Nirvana "Here and Now": What Did it Mean in Early Buddhism?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- What does it mean to experience nirvana here and now, in this very life? The Buddha was asked this question in several early suttas and had answers. I'll go over a couple of those suttas and outline the interesting things he had to say.
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📙 You can find my new book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
Any news on the dead tree edition of your book?
I find the particular definition of ignorance should be expanded upon. It seems closer in sense say to attachment to gossip or the newest gadget.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moha_(Buddhism)
@@be1tube Yes it is out! books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
A little reflection that one of my teachers used when introducing the goal of Buddhism:
“
Think back to your favourite toy when you were a child. Back then your joy was very dependent on it. When playing with it, you were excited. If it got taken away, you'd be very upset.
Now, having grown up, are you still so attached to that toy? Chances are, you still have pleasant memories about it, but it doesn't have such a hold over your emotional well-being anymore.
You can be happy with or without it. Isn't that great?
In a sense, you have nirvana’d with regard to the toy.
And you have the potential to experience this freedom with regard to *everything*, I.e. true Nirvana.
There is a method to realize that potential.
And you don't have to be officially Buddhist (or in any particular religious affiliation) for it to work.
”
Right, that's a great way to understand it. 🙏
For me Nirvana is simply being wholly present in the current moment, without fear of the future or regret of the past. I have experienced this in transient or provisional moments. This makes me think that true permanent Nirvana is possibly a breakthrough in perspective away.
Yes, I think that's one way to look at it, in line with the Buddha's teaching to Bāhiya: th-cam.com/video/ZWBDstrkgoo/w-d-xo.html
You must remember Sidartha before the awakening. What he wanted to solve. Without understanding "dukkha" and the different types of "dukkha" it is hard to know what form nirvana or the absorptions take. It is a very potent state, it comes after mindfulness, because you must make room. You can pretty much experience whatever you want😊
Look at these little cutaways to greed and anger! How fun. Love your mini-lectures, thank you so much.
😄 My pleasure chamomilecutie!
@@DougsDharma for the love of the buddha, the heck chamomilecutie means?
Need to disconnect from the internet, so I just wanted to thank you again for the content. I have benefited from the videos I've watched, and appreciated the nuance: when there's ambiguity or contradictions, you have indicated such. May more peace be yours...
My pleasure! 🙏
Whenever I watch your content I feel a tremendous amount of love for you, human to human, and gratitude for your insights and how they help me with my own.
Thanks Doug :)
You are so welcome, Maia. 🙏😊
@@DougsDharma Good afternoon! Have a lovely sunday :) x
Hi Doug.
Really appreciate your well refined understanding of the teachings of Buddha and the spreading of awareness. On a previous video I was asking about Karma and yet after asking you about karma, you helped me realise that it was my attachment to *My* idea of karma that was obstructing a right view. Thank you for your responses as Im sure there are many here that have questions.
Much love
Thanks for sharing! 🙏
i hope you have your new tranquil peaceful home 🏠 now.i love your Dharmma talk and try to study the inner thoughtful wisdom from your channel.i have got so much mindfulness benefit from you.Thanks so much for your kindness.fc.Thailand 🙏
Thank you so much! 🙏😊
@@DougsDharma was the buddha alluding to everything is one, of one essence, one consciousness etc. This is also why Buddha never focused on if there was a god or placate to gods, or that you had to make sacrifices to the gods or do constant rituals, and that enlightenment is by your own effort, because all is self. And non-self would be a facet of the Supreme Self which is what we are
it's simply the end of conflict. No arguing with yourself or others.
May you be well and Happy Doug much appreciated!!!
Thank you kindly Fred, you as well! 🙏😊
In a sense, the Buddha spoke about "Nibbana here and now" in the vast majority of the Suttas. Sometimes it is by indirection, but the fact still remains! Freedom from suffering, Right View, the "temporary liberations of mind", freedom/destruction from the taints, non-self (which is Nibbana here and now - AN 9.1), freedom from greed, aversion, and delusion, and many more. I am honestly confused why so many people "look for Nibbana" only in the mentioning of "Nirodha"/cessation. The accounts of Nibbana as "removal of self-view"/non-self (from all Sankharas) are far more numerous. One could even argue that all Suttas pretty much point at the same things.
