Yes, but how do I get to enlightenment?

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Vas Bana from the Bhikkhu Sangha at LABV

The Buddha with florid wall depicting celestial devas and guardians (Dboo/flickr)

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Wisdom Quarterly has to stay aware of [operative] Netanyahu and the CIA's atrocities, maintain yogic attention bringing together body and mind with the bridge between them, spirit (breath). The world and ourselves in it is all well and good, but what about enlightenment?

 

According to the Buddha's message about the understanding of the nature of disappointment (unsatisfactoriness, suffering) should be the main purpose of an intelligent person with the rare opportunity to be reborn as a human being.

As the result of listening to the Buddha's message a person can understand the nature of the suffering we face in day to day life. If someone knows 

1. the real nature of suffering, one knows
2. the cause of suffering,
3. the cessation of suffering, and
4. the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

Therefore, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths pivots on understanding disappointment. This understanding conduces to getting rid of it and attaining real happiness.

What is the CAUSE of all kinds of suffering? When some experience arises through our senses with the combination of mind and matter, if we have no real knowledge or understanding, we take it as permanent and we delight in it. Then when it changes, ceases, or disappears -- which it must inevitably do -- we suffer because of our ignorance into the true nature of phenomena and the nature of causes and effects, the way things come to be and fall away.

But if someone knows the situation as it actually is, one tries to avoid becoming involved in it -- delighting, craving, then clinging -- and finds release from disappointment/suffering.

One reflects on experience as it actually is just as it is. The experience arises and passes away at that moment without remaining as anything to cling to. One is free to enjoy it without being fooled as to what it is or is not. And unconfused, unperplexed, one experiences pleasure and pain with equanimity, not falling under the spell of delusion, wrong views, or ignorance.

A path to the further shore (Satorinihon/flickr)

Here we have a real path to make an end of suffering, to overcome disappointment, to heal pain and sadness, a Noble Eightfold Path.

This is central to Buddhism. All teachings taught by the Buddha to the world can be summarized under the Four Noble Truths, of which the path-of-practice may be the most important. As much as we may strive for knowledge, courage, compassion, or confidence, we can practice the path to enlightenment and get the result in this very life if we are kind, honest, and intelligent.

What is the first step of the path? CONTINUED IN PART 2

Ajahn Brahm: Letting Go vs. Clinging (video)

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ajahn Brahm (BuddhistSocietyWA); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

(Poh Ming Tse Temple, 2014) Ajahn Brahm: Freeing Our Minds from Our Mental Prisons

Ven. Ajahn Brahm, an ennobled and very humorous Western monk who emerged from the Thai Forest Tradition in Isan under Ajahn Chah, now lives and teaches in Australia. He had just come from teaching at a retreat when he chose to explore ways of letting go in the Buddha's teaching. Indeed, there is danger in clinging (upadana) and liberation in letting go, internally renouncing, and freeing ourselves from suffering.

Orange is the new black, but for free robes not bound jumpsuits (dreamstime.com).

Prison is a scary place yet not nearly as fearful as our mental prisons, ones we've created as terrifying places we are imprisoned even as we walk around free to do as we like. In this video teaching by the ennobled and humorous Western Theravada monk, brought to us by the Buddhist Congress and Angulimala Fellowship, Ajahn Brahm shares his insights and wisdom on the most important prison break we can attempt. It is peppered throughout with the distinctive flavor of Ajahn Brahmavamso's trademark humor. See video below from 2010 when he began this thread.

MENTAL PRISON: Some of us are as tortured and trapped as prisoners in prison cells.

 

Non-clinging (nekkhamma) is a Buddhist Pali term translated as "the pleasure of letting go" or "renunciation." It conveys, more specifically, "giving up worldliness and leading a higher life" or "freedom from crippling lust, craving, and addictions." In the Noble Eightfold Path, it is the first practice associated with "Right Intention."

In the Theravada list, it is the third of the Ten Perfections, involving non-attachment and non-clinging to suffering. How do we cling to suffering? The root of our self-injury is clinging to the Five Aggregates, to wrong views of self.

Milarepa's Tibetan Vajrayana writings are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts that emphasize the temporary nature of the physical body and the need for non-attachment.

 

Non-clinging is also a central concept in Zen Buddhist philosophy. One of the most important technical Chinese terms for "non clinging" is wú niàn (無念), which literally means "no thought." This does not signify the literal absence of thought, but rather not clinging to or identifying with thought, the state of being "unstained" (bù rán 不染) by thought -- like a lotus flower born in water and grown up in water rising above water and remaining unstained by water.

