Probably all of the theoretics you wanted to know, and then some.
Starting from the Beginning
To formally and fundamentally understand a philosophy of life, it is essential to understand the ideal or standard of living it calls for.
In order to do this, one must start from the rudimentary principles of this philosophy. It is these first principles that set the groundwork for more complex notions, which are amalgamated, collated, and finally executed as a philosophy or way of being. The Buddhist notion of enlightenment or “nirvana” is no different, for not simply is it an ideal to strive for, but it manifests wholly in the life of the individual after it is attained.
A Brief Etymology
The term nirvāṇais composed of the verbal root √vā , “to blow”, in the form of past participle vāna “blown,”prefixed by the term nis, meaning “out” . Thus, it describes the state of having been blown out, or the action of blowing out (nirvana is often referred to as the extinguishing of something).
In either case, this is a reference to the lack of something that was present in the individual prior to attaining enlightenment.
The Four Noble Truths
The state of having attained nirvana can be described as lacking something. What this something is, is elucidated through some of the fundamental teachings found in Buddhism: the Four Noble Truths.
In the Third Noble Truth, it is craving, or desire, which is blown out. This craving is the desire for things, a desire which motivates and drives all humans. When Nirvana is attained, this craving is relinquished, and so one has developed non-reliance on it. Nirvana can be described as a state of being where the individual ceases to suffer, and is brought about by the cessation of craving or desire.
There is, then, a correlation between one’s desiring and one’s suffering: the absence of one leads to the absence of the other.
If nirvana is a state without suffering or craving, then it is necessary to explicate the connection between the two.
This connection is elucidated in the Second Noble Truth, which states that craving leads to renewed existence (i.e., reincarnation, being born again in successive lives); it is accompanied by delight and lust; it is centred on sensory delights (pleasure from things in and of the world), and likewise the existence or extermination of those things.
In light of the Second Noble Truth, there are three kinds of craving:
(i) craving for sensual pleasures,
(ii) for existence (i.e., that we long to possess these things, to keep them around),
(iii) and for extermination (i.e., that we wish some things wouldn’t exist, or some things wouldn’t happen).
Sensual pleasures are pleasures related to the body or enjoyed through the senses. A prominent example of this is sexual pleasure, its state of desire being lust.
Craving for existencecan be described as the desire for certain things to be, such as the desire for the ownership of a new car, or a new partner.
Subsequently, the craving for extermination is the desire for the lack of something, such as the desire to not be in pain.
Desire is the Problem
Craving in and of itself is problematic for the reason that it cannot be fulfilled completely, only insufficiently and temporarily. Though it might be fulfilled for a short time, there is the possibility that it might not be fulfilled at all, that one might not obtain not what one desires.
Likewise, one might obtain what one is averse to, which in itself is painful. The objects of one’s desire are mercurial at best – sensual pleasures are fleeting and satiate for only a short period of time (e.g. cigarettes). All other objects of desire experience change over time and are subject to decay.
Enlightenment is Non-Attachment
Nirvana is a state in which one neither desires (in the sense of craves), nor suffers. To desire implicitly recalls the notion of attachment – thus nirvana is a state of non-attachment for the enlightened individual.
To be attached is to cling to pleasures and objects outside of oneself.
The very notion of selfhood, the notion that things have an intrinsic nature and exist apart from oneself, and that one exists apart from things “outside” the self, perpetuates this. To live in this way perpetuates clinging, which perpetuates suffering – and so it seems as if there is no escape from clinging, and, subsequently, suffering. To be born, to age, to die – all of these, as the First Noble Truth states, cause the individual to suffer.
To Exist is to Suffer
To exist is to exist in a state of suffering.
Even if one might not always suffer mental anguish or physical pain, the Sanskrit term utilized here is that of dukkha – which can likewise mean “disappointment, frustration, anxiety, discontentment, dissatisfaction, lack of fulfillment, falling short of perfection, and the absence of ease” . Thus, one is always in a constant state of want, of not hitting the mark that one wishes to, or, in other words, a state of desire.
How to Cease to Suffer: The Eightfold Path
The answer and cure to this all-pervading suffering of existence can be found in the Fourth Noble Truth. It states that the cessation of suffering is found under the practice of the Eightfold Path.
The Path can be described as a set of regulations for the individual attempting to attain enlightenment.
Undertaking it, the individual undergoes a complete psychological and pragmatic metamorphosis, entailed by the actions and mindset prescribed. This metamorphosis is achieved by following a cohesive and prescriptive course of action that seeks to develop virtues in the individual, cultivating compassion for all beings, selflessness, and knowledge of not only Buddhist teaching, but of the world as it truly is.
A Closer Look
The Eightfold Path is divided into three groups: Wisdom, Virtue, and Concentration.
Within the grouping of Wisdom are the virtues of right intention and right view, both of which entail that the individual has some grasp of Buddhist teaching (e.g. impermanence, dependent origination, no-self teaching).Right intention likewise requires that one renounce sensual desire, reject ill will towards others, and abstain from all forms of cruelty .These steps are necessary in that one requires preliminary knowledge of the teaching prior to advancing on the various stages of the path, but likewise in that they are gradually better understood as one progresses and are ultimately fundamental in attaining nirvana.
Within the grouping ofVirtue are the virtues of right speech, right action, and right livelihood, each of which entail that the adherent perform some kind of training, and develop certain actions or mindsets in lieu of others.
Right speech is concerned with conducting correct speech, meaning to say speech that is free from malice or deleterious to the speaker or the object
spoken about.
