There is still a place in the jungles of Thailand, where you can leave it all behind In Pahnanachat, the monks keep the rules laid down by the Buddha, including refraining from all killing.
But how does a foreign monk cope with cobra in the outhouse, or the temptation of a Mars Bar in his begging bowl? Find out, in this newly reincarnated 20th anniversary edition, with a new introduction by the author and a new foreword by Wade Davis.
Buddhism continues to enjoy increasing interest in the West, both for its emphasis on reflection and meditation and as an object of scholarship. Drawing the words actually spoken by the Buddha, Rahula gives a full account of his fundamental teachings, from the Buddhist attitude of mind and meditation to the Buddha's teaching in the contemporary world.
The text also features a selection of texts from original Buddhist literature. In What the Buddha Thought, Richard Gombrich argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time.
Intended to serve as an introduction to the Buddha's thought, and hence even to Buddhism itself, the book also has larger aims: it argues that we can know far more about the Buddha than it is fashionable among scholars to admit, and that his thought has a greater coherence than is usually recognised. It contains much new material. Interpreters both ancient and modern have taken little account of the historical context of the Buddha's teachings; but by relating the.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, this thought-provoking essay explores the Buddha's teaching to find one prescription: not war, not pacifism but nonviolence. It teaches us how not to fear and repress, but to rechannel and harness the most powerful energies of life toward freedom and bliss. In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world.
Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to Desire begins with an exploration of the state of dissatisfaction that causes us to cling to irrational habits. Epstein helps readers overcome their own fears of desire so that they can more readily bridge the gap between self and other, cope with feelings of incompletion, and get past the perception of others as objects. The works of the Buddha can feel vast, and it is sometimes difficult for even longtime students to know where to look, especially since the Buddha never explicitly defined the framework behind his teachings.
Designed to provide just such a framework, In the Buddha's Words is an anthology of the Buddha's works that has been specifically compiled by a celebrated scholar and translator. For easy reference, the book is arrayed in ten thematic sections ranging from "The Human Condition" to "Mastering the Mind" to "The Planes of Realization. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address:. Sign me up! Of the two, the gift of Dharma is supreme.
Majjhima Nikaya That is to say, he should practice compassion and charity without regard to appearances, without regard to form, without regard to sound, smell, taste, touch, or any quality of any kind. Subhuti, this is how the disciple should practice compassion and charity. Create a free website or blog at WordPress. Please send request to changhui72 gmail. Share this: Email Print Facebook Twitter. Like this: Like Loading But there are innumerable places in the early buddhist scriptures where they are explained again and again, with greater detail and in different ways.
If we study the Four Noble Truths with the help of these references and explanations, we get a fairly good and accurate account of the essential teachings of the Buddha according to the original texts. The Four noble Truths are: 1.
Dukkha 2. Samudaya, the arising or origin of dukkha 3. Nirodha, the cessation of dukkha 4. Megga, the way leading to the cessation of dukkha The First Noble Truth Dukkha-ariyasacca is generally translated by almost all scholars as " The Noble Truth of Suffering", and it is interpreted to mean that life according to Buddhism is nothing but suffering and pain.
Both translation and interpretation are highly unsatisfactory and misleading. It is because of this limited, free easy translation, and its superficial interpretation, that many people have been misled into regarding Buddhism as pessimistic. First of all, Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic.
If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and of the world. It looks at things objectively yathabhutam. It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool's paradise, nor does not frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins.
It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness.
One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second optimistic. Both are equally dangerous. But a third physician diagnose the symptoms correctly, understands the cause and the nature of the illness, see clearly that it can be cured, and courageously administers a course of treatment, thus saving his patient.
The Buddha is like the last physician. He is the wise and scientific doctor for the ills of the world Bhisakka or Bhaisajya-guru.
But the term dukkha as the First Noble Truth, which represents the Buddha's view of life and the world, has a deeper philosophical meaning and connotes enormously wider senses. It is admitted that the term dukkha in the First Noble Truth contains, quite obviously, the ordinary meaning of 'suffering', but in addition it also includes deeper ideas such as 'imperfection', 'impermanence', 'emptiness', insubstantiality'.