Therefore, non-clinging is being detached from one's thoughts. That is, it is to separate oneself from one's thoughts and opinions [of course, they are not actually one's own] in detail as to not be harmed mentally and emotionally by them (see The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch translated by Philip B. Yampolsky).

I can do this monastic stint standing on my head...because I'm free (annenbergproject.org)

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"Freedom from sensual lust"

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

Gokyo Ri peak (Hendrik Terbeck/flickr)

The real meaning of "renunciation" (nekkhamma) is an internal act not an external one.

It is not by shaving one's head and face and donning saffron robes that one moves toward enlightenment (bodhi, awakening) and nirvana (moksha, liberation from all suffering). There are many monastics who yet cling and are therefore no closer to freedom than householders).

The word is apparently derived from nir + Ö kram, "to go forth (into the wandering, left-home-life of an ascetic)." But in Pali language texts, this term is nevertheless used as if it were derived from lust (kāma as in Kama Sutra) and always as an antonym to kāma (craving for sensuality). 

It is one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs or pāramitās as in the Prajna Paramita, the famous "Perfection of Wisdom" literature).

  

Nekkhama-sankappa, the "intention of renunciation" -- thoughts free of lust, thoughts of renunciation, is one of the three kinds of right intention or right thought (sammā-sankappa), the second factor in the Noble Eightfold Path (see Magga, 2), its antonym being kāma-sankappa, lustful thoughts and intentions.

Four Ways to Let Go and Get Free

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What is clinging?

Maitreya Buddha, Gandhara (wiki)

"Clinging," according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is an intensified degree of craving. The four kinds of clinging are:

1. sensual clinging,
2. clinging to views,
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals [as if they could ever in and of themselves lead to or result in enlightenment],
4. clinging to personality-belief.

(1) "What now is sensual clinging? Whatever with regard to sensuous objects there exists of sensuous lust, sensuous desire, sensuous attachment, sensuous passion, sensuous delusion, sensuous fetters, this is called sensual clinging.

 

(2) ''What is clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless [without karmic benefit to the giver]; there is no fruit and result for skillful and unskillful deeds: all such views and misconceptions are called clinging to [wrong] views.

(3) "What is clinging to mere rules and rituals? Holding firmly to the view that through [the observance of] mere rules and rituals one may reach purification [enlightenment and liberation, bodhi and nirvana), this is called clinging to mere rules and rituals.

 

(4) "What is clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views [beliefs about self, identity, ego] with regard to the groups of existence, these are called clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

 

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides clinging to lustful objects of the sense, we would expect either clinging to fine material spheres and immaterial spheres of existence or simply clinging to continued existence (bhava-upādāna, continued being, which can never be static, and is therefore translated as becoming).

Although a non-returner, a person who has gained the third stage of enlightenment, is entirely free of the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet freed from rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued-becoming. The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), trying to get out of this dilemma, explains sensual clinging as including here all the remaining kinds of clinging.

 

"Clinging" is the common rendering for upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" or the habit of repetitive craving; see Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel 17), p.19.

Who are the "Noble Ones"?

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; G.P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Terms)

Three noble ones pay homage to an image of the Noble One (Sasin Tipchai/Bugphai/flickr)

 

The noble ones or "noble persons" (ariya-puggala) does not refer to teaching and nonteaching buddhas but to anyone who attains the various stages of enlightenment and liberation. The Buddha may be called the Noble One, but his function was the production of noble ones, of establishing the Teaching, establishing the Monastic Order for intensive practice and the preservation of the Teaching long after his mission.  The grades or stages of enlightenment are not absolutes; there are different ways to distinguish attainments. But for simplicity four are repeatedly mentioned. (According to the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga there are more only because the first few are categorized together simply as stream-enterers). For example, one of the extraordinary characteristics of a stream-winner or stream-enterer (sotapanna) is that s/he faces at most seven rebirths and has therefore in this unimaginably long course of "continued wandering on" (= samsara), the Wheel of Rebirth, put a limit on suffering. The next stage, that of the once-returner, faces only one rebirth. Between these two stages, there are actually other stages, but they are all lumped together for simplicity. In fact, there were always at least eight noble ones, but only four are generally spoken of because the Commentary maintains that the difference between each pair is simply a thought-moment. This almost certainly cannot be the case, as indicated by the sutras and spelled out by Bhikkhu Bodhi in the explanatory notes to his famous sutta-pitaka (discourse-collection) translations.

