Nirvana - What exactly is it?
- Thread starter Cypheran
- Start date
Yeah, I'm not all that "spiritual"...I'll go with this answer.
My second guess would be a cold beer on a hot day.
If Nirvana could be defined just by words, it wouldn't be that which people try to describe it to be. To me it seems that nirvana was never meant to be an eternal destination for anyone, it is rather something to achieve, a purpose that was never meant to be achieved but to strive for. Faith has a lot to do with it. Nirvana of buddhism is meant to extinguish the past and to bring forth the future, unlike that which we lived in.
kmguru
Staff member
Sounds like Chemical composition to me...in the brain....the L-dopas, Serotonin, serines etc just in the right amount...
"Lets you feel total euphoria and oneness with the universe?" Then there is no you if "you" are at one with the universe, correct?
I have been earnestly practicing to reach Nirvana/Satori for a while now, I have learned a lot from what needs to be done from eastern philosophers like Alan watts and awakened individuals like Eckhart Tolle. I am still finding it increasingly difficult and confusing, I have looked into the self-inquiry method by Sri Ramana Maharshi too.
I know that I am suppose to stop the chatter in the skull and I am able to keep silence in the mind with no thoughts but only for a very short period of time. I do ask my self where the thoughts come from and who is listening to them but nothing seems to work.
I know that I am suppose to stop the chatter in the skull and I am able to keep silence in the mind with no thoughts but only for a very short period of time. I do ask my self where the thoughts come from and who is listening to them but nothing seems to work.
Yazata
Valued Senior Member
The short quote that Epictetus posted from Wikipedia best captures the technical religious meaning of the word:
"Nirvāṇa is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha. The word literally means "blowing out"—referring in the Buddhist context, to the blowing out of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion."
'Sramanic' refers to the ancient Indian traditions of the wanderers, itinerent religious/philosophical teachers similar (in some ways at least) to those in Greece during the same years. They existed as sort of a counter-point to the Vedic tradition of the brahmins, the hereditary Indo-aryan priestly class. There were countless sramanic teachers and schools in ancient times. Today some of their descendents still survive in the form of the Buddhists and the Jains. Judging from the social origins of both the Buddha and Mahavira, many sramanas apparently came from the warrior-aristocrat class. There seem to be hints of non-Indo-aryan ideas as well. The period of the sramanas was a period of relatively free-thought and syncretism of ideas originally derived from different sources. Sramanic ideas even profoundly influenced the brahmins (some of whom participated in the movement and were prominent sramanas themselves) and were absorbed and 'Vedacized' in the form of the Upanishads and the Vedantic traditions that remain very powerful in Hindu religious thought even today.
The Sanskrit word 'nirvana' seems to have been in every-day use in ancient India. It meant 'blown out' or 'cooled' (imagine cooling something by blowing on it). From there, it seems to have acquired a medical usage in which it meant 'health', where the idea apparently was recovery from a fever.
In Buddhism, 'nirvana' is the word applied to the 'blowing-out' of the disfunctional psychological processes (the 'kilesas') that give rise to 'dukkha', or suffering. The word still implied health (there are lots of ancient medical analogies in early Buddhism), but this was a psychological/spiritual sort of health.
In Jainism, the idea is that human souls naturally exist in a blissful omniscient state. What pulls them down into limited and painful human existence is karma. So in Jainism, the idea is to cleanse one's soul of karmic contamination through ethical behavior, meditation and the practice of austerities. (There isn't any monotheistic-style god in Jainism, so it's another example of what might be called an atheistic religion. But Jains do believe in eternal human souls, while Buddhists don't.)
And Hinduism adopted the nirvana idea as well in the form of Vedanta, where the religious goal is to become directly aware of, ascend to (or in some versions, to realize one's present identity with), and (in some versions of Vedanta at least) to merge with and be absorbed by the Godhead (which is imagined in personal or impersonal ways, depending on tradition and sect).