Just as in the great ocean there is but one taste - the taste of salt - so in this Dhamma, there is but one taste - the taste of liberation.
I guess the original meaning of nibbana in the Buddha’s time is rather common and simple, i.e., to quench the desire (so as to free us from its binding.) Later, people mystified and sanctified it, like Mahayana the 3 Dharma Stamps, and developed a lot of theories about it. Hence confusion caused.
As seen from SN12.70, “First, Susı̄ma, comes knowledge of the stability of the Dhamma, afterwards knowledge of Nibbāna.” That shows nibbana is of no importance to our practice.
Yes, I agree! At least in these cases he's being a bit more specific.
@@DougsDharma Sorry, my error. The last sentence should be:
Nibbana is of NO importance to our practice.
According to the buddha's words, it will be known afterwards.
Besides, even the enlightened monks in that Sutta don't know about it.
This makes me wanna grab a guitar and start a band
😄
Wonderful! Thank you! 🥰🙏
Glad you enjoyed it!😄
Thie was a really helpful video! I would also love to see a video on the "demons" which obstruct our motivation and drive we have on our path to enlighenment, if possible. Thanks for the amazing content Doug.
I did a video on the five "armies of Māra", the five hindrances, here: th-cam.com/video/dBdfBHkCTIQ/w-d-xo.html
Dear Doug, thank you for your video. It would be helpful, if you think so, to have the reference of which suttas those texts tefer to. So we can go and read them ourselves. Thank you, 🙏🏻
The references and links to suttas are all in the show notes below the video. 😊
Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure! 🙏
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 🙏🏻☸️🌸📿🙏🏻☮️🌸🙏🏻
🙏😊
This is very helpful.
Great, glad to hear it Todd. 🙏
Love the title so very True ❤
🙏
Oh yeah, I'm having a wonderful day as well! I woke up knowing that Roe was overturned! :)
You sound scottish to me doug i like your lectures great stuff
Not Scottish but do love Scotland! 😄
Check out Theragatha/therigatha, reflections of vimutta by the elders. A good English translation is called "Songs of the sons and daughters of the Buddha" by Andrew Schelling and Anne Waldman. Pay attention to the stories of Subha, Rajadatta, Sariputta (not included in the English anthology), Anand (not included in the English anthology), Bhadda Kundalakesa, Isidasi. If you want to explain it in a purely secular manner, the state of vimutta, i.e., liberation, is similar to lowering your neuroticism to zero.
Yes there are several good translations of these books out now. I've discussed the Therīgāthā in a few videos such as: th-cam.com/video/S2XkWDFWbvk/w-d-xo.html
Hi Doug. I hope you are well. I think I may be trying to connect ideas that are not the same and would appreciate direction. When you describe Nirvana you mainly mentioned clear mind, or seeing reality. But you did use the words "when we see reality is non-self" (6min 37sec). So I think deeply understanding/practicing of non-self is Nirvana is this world. I have been doing a dedicated sitting practice of resting in awareness for the last few months and to me this feels like the experience of non-self (being and not doing) (I am using the headspace ap which it indicates mainly uses Burmese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions). Yesterday I watched a good video called "How To Rest As Awareness - A Powerful Self Inquiry Exercise" by "Sunny Sharma" which he says is a Vedanta technique (he describes resting in awareness as being the Seer or Knower not the Doer - and he describes it like there is a self (maybe a universal sole) and in another video he calls he Seer the "I-I" and the Doer the "I am this", so seems different than non-self, but similar in the sense that there is something that is not the Doer which is our reaction/thoughts/perceptions/feelings). To me non-self, resting in awareness and Nirvana all sound like the same concept (and even enlightenment and awakening seem to be a result of deeply knowing non-self). I see that you do not have a video on resting in awareness. Is it not an early Buddhist technique?
UPDATE - I just watched your video on "Emptiness in Buddhism: Early Practice". These practices (3 and 4) and turning the mind to signless concentration does sound like resting in awareness to me - ie you are only a product of being alive without perception/non-perception - ie you are being. I know knowledge is not sitting practice and I am working on sitting practice as well (my goal is to do resting in awareness throughout active life). Would one of your courses cover recommendations of what to do next (or even an explanation of what I am feeling and what I should continue to incorporate resting in awareness or this signless concentration into my active life)? You did mention at the beginning of "Emptiness in Buddhism: Early Practice" that following the short and long discourses on emptiness would enable you to incorporate it into your life - do you have a suggested advanced reading on this so I can incorporate it into my active life?