Arch with an ancient Buddha image in Theravada Buddhist Phowintaung, Burma

 

The eight and nine NOBLE ONES are:

(A) The eight noble ones are those who have realized one of the eight stages of enlightenment, that is, the four supermundane paths (maggas) and the four supermundane fruitions (phalas) of these paths.

There are four pairs:

1. One realizing the path of stream-winning (sotāpatti-magga).

2. One realizing the fruition of stream-winning (sotāpatti-phala).

3. One realizing the path of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-magga).

4. One realizing the fruition of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-phala).

5. One realizing the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga).

6. One realizing the fruition of non-returning (anāgāmi-phala).

7. One realizing the path of full enlightenment (arahatta-magga).

8. One realizing the fruition of full enlightenment (arahatta-phala).

In sum, there are by this scheme four noble individuals (ariya-puggala): the stream-winner (sotāpanna), the once-returner (sakadāgāmi), the non-returner (anāgāmī), the fully-enlightened (arhat or arahat, arahant).

Here is where the sutras and the Path of Freedom, which is a commentarial work analogous to the more famous Path of Purification (one possibly being an earlier version of the other, both works of the most famous Buddhist commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa, but the earlier version credited to Ven. Upatissa (the original Upatissa being Ven. Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom," analogous to his chief female monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom" Ven. Khema).

Change of Lineage

Sariputra, foremost in wisdom (SashWeer/flickr)

All of unenlightened beings are "ordinary worldings." Most of us are uninstructed ordinary worldlings. But in A.VIII.10 and A.IX.16 the gotrabhū is listed as the ninth noble individual. When one goes from "ordinary worldling" to "noble one," it is extraordinary. The Buddha referred to this liberation process as a "change of lineage." One is completely different now even while seeming to others (or even oneself) exactly the same. It is nearly impossible to tell who is a stream-enterer or fully-enlightened. There are ways for one to tell of oneself, but it is very easy to overestimate one's attainment. It is amazing talking to stream-enterers or reading their descriptions in the sutras and them not being sure. See, for example, the story of Queen Mallika's maid. They are only sure something happened, and they can hardly explain what or how. Logic dictates that ordinarily worldings would be able to tell, but experience proves otherwise. They can recognize each other but by prodding and testing a little, not by some magic intuition. Ajahn Jumnien tells the story of how he met California Vipassana (insight meditation) teacher Ruth Denison (DhammaDena.com) and knew but also how he did not know how far along she was until he tested her. One reason for this is that one retains many of the same characteristics as before the Truth liberated one. The most important thing one can bear in mind in this regard is that ENLIGHTENMENT PERFECTS PERSPECTIVE NOT PERSONALITY.

One will come out the other end with right view (samma ditthi) but will keep many of the same quirks, predilections, and predispositions after undergoing an utterly radical change in view about the things that matter (bodhipakkayadhamma). Wisdom itself does the uprooting of ignorance, not an act of will or self or thinking. And this is because full enlightenment does not mean omniscience. It means FULL penetration of only four things -- the Four Noble Truths. Perhaps it also means utter certainty about the Three Marks of Existence and the fact of Dependent Origination, the certainty that nothing comes into being without a cause or with only a single cause. When we ask, in accordance with the first noble truth, "How has this present suffering come into being?" we are investigating causes and conditions. There are at least 12, and of these the weakest -- the one we can do something about -- is craving. There are other deeper reasons, like ignorance (avijja, avidya), but these cannot be remedied directly. Craving can. Craving is not the root of all suffering, as many people say. Ignorance is. But the Buddha singled out craving (tanha, desire) because his insight into the causal links of Dependent Origination led him to realize that it was possible to break the chain at this link. Right view, knowing-and-seeing,

 

Path and Fruition

A permanent and radical change of heart

By "PATH" (magga) or "supermundane path," according to the "Higher Teaching" (Abhidhamma), is simply meant a designation of the moment of entering into one of the four stages of enlightenment -- [glimpsing] nirvana (Pali nibbāna) being the object -- produced by intuitive insight (vipassanā) into the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonality of all existence, flashing forth and forever transforming one's life and nature.

