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Nirvana the last nightmare Osho on three Samadhis Nirvana - the experience of Totality Taoshobuddha in India
Nirvana A realm here and now
MEDITATION TIMES Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations Trinidad, West indies
EDITORIAL When a flame is put out, where does the flame go? The flame was here and now is it no-where! The flame has entered a realm invisible to mental perception. If we had our inner vision available to us, we would see the flame now-here. This realm of now-here is nirvana. We enter nirvana when all thoughts and perception cease. By being still we know. Not that we attain to stillness and we have to do something else to know. Being still is knowing. Usually we associate memory with knowing. Memory is not knowing. Knowing is seeing the thing as it is, as it exists. The realm of this knowing is nirvana.
This is nirvana, the last nightmare before the dawn of enlightenment. Buddha had stopped at this point. The humanity had to wait for another cycle of the age before Osho could come and usher the new era. Osho ushered in the era beyond enlightenment, the era of the child again, the era back to the very beginning. A return to innocence, a return to awe and wonder – this was Osho’s contribution. And the journey continues…. Nirvana is a realm here and now.
When we cease to exist as mental beings then we truly come to knowledge. Mind does not know. Mind cannot know. Knowing is beyond mind. To come to knowledge we need a no mind. This no mind is nirvana. The Siddhartha search for many years and gathered much information or what is called borrowed knowledge. But he did not come to any iota of knowing. Sitting under the Bodhi tree and simply watching the stars disappear, just disappearing from his human vision but still existing exactly where they are; when the last star disappeared...the last thoughts in his mind also disappeared…and the sun of enlightenment rose in his consciousness. This is symbolic, yet an apt description. Siddhartha dissolved and Buddha became manifest. The flame of Siddhartha was gone and the nothingness of Buddha appeared. The tathagatha was born – thus came thus gone.
Aaj itna hai – this much for now.
Each liberated individual produces no new karma. Instead he preserves a particular individual personality which is the outcome of the traces of his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that there is a psycho-physical substrate during the remainder of an arahant’s lifetime shows the continuing effect of karma.
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What in Hinduism refers to as Samadhi is called Nirvana in Buddhism. Samadhi or Nirvana is like twilight hour. Just as twilight hour neither belongs to day nor night although it happens between the two – day and night; so too Samadhi or Nirvana happens between two planes. Actually there are many types of Samadhi. One Samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body. Remember, Samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight period. One may just as well ask whether twilight belongs to the day or the night. Twilight belongs neither to the day nor the night; it is a happening between day and night. So is Samadhi. The first Samadhi occurs between the fourth and the fifth planes. This Samadhi leads to self-realization, atma gyan. One Samadhi occurs between the fifth and the sixth planes; this in turn leads to brahma gyan – cosmic knowing. The Samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the seventh planes is the Samadhi that leads to nirvana. So generally speaking there are these three Samadhi that occur between the last three shariras, the last three bodies. Nirvāna
(Sanskrit:
;
Pali:
(Nibbāna); Prakrit: ) is a central concept in Indian religions.
In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme Being through Moksha. The word literally means ‗blowing out‘. In the Buddhist context it refers to the blowing out of the inherent qualities or personality traits of greed, hatred, and delusion. Nirvana implies further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. The realization of Nirvāṇa implies the ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the will (chetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind into biological or other form passing on forever through life after life (Samsāra). Samsāra comes into existence principally because of craving and ignorance. A person can attain Nirvāna even when he is alive. The word Nirvāna is made of the prefix ni[r]- (ni, nis, nih) which means ‗out, or away from, or without‘, and the root vâ[na] (Pali. vâti) which can be translated as ‗blowing‘ as in ‗blowing of the wind‘, and also as ‗smelling‘, etc. Thus the word exists and is used to imply the state of desirelessness, no mind, or a state beyond duality of body mind and intellect. The Abhidharma-mahāvibhāsa-sāstra, which is a Sarvastivādin commentary, gives the complete context of various meanings that are derived from the Sanskrit roots:
In sramanic or Buddhist thought, it is the state of being free from suffering (or dukkha).
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1. Vāna, implies the path of rebirth, + nir, meaning leaving off' and together the word means ‘being away from the path of rebirth.’ – Freedom from rebirth.