Right action is concerned with refraining from murder or action that harms living beings, theft and sensual misconduct (actions which are overly concerned with pleasure, and cause attachment to them).
Right livelihood is directed more-so at lay individuals than
monastics, as it is concerned with procuring a fitting mode of life (i.e. business practice); one is prohibited from establishing a living by dabbling in the trade of weapons, human beings, or intoxicants.
Within the grouping of Concentration are virtues of right effort,right mindfulness, andright concentration . Altogether these refer to one’s mindset, and how one’s mind should be ordered in one’s undertakings; the latter two are focused on meditation.
Right effort serves as the transitory step between advancing one’s virtues and advancing one’s mind, and is itself concerned with both rousing zeal and providing proper mental preparation for the acquiring of virtues. In the same vein of thought, it is also focused on the elimination of unwholesome mental states (i.e. mental states that perpetuate vices such as greed and anger), and the establishment of wholesome mental states (i.e. mental states that perpetuate virtues such as compassion) .
Right mindfulnessand right concentration are concerned with meditative practices, the end goal being
that these will establish mental purity and bring wisdom.
They are concerned with two forms of meditation: the first, serenity meditation, thought to free the individual’s mind of imperfections
and impediments to enlightenment, and the second, insight meditation, which allows the individual meditating to gain key insight about the world as it truly ‘is’, and so act accordingly.
In Summation
In summary, the Eightfold path guides the adherent with a series of ethical and moral precepts conducive to bringing about nirvana; there is an inherent connection between the teachings of compassion and “right” conduct professed in the “stages” of the Path and the state of nirvana.
If walking the Path in such a way (i.e. developing these virtues) is necessary to enlightenment, then the enlightened individual is surely the perfection of these virtues.
Buddhist Practice as Developing Insight
As aforementioned, the insight meditation practiced by the individual following the Eightfold Path (via right concentration) allows him to see the world as it truly “is”.
Seeing the world in this way is conducive to his attaining enlightenment. Likewise, practicing right view and right intention imply that there are certain realities unbenounced to the layman that the adherent must accept; he must be knowledgeable about certain basic facets of the Buddha’s
teaching.
Impermanence and Karma
Nirvana is the full knowledge and realization of these supposed teachings and realities. These truths which were hinted at earlier are of the impermanenceand dependent origination of corporeal things, karmaand the lack of fintrinsic nature of the self (i.e., the “no-self“). In the moment in which these things become most clearly and completely understood, there you have insight, and there you have nirvana.
In the context of Buddhist teaching, impermanenceand dependent origination are the foundation of suffering; karmaand rebirthperpetuate this suffering, and it is the illusory notion of the self that allows suffering to be ingratiated into one’s everyday life and actions (thus accumulating karma, thus perpetuating the cycle of rebirth).
The Self and its Illusion
As stated in the Fourth Noble Truth, the five aggregates (the components) that compose the self are subject to suffering; as long as one thinks in terms of selfhood, one is subject to suffering.
These five aggregates that compose the self are: material form, feelings, perceptions, mental formationsand consciousness.
In a word, the aggregates are anything that we think of as the subject of ourselves – the soul, the body, and our experiences.
As these are always in a constant state of flux and change, there is no intrinsic self. There is merely a self that exists conventionally, as understood within the context of a superficial, conventional reality. One’s material form (one’s body) is constantly changing: be it growth, sickness, health, or aging. Such is the same with the other aggregates, as, in any point in time one is adifferent being; always flowing, never staying quite the same.
No Inherent Being
It is dependent origination that both explains and allows for such a phenomenon.
The self is conditioned via causes external to the self, and these compose not only the self, but the world that the self inhabits. The self, then, is not intrinsically a self, but only conventionally so.Causes are dependent on and derived from other causes, and so somehow there exists a chain of causes, each dependent on others (how this is possible, however, is not adequately addressed). This in mind, there is continuity of the self – and this continuity is what allows for the existence of karma and rebirth, from which the enlightened individual escapes.
Though the self never stays quite the same, there is enough continuity between the mental attributes of oneself and one’s consciousness for rebirth and karmic effect to be possible. This cycle is that which the enlightened individual escapes.
But What is Nirvana Like?
To understand how this escape from rebirth and karma is possible, how the perfection of the virtues exhibited in the Eightfold Path is possible, how nirvana itself is possible, despite all of the explication above, the shift is simplistic and binary.
Nirvana is a shift from (complete) ignorance to (complete) knowledge.
As the twelvefold formula of conditioning links states, it is ignorance which conditions existence and engenders suffering. If nirvana is a state of being, it is likewise a state of knowledge, and a state of knowledge where there is no ignorance of the fundamental principles and facets that both govern and qualify the world at large.
Thus, the enlightened individual is fully knowledgeable of reality qua reality, and, in being so, is happy, peaceful, free from perturbation, dispassionate, and disenchanted . The individual no longer thinks in terms of self, and, thinking so, fully exemplifies the compassionate ideal set forth by the Eightfold Path; he is non-attached, neither restrained by thoughts of selfhood and selfish
concern for the self of the world.
Though he exists within the world, having understood the world for the impermanent thing that it is, he exists outside of it. Nirvana, is, in a word, the sublime, the complete and utter understanding of the dharma experienced by the Buddha in meditation under the Bodhi tree.
Bibliography
- Collins, Steven. Nirvana: concept, imagery, narrative. n.p.: Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010., 2010.
- Welbon, G. Richard. “On Understanding the Buddhist Nirvāṇa.” History of Religions, 1966.
- Gowans, Christopher W. Philosophy of the Buddha . n.p. :London; New York: Routledge, 2003., 2003.
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