By "FRUITION" (phala) is meant those moments of consciousness that follow immediately thereafter as the result of the path, which in certain circumstances may repeat innumerable times during the lifetime.

(I) Through the path of stream-winning one "becomes" free (whereas in realizing the fruition, one "is" free) from the first three fetters (samyojana) that bind ordinary beings to existence in the Sensual Sphere (the lowest of three "spheres" or lokas in a threefold classification of the 31 Planes of Existence in Buddhist cosmology encompassing to the lowest hells, the worlds of humans, animals, ghosts, titans, and lower devas, up to the highest of the six sensual "heavens"; the other two spheres are the Fine-Material or Subtle Sphere and the Immaterial Sphere):

• (1) personality-belief (sakkāya-ditthi),
• (2) skeptical doubt about the path (vicikicchā),
• (3) belief that mere rules or rituals could ever lead one to enlightenment (sīlabbata-parāmāsa; see upādāna).

(II) Through the path of once-returning one becomes nearly free of the fourth and fifth fetters:

• (4) sensuous craving (kāma-cchanda = kāma-rāga),
• (5) ill-will (vyāpāda = dosa, see "roots," mūla).

(III) Through the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga) one becomes fully free of the first five or "lower" fetters.

(IV) Through the path of full-enlightenment one further becomes free of the five "higher" fetters as well:

• (6) craving for fine-material existence (rūpa-rāga),
• (7) craving for immaterial existence (arūpa-rāga),
• (8) conceit (māna),
• (9) restlessness (uddhacca),
• (10) ignorance (avijjā).

Tibetan Vajrayana stained glass rainbow emanation (Samye Ling Centre and Monastery)

 

The stereotype sutra text runs as follows:

(I) "After the disappearance of the three fetters, the meditator has won the stream (that leads inevitably to nirvana) and is no longer subject to rebirth in lower worlds (subhuman planes of existence), is firmly established, destined for full enlightenment.

(II) "After the disappearance of the first three fetters and [a marked] reduction of greed, hatred, and delusion, one will return [at most] only once more [to this world]. And having once more returned to this world, one will put an end to suffering.

(III) "After the disappearance of the first five fetters one appears in a higher world [in superhuman planes of existence, i.e., the Pure Abodes], and there one reaches nirvana without ever returning from that world (to the Sensual Sphere).

(IV) "Through the extinction of all taints or cankers (āsava-kkhaya) one reaches in this very life that deliverance of mind, that deliverance through wisdom, which is freed of the cankers, and which one has directly understood and realized."

• For the various classes of stream-winners and non-returners, see sotāpanna and anāgāmī.

(B) The sevenfold grouping of the noble disciples runs as follows:
(1) the confidence (conviction, faith)-devotee (saddhānusārī),
(2) the confidence-liberated one (saddhāvimutta),
(3) the body-witness (kāya-sakkhī),
(4) the both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta),
(5) the Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī),
(6) the vision-attainer (ditthippatta),
(7) the wisdom-liberated one (paññā-vimutta).

This group of seven noble disciples is explained in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXI, 73):

(1) "One who is filled with resolution (adhimokkha) and, by [systematically] considering the formations as impermanent (anicca), gains the faculty of confidence, who at the moment of the path to stream-winning (A.1) is called a confidence-devotee (saddhānusārī);

(2) One is called a confidence-liberated one (saddhā-vimutta) at the seven higher stages (A. 2-8).

(3) One who is filled with tranquility and, by considering the formations as disappointing (dukkha), gains the faculty of concentration, who in every respect is considered a body-witness (kāya-sakkhī).

(4) One, however, who after reaching the absorptions of the immaterial sphere (Jhanas 5-8) has attained the highest fruition (of full enlightenment), who is a both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta).

(5) One who is filled with wisdom and, by considering the formations as not-self (anattā), gains the faculty of wisdom, who is at the moment of stream-winning a Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī).

(6) One who at the later stages (A. 2-7) is a vision-attainer (ditthippatta).

(7) One who is  a wisdom-liberated one (paññāvimutta) at the highest stage (A. 8)."

Purifying the Mind/Heart (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Purification of Mind" (BPS/ATI); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha at Battambang, Cambodia (Kim Seng/CaptainKino.com/flickr)

Mind matters: materiality and mentality, kalapas and cittas (wellhappypeaceful.com)

  

Free your mind; the rest will follow.

An ancient maxim found in the Dhammapada sums up the practice of the Buddha's teaching in three simple guidelines to training: to abstain from all harm, to cultivate good, and to purify one's mind.