And just to make things more complicated, some later traditions of Buddhism were in turn influenced by those Vedantic-style tendencies, and imagined Buddhist nirvana as a realization of or union with a transcendental 'Buddha-nature' or something, an ineffable reality that supposedly underlies all of illusory mind-and-karma generated phenomenal existence. So historically in India, the Hindu and Buddhist strands kind of flowed back towards each together and eventually remerged over the centuries. The later ideas in turn strongly influenced some of the varieties of Buddhism that took root in China and Japan.
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That doesn't seem to jive with much of what has been said here. Nonetheless, it does bring it closer to an understanding. Thanks for your contribution. I appreciate it.
nonplasticcholyman
Registered Member
"Nirvana (Perfect tranquility).
Literally it means "to blow off."
This is the state where all human defilement and passion have been completely distinguished through certain practices and meditation based upon right Wisdom.Those who attained this state are called Bhuddhas. Gautama Bhuddha had attained this state and became a Bhuddha at 35.
However it is now believed that it was only after he passed away that he reached such a state of perfect tranquility, because some residue of human defilement would continue to exist as long as his physical body existed."
From the Japanese or Chinese into English.
"The teaching of Bhuddha" page 590,2nd paragraph.
Promoted by the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Bhuddhist Promoting Foundation).
Literally it means "to blow off."
This is the state where all human defilement and passion have been completely distinguished through certain practices and meditation based upon right Wisdom.Those who attained this state are called Bhuddhas. Gautama Bhuddha had attained this state and became a Bhuddha at 35.
However it is now believed that it was only after he passed away that he reached such a state of perfect tranquility, because some residue of human defilement would continue to exist as long as his physical body existed."
From the Japanese or Chinese into English.
"The teaching of Bhuddha" page 590,2nd paragraph.
Promoted by the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Bhuddhist Promoting Foundation).
For me its like you move on from what the world wants and your at peace. You exist in the world, but want nothing worldly, as all material things beyond your basic needs are useless.
If your a minority that ever get to anything like it, you may just stop living any sort of life, and not care anymore.
Its hard to explain to people, just that after most peoples thoughts and opinions are worthless to you. Its probably why the ptb do not listen to you.
Plus there is no such as gods chosen people, it can happen to a minority of people all over this world. All that jewish stuff is bull, thats just a game played by the elites to put you off.
What ever i found in life, i want nothing more than my basic needs to eat and sleep somewhere. Beyond that everything is useless to my mind and being.
I care not one single bit what others have, and unlike you lot for the most part do not take part in gossip.
I think thats a good description. If you ever have something shift you into it, you will see the world differently than everyone you encounter.
I reached what ever it is at 24-25 years old back in year 2000 or so. Amazing have not lived any sort of life since. Amazing i have not virtually spoke verbally in all that time now.
If your a minority that ever get to anything like it, you may just stop living any sort of life, and not care anymore.
Its hard to explain to people, just that after most peoples thoughts and opinions are worthless to you. Its probably why the ptb do not listen to you.
Plus there is no such as gods chosen people, it can happen to a minority of people all over this world. All that jewish stuff is bull, thats just a game played by the elites to put you off.
What ever i found in life, i want nothing more than my basic needs to eat and sleep somewhere. Beyond that everything is useless to my mind and being.
I care not one single bit what others have, and unlike you lot for the most part do not take part in gossip.
I think thats a good description. If you ever have something shift you into it, you will see the world differently than everyone you encounter.
I reached what ever it is at 24-25 years old back in year 2000 or so. Amazing have not lived any sort of life since. Amazing i have not virtually spoke verbally in all that time now.
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And you could spend your whole life chasing after it.
Nirvana the way I understand it is a dreamlike state from which one never quite fully recovers. The instant you reach it the feeling begins to fade. Regaining the state becomes harder every time you try, but the easiest way to enhance the feeling is to begin consciously creating dreams in a different part of you mind than dreams originate. You can not force the state you just have to allow it to overtake you. After a while creating them for yourself day in and day out, you will realize the process becomes harder and harder. Oh we'll I'm rambling now, so good luck friends
Nirvana is the shock wave which occurs when your delusions vanish and reality flows in.
Reality is a place where you imagination exists to it fullest extent, because our imagination exists in reality.