When studying the teachings of the Buddha, it is helpful to have some understanding of the context, i.e. the time and place where the Buddha lived. For example the twelve links of dependent origination would have made more sense to people at that time. They were based on concepts and ideas about reincarnation that were known in ancient India. The Buddha tweaked the ideas he had heard during his own spiritual wandering to fit his understanding of how existence comes to be. He showed that it was a process, a causal flow that didn’t require a soul (an atman) to explain it.
To our modern ears some of the concepts can seem hard to fathom. They are from a different culture, a different time and place, and the earliest texts are in an ancient language called Pali. Which is said to also be the language the Buddha spoke. Many Buddhists will use Pali or Sanskrit terms which to the average Joe walking down the street are meaningless.
Nirvana (Sanskrit) or nibbana (Pali) is one such word. If you say Nirvana the first thing that pops into many people’s heads is a rock band from the nineties. If you say nibbana, many people imagine it being like a lost city. The lost city of Nibbana.
I am guilty of using Pali words at times to describe things in my writing. I am trying to change this and have more empathy for the reader. I often use the word nibbana. Translators have a difficult job of trying to find equivalent words in English that convey the same meaning as the Pali. Sometimes there are no words in English that adequately convey the meaning. We simply have not encountered such concepts before in our culture and so have no words for them in our language.
Nibbana though is something that can be conveyed in English.
Some people are bewildered about how enthusiastic I am about the Dhamma. I am from generation ‘X’ and boy did we like to party. I have seen it all. Sex, drugs, and travelling. I was well into the rave scene when I was younger. I popped all sorts of chemicals and partied into the wee hours and beyond. I used to like drugs a lot. I liked to party. It was all I lived for really. Now I am nearly fifty and after many years of mental illness and more comedowns than I would have liked, I have become a bit dispassionate towards it all. It no longer holds the same interest and fascination as it once did. It is sort of dissatisfying. The pleasure doesn’t last and the comedown can be horrible — the suffering one experiences afterwards seems to far outweigh the pleasure. It doesn’t lead to lasting happiness and inner peace.
Indeed, a friend some months back gave me some psychedelic chocolate (laced with psylocybin). For a long time it sat on my bookshelf tempting me, and I contemplated whether to take it or not. In a moment of weakness I gave in and ate it, wondering if it would enhance meditation. It was strong — blew my head off. I was seeing worlds and beings coming out of my blanket. Devas all around me, spirits that are beyond anything I can adequately put into words. I saw beautiful colours and heard weird sounds, and a strange thing happened. I found it dissatisfying.
I actually sat there and tried to meditate, but the psychedelic visuals were too distracting and there was an unpleasant restlessness about it all. I kept trying to bring the mind to stillness and not succeeding. It felt like my consciousness had been invaded by another entity. I didn’t really enjoy the trip to be honest. I was relieved when it wore off and I could meditate again.
I came to the conclusion that meditation works better when one is sober. Psychedelics don’t enhance the experience. When the effects of the trip wore off I found I didn’t want to experience that ever again. I was quite happy with just meditation on its own from now on, and actually preferred it to the effects of drugs. Something I never thought I would say.
Anyway, what is nibbana? One English translation of the word is ‘extinguishment’. Which unfortunately sounds rather negative. Who wants to be extinguished?
You have to understand it in its context. It is about extinguishing the fire of craving, about the extinguishment of suffering. Nibbana is when the fire of craving goes cool. It is the end of greed, hate, and delusion.
In Buddhism, craving is said to be the cause of suffering. So naturally the end of suffering is its extinguishment. So, nibbana/nirvana is the blowing out of the fire of craving.
It is craving that drives one on from one existence to the next. With each existence always ending in sorrow and death. Every existence ends this way, even heavenly beings experience grief and death.
The pain of wanting
Craving is intrinsically unpleasant as well. When we want something we create a feeling of lack in ourselves. We cannot feel happy or content until we have what it is we want. This is a painful experience. Longing does not feel nice, it can feel like torture. That compulsion to have something can make us behave in unskilful ways that create suffering for ourselves and those around us. It can cause us to make compromises with our morality. There is also no guarantee that we will get what we want. Someone else may get it before us, or it can be taken away from us.