 

These three principles form a graded sequence of steps progressing from the outward and preparatory to the inward and essential. Each step leads naturally into the one that follows it, and the culmination of the three in purification of mind makes it plain that the heart of Buddhist practice is to be found here.

 

Purification of mind as understood in the Buddha's teaching is the sustained endeavor to cleanse the mind (citta, heart) of defilements, those unwholesome mental forces that run beneath the surface stream of consciousness vitiating our intentions, thinking, values, attitudes, and actions.

 

(Inquiring Mind)

The chief among the defilements are the three that the Buddha has termed the "roots of [all] harm" -- greed, hatred, and delusion -- from which emerge their numerous offshoots and variants: anger and cruelty, avarice and envy, conceit and arrogance, hypocrisy and vanity [pride, personality view, wrong view regarding ego], the multitude of erroneous views.

The "defilements" are heart-defiling, unwholesome qualities of mind: "There are ten defilements, so called because they are themselves defiled and because they defile the mental factors associated with them:
(1) greed, (2) hate, (3) delusion, (4) conceit, (5) speculative views, (6) skeptical doubt, (7) mental torpor, (8) restlessness, (9) shamelessness,(10) lack of moral dread or unconscientiousness (Vis.M. XXII, 49, 65)." (For further information on 1-3, see mūla; 4, see māna; 5, see ditthi; 6-8, see nīvarana; 9 and 10, see ahirika-anottappa.

  These ten are explained in the Commentaries, but no classification of them is found in the sutras even though the term occurs frequently. The "impurities" (upakkilesa) are: 16 moral impurities of the mind mentioned and explained in MN 7 and MN 8 (The Wheel #61/62): (1) covetousness and harmful greed, (2) ill will, (3) anger, (4) hostility, (5) denigration, (6) domineering, (7) envy, (8) stinginess, (9) hypocrisy, (10) fraud, (11) obstinacy, (12) presumption, (13) conceit, (14) arrogance, (15) vanity, and (16) negligence.

 

Contemporary attitudes look unfavorably on such notions as "defilement" and "purity." On first encounter they may strike us as throwbacks to an outdated morality, valid perhaps when prudes and taboos were dominant, but having no place now. Not all of us wallow in the mire of gross materialism; many among us seek our enlightenments and spiritual highs, but we want them on our own terms. And as heirs of the new freedom we believe they are to be won through a hungry quest for experience without any need for introspection, personal change, or self-control.

 

However in the Buddha's teaching, genuine enlightenment lies precisely in purity of mind. The purpose of all insight and enlightened understanding is to liberate the mind from the defilements (taints, fetters, distortions). Nirvana itself, the goal of the teaching, is defined quite clearly as freedom from greed, hatred, and delusion.

 

From the perspective of the Dharma, defilement and purity are not postulates of authoritarian moralism but real and solid facts essential to an objective understanding of the human situation in the world.

 

As facts of lived experience, defilement and purity pose a vital distinction with crucial significance for those who seek liberation from suffering. They represent the two points between which the path to liberation unfolds -- the starting point of the problem and its resolution in the end. The defilements, the Buddha declares, reside beneath all human suffering. Burning within as lust and craving, as rage and resentment, delusion and wrong views, they lay to waste hearts, minds, lives, hopes, and civilizations. They drive us blind and thirsty over and over again through the round of birth and death.

Cultivate constant mindfulness.

The Buddha describes the defilements as bonds, fetters, hindrances, and knots. So the path to liberation, unbonding, release, to untying the knots is a discipline aimed at inward cleansing.

 

The work of purification is undertaken where the defilements arise, in the mind, and the main method the Dharma offers for purifying the mind is meditation.

What is meditation not? Meditation in Buddhist training is neither a quest for ecstasies (forms of bliss derived from concentration and absorption) nor a technique of DIY psychotherapy, stress reduction, or relaxation. What is it? Meditation is a systematic method of mental development -- precise, practical, and efficiently leading to an objective -- to attain inner purity and complete freedom.

 

The principal tools of Buddhist meditation are the core skillful mental factors: energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding. In the systematic practice of meditation, these are strengthened and brought together in a program of self-purification that aims at rooting out the defilements so that not even the subtlest unwholesome stirrings remain.