It is difficult therefore to find one word to embrace the whole conception of the term dukkha as the First Noble Truth, and so, it is better to leave it untranslated, than to give an inadequate and wrong idea of it by conveniently translating it as 'suffering' or 'pain'. The Buddha does not deny happiness in life when he says there is suffering. On the contrary he admits different forms of happiness, both material and spiritual, for layman and monks. In the Anguttara-nikaya, one of the five original Collections in Pali containing the Buddha's discourses, there is a list of happinesses sukhani , such as the happiness of family and the happiness of the life of recluse, the happiness of sense pleasures and the happiness of renunciation, the happiness of attachment and the happiness of detachment, physical happiness and mental happiness, etc.
But all these are included in dukkha. Even the very pure spiritual states of dhyana recueillement or trance attained by the practice of higher meditation, free from even a shadow of suffering in the accepted sense of the word, states which may be described as unmixed happiness, as well as the state of dhyana which is free from sensations both pleasant sukha and unpleasant dukkha and is only pure equanimity and awareness - even these very high spiritual states are included in dukkha.
In one of the suttas of the Majjhima-nikaya, again one of the five original Collections , after praising the spiritual happiness of these dhyanas, the Buddha says that they are 'impermanent, dukkha, and subject to change' anicca dukkha viparnamadhamma. Notice that the word dukkha is explicitly used. It is dukkha, not because there is 'suffering' in ordinary sense of the word, but because 'whatever is impermanent is dukkha' yad aniccam tam dukkham.
The Buddha was realistic and objective. He says, with regard to life and the enjoyment of sense-pleasures, that one should clearly understand three things: 1 attraction or enjoyment assada , 2 evil consequence or danger or unsatisfactoriness adinava , and 3 freedom or liberation nissarana. When you see a pleasant, charming and beautiful person, you like him or her , you are attracted, you enjoy seeing that person again and again, you derive pleasure and satisfaction from that person.
This is enjoyment assada. It is fact of experience. But this enjoyment is not permanent, just as that person and his or her attractions are not permanent either.
When the situation changes, when you cannot see that person, when you are deprived of this enjoyment, you become sad, you may become unreasonable and unbalanced, you may even behave foolishly. This, too, is a fact of experience. Now if you have no attachment to the person, if you are completely detached, that is freedom, liberation nissarana.
These three things are true with regard to all enjoyment in life. From this it is evident that it is no question of pessimism or optimism, but that we must take account of the pleasure of life as well as of its pains and sorrows, and also of freedom from them, in order to understand life completely and objectively.
Only then is true liberation is possible. Regarding this question the Buddha says: "O bhikkhus, if any recluses or brahmanas do not understand objectively in this way that the enjoyment of sense-pleasures is enjoyment, that their unsatifactoriness is unsatisfactoriness, that liberation from them is liberation, then it is not possible that they themselves will certainly understand the desire for sense- pleasures completely, or that they will be able to instruct another person to that end, or that person following their instruction will completely understand the desire for sensepleasures.
But, O bhikkhus, if any recluses, or brahmanas understand objectively in this way that the enjoyment of sense-pleasures is enjoyment, that their unsatisfactoriness is unsatisfactoriness, that liberation from them is liberation, that it is possible that they themselves will certainly understand the desire for sense- pleasures completely, and that they will be able to instruct another person to that end, and that the person following their instruction will completely understand the desire of sense-pleasures.
The conception of dukkha may be viewed from three aspects: 1 dukkha as ordinary suffering dukkha-hukkha , 2 dukkha as produced by change veparinama-dukkha and 3 dukkha as conditioned states samkhara-dukkha.
All kinds of suffering in life like births, old age, sickness, death, association with unpleasant persons and conditions, separation from beloved ones and pleasant conditions, not getting what one desires, grief, lamentation, distress - all such forms of physical and mental suffering, which are universally accepted as suffering or pain, are included in dukkha as ordinary suffering dukkha-dukkha.
A happy feeling, a happy condition in life, is not permanent, not everlasting. It changes sooner or later.
When it changes, it produces pain, suffering produced by change viparinama-dukkha mentioned above. No one will dispute them.