And even if we do get what we want it is never as wonderful as the image we create in our mind about it. There is always something a bit dissatisfying, dissapointing about it in the end. Reality doesn’t match up to the fantasies and expectations we have about it in our mind. And it doesn’t last, pleasure always wears off and when it ends we feel pain and want it back again. The memory of it isn’t enough, and memories can change. Impermanence is a bummer.
Then there is craving for something we dislike to be otherwise. For something to not exist. This can manifest as hatred. This craving when it is strong finds fault in everything. Whatever you look at, it isn’t good enough, there’s always something wrong with it. It is a miserable state of mind. It can become depression and the thirst for non-existence. It can lead to suicide, but that doesn’t solve anything. If craving has not been extinguished, existence will continue in another form.
It is the fault-finding mind which is the problem, not what is disliked.
And there is the craving for existence, to become someone. It is this craving for continued existence that drives biology to pass on its genes, that drives life ever onward from one state of becoming to another. This is unsatisfying because whatever existence arises, it always ends in separation and death. And having a body is also bound up with suffering. It needs to be maintained, can’t remain comfortable in the same posture for too long. It has needs that need attending to. Things can go wrong with it. It ages, it gets sick, it dies. Having a body is a burden, and if we get attached to it, it betrays us in the end, because it changes and dies. Beauty and strength doesn’t last.
There are some existences that are formless, where beings don’t have a body, but this too is not a solution, that existence will come to an end when the kamma that brought it into being is exhausted. And eventually, one will incarnate into a body again.
This is a very brief description of craving and how it causes suffering. I encourage the reader to explore it further both through their own investigation and meditation. What I write is just a basic sketch to keep this article short, it is up to the reader to explore it further.
Our choices generate kamma (karma in sanskrit). Kamma means action or deeds. And kamma is what conditions our consciousness. Greed, hate, and delusion lead to lower states of consciousness. Generosity, kindness, and clarity lead to higher states of consciousness. The state of consciousness at the point of death decides what existence one will be reborn into. Buddhist cosmology correlates with different states of consciousness, and these can be experienced in meditation. Heaven and hell can be experienced here and now in this very life through the choices that we make.
Not all craving is problematic. There is something called chanda (right desire). For example, the desire to end suffering and realise nibbana is what drives one forward on the path of practise. Without that desire one wouldn’t make effort to realise the end of suffering. Some aspirations are useful on the path.
The extinguishment of craving is a gradual process. A process that requires one to use desire and attachment in a skilfull way in order to reach its end.
Once the goal is reached then even that craving is set aside, but not until then. The path begins with clinging to right view and to virtue. With wanting to become a virtuous person. This brings positive results and decreases some of the suffering. Then one clings to meditation practise and becomes a meditator. This decreases suffering even more. The final step is to let go of all views, to stop clinging to everything. Realising that anything that is conditioned cannot last. But this is an advanced stage that happens right at the end of the path, it is the letting go of the path itself; but this stage can’t be reached without it. You need the path to get there. When you reach the destination then you can let go of the path, but not till then, or you will get lost in the sea of Samsara.
The whole of the path is a gradual ending of suffering. In each stage of development, suffering grows less. With perfected virtue and mastery of meditation, ignorance becomes greatly weakened, and then we see clearly enough to be able to let go of clinging to everything. To let go of attachment to all conditioned phenomena. When this happens craving goes completely cool, and then one fully realises nibbana, and the complete end of suffering.
The fire goes out.
What happens then when you die? That is a mystery that only a fully enlightened being who has died can answer. And as none of them are reborn anywhere, none have ever come back to tell us. The answer to this question doesn’t really matter, it can become a distraction from what is important. And what is important if you are a Buddhist is practising the noble eightfold path and putting an end to suffering.
Nibbana is nothing to be feared. Everyone who realises nibbana says it is the best, the highest happiness, supreme bliss. Something you will never regret. Something you can never find fault with. It is complete and lasting peace and freedom from Samsara (the wheel of birth and death, of becoming). Nibbana is also sometimes called the deathless. This just means that it is without death. It is said to be something better than what can be found in the world or any of the heavenly existences.
Which doesn’t sound too bad to me. Sign me up!
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