 

All defiled states of consciousness are born of ignorance. The most deeply embedded defilement is undone, with the final and ultimate purification of mind being accomplished through wisdom -- the knowledge and vision of things as they really are.

 

Wisdom, however, does not spontaneously arise through chance or random good intentions. It only arises in a purified mind. In order for wisdom to come forth and accomplish the ultimate purification of eradicating the defilements, we first have to create a space for it.

Big Buddha, Tian Tan (discoverhongkong.com)

This is done by developing a provisional purification of mind -- a purification which, although temporary and vulnerable, is still indispensable as a foundation for the emergence of all liberating-insight.

 

The achievement of this preparatory purification of mind begins with the challenge of self-understanding. To eliminate defilements we must first learn to recognize them, to detect them at work infiltrating and dominating our everyday thoughts and lives.

For countless aeons we have acted on the spur of greed, hatred, and delusion. So the work of self-purification cannot be executed hastily with our demand for quick results. The task requires care, patience, and persistence -- and the Buddha's clear instructions.

For every defilement the Buddha out of compassion gave an antidote, a method to emerge from it and vanquish it. By learning these principles and applying them properly, we gradually cleanse the most stubborn inner stains and reach the end of suffering, the "taintless liberation of the mind."

How to be "cool" (guide)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal (A MODERN GUIDE TO LIFE)

Hey, don't look at me, creep!

You know, first thing you want to do to be "cool" is click on a lot of ads, like especially the ones that say "free." They usually end up costing more. And spending buku bucks is definitely cools-ville, holmes.
 
Next you want to do all things cell phone/mobile -- tweet like there's no idea too stupid to talk about, and start with "OMG, can't believe she said that!" so ppl will know you're serious. Instagram it, f Facebook tho, dump that. SnapChat it, baby, same corporation.

(Double Take) Be totally HOT...and still have problems

Hey, look at those guys!

And makes lots of friends. It's easy! Just say, "Hey, 'friend' me, ese! I'm aiming for 10,000 likes!" Always talk with exclamation marks. Oh, and, aim for 10,000 likes. That's a good number of friends to have on social media in case you want to sell girl scout cookies outside of a medical dispensary or something. Get all krazy; like, y b norml? Listen to the s/he devils.

Be a gavone. We don't give an f'n s, b-tches!

And get a motto. You can have ours: "Always be good, except when you're bad. Choose to be happy, except when you're sad. Don't quote me on this, don't hold me to that. Should you live a good life? I guess it shall be."

Or how 'bout JC's? "Cut me some slack. I can't make up my mind. Get off of my @$$. I heard y'all the first time. I'll get to it eventually. Just leave me be!"

And never be sarcastic or ironic; peeps hate that cuz u'd have to think 'n stuff, and who's got time for that, yeah?

(Mr. Show with Bob and David) JC "Jeepers Creepers Semi-Star" the Musical

This guy, this guy right here, he's got it.

There's another way. But it's a big hassle. And who needs that? Why not just wake up late, bake, eat things in crinkly plastic bags, and breathe with ya mouth, and blow yer nose later?

Way back, like, in the beforetime, in India, this guy was totally done with the party-n-the-palace life, the naked dancing girls and musicians, the soma and ambrosia, the hoopla and the sports meets... 

The Four Noble Truths are all that's needed.

Quest. Why not seek FREEDOM? Be set free by the highest liberating truths.

1. There is a thirst, a TANHA. 2. It gives rise to terrible feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment, to dookie, to DUKKHA. 3. There is a COOL, cooling, quenching, slaking allayer of all ills, NIRVANA. 4. And there's a way to get to it, a MAGGA. So it is possible to be free.

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There was no "Big Bang" (audio)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich, KPFA Berkeley, 3-19-14

A first point, a first cause, a prime move(r) -- the Big Bang is no better than positing an all-powerful God who did it, yet we fool ourselves by using words to say nothing.

  

Recent reports of a major "breakthrough" on inflation less than a trillionth of a second after the purported Big Bang are exaggerated, but for good reason: There are Nobel Prizes at stake.
 

No doubt banging has gone on in space, big banging worse than the worst gang banging at The Bada Bing in Jersey. Nevertheless, there was no BIG Bang, a beginning to everything. Recently a scientist was being interviewed (maybe on NPR audio or C2C) and admitted that "the Big Bang" was not the beginning of everything, just the beginning of our ability to find a beginning, the edge of the knowable. What a gyp.