2. Vāna, meaning ‘stench’, + nir, meaning ‘without’: ‘without the stench of distressing karma’ – beyond the influence of karmas. In that case actions do not bind.
or negation of truth. These are ‗three characteristics of existence‘ c. (Impermanence, anitya; satisfactoriness, dukkha, soullessness, anàtman) or ephemeral, transient, satisfactoriness, suffering, soullessness, and non steady.
3. Vāna, meaning ‘dense forests’, + nir, meaning ‘without’. Put together the word means ‗to be without the dense forest of the five aggregates.‘ These aggregates are enumerated as under: a. (panca skandha), or the three roots of greed, hate and delusion b. (Raga, dvesa, avidya) or emotions, duality and ignorance
4. Vāna, meaning ‗weaving‘, + nir, meaning ‗knot‘ = ‗freedom from the knot of the distressful thread of karma.‘
Nirvana in Buddhism Each liberated individual produces no new karma, but preserves a particular individual personality which is the result of the traces of his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that there is a psycho-physical substrate during the remainder of an arahant's lifetime shows the continuing effect of karma.
T
he Buddha described Nirvāna as the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflicting states (kilesas). It is also the ‗end of the world of conflicts and duality. There is no identity left, and no boundaries for the mind. The mind attains to a state of beyond-ness. The seeker is at peace with the world. He has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified, and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In Nirvāṇa the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished, so that one is no longer subject to human suffering (Pali: dukkha) or further rebirth in Samsāra. The Pāli Canon also contains other perspectives on Nirvāna. Firstly it refers to the empty nature of all phenomena. It is also presented as a radical reordering of
consciousness awareness.
and
unleashing
of
In the Dhammapada, the Buddha calls Nirvāna ‗the highest happiness‘. This happiness is an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through enlightenment or bodhi, rather than the happiness derived from impermanent things. The knowledge accompanying Nirvāṇa is expressed through the word bodhi. The Buddha explains Nirvāna as ‗the unconditioned‘ (asankhata) or unattached mind, a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations. This is described by the Buddha as ‘deathlessness’ (Pali: amata or amāravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct
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and practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path. Such a life engenders increasing control over the generation of karma (Sanskrit; Pali, kamma). It produces wholesome karma with positive results and finally allows the cessation of the origination of karma altogether with the attainment of Nibbāna. Otherwise, beings forever wander through the impermanent and suffering-generating realms of desire, form, and formlessness, collectively termed Samsāra. Each liberated individual produces no new karma, but preserves a particular individual personality which is the result of the traces of his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that there is a psycho-physical substrate during the remainder of an arahant's lifetime shows the continuing effect of karma. The stance of the early scriptures is that attaining Nibbāna in either the current or some future birth depends on effort, and is not pre-determined. Nirvāṇa in the sutras is never conceived of as a place (such as one might conceive heaven), rather the antinomy of samsāra which itself is synonymous with ignorance (avidyā, Pāli avijjā). Remember: The liberated mind (citta) that does not cling to the samsara or its affairs is called Nibbāna’. Nirvāna is meant specifically a state - that ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical phenomena. Doctrinally, Nibbāna is said of the mind which ‗no longer is coming (bhava) and going (vibhava)‘, but which has attained a status in perpetuity, whereby ‗liberation (vimutta) can be said‘. It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. The realizing of
Nirvāṇa is compared to the ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the will (chetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind into biological or other form passing on forever through life after life (Samsāra). Samsāra comes into existence principally because of craving and ignorance. A person can attain Nirvāna even when he is alive. When a person who has realized Nirvāṇa dies, his death is referred as parinirvāṇa (Pali: parinibbana). It is the state of his fully passing away, as his life was his last link to the cycle of death and rebirth (Samsāra), and he will not be reborn again. Buddhism says that the ultimate goal and end of samsāric existence is realization of Nirvāna. What happens to a person after his parinirvāṇa cannot be explained, as it is outside of all conceivable experience. Through a series of questions, Sariputta brings a monk to admit that he cannot pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life, so to speculate regarding the ontological status of an arahant after death is improper. Individuals up to the level of nonreturning may experience Nirvāna as an object of mental consciousness. Certain meditations while Nibbana is an object of samādhi can be used to the level of nonreturning or the gnosis of the arahant. This is attained through a progression of insight, if the meditator realizes that even that state is constructed and therefore impermanent, the fetters are destroyed, arahantship is attained, and Nibbāna is realized. Transcendent Knowing The mind is aware. It is conscious. In many places the Buddha describes his enlightenment in terms of ‗knowing‘: such as in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, ‗Knowing arose‘ (ñāṇa udapādi). With nirvāṇa the consciousness is
