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Is Nirvana impossible? As in the Theravada teaching
Is it truly possible to cease all desire and live through no self at all times? When hunger strikes is it not a desire, our most basic and intrinsic desire? And when we figure out where we are getting the food dont we automatically bring forth the concept of I.
Can someone who realized Nirvana and lives in the Ultimate truth, can they write a book? Doesnt writting a book require you to plan ahead? When you plan ahead are you not detaching from the present and at the same time bringing forth a self. Even if for a short time.
I understand that the monks remove a lot of these "hassles" but they still abide by a schedule, which automatically requires a I. At 10 am I have to attend this...
Another thought, it is impossible to live 100% in the present. We can definitely increase the amount of time we spend in the present by a huge amount but there comes a time when you have to move to future abstraction. Although I do believe it is possible to stop living in the past 100% of the time.
Can someone who realized Nirvana and lives in the Ultimate truth, can they write a book? Doesnt writting a book require you to plan ahead? When you plan ahead are you not detaching from the present and at the same time bringing forth a self. Even if for a short time.
I understand that the monks remove a lot of these "hassles" but they still abide by a schedule, which automatically requires a I. At 10 am I have to attend this...
Another thought, it is impossible to live 100% in the present. We can definitely increase the amount of time we spend in the present by a huge amount but there comes a time when you have to move to future abstraction. Although I do believe it is possible to stop living in the past 100% of the time.
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when you are hungry, you eat. when you are sleep, you sleep. when you need money, you work. when you have to pee, you pee. life presents us with all sorts of things to do and we do them. again don't look for outcomes or have prior intentions on how things should be. THE GRASS GROWS ALL BY ITSELF.
people do a lot of things. people write books on the dharma. people teach the dharma. everyone has their thing. all a self is a structure of thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. everyone has a self or personality structure. there is nothing wrong with have a personality structure. the goal of buddhism is to realize that there really isn't a self other than the attachment or grasping to the idea of self.
you cannot avoid the now. there is only the now. you can only think in the now. you can only think about the past or future in the now. all actions are made in the now. there is only right now. YOU live in the now.
all thinking is removed from the now, but thinking takes place right now. lol
i have no idea what theravada teaches. so sorry to not answer your questions.
This figuring out what to eat is a self, an essential self that you will always have to refer to, you cant escape it.
don't grasp = no self.
don't grasp = non-intention
so when you eat, you just eat. don't bother about what you're going to eat or how you are going to eat.
oh i am hungry. time to eat. okay.
but even if you think about eating that is fine. but understand it's a subtle grasping. there's nothing wrong with it. our bodies are wired to survive. thus the desire for hunger. A body is not a self, unless you grasp onto it as a self.
so when you eat, just eat. don't grasp. accept it all.
The Buddha did. He knew his body was letting him down when he was dying. Doubtless he felt discomfort. doubtless he must have felt pain and physical distress. But he was detached in the sense that he viewed all this as the natural course of events which had brought him to seek realisation in the first place.
Could you cite the passage or sutta in Theravada which has brought you to ask this question, please? You're over-thinking this.
Your body is a composite of different materials, all of which have a basic function. If your body feels hunger, feed it. The Buddha went to the extreme of starving himself, but found it a futile and pointless exercise, and not conducive to Right Effort.
So he ate. If the Buddha can eat - why should you not?
Can someone who realized Nirvana and lives in the Ultimate truth, can they write a book? Doesnt writting a book require you to plan ahead? When you plan ahead are you not detaching from the present and at the same time bringing forth a self. Even if for a short time. yes, and.... What point are you making, here? Um....Can't see it possible to live anywhere else.
What you mean is, it's impossible to keep your mind focussed on the present moment all the time.
I would agree. But the thing is to practice, and let go of both Past and Future, increasingly.
They're still there chronologically. Just not physically.
in the Pali, the word is "tanha", which means "thirst". "tanha" is always desire under the power of ignorance
where as wise desire is called "sankappa", which is the 2nd factor of the noble eightfold path
if we are keen on learning about the four noble truths, i highly recommend these lectures: http://www.liberationpark.org/audiox/tanaj01.htm
please note, the American speaker is just the translator (live translation from Thai)
the lectures on the 2nd & 3rd noble truths are particularly good (imo)
"not-self" includes the "self-concept" & "self-instinct". these are not a real self. they are merely a mental tendency & thought construct. they are not a real self
"not-self" means "nothing is yours"; things are just natural phenomena; creations of nature
think about it? did we do anything to create what is called our body & mind?