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Buddhist cosmology: 31 Planes of Existence

We were not all raised with the fantasy-tale that science had an answer to the origin of the universe? But now there are multiverses, and scientific uncertainty is expressed more openly, and even if a Big Bang occurred ~13 billion years ago, that in no way says that was IT, that was the beginning of all, the first cause.
 
There is no sensible or meaningful first cause, and one would become deranged pondering such a question. It is one of the Four Imponderables in Buddhism -- which not only would never lead one to enlightenment but would certainly, if persisted in, drive one to madness. Here is a simple analogy to see why: A professor starts drawing a circle on a chalkboard, and after the 33rd loop asks the class,
 

Count chalk loops or watch me pole dance.

"Where does this circle start?"
 
"Wherever you first placed the chalk," they answer.
 

"Where was that?"
 

"Hmmm, we didn't notice."
 

"Where does it start now?"
 

"Well, after you started it -- at some arbitrary point -- it ceases to have a meaningful 'beginning.' Any point, pick a point. Is that your point?"
 

"Yes, if you track and analyze the chalk marks, undoing each of the 33 or million loops to reveal incontrovertible forensic evidence of the first track, the original loop, what will it get you?"
 

"It will tell us exactly where you first set the chalk down!"
 

"And what will that tell you about the beginning of a circle?"
 

"Of a circle, nothing. But of this circle, nothing... Hey, wait a minute!"
 

"Exactly! This won't tell you who or what set it, or why, or where chalkboards come from, or what chalk is for, or anything else that matters about our existence. It will only lead to endless speculations and enduring academic careers that result in nothing about the true nature of existence (such as the Three Marks or how YOU or your life, such as it is, came to be).

 

A better bang to find

"But if one were to meditate, one could potentially see for oneself how things (galaxies, universes, and people) originate, turn, and fall away -- again and again and again."
 

It is possible with Buddhist meditation on the Four Elements (not four material things but four primary or fundamental qualities of materiality) to begin to see the ultimate "particles" of perception (called, in Buddhist physics, kalapas). One can go from the smallest, these features of matter, to the most cosmic -- world expansions and world contractions. And what is another word for the transition between those two periods (aeons) than a Big Bang?
 

There is a Big Bang, but there was no "the Big Bang," no beginning. And if we crave to know about the first in the endless cyclical series, it would tell us nothing of the space it blew up or into or created as it blew, or the matter that burst into expansion (inflation), or subsequently collapsed and caused yet another implosion, which gives rise to another explosion.
 

Hmm, maybe lines and symbols?

Worst of all, assuming the insanity for pondering this imponderable is not the worst thing, you and science will be none the closer to finding or figuring out "how it all began." Keep blowing up infinitesimally small particles at CERN/LHC instead.

Nirvana (definition) and the Turtle

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera (Anton Gueth) A Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines; Bhikkhu Bodhi "As It Is" (CD)

(Nathapol Boonmangmee/happySUN/flickr.com)

  

Awakening to knowing and seeing (happySUN)

Nirvana is hard to conceive or speak of because it is unlike anything in our conditional universe, but it can be directly experienced.

Once upon a time there was a turtle who lived in a polluted pond with many fish. For a long time the fish did not see the turtle. When they finally did they exclaimed, "Friend, turtle, where have you been? We have not seen you and were concerned!"

"I have been walking on dry land, friends!" the turtle answered.

"'Dry land'? What is this 'dry land' you speak of, turtle?

The wise eat the fruit of direct knowledge.

The turtle struggled for a comparison.

The fish were eager to help, "So this 'dry land' of yours, turtle, is it wet?"

"No, friends, it is not wet."

"Is it cool and refreshing, can you swim in it?"

"No, friends, it is not cool and refreshing, and you can't swim in it. And it's not polluted. Come and see for yourselves..."

Many are the dangers to conforming in "school" like the freshwater Ganges shark.

 

"Wait, turtle, it's not wet, not cool and refreshing, and you can't swim in it? And you say it's not polluted? Then we take it that this 'dry land' must be pure nothingness, nonexistence, annihilation, or complete fantasy!" the fish reasoned out loud each agreeing with the other. 

Pollution-free in the Allegory of the Pond

They did not go to see for themselves.

"That may, friends, that may be," the turtle replied and again went walking on dry land.

In no long time the water in the pond became so shrunken and polluted that a legend arose about the turtle and the wise instructions he had left behind to help them. But still no one went to investigate and see if the legend could be true.
  