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released, and the mind becomes aware in a way that is totally unconstrained by anything in the conditioned world. The Buddha describes this in a variety of passages. One way is as follows: Nirvana is the state of Consciousness without feature, and without end. It brings luminosity all around! The Buddha avoided the use of Sanskrit because of many philosophers contemporary with him and priests. He opted for a more broad-brush, colloquial style, geared to particular listeners in a language which they could understand. As a result he used Pali a language that was born and grew in the plains at the foot of mountains in Nepal. Thus ‗viññana‘ here can be assumed to mean ‗knowing‘ but not the partial, fragmented, and discriminative (vi-) knowing (-ñana) which the word usually implies. Instead it must mean a knowing of a primordial, transcendent nature, otherwise the passage which contains it would be selfcontradictory.‘ The choice of words may have been made. The passages may represent an example of the Buddha using his ‗skill in means‘ to teach Brahmins in terms they were familiar with. This ‗unmanifest consciousness‘ differs from the kinds of consciousness associated with the six senses, which have a ‗surface‘ that they fall upon and arise in response to. According to Peter Harvey, the early texts are ambivalent as to whether or not the term ‗consciousness‘ is accurate. In a liberated individual, consciousness is directly experienced, in a way that is free from any dependence on conditions at all.
This ‘luminous consciousness’ is identical with Nirvāṇa. Others disagree, finding it to be not Nirvāṇa itself, instead to be a kind of consciousness accessible only to arahants. A passage in the Majjhima Nikaya refers it to empty space. For liberated ones the luminous, unsupported consciousness associated with nibbana is directly known without mediation of the mental consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, and is the transcending of all objects of mental consciousness. Therefore it differs radically from the concept in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It is described as accessing the individual‘s inmost consciousness, in that it is not considered an aspect, even the deepest aspect, of the individual‘s personality, and is not to be confused in any way with a ‗Self‘. Furthermore, it transcends the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sixth of the Buddhist jhanas, which is in itself not the ending of the concept of ‗I‘. Nagarjuna alluded to a passage regarding this level of consciousness in the Dighanikaya in two different works. He wrote: The Sage has declared that earth, water, fire, and wind, long, short, fine and coarse, good, and so on are extinguished in consciousness ... Here long and short, fine and coarse, good and bad, here name and form all stop. A related idea, which finds support in the Pali Canon and the contemporary Theravada practice tradition despite its absence in the Theravada commentaries and Abhidhamma, is that the mind of the arahant is itself nibbana.
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In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Nirvana and Samsara are said to be not-different when viewed from the ultimate nature of the Dharmakaya. An individual can attain Nirvana by following the Buddhist path. If they were ultimately different this would be impossible. Thus, the duality between Nirvana and Samsara is only accurate on the conventional level. Another way to arrive at this conclusion is through the analysis that all phenomena are empty of an essential identity, and therefore suffering is never inherent in any situation. Thus liberation from suffering and its causes is not a metaphysical shift of any kind. The Theravāda school makes the antithesis of Samsara and Nibbāna the starting point of the entire quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this antithesis as determinative of the final
goal, which is precisely the transcendence of Samsara and the attainment of liberation in Nibbāna. Whereas Theravada differs significantly from the Mahāyāna schools, which also starts with the duality of Samsara and Nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt faculties, to be eventually superseded by some higher realization of non-duality. From the standpoint of the Pāli Suttas, even for the Buddha and the Arahants suffering and its cessation, Samsara and Nibbāna, remain distinct. Both schools agree that Shakyamuni Buddha was in saṃsāra while having attained Nirvāṇa, in so far as he was seen by all while simultaneously free from Samsara.