This is a tough one to answer Michelle, you raise lots of complicated problems. I think of emptiness practices as very advanced practices, probably not intended for one who is starting out but rather for one who has mastered jhānas and other states of deep meditative absorption. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it. So I wouldn't expect emptiness practice necessarily to be very similar to a practice of open awareness. Open awareness practice I think of as more similar to mindfulness, though only one aspect of mindfulness. It's just opening the mind to what is there within experience. And if we're doing that by "being the Seer or the Knower" we are not doing it in terms of non-self, but rather in terms of Self, which is opposite to early Buddhist practice, though it is more in line with how some later Buddhist schools practice. There is a lot of complexity here that may get you bogged down. I would suggest for now simply focus on one practice that you find worthwhile and keep learning! 😊
Thank you so much for the video! Can you talk about Nirvana as (near) culminating stage in the 16 stages model from the visuddhimagga?
I tend to focus more on topics from early Buddhism, but maybe eventually!
It is the final unbinding
Yes that's a good metaphor for it, one that Thanissaro Bhikkhu uses a lot.
Good detailed lecture, what your saying is to aspire for nirvana is to purify the senses through Jnana and to reveal or realize the true mind that is tainted by these asravas?
Well that would be a later interpretation of the process, but if it works for you then fine!
True
🙏
What do you think of my observation: "Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space we can choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom" V.Frankl. We can either react unskillfully with clinging and aversion, or we can respond with wisdom and equanimity, by letting go of the drama of the three poisons. Such a response would be a nirvanic moment in my eyes. Our life, with practice and mindfulness, could be an increasing series of little daily nirvanic nuggets, yes?
Yes exactly. I discussed a bit of this and mentioned Frankl's quote in my earlier video on the Fourth Noble Truth: th-cam.com/video/UgEHLKV7DcI/w-d-xo.html
🙏
🙏😊
I guess the original meaning of nibbana in the Buddha’s time is rather common and simple, i.e., to quench (the desire so as to free us from its binding.) Later, people mystified and sanctified it, like Mahayana the 3 Dharma Stamps, and developed a lot of theories about it. Hence confusion caused.
As seen from SN12.70, “First, Susı̄ma, comes knowledge of the stability of the Dhamma, afterwards knowledge of Nibbāna.” That shows nibbana is of no importance to our practice.
Yes, well it can be a spur to practice for some, but it can also become something of an obsession.
@@DougsDharma Sorry, my error. The last sentence should be:
Nibbana is of NO importance to our practice.
Even monks enlightened in that sutta don't know about it.
According to the Buddha's words, Nibbana will be known afterwards.
Hi doug
This one say Nirvana is Doug Self,
Doug Thatagatha I is Nirvana.
Mahayana's say One Vihicle, which is Nirvana.
Sun say Nature, Nature is Nirvana.
Sun say Doug's Self nature, which is Nirvana.
Doug's real Nature is Nirvana, which is Doug's Thatagatha I.
At Udanasutta Buddha sing about Nirvana.
Nirvana is Nondual, the Transcendental Absolute.
When Doug believe Nirvana to be Doug's real I, Then the faith of the five well completed.
Samadhi and Pranya is come true together.
Hi Doug, do you know in which way the buddha (or anyone else) supposedly received knowledge of the ancient buddhas?
I did a video on past and future Buddhas awhile back: th-cam.com/video/8CP-ScOCHJ0/w-d-xo.html
Dear Doug
Did you read Steven C.Hayes' paper on connections between Buddhism and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment training)?
It would be great if you make a video about that paper
Buddhism and acceptance and commitment therapy
Author: Steven C.Hayes
Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
Volume 9, Issue 1, Winter 2002, Pages 58-66
He has another paper: "Making sense of spirituality" that could be interesting for you
best regards
I'm not familiar with that, but thanks for the suggestion.