This aspect of the First Noble Truth is more popularly known because it is easy to understand. It is common experience in our daily life. But the third form of dukkha as conditioned states samkhara-dukkha is the most important philosophical aspect of the First Noble Truth, and it requires some analytical explanation of what we consider as a 'being', as an 'individual', or as 'I'.
The Buddha says : 'In short these five aggregates of attachment are dukkha'. Elsewhere he distinctly defines dukkha as the five aggregates: 'O bhikkhus, what is dukkha? It should be said that it is the five aggregates of attachment'. Here it should be clearly understood that dukkha and the five aggregates are not two different things; the five aggregates themselves are dukkha. We will understand this point better when we have some notion of the five aggregates which constitute the so-called 'being'.
Now, what are these five? In this term 'Aggregate of Matter' are included the traditional Four Great Elements cattari mahabhutani , namely, solidity, fluidity, heat and motion, and also the Derivatives upadaya-rupa of the Four Great Elements.
In the term 'Derivatives of Four Great Elements' are included our five material sense-organs, i. Thus the whole realm of matter, both internal and external, is included in the Aggregate of Matter.
The second is the Aggregate of Sensations Vedanakkgandha. In this group are included all our sensation, pleasant or unpleasant or neutral, experienced through the contact of physical and mental organs with the external world.
They are of six kinds: the sensations experienced through the contact of the eye with visible forms, ear with sounds, nose with odour, tongue with taste, body with tangible objects, and mind which is the sixth faculty in Buddhist Philosophy with mindobjects or thoughts or ideas. All our physical and mental sensations are included in this group. It should clearly be understood that mind is not spirit as opposed to matter. It should always be remembered that Buddhism does not recognize a spirit opposed to matter, as is accepted by most other systems of philosophies and religions.
Mind is only a faculty or organ indriya like the eye or the ear. It can be controlled and developed like any other faculty, and the Buddha speaks quite often of the value of controlling and disciplining these six faculties. The difference between the eye and the mind as faculties is that the former senses the world of colours and visible forms, while the latter senses the world of ideas and thoughts and mental objects.
We experience different fields of the world with different senses. We cannot hear colours, but we can see them. Nor can we see sounds, but we can hear them. But these represent only a part of the world, not the whole world. What of ideas and thoughts? They are also a part of the world. But they cannot be sensed, they cannot be conceived by the faculty of the eye, ear, nose, tongue or body.
Yet they can be conceived by another faculty, which is mind. Now ideas and thoughts are not independent of the world experienced by these five physical sense faculties.
In fact they depend on, and are conditioned by, physical experiences. Hence a person born blind cannot have ideas of colour, experienced through his other faculties. Ideas and thoughts which form a part of the world are thus produced and conditioned by physical experiences and are conceived by the mind. Hence mind manas is considered a sense faculty or organ indriya , like the eye or the ear. The third is the Aggregate of Perceptions Sannakkhandha.
Like sensations, perceptions also are of six kinds, in relation to six internal faculties and the corresponding six external objects. Like sensations, they are produced through the contact of our six faculties with the external world. It is the perception that recognize objects whether physical or mental. The fourth is the Aggregate of Mental Formations Samkharakkhandha.
In this group are included all volitional activities both good and bad. What is generally known as karma or kamma comes under this group. The Buddha's own definition of karma should be remembered here: 'O bhikkhus, it is volition cetana that I call karma. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind. Its function is to direct the mind in the sphere of good, bad or neutral activities.
Sensations and perceptions are not volitional actions. They do not produce karmic effects. It is the only volitional actions- such as attention, will, determination, confidence, concentration, wisdom, energy, desire, repugnance or hate, ignorance, conceit, idea of self, etc. There are 52 such mental activities which constitute the Aggregate of Mental Formation. The fifth is the Aggregate of Consciousness Vinnanakkhandha.
Consciousness is a reaction or response which has one of the six faculties eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind as its basis, and one of the six corresponding external phenomena visible form, sound, odour, taste, tangible things and mind-objects, i. For instance, visual consciousness has the eye as its basis and a visible form as its object. Mental consciousness has the mind as its basis and a mental object, i.
