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Nirvana's Reality

MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
edited March 2011 in Buddhism Basics
What do you believe Nirvana is?

A place? A dimension that transcends space and time? Something beyond words? A state of mind? Just wondering how one would describe Nirvana, in accordance to your beliefs.

(Sorry for several threads. :p )

Comments

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    The more threads, the merrier. :)

    Nirvana is the absence of afflictions, Enlightenment. It's not a place, or alternate dimension, like Christian heaven.
  • Inji-gyoInji-gyo
    Nirvana isn't.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Its sometimes referred to as a place in order to help understand. The nature of awareness is space. A mirror that reflects, but space for all mental arisings and not the arisings themselves.

    This is why Nirvana as a place is intuitive.

    But that is not exactly how Nirvana is. Nirvana can only be pointed to but as it is unconditioned it is beyond concepts.
  • DisneyDisney
    edited March 2011
    Nirvana is the inherent Disney land of all beings having non arising and non-grasping of the past, future and present moment :wow:
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    [Buddha DJ]

    image
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    What do you believe Nirvana is?

    Are scriptures really needed?

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    Nirvana is freedom from suffering. That's what I've gathered, anyway.
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    What do you believe Nirvana is?
    I don't know, thats why I'm asking you. :p

    I'm assuming its more of a state of mind (freedom of suffering, as ShiftPlusOne said).
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited March 2011
    Nibbana is the here & now end of greed, hatred & delusion.

    Nibbana is the cessation of suffering or freedom from suffering.
  • SabreSabre Veteran
    edited March 2011
    Nirvana is no heavenly resting place or a state of mind.

    It's the total cessation of both body and mind. A process of rebirth coming to an end, giving rise to the highest happiness. :)

    So nirvana.. it's nothing. Embracing the emptiness.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited March 2011
    It's the total cessation of both body and mind. A process of rebirth coming to an end, giving rise to the highest happiness.
    "the total cessation of body..."?! Nirvana is death? I don't think so. We are not aiming for death in our practice. We're aiming for the Enlightened mind, the end of afflictions and suffering.

  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    It's contentment which arises when you detach from everything. So if you are content right now. You are nirvana.
    It is not an eternal bliss. You are not free from suffering (life happens). You just have a choice to attach or detach.
    Up to you.

    But this is just my interpretation.
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    The space in between my thinking.
    With metta,
    Todd
    image
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited March 2011
    It's the total cessation of both body and mind.
    How can this Nirvana be experienced?

    :confused:
  • JamesWJamesW
    I think this is a very interesting thread. One thing that I've been wondering about it this...His Holiness the Dalai Lama Expresses His Sadness Over the Recent Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zeland. That's the headline on the news section on the Dalai Lama's website. I'm not exactly sure about what enlightenment truly looks like, but I believe he is enlightened. What I'm getting at is this; can one be enlightened/free from affliction and still feel sadness? This might be a dumb question but I thought it was worth asking.
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    Good question. The scriptures define Nirvana as the cessation of craving rather than the cessation of feeling.
  • SherabDorjeSherabDorje
    He's not attached to the sadness. And no one ever said he's enlightened. He describes himself as a simple monk.

    There are anecdotes that he gets irritable sometimes.

    And to go off topic a bit, I think the talk about an excessive emphasis on the DL may be apt. He may just be the most visible Buddhist leader in the West, but by no means does he speak for all of Buddhism.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    edited March 2011
    According to the buddha, (or so I am aware) if one becomes enlightened, awoken, and reaches the state of mind known as nirvana, then one will end the process of rebirth. So, what happens then, where did the buddha happen to go once he died..

    To add to what has been said, nirvana is the cessation of suffering, you do this by having no attachments, by understanding the nature of things and accepting everything for how it is, living in the present and so on. But as ajahn chah said, one cannot reach nibanna if you want to get there, striving will only prevent you from reaching this state of mind
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited March 2011
    @ThailandTom, There was never anyone born to die. This is what we fail to see. There was never a permanent, unchanging self to begin with! The mind that sees Nirvana no longer craves for sensual pleasures, continued existence, non-existence. Right View is established, the mind does not cling to any of the aggregates as being its "self". It is the unborn, the deathless (in seeing that nothing is born, nothing dies, there are no separate things). This is the same thing we all are now, but we do not see it!

    How could changing our thoughts ever change what happens to the body after death? Really? Think about this.
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    edited March 2011
    Where will you go when you die, ThailandTom? Maybe after you die you can get some take out or watch a movie.

    Ironic, but one of the most intimate acts
    of our body is
    death.

    So beautiful appeared my death –
    knowing Who then i would kiss,
    i died a thousand times before i died.

    “Die before you die,” said the Prophet
    Muhammad.

    Have wings that feared ever
    touched the Sun?

    i was born when all I once
    feared - i could
    love.
    - Rabia Basri,

    With metta,
    Todd
    image
  • VincenziVincenzi Veteran
    edited March 2011
    ...some are replying to "what is paranirvana".
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    I meant dieing in the spiritual sense in answer to ThailandToms question about Buddha's death. Sorry to go off topic.
    All the best,
    Todd
    image
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    @ThailandTom, There was never anyone born to die. This is what we fail to see. There was never a permanent, unchanging self to begin with! The mind that sees Nirvana no longer craves for sensual pleasures, continued existence, non-existence. Right View is established, the mind does not cling to any of the aggregates as being its "self". It is the unborn, the deathless (in seeing that nothing is born, nothing dies, there are no separate things). This is the same thing we all are now, but we do not see it!

    How could changing our thoughts ever change what happens to the body after death? Really? Think about this.
    Oh my God, I understand the concept of "Buddha-nature is inside us all" now. :D
  • DharmaFieldDharmaField
    It is written in an old sutra that:

    When you meet Nibbhana you will die; which might not sound like an inviting prospect, except that people, like the pheonix, seem to be able to emerge from the ashes and continue breathing and return to world with bliss bestowing hands. But, most of us are apt to again remember who we are and thus must return to the practice. It is said that this is due to past karma, but a working brain is the same thing. These are simple folk (or monks)who are like donkeys looking into a well. For some, after years of practice, senility sets in and they forget who they are althogether and attain Buddhahood. These are really simple folk (or monks) and are said to be like the well looking back at the donkey. ~;)

    There was genius in Tang Dynasty China.
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