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What is Nibbana?

DeshyDeshy Veteran
edited January 2010 in Meditation
Sounds like a basic question but I have this doubt. In some place I have read that Nibbana is attained when the mind attends to nothingness and re-appears from it. Is this acceptable according to what you all know? :confused:
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Comments

  • LesCLesC Bermuda Veteran
    edited January 2010
    I find sometimes our explanations of this state confuse more than help. I am of the opinion that Nibbana is achieved when you become fully awake, and remain so, and see everything exactly the way it is, without delusion.

    As always, that just my opinion... I could be wrong.
  • sukhitasukhita
    edited January 2010
    Deshy, you gonna get varying responses on this. I like to associate 'nibbana' with the fourth Noble Truth, namely that the Buddhist Path is the way out of dukkha.

    Perhaps we can regard it as a state characterized by freedom from dukkha. I'll leave the more elaborate explanation to others. :smilec:
  • ValtielValtiel Veteran
    edited January 2010
    That definitition makes no sense to me; what does it mean for a mind to "emerge from nothingness"? I think it's best to keep it simple: nibanna is freedom from dukkha. Practice reveals what this entails.
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited January 2010
    The definition I've heard from monastics is that there is no more becoming, one is "no longer born into this world". Notions of being and non-being etc, are of this world and do not apply.




    Others may have heard something else.
  • jinzangjinzang Veteran
    edited January 2010
    No, the mind emerges from nothingness every morning when you wake up, but almost no one is enlightened by this. It's important to distinguish between concentration, which can produce a similar state, and insight, which is knowing phenomena for what they are. Nibbana (nirvana) is the latter, pushed to its highest degree.
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited January 2010
    jinzang wrote: »
    No, the mind emerges from nothingness every morning when you wake up, but almost no one is enlightened by this. It's important to distinguish between concentration, which can produce a similar state, and insight, which is knowing phenomena for what they are. Nibbana (nirvana) is the latter, pushed to its highest degree.
    Its called nothingness after you wake up and look back.
  • BrotherBobBrotherBob
    edited January 2010
    Hi Deshy,

    I like both o0Mundus' and Richard's descriptions and will offer - it's like stepping off the endless merry-go-round of rebirth and suffering, bye bye! :winkc:

    Shalom and Hugs
  • DeshyDeshy Veteran
    edited January 2010
    Brother Bob wrote: »
    it's like stepping off the endless merry-go-round of rebirth and suffering, bye bye! :winkc:

    Shalom and Hugs

    Lol I like this explanation :)

    Guys, nothingness here is I think the upper Jhana levels not the nothingness our minds attend to when we sleep. During jhana we are fully aware unlike in sleep. Anyway I for once don't believe that explanation I read from the book is enough.

    I guess I didn't ask my question right. I'll just open anew thread for that, when I sorted out what my question is :D. Thanks everyone for replying :)
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  • Floating_AbuFloating_Abu Veteran
    edited January 2010
    jinzang wrote: »
    No, the mind emerges from nothingness every morning when you wake up, but almost no one is enlightened by this.

    But this can be observed by a practitioner can it not, j?
  • limbolimbo
    edited January 2010
    Deshy wrote: »
    Sounds like a basic question but I have this doubt. In some place I have read that Nibbana is attained when the mind attends to nothingness and re-appears from it. Is this acceptable according to what you all know? :confused:

    I would say, if you really want to know what it is, the only thing that will work is getting yourself on a cushion and finding out for yourself. Any intellectual understanding would be flawed. Nibbana is something that must be experienced.

    I don't think Nibbana has much to do with any of the concentration jhanas as those are only mind states and therefore temporary.

    I've heard descriptions that the moment of enlightenment is preceded by a moment of unknowing when reality blinks out, this may be related to the description you read.

    I've also seen descriptions of enlightenment that focus on emptiness and the final realization that the self/watcher is empty as well. I believe this is emptiness in the sense of sunyata/sunnata as used in Tibetan Buddhism. In this case Nibbana would be the realization that all phenomenon are empty including the self.
  • DeshyDeshy Veteran
    edited January 2010
    limbo wrote: »
    In this case Nibbana would be the realization that all phenomenon are empty including the self.

    Not just realizing but experiencing. I don't think you can think your way into it but feel your way
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  • jinzangjinzang Veteran
    edited January 2010
    Floating_Abu wrote: »
    But this can be observed by a practitioner can it not, j?

    Huh? It's observed by everybody, in the usual way. Are you referring to dream yoga practices? If so, I don't know anything about them.
  • DeshyDeshy Veteran
    edited January 2010
    I don't think a person is at the peak of his awareness while in deep sleep unlike in higher jhanas so I believe a higher jhana experience is a lot different than deep sleep
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  • Floating_AbuFloating_Abu Veteran
    edited January 2010
    jinzang wrote: »
    Huh? It's observed by everybody, in the usual way. Are you referring to dream yoga practices? If so, I don't know anything about them.

    Maybe crossed wires? I just meant observing the mind emerging from nothingness. But I really feel like a pie now :cool:
  • DeshyDeshy Veteran
    edited January 2010
    Floating_Abu wrote: »
    I really feel like a pie now :cool:

    Is it vegetarian?
    :lol:
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