So consciousness is connected with other faculties. Thus, like sensation, perception and volition, consciousness also is of six kinds, in relation to six internal faculties and corresponding six external objects. It is only a sort of awareness-awareness of the presence of an object. When the eye comes in contact with a colour, for instance blue, visual consciousness arises which simply is awareness of the presence of a colour: but it does not recognize that it is blue.
There is no recognition at this stage. It is perception the third Aggregate discussed above that recognizes that it is blue. The term 'visual consciousness' is a philosophical expression denoting the same idea as is conveyed by the ordinary word 'seeing'. Seeing does not mean recognizing. So are the other forms of consciousness. It must be repeated here that according to Buddhist philosophy there is no permanent, unchanging spirit which can be considered 'Self', or 'Soul', or 'Ego', as opposed to matter, and that consciousness should not be taken as 'spirit' in opposition to matter.
This point has to be particularly emphasized, because a wrong notion that consciousness is a sort of Self or Soul that continues as a permanent substance through life, has persisted from the earliest time to present day. One of the Buddha's own disciples, Sati by name, held that the Master taught: 'It is the same consciousness that transmigrates and wanders about. Sati's reply is classical: 'It is that which expresses, which feels, which experiences the results of good and bad deeds here and there'.
Haven't I in many ways explained consciousness as arising out of conditions: that there is no arising of consciousness without conditions. A fire may burn on account of wood, and it is called wood-fire. It may burn on account of straw, and then it is called straw-fire. So consciousness is named according to the condition through which it arises.
Dwelling on this point, Buddhaghosa, the great commentator, explains: '… a fire that burns on account of wood burns only when there is a supply, but dies down in the very place when it the supply is no longer there, because then the condition has changed, but the fire does not cross over to splinters, etc. The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness depends on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations, and that it cannot exist independently from them. He says: 'Consciousness may exist having matter as it means, matter as its object, matter as its support, and seeking delight it may grow, increase and develop; or consciousness may exist having sensation as it means… or perception as it means… or mental formation as it means, mental formation as its object, mental formation as its support, and seeking delight it may grow, increase and develop.
Very briefly these are the five Aggregates. What we call a 'being' or an 'individual', or 'I' is only a convenient name or a label given to the combination of these five groups. They are all impermanent, all constantly changing. This is the true meaning of the Buddha's words: 'In brief the five Aggregates of Attachment are dukkha.
Here A is not equal to A. They are in flux of momentary arising and disappearing. So Brahmana, is human life, like a mountain river. There is no unchanging substance in them. There is nothing behind them that can be called a permanent Self Atman , individuality, or anything that can in reality be called 'I'.
Every one will agree that neither matter, nor sensation, nor perception, nor any of those mental activities, nor consciousness can be really called 'I'. But when these five physical and mental aggregates which are independent are working together in combination as a physio-psychological machine, we get the idea of 'I'. But this is only a false idea, a mental formation, which is nothing but one of those 52 mental formations of the fourth Aggregate which we have just discussed, namely, it is the idea of self sakkhaya-ditthi.
These five Aggregates together, which we popularly call a 'being' are dukkha itself. There is no other 'being' or 'I' standing behind these five aggregates, who experiences dukkha. As Buddhaghosa says: 'Mere suffering exists, but no sufferer is found; The deed are, but no doer is found. It is only movement. It is not correct to say that life is moving, but life is movement itself. Life and movement are not two different things. In other words there is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker.
If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found. Here we cannot fail to notice how this Buddhist view is diametrically opposed to the Cartesian cogito ergo sum: 'I think, therefore I am. According to the Buddha's teaching the beginning of the lifestream of living beings is unthinkable. The believer in the creation of life by God may be astonished at this reply. But if you were to ask him 'What is the beginning of God? The Buddha says: 'O bikkhus, this cycle of continuity samsara is without a visible end, and the first beginning of beings wandering and running round, enveloped in ignorance avijja and bound down by the fetters of thirst desire, tanha is not to be perceived.
And further, referring to ignorance which is the main cause of the continuity of life, the Buddha states: 'The first beginning of ignorance is not to be perceived in such a way as to postulate that there was no ignorance beyond a certain point.
