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Is Nirvana overrated?

essemessem Explorer
edited January 2013 in Buddhism Basics
I wasn't meditating at the time: in fact I was in a high school field
interacting with model plane enthusiasts. That bright and sunny
Sunday morning Sep 1969 would have meant just another weekend
of harmless fun with those schoolboys but for a crucial difference:
I have vivid recollection of a most extraordinary brilliant, benign
stillness that lasted just a few seconds.

The encounter raised questions as well as answering some. Was I
hallucinating? Did I suffer from some sort of seizure? Or did I
stumble upon a prized experience that those Buddhist monks
had been going on and on about in their writings? Was that the
much vaunted Nirvana?

Nothing else has changed since. Like practically everyone else, I still
have to feed, clothe and keep in good order this miraculous body,
one with fingers that translate my thoughts into keystrokes that
shape words on the screen: words that you read and understand.

I still have cravings for new electronic toys: they subside when I pay
no attention to them, only to have them rise again. Life's ups and
downs still persist and so the "suffering" continues.

What do you think?

Comments

  • MorningViewMorningView New
    I guess I don't have an intelligent response. I saw that this post was in "General Banter" and thought you were talking about the 90s grunge band; I was ready to discuss music!
    sukhitaDaftChrismaarten
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    essem said:

    I wasn't meditating at the time: in fact I was in a high school field
    interacting with model plane enthusiasts. That bright and sunny
    Sunday morning Sep 1969 would have meant just another weekend
    of harmless fun with those schoolboys but for a crucial difference:
    I have vivid recollection of a most extraordinary brilliant, benign
    stillness that lasted just a few seconds.

    The encounter raised questions as well as answering some. Was I
    hallucinating? Did I suffer from some sort of seizure? Or did I
    stumble upon a prized experience that those Buddhist monks
    had been going on and on about in their writings? Was that the
    much vaunted Nirvana?

    Nothing else has changed since. Like practically everyone else, I still
    have to feed, clothe and keep in good order this miraculous body,
    one with fingers that translate my thoughts into keystrokes that
    shape words on the screen: words that you read and understand.

    I still have cravings for new electronic toys: they subside when I pay
    no attention to them, only to have them rise again. Life's ups and
    downs still persist and so the "suffering" continues.

    What do you think?

    I think you probably found the still and centred point of consciousness for a brief moment and then started to contemplate it, by contemplating it you cling to it thus it vanishes. If you had liberated yourself you would not be craving for toys.
  • SabreSabre Veteran
    edited January 2013
    Plenty of stillness and beautiful moments are to be had before nirvana. Such a moment seems to be what you have experienced. If it was really nirvana, you wouldn't have had this question.
  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    Was that the much vaunted Nirvana?
    No.
    It is a common arising/happening
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenshō

    here are some triggers
    http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/mystical.htm#Triggers
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    Sounds very much like a PCE or Pure Consciousness Experience.

    Nirvana is basically the elimination of the fetters. So since there is craving then there is no nirvana because nirvana would be the cessation of craving.
  • xabirxabir Veteran
    edited January 2013
    Yes, nirvana is the termination (i.e. permanent cessation or uprooting of) craving (i.e. passion, aggression and delusion).

    It is certainly not the same as a temporary state of stillness, which is a shamatha state of calm-abiding. Nirvana can only be achieved when both calm-abiding, PLUS insight (by far the most crucial factor) into the nature of reality, are cultivated in tandem to uproot the defilements. Therefore Buddhist meditation is not about cultivation of stillness only, but more importantly the cultivation of wisdom and awareness.

    Therefore vipassana/vipasyana meditation, or insight meditation, is aimed at contemplating and realizing impermanence/anicca, unsatisfactoriness/dukkha, non-self/no-self/anatta/anatman, and emptiness (of inherent existence) or shunyata... in real time experience. Meaning it is not a conceptual analysis but seeing these characteristics in moment to moment sensations. These insights lead to unbinding.


    Taiyaki: that description does not sound anything close to a PCE.
    maarten
  • xabirxabir Veteran
    Lastly, Nirvana can never be overrated, only underrated.
  • NevermindNevermind Bitter & Hateful Veteran
    edited January 2013
    I've always liked nirvana.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited January 2013
    It was a nyam. Which comes from your sensitivity to experience wellness from insight of stillness. But it was not nirvana because it was an experience that ended when the conditions sustaining it ended. Has it had a quality of sufffering remembering and wanting to get back? Maybe not, maybe a good memory and encouragement.
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    I think nibanna is an ideal goal, but there is much else to life before that point.
  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
    from the little I've experienced on the road towards the eradication of greed(attachment), anger(aversion) and delusion(ignorance)... I would say it's nowhere close to being overrated and I don't even bother to imagine what it must be like to eradicate those three roots, which the Buddha said their eradication IS nibbana.
    lobster
  • ZeroZero Veteran
    essem said:


    What do you think?

    About what?
  • essemessem Explorer
    Thank you all, every comment held a lesson for me, especially
    lobster's links.

    I need to be much more mindful about what goes on in my
    head and how I go about posting here. :)
This discussion has been closed.