"self" is just a natural tendency to promote survival & communication
but when the reality or illusion of the "self" thought is seen, it is understood to be merely that. just a thought, with little tangble substance
one can still use "self" when communicating but one understands there is no real self; "self" is merely a thought fabrication rather than an instrinsic reality or entity
if we are keen on learning about not-self, i highly recommend this lecture:
http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Books7/Buddhadasa_Bhikkhu_Anatta_and_Rebirth.pdf
regards
Frederica, I am reading What the Buddha Taught.
My question was twofold, if its truly possible to cease all desire. I think its pretty clear that it is not, or else you cease to function and thank you Dhamma for clearing it up that it is not all desires.
so now my second point. When you plan or satisfy a desire, you create a self. That is what I was trying to get at when I mentioned living in the future. To make plans in the future you have to construct/accept an I. So my 2nd question is it always possible to live with no self ? Im guessing here the answer will be similar.
From what I gather there is both self and no self. If that is the case wouldnt the simpler and more plausible reality be that the no self is a construct of the self?
EDIT: Dhamma I just saw you answered my question about self while i(?) was writing this. Thanks Ill look up the lecture you provided.
Non-self is difficult to explain, but you can see it like nothing belongs to you in the end. You can look at your house and know that it is non-self. It doesn't really belong to you and if you die you can't take it with you. So in a sense the house is non-self. But that doesn't mean you can't paint it or repair it if it gets old. And you can still live in it. You have to have a roof over your head.
You can also look at your body like that. You can see it as non-self. Nails grow without you having any influence on it, the heart beats, if you want it or not. But that doesn't mean you can not care about the body. So if the body is hungry, that desire is not you, it is just the body that needs some food. This is a bodily desire, not a mental desire. The Buddha taught about the desires of the mind, they can be annihilated. Desires of the body can't, the body is never ultimately satisfied. How many times have you meditated in a posture you thought was perfect, but in the end your body still had some aches?
A human being can plan things and enlightened ones also can plan. Enlightenment doesn't mean you become a vegetable that is unable to do anything
For example, I might go to a supermarket with the plan to buy a green apple. If it turns out the green apples are sold out and there are only red ones left or if they don't have any apples at all, I could be turned down or not care about it at all. Mentally I would not care. Now, fully enlightened ones wouldn't even care if they got run over by a bus on the way to the supermarket on their way to buy an apple. Or when on arms round for an apple, of course.
Unless you can verify what you said with some kind of reference, I must say what you wrote is just your personal opinion.
The body is something physical. The body does not experience "satisfication", "dissatisfaction", "desires", etc. These things are mental.
The Buddha taught the end of suffering is acheived by ending desires.
If desires can be annihilated but this is not the end of suffering, then what is the way, means or path to acheive the end of suffering you are inferring?
:coffee:
We'll feel free to answer.
Feel free to always show considered discernment, and sort the wheat from the chaff.
(I'm probably mostly a chaff person myself... but I look pretty in a breeze.)
Well wishes,
Abu
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.117.than.html
"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.
Sallatha Sutta: The Arrow
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn06/sn06.015.than.html
"With heart unbowed he endured the pain. Like a flame's unbinding was the liberation of awareness. "
The path is of course the 8-fold path.
that's not sutric reference for the distinction of teachings of ultimate truth and conventional truth.
1)In life there is suffering.
2) Suffering is caused by desire.
3) With the removal of desire comes about the cessation of suffering.
4) The eightfold path leads to the complete cessation of suffering.
When you say that desire is the cause of suffering, it can get confusing, because then every time you want something, like some food, your causing your self suffering. I might want to tell my mom that I love her, but that's the cause of suffering. This is a fatal view of the four noble truths, because it leads you to develop a mind which shuns happiness, and embraces suffering. The path that the Buddha taught was a happy path, a light-hearted path, and a joyful path. The fourth factor of enlightenment is joy, so when your practicing the Buddhist path, it's important that you experience happiness, and allow your mind to be joyful and easy going. The buddha taught the four noble truths this way:
1) In life there is suffering.
2) The cause of suffering is 'thana'.
3) The cessation of 'thana' is the cessation of suffering.
4) The way leading to the complete cessation of suffering is the noble eightfold path.
The word thana is a pali word usually translated to english as thirst, or desire. Most commonly though, it's just said as craving.Craving does not mean wanting. You are allowed to want food. What craving means is the minds tendency to become tense and start to think. When you release this tension, you are expereiencing the cessation of suffering, which is purity of mind which culmintaes in Nibbana.. Remember to smile.