This in short is the meaning of the Noble Truth of Dukkha. It is extremely important to understand this First Noble Truth clearly because, as the Buddha says, 'he who sees dukkha sees also the arising of dukkha, sees also the cessation of dukkha, and sees also the path leading to the cessation of dukkha.
On the contrary, a true Buddhist is the happiest of beings. He has no fears or anxieties. He is always calm and serene, and cannot be upset or dismayed by changes or calamities, because he sees things as they are. The Buddha was never melancholy or gloomy. He was described by his contemporaries as ever-smiling'. In Buddhist painting and sculpture the Buddha is always represented with a countenance happy, serene, contented and compassionate.
Never a trace of suffering or agony or pain is to be seen. Buddhist art and architecture, Buddhist temples never give the impression of gloom or sorrow, but produce an atmosphere of calm and serene joy. Although there is suffering in life, a Buddhist should not be gloomy over it, should not be angry or impatient at it.
One of the principal evils in life, according to Buddhism, is 'repugnance' or hatred. Repugnance is expained as 'ill-will with regard to living beings, with regard to suffering and with regard to things pertaining to suffering. Its function is to produce a basis for unhappy states and bad conduct. Being impatient or angry at suffering does not remove it. On the contrary, it adds a little more to one's troubles, and aggravates and exacerbates a situation already disagreeable.
There are two ancient Buddhist texts called the Theragatha and Therigatha which are full of the joyful utterances of the Buddha's disciples, both male and female, who found peace and happiness in life through his teaching. The king of Kosala once told the Buddha that unlike many a disciple of other religious systems who looked haggard, coarse, pale, emaciated and unprepossessing, his disciples were 'joyful and elated, jubilant and exultant, enjoying the spiritual life, with faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene, peaceful and living with a gazelle's mind, i.
On the other hand, it is interesting to remember here that joy is one of the seven Bojjamgas or 'Factors of Enlightment', the essential qualities to be cultivated for the realization of Nirvana. The most poular and well-known definition of the Second Truth as found in innumerable places in the original texts as follows.
But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent. Even this 'thirst', tanha, which is considered as the cause or origin of dukkha, depends for its arising samudaya on something else, which is sensation vedana , and sensation arises depending on contact phassa , and so on and so forth goes on the circle which is known as Conditioned Genesis Paticca-samuppada , which we will discuss later.
So tanha, 'thirst', is not the first or the only cause of the arising of dukkha. But it is the most palpable and immediate cause, the 'principal thing' and the 'allpervading thing'. Hence in certain places of the original Pali texts themselves the definition of samudaya of the origin of dukkha includes other defilements and impurities kilesa, sasava dhamma , in addition to tanha 'thirst' which is always given the first place. Within the necessarily limited space of our discussion, it will be sufficient if we remember that this 'thirst' has as its centre the false idea of self arising out of ignorance.
Here the term 'thirst' includes not only desire for, and attachment to, sense- leasure, wealth and power, but also desire for, and attachment to, ideas and ideals, views, opinions, theories, conceptions and beliefs dhamma-tanha. According to the Buddha's analysis, all the troubles and strife in world, from little personal quarrels in families to great wars between nations and countries, arise out of this selfish 'thirst'.
From this point of view, all economic, political and social problems are rooted in this selfish 'thirst'. Great statesmen who try to settle international disputes and talk of war and peace only in economic and political terms touch the superficialities, and never go deep into the real root of the problem.
As the Buddha told Rattapala : 'The world lacks and hankers, and is enslaved to "thirst" tanhadaso. This is not difficult to understand.
But how this desire, 'thirst', can produce re- existence and re-becoming ponobhavika is a problem not so easy to grasp. It is here that we have to discuss the deeper philosohical side of the Second Noble Truth corresponding to the philosophical side of the First Noble Truth.
Here we must have some idea about the theory of karma and rebirth. There are four Nutriments ahara in the sense of 'cause' or 'condition' necessary for the existence and continuity of beings: 1 ordinary material food, 2 contact of our sense-organs with the external world, 3 consciousness and 4 mental volition or will.