Nargajuna had the right answer to this question
From what I understand, nirvana is a complete sense of non-self. It’s a feeling of unity and oneness with the universe because all conceptions of duality have disappeared. What I don’t understand is, why virtue is required to attain nirvana. Why is this a crucial part of the path when, nirvana is simply the elimination of the self. Slavoj Zizek referenced Daisetsu Suzuki when he said that you can be enlightened, and also do terrible things. This is because Suzuki believed that being enlightened made it easier to kill someone in war. Because if you have completely lost the concept of dualism, when you are about to kill someone, you don’t think “I have killed someone” you think “this person has died.” Of course I want to live a compassionate life, but I feel like it’s a little bit confusing to have 2 sections of Buddhist practice, one being on compassion, the other on nirvana. I need someone to clear this up for me please.
I have a number of videos on the goal of early Buddhist practice, which is the total extinction of greed, hatred, and delusion. Later forms of Buddhism interpreted this goal in different ways, some of which are very philosophically sophisticated and therefore can be confusing. If you are confused, I'd suggest sticking to the earlier interpretation. 🙂
@@DougsDharma I've kind of been supplimenting with different kinds of buddhism for the past 3 years. And what I've found is that all the more mystical aspects of buddhism are what are keeping me from following a specific school. That, and I find myself agreeing with everyone one of them in some way or another.
This guy surely is the reincarnation of sariputra....
😄
my dear "lamma" lol jokes aside, if I may ask, does the legend of sariputtra being still around till maitreya teaches belong to early buddhism?
Sariputra can't reincarnate, can't be reborn, because he has reached the final liberation, the Arahantship.
@@Mrtrainer100 does that equal to the seven bumhi in tibetan budhism?
many thanks
@@howdareyou5800 no, it's very different.
🧘♂️THE TECHNIQUE👁️
The goal of this technique is to activate your Pineal and Pituitary Glands/ Third Eye. Begin by laying down in a safe place. Do a basic meditation to relax your body and clear your mind. Once you are relaxed, you are going to start squeezing and expanding your brain. Your brain is attached to muscles and tendons that let you expand and squeeze it. Bring your focus to your forehead and try squeezing and expanding your frontal lobe. Concentrate and keep trying until you can get it. Once you can feel it moving then move to the center of your brain, (this is where the glands are located, the Eye of RA) and do the same thing. Squeeze then stretch it out, feel it expand as if past your skull, squeeze, expand... After a few minutes move to the back of your brain where the Claustrum is located. This is where the Sacred Oil is produced. Do the same, squeeze, expand over and over. Once you get the hang of it, start doing it in a wave motion from the front to the back. Continue squeezing and expanding repeatedly until you can start to feel the fluids moving, such as mucus running down the back of your throat. Some people, myself included, experience something that sounds and feels like a crust breaking off the outside of your brain, this is normal. The objective is to get your brain working, you have never used it like this before. Once you get the fluids moving you want to push the Oil from the Claustrum in the back of the brain down the back of the spine, down your nervous system and back up the front. Using your back muscles, push the fluid down the back of your spine to the bottom. Squeezing your muscles in your lower area like your buttocks and sphincter. Then start pushing the fluid up the front of your spine. Men as well as women have kegel muscles, use these like a pump. Using your stomach and your chest muscles, continue pushing the fluid up the front of your spine into your brain, pumping the fluid up the front of the nervous system into the Pineal and Pituitary Glands, the Promised Land of Milk and Honey. Continue repeating this pattern, from the front of your brain to the back of your brain, down the back of your spine to the bottom, and up the front of your spine into your brain. Repeat this process as long as you can. When I did this I was not staring at a clock but it felt like an hour. Realistically I would say 15 to 30 minutes. I did it until all of a sudden I couldn't close my eyes! Not even to blink. This lasted for several minutes. At first I thought I broke my brain! As soon as I was able to relax enough to barely close my eyes, I slipped...
Some things to note:
1. I know to a lot of people this sounds weird, (like it's not already weird) but you need to make sure that the Moon is in your Sun Star sign. The Moon affects the fluids in your body and helps the Oil be created.
2. The ancient gnostic text talk about sexual abstinence in order to get this to work. I refrained from having sex for two weeks before I did this.
3. Make sure you are in a good place in your head and that you have pure thoughts. Because if you don't, you won't go all the way to the end and meet the Light.
4. If this does not work the first time, try decalcifying your brain for six months and then come back and try again. I put in a reverse osmosis machine under my kitchen sink for $150.00 and I quit using fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride calcifies the pineal gland, which is what we are trying to activate.
