What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

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SarathW
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What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by SarathW »

What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?
Many of us can give definitions for Nibbana by quoting sutta.
What I need here is what you really understand by Nibbana.
If we practice without knowing where we are going we might end up with somewhere else.

My understanding Nibbana is that for somehow I may be able to develop my mind free from the thought subject and object duality.
If I do not have the subject and object duality then I will not think this is I me or myself.
If I do not have the self-identification there will be nothing to die or re-born.
Please feel free to give your opinion.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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markandeya
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by markandeya »

Nibbana brings peace, its cools down all temperaments, nibbana dissolves greed, enmity, nibbana is mindfullnes, nibbana is the awareness, nibbana is selfless, nibbana is the centre of meditation, nibbana is the one leading us onwards, nibbana is outside of all conditions, nibbana knows not self and other.
SarathW
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by SarathW »

nibbana is outside of all conditions, nibbana knows not self and other.
This statement seems contradictory.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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markandeya
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by markandeya »

SarathW wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 9:44 pm
nibbana is outside of all conditions, nibbana knows not self and other.
This statement seems contradictory.
Maybe your bringing to much thought into it and restricted by words, I was just following your thread as a reflection. What is it that is nibbana is condition by, is nibbana another condition. If Nibbana leads to no self as individual realization then how can someone else have a self.
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equilibrium
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by equilibrium »

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WindDancer
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by WindDancer »

Thanks for the discussion of this topic. I am interested in learning more.

For me, Nibbana is freedom from clinging, grasping and the drive to become. It is letting go of trying to grasp happiness from the elusive smoke that is the conditioned world- things which are unsatisfactory, not permanent and not self. Though I have a long way to go on the Path, I have experienced the futility of living this way, and I prefer to experience the peace, joy, contentment and freedom in the unconditioned, Nibbana.

I am open to learning more.....

WindDancer
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Bundokji
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by Bundokji »

My approach to Nibbana has something to do with words and how they affect my mind. When i look at my mind, i find using "positive" terms such as Nibbana or enlightenment can be problematic. Therefore, i prefer to use "the end of suffering".

A mindset that is driven by "ending suffering" is investigative and alert, with minimal amount of unjustified conclusions.
And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"

This was the last word of the Tathagata.
SarathW
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by SarathW »

"ending suffering"
This resonates with me too.
Is this the equanimity?
Then it should not be the household equanimity.
Nibbana is something more than equanimity as far as I understand.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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DooDoot
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by DooDoot »

Nibbana is peace; it is coolness with no defilements; mindfulness & awareness dissolves greed, enmity, then nibbana appears; nibbana is selfless, nibbana is the supreme object of meditation; contentment with nibbana is what leads the mind (citta) onwards; nibbana is unaffected by all conditions; nibbana has no self (Atman) and no other (Para Atman).
There is always an official executioner. If you try to take his place, It is like trying to be a master carpenter and cutting wood. If you try to cut wood like a master carpenter, you will only hurt your hand.

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Bundokji
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by Bundokji »

SarathW wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:13 am
"ending suffering"
This resonates with me too.
Is this the equanimity?
Then it should not be the household equanimity.
Nibbana is something more than equanimity as far as I understand.
The teachings are often likened to a medicine. Fantasies about health (a positive) can never be a cure. For the unenlightened, Nibanna is a mere fantasy, and engaging in fantasies is a distraction from what is taking place and exacerbates the problem in my opinion. If i want to engage in fantasies, there are unlimited ways of doing it, porn being one (and possibly less dishonesty is involved in fantasizing about porn than fantasizing about Nibbana)

The first noble truth of suffering is a declaration and an act of acknowledgement, and because it is the first of four noble truths, it sets the right mental attitude from the outset. The idea of Nibbana (as opposite to the end of suffering) is only valid when the third noble truth is thought about in isolation from the other three (especially the first two) which leads no where.

Noting that "suffering" is mentioned in each of the four noble truths is an emphasis on the nature of the task. Equanimity is another fantasy by the way.
And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"

This was the last word of the Tathagata.
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WindDancer
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by WindDancer »

Thanks to each of you.... :namaste:
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pegembara
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by pegembara »

You observe all the arisings/ceasings(sankhara) in meditation. After a while you realise there is "something" that does not arise nor cease. A sense of profound peace is felt punctuated by the sankharas which are felt as a disturbances.

Like so:

Image
If we were to make an analogy, it's like a water jar whose bottom has been smashed. No matter how much water we may pour into it, nothing stays in the jar. Everything that may be formed in line with the nature of the khandhas can still be formed, but nothing sticks because the vessel — unawareness, the chief culprit — has disintegrated. As soon as sankharas form — blip! — they vanish. They simply pass by, disappearing, disappearing, because there's no place to keep them, no one who owns them. The nature that realizes that nothing is its owner is a nature that has reached its fullness. It is thus a genuinely pure nature and no longer a burden that needs to be watched over or protected from danger ever again.

Maha Boowa

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And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by Spiny Norman »

SarathW wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 9:20 pm What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?
Stillness rather than movement.
Buddha save me from new-agers!
SarathW
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by SarathW »

Stillness rather than movement.]
Do you mean a sold rock?
;)
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Spiny Norman
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Re: What is Nibbana in your own words and understanding?

Post by Spiny Norman »

SarathW wrote: Thu Aug 09, 2018 11:35 pm
Stillness rather than movement.]
Do you mean a sold rock?
;)
I am too mean to buy rocks. :tongue:
Buddha save me from new-agers!
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