DEFINITION

Buddhist Dictionary

Nirvana (Pali nibbāna) literally means to blow out (nir+ va, to cease blowing, to become extinguished), "extinction," the end of all suffering.

According to the ancient commentaries, it means "freedom from desire" (nir+vana). 

It constitutes the highest and ultimate goal of all Buddhist aspirations, namely, absolute extinction of greed, hatred, and delusion that clings to illusory separate or independent existence apart from the constituents of being (skandha, khandha, the Five Aggregates of Clinging). Final nirvana (parinirvana) is ultimate and absolute deliverance from all future rebirth, disappointment, old age, disease, and death, from every kind of suffering and misery.

 

"Extinction of greed, extinction of hate, extinction of delusion -- this is called nirvana (S. XXXVIII. 1).

 

This freedom has two aspects necessary to avoid confusion. (1) The full extinction of defilements (kilesa-parinibbāna), also called sa-upādi-sesa-nibbāna (see Itivuttaka 41), is "nirvana with the aggregates of existence still remaining" (see upādi). This takes place at the attainment of full enlightenment or sainthood. (See noble ones, ariya-puggala).

The Buddha by night with throngs of devotees and monastics, Thailand (happySUN/flickr)

 

(2) The full extinction of the aggregates of clinging (khandha-parinibbāna),also called an-upādi-sesa-nibbāna (see It. 41, A.IV.118), is "nirvana without aggregates remaining." 

In other words, the latter is the coming to rest, or rather the "no-more-continuing," of this psychophysical process of illusory existence. This takes place at the final passing of an arhat.

• The two terms defilement- (kilesa-) and aggregate- (khandha) final-nirvana (parinibbāna) are found only in the commentary; their corresponding two aspects sa-upādisesaand anupādisesa-nibbāna, however, are mentioned and explained in a sutra (Itivuttaka 44).

Sometimes both aspects take place at one and the same moment, as when one is passing away and practices very diligently, attaining full enlightenment and immediately passing away (see sama-sīsī). While this may sound strange or unusual or very technical, it is apparently sometimes easier to practice very close to death when everything clears away and there is a strong intention rooted in wisdom to finally be free of this endless cycle of rebirth.

Crossing over into the opposite of nirvana -- Bangkok -- Bhumibol Bridge (happySUN)

  
"This, O meditators, truly is the peace, this is the highest, namely the end of all formations, the forsaking of every substratum of rebirth, the fading away of craving, detachment, extinction, nirvana."

(A. III, 32)

 

"Enraptured by lust, enraged by anger, blinded by delusion, overwhelmed, with mind/heart ensnared, one aims at one's own ruin, at the ruin of others, at the ruin of both, and one experiences mental pain and grief.

"But if lust, anger, and delusion are given up, one aims neither at one's own ruin, nor at the ruin of others, nor at the ruin of both, and one experiences no mental pain and grief. Thus, is nirvana visible in this very life, immediate, inviting, attractive, and comprehensible to the wise."

(A.III.55)

 

"Just as a rock of one solid mass remains unshaken by the wind, even so neither visible forms, nor sounds, nor fragrances, nor tastes, nor bodily impressions, neither the desired nor the undesired, can cause such a one [an arhat] to waver. Steadfast is one's mind/heart, gained is deliverance." 

(A.VI.55)

 

"Verily, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would be impossible."

(Ud.VIII.3)

 

Wisdom dawns from behind clouds of obscuring delusion (happySUN/flickr.com)

  

But if there's no self? (HS)

One cannot too often and too emphatically stress the fact that not only for the actual realization of nirvana, but also for a mere theoretical understanding of it, it is indispensable to first grasp fully the truth of the impersonal nature of things, the egolessness and insubstantiality of all existence ("not-self," anattā). Without such an understanding, one will necessarily misconceive of nirvana -- according to one's materialistic or metaphysical leanings -- either as the annihilation of an ego, or as an eternal state of existence into which an ego or self enters or with which it merges. So it is said in an ultimate sense and not paradoxically: 

"Mere suffering exists; no sufferer is found. 

The deed [karma] is, but no doer of the deed is there.

Nirvana is, but not the one who enters it.

The path is, but no traveler on it is seen."

Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVI)

• Anattā and Nibbāna (Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, Wheel 11)
• The Buddhist Doctrine of Nibbāna (Ven. Dr. P. Vajiranana and Francis Story, Wheel 165/166)