Of these four, the last mentioned 'mental volition' is the will to live, to exist, to continue, to become more and more.
It creates the root of existence and continuity, striving forward by way of good and bad actions kusalakusalakamma. It is the same as 'Volition' cetana. We have seen earlier that volition is karma, as the Buddha himself has defined it. Referring to 'Mental volition' just mentioned above the Buddha says: 'When one understands the nutriment of mental volition one understands the three forms of 'thirst' tanha '. Thus the terms 'thirst', 'volition', 'mental volition' and 'karma' all denote the same thing : they devote the desire, the will to be, to exist.
To re-exist, to become more and more, to grow more and more, to accumulate more and more. This is the cause of the arising of dukkha, and this is found within the Aggregate of Mental Formations one of the Five Aggregates which constitute a being. Here is one of the most important and essential points in the Buddha's teaching.
We must therefore clearly and carefully mark and remember that the cause, the germ, of the arising of dukkha is within dukkha itself, and not outside; and we must equally well remember that the cause, the germ, of the cessation of dukkha, of the destruction of dukkha, is also within dukkha itself, and not outside. This is what is meant by the well-known formula often found in original Pali texts : Yam kinci samudayadhammam sabbam tam nirodhadhammam 'Whatever is of the nature of arising, all that is of the nature of cessation.
Thus dukkha Five Aggregates has within itself the nature of its own arising, and has also within itself the nature of its own cessation. This point will be take up again in the discussion of the Third Noble Truth, Nirodha. Now, the Pali word kamma or the Sanskrit word karma from the root kr to do literally means 'action', 'doing'. But in the Buddhist theory of karma it has a specific meaning : it means only 'volitional action', not all action.
Nor does it mean the result of karma as many people wrongly and loosely use it. Not does it mean the result of karma as many people wrongly and loosely use it. In Buddhist terminology karma never means its effect; its effect is known as the 'fruit' or the 'result' of karma kamma-phala or kamma-vipaka. Volition may relatively be good or bad, just as a desire may relatively be good or bad. So karma may be good or bad relatively. Good karma kusala produces good effects, and bad karma akusala produces bad effects.
Whether good or bad it is relative, and is within the cycle of continuity samsara. An Arahant, though he acts, does not accumulate karma, because he is free from the 'thirst' for continuity and becoming, free from all other defilement and impurities kilesa, sasava dhamma. For him there is no rebirth. The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called 'moral justice' or 'reward and punishment'. The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law- giver and who decides what is right and wrong.
The term 'justice' is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law.
But what is difficult is that, according to the karma theory, the effects of a volitional action may continue to manifest themselves even in a life after death. Here we have to explain what death is according to Buddhism. We have seen earlier that a being is nothing but a combination of physical and mental forces or energies.
What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether with the non- functioning of the body? Buddhism says 'No'. Will, volition, desire, thirst to exist, to continue, to become more and more, is a tremendous force that moves whole world lives, whole existences, that even moves the whole world. According to Buddhism, this force does not stop with the non-functioning of the body, which is death; but it continues manifesting itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth.
Now, another question arises: If there is no permanent, unchanging entity or substance like Self or Soul atman , what is it that can re-exist or be reborn after death? Before we go on life after death, let us consider what this life is, and how it continues now.
What we call life, as we have so often repeated, is the combination of the Five Aggregates, a combination of physical and mental energies. Every moment they are born and they die. If we can understand that in this life we can continue without a permanent, unchanging substance like Self or Soul, why can't we understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or Soul behind them after the nonfunctioning of the body?
When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life. In a child all the physical, mental and intellectual faculties are tender and weak, but they have within them the potentialitiy of producing a full grown man. Physical and mental energies which constitute the so- called being have within themselves the power to take a new form, grow gradually and gather force to the full.
As there is no permanent, uncahanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. So quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. It is a series that continues unbroken, but changes every moment. The series is, really speaking, nothing but movement. It is like a flame that burns through the night: it is not the same flame nor is it another.
A child grows up to be a man of sixty. Certainly the man of sixty is not the same as the child of sixty years ago, nor is he another person. Similarly a man dies here and reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another.