5. This last one is a WARNING. Working on yourself is PARAMOUNT beforehand so that you have the best positive experience you can. Also, you need those skills for afterwards. I was super high for about 2 weeks and then I became insanely negative. It took a lot of hard work to crawl out of that hole and then maintain the connection, so you need to be prepared for that mentally. SUICIDE HAS OCCURRED IN THE UNPREPARED. THIS IS LIFE CHANGING. Make sure you have some good meditation techniques. Maybe have a friend handy to lean on a little.
In my experience I was granted one wish, I wanted to be emotionally healed from the damage caused by being an innocent man on death row. I was also gifted with a vision. The Chrystal Light Being touched my heart in order to heal it so that I could love my family properly, and it showed me that everyone on Earth has this Light Being inside of them. Everyone will have their own experience. This is how to have a true Kundalini Awakening, but it's also called the Anointing of the Christ/Chrism Oil, the return of Christ is the return of this knowledge to you. This is what it means to have Christ in you inorder to enter Heaven, it's something you do while you are alive. Good luck my friend.
I love you❤️
JC🌟
What is 'in this very life' ?
Well I hope the video clarifies that somewhat ... it means not at some way distant time such as in a future life, but right here and right now.
Does Buddhism offer true spirituality?
What is spirituality? What are the parameters of so called 'True' spirituality?
@@RLekhy unconditional peace of mind
@@Tridib_Tinkel then its synonym is Buddha's teachings!🙏
Sir please expose hindu dharm (cast sistam)
I discussed it in this video: th-cam.com/video/hefnN8THmuI/w-d-xo.html
Thought experiment:
Say the universe only had 10 people. Of that 10, 9 of them are truly enlighten but 1 is not. Now let's say that 1 is very jealous of those 9 and wants to kill them Would those 9 protect themselves and kill that 1 or would they let themselves die off and let enlightenment from the universe Parish?
What do you think?
My views are those enlighten beings will not kill that one jealous guy because enlighten beings have no sense of 'I' or ego or 'me'.Our body is a composite body of atoms like lego bricks to form a figure ,a man etc.After death ,the atoms will disintegrate back to fundamental lego bricks.This is the 'the conditioned world'as buddha proclaimed which is unsatable or impermanent.But he also expounded that beneath this conditioned world,there is an 'unconditioned reality' or deathless reality.
@@DougsDharma I think this shows the lacking in buddism. Its to passive fundamentally its takes the non Liberated to save liberated. Attachment pushes us forward liberation is stale and boring. We shouldn't give up our suffering we should learn how to love our pains.
@@tanjohnny6511 what do oyu think j btw I don't mean to disrespect buddhism I actually rather follow closest to a buddist believe out of an other life practice.
@@huntertony56 Yes ,we can learn from our suffering but that does not mean we intentionally go and create suffering.Already even if we are not in jail or in hospital ,we suffer from mental suffering like,depression ,jealousy,anger,loneliness etc ,This mental aspect will make us do unskillfull things like drugs,alcohol or commit crimes.Lets look at the big picture of life.We are born,study,make money,married,retire and then pass away in 80 years.My first conclusion is,this world is not our permanent home,we are just passing thru.And this is what buddha saw when he went out of his palace.Our mind is the most important then our body.I have seen happy handicapped patients and suicidal rich beautiful people while i was working in a hospital.That shows that our mind is chief.🙂
It's all in your head. There is nothing.
@Blenpt Narsh A skilful man, endowed with all qualities,
Powerful, unassailable, well-qualified, instructed in many arts,
Perfect in archery, devoted to many crafts,
Perfect in knowing the various forms of magical illusion, keen on the welfare of the world
He takes his mother and father, together with his sons and daughters
And enters a wilderness, full of many hostile forces.
He conjures up many men, heroic champions,
Gets away safely, and again goes back to his home;
Just so at that time when a wise Bodhisattva
Extends the great friendliness to all in the world of beings,
Having passed beyond the four Maras, and the two levels,
He permanently abides in the best of concentrations, but he does not experience enlightenment.
@Blenpt Narsh their suffering seems real to them...
@Blenpt Narsh no, not that.
@Blenpt Narsh everything we perceive as being real is nothing but the perceptions of our own mind
Isnt this the extreme of nihilism? If i understand it correctly the 1 aspect of the term emptiness means that there is no 'nothing' because there is not a thing outside of this web of interconnectedness. Bob Thurman talks a lot about this