bhavanirodho Nibbanam, cessation of existence is Nibbana.

It comes about by this extinction of influxes. The very existence of ‘existence’ is especially due to the flowing in of influxes of existence. What is called ‘existence’ is not the apparent process of existing visible to others. It is something that pertains to one’s own mental continuum.

For instance, when it is said that some person is in the world of sense desires, one might sometimes imagine it as living surrounded by objects of sense pleasure. But that is not always the case. It is the existence in a world of sense desires, built up by sensuous thoughts. It is the same with the realms of form and formless realms. Even those realms can be experienced and attain while living in this world itself.

Similarly, it is possible for one to realize the complete cessasion of this existence while living in the very world. It is accomplished by winning to the realization that the influxes of sense desires, existence, and ignorance, no longer influence one’s mind.

Nibbana The Mind Stilled – Volume I – Bhikkhu K. Nanananda  Page 104

Nibbana

Nothing to Gain and Nothing to Lose

The deity named Kakudha asked the Buddha.
               ”Do you rejoice oh recluse?”

And the Buddha retorts:
                “On getting what, friend?”

Then the deity ask:
                “Then, recluse, do you grieve?”

And the Buddha quips back
                 ”On loosing what, friend?”

So the deity concludes:
                 ”Well the recluse, you neither rejoice nor grieve!”

And the Buddha replies:
                 ”That is so, friend.”

It seems then, that though we say we ‘attain’ Nibbana there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose. If anything – what is lost is an ignorance that there is something, and a craving that there is not enough - and that is all one lose.

 

Nibbana The Mind Stilled – Volume I – Bhikkhu K. Nanananda  Page 26-27   

Nibbana

To Attain Nibbana

We must not forget the fact that if the aiming is wrong the arrow will not reach the target. If in the name of right view one entertains a wrong view one will never attain Nibbana.

(Nibbana and the Fire Simile – Page 25 by Venerable Katukurunde Nanananda Bhikkhu)

Nibbana

Cessation of existence is Nibbana

“According to the Buddha the cessation of existence is Nibbana and that means Nibbana is the realization of the cessation of existence. Existence is said to be an eleven-fold fire. So the entire existence is a raging fire. Lust, hate, delusion – all these are fires. Therefore Nibbana may be best rendered by the word ‘extinction’. When once the fires are extinguished, what more is needed?

 

(Nibbana the Mind Stilled VOL1 – Page 15)

Nibbana

When you can attain Nibbana

At whatever moment the noble eight-fold path is perfected, one attains Nibbana then and there.

(Nibbana The Mind Stilled VOL 1 – Page 18)

Nibbana

Nibbana

This is peaceful,
This is Excellent,
Namely the Stilling of all Preparations,
The Relinquishment of All Assets,
The Destruction of Craving,
Detachment,
Cessation,
Extinction

The heading and the theme of 33 sermons on Nibbana delivered by Venerable Bhikkhu Katukurunde Nanananda  - Sri Lanka (Nibbana The Mind Stilled Volume I-VII)

This set of sermons is available for free download at website seeing through the net or read HTML version.