It is the continuity of the same series. The difference between death and birth is only a thought-moment: the last thoughtmoment of this life conditions the first thought-moment in the so-called next life, which in fact, is the continuity of the same series. During the life itself, too, one thought-moment conditions the next thought-moment. So, from the Buddhist point of view, the question of life after death is not a great mistery, and a Buddhist is never worried about this problem.
As long as there is this 'thirst' to be and to become, the cycle of continuity samara goes on. It can stop only when its driving force, this 'thirst', is cut off through wisdom which sees Reality, Truth, Nirvana. This is called the Noble Truth of Cessation of dukkha, which is Nibbana, more popularly known in its Sanskrit form of Nirvana.
To eliminate dukkha completely one has to eliminate the main root of dukkha, which is 'thirst', as we saw earlier. Therefore Nirvana is known also by the term Tanhakkhaya 'Extinction of Thirst'. Now you will ask : But what is Nirvana? Volumes have been written in reply to this quite natural and simple question ; they have, more and more, only confused the issue rather than clarified it.
The only reasonable reply to give to the question is that it can never be answered completely and satisfactorily in words, because human language is too poor to express the real nature of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality which is Nirvana. Language is created and used by masses of human beings to express things and ideas experienced by their sense organs and their mind. A supramundane experience like that of the Absolute Truth is not of such a category. Therefore there cannot be words to express that experience, just as the fish had no words in his vocabulary to express the nature of solid land.
The tortoise told to his friend the fish that he tortoise just returned to the lake after a walk on the land. But the fish insisted that there could be nothing like it, that it must be liquid like his lake, with waves, and that one must be able to dive and swim there.
Words are symbols representing things and ideas known to us ; and these symbols do not and can not convey the true nature of even ordinary things. Language is considered deceptive and misleading in the matter of understanding of the Truth. So the Lankavatara-sutra says that ignorant people get stuck in words like an elephant in the mud. Nevertheless we cannot do without language. But if Nirvana is to be expressed and explained in positive terms, we are likely immediately to grasp an idea associated with those terms, which may be quite the contrary.
Therefore it is generally expressed in negative terms-a less dangerous mode perhaps. Let us consider a few definitions and descriptions of Nirvana as found in the original Pali texts: 'It is the complete cessation of that very 'thirst', giving it up, renouncing it, emancipation from it, detachment from it. It is, O bhikkhus, the extinction of desire, the extinction of hatred, the extinction of illusion. This, O bhikkhus, is called the Absolute. This is to say, freedom from conceit, destruction of thirst, the uprooting of attachment, the cutting off of continuity, the extinction of 'thirst', detachment, cessation, Nibbana.
The reply of Sariputta, the chief disciple of the Buddha, to a direct question 'What is Nibbana? Were there not the unborn, ungrown, and uncoditioned, there would be no escape for the born, grown, and conditioned.
Since there is the unborn, ungrown, and unconditioned, so there is escape for the born, grown, and conditioned. Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate.
If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self. It is incorrect to say that Nirvana is negative or positive. The idea of 'negative' and 'positive' are relative, and are within the realm of duality. These terms cannot be applied to Nirvana, Absolute Truth, which is beyond duality and relativity. A negative word need not necessarily indicate a negative state. The Pali or Sanskrit word for health is arogya, a negative term, which literally means 'absence of illness'.
But arogya health does not represent a negative state. The word 'Immortal' or its Sanskrit equivalent Amrta or Pali Amata , which also is a synonym for Nirvana, is negative, but it does not denote a negative state.
The negation of negative values is not negative. Nobody would say that freedom is negative. But even freedom has a negative side: freedom is always a liberation from something which is obstructive, which is evil, which is negative.
But freedom is not negative. This extremely important discourse was delivered by the Buddha to Pukkusati already mentioned , whom the Master found to be intelligent and earnest, of the relevant portions of the night in a potter's shed. The essence of the relevant portions of the sutta is as follows: A man is composed of six elements: solidity, fluidity, heat, motion, space and consciousness. He analyses them and finds that none of them is 'mine', or 'me'; or 'my self'.
He understand how consciousness appears and disappears, how pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations appears and disappears. Through this knowledge his mind becomes detached.
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