Paths to Nirvana in the Pali canon ‘Buddhas are born, reach enlightenment, set turning the Wheel of Dharma, and enter Nirvana. However, all this is only illusion: the appearance of a Buddha is the absence of arising, duration and destruction; their Nirvana is the fact that they are always and at all times in Nirvana.’ In Visuddhimagga Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to Nirvana, including: 1. by insight (vipashyana) alone 2. by jhana and understanding 3. by deeds, vision and righteousness 4. by virtue, consciousness and understanding 5. by virtue, understanding, concentration and effort
6. by the four foundations of mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta,) Depending on one‘s analysis, each of these options could be seen as a reframing of the Buddha‘s Threefold Training of virtue, mental development and wisdom. The idea of Nirvana as purified, nondualistic ‗superior mind‘ can be found in
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some Mahayana texts. The Samputa, for instance, states: ‗Undefiled by lust and emotional impurities, unclouded by any dualistic perceptions, this superior mind is indeed the supreme Nirvana.‘ Some Mahayana traditions see the Buddha in almost domestic terms, viewing his visible manifestations as projections from within the state of Nirvana. According to Professor Etienne Lamotte, Buddhas are always and at all times in Nirvana, and their corporeal displays of themselves and their Buddhic careers are ultimately illusory. Lamotte writes of the Buddhas: ‘they are born, reach enlightenment, set turning the Wheel of Dharma, and enter Nirvana. However, all this is only illusion: the appearance of a Buddha is the absence of arising, duration and destruction; their Nirvana is the fact that they are always and at all times in Nirvana.’ Some Mahayana sutras go even further and attempt to characterize the nature of Nirvana itself. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which has as one of its main topics precisely the realm or dhatu of Nirvana, has the Buddha speak of four essential elements which make up Nirvana. One of these is ‘Self’ (atman), which is construed as the enduring Self of the Buddha. Writing on this Mahayana understanding of Nirvana, William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous state: ‗The Nirvana Sutra claims for Nirvana the ancient ideas of permanence, bliss, personality, purity in the transcendental realm. Mahayana declares that Hinayana, by denying personality in the transcendental realm, denies the existence
of the Buddha. In Mahayana, final Nirvana is transcendental, and is also used as a term for the Absolute.‘ At the time this scripture was written, there was already a long tradition of positive language about Nirvana and the Buddha. While in early Buddhist thought Nirvana is characterized by permanence, bliss, and purity, it is viewed as being the stopping of the breeding-ground for the ‗I am‘ attitude, and is beyond all possibility of the Self-delusion. The Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a long and highly composite Mahayana scripture, refers to the Buddha‘s using the term ‗Self‘ in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics. From this, it continues: ‗The Buddha-nature is in fact not the self. For the sake of [guiding] sentient beings, I describe it as the self.‘ The Ratnagotravibhaga, a related text, points out that the teaching of the tathagatagarbha is intended to win sentient beings over to abandoning ‗affection for one‘s self‘ - one of the five defects caused by non-Buddhist teaching. Youru Wang notes similar language in the Lankavatara Sutra, and then writes: ‗Noticing this context is important. It will help us to avoid jumping to the conclusion that tathagatagarbha thought is simply another case of metaphysical imagination.‘ However, some have objected to this reading regarding the Mahāparinirvāna Sutra in particular, and claim that the Buddha then caps his comments in this passage with an affirmation of the reality of the Self, declaring that he is in fact that Self: ‗Due to various causes and conditions, I have also taught that that which is the self is devoid of self, for though there is truly the self, I have taught that there is no-self or annatta, and yet there is no falsehood in that. The Buddha-dhātu is devoid of self. When the Tathagata teaches that
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there is no self, it is because of the Eternal. The Tathāgata is the Self, and his teaching that there is no self is because he has attained mastery or sovereignty [aisvarya].‘ In the Nirvāna Sutra, the Buddha states that he will now teach previously undisclosed doctrines (including on Nirvana) and that his earlier teaching on non-Self was one of expediency only. Dr. Kosho Yamamoto writes: ‗He says that the non-Self which he once taught is none but of expediency … He says that he is now ready to speak about the undisclosed teachings. Men abide in upside-down thoughts. So he will now speak of the affirmative attributes of Nirvana, which are none other than the Eternal, Bliss, the Self and the Pure.‘ According to some scholars, the language used in the Tathāgatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language instead, to prevent people from being turned away from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism. For example, in some of these sutras the perfection of the wisdom of not-self is stated to be the true self; the ultimate goal of the path is then characterized using a range of positive language that had been used in Indian philosophy previously by essentialist
philosophers, but which was now transmuted into a new Buddhist vocabulary to describe a being who has successfully completed the Buddhist path. Dr. Yamamoto points out that this ‗affirmative‘ characterization of Nirvana pertains to a supposedly higher form of Nirvana – that of ‗Great Nirvana‘. Speaking of the ‗Bodhisattva Highly Virtuous King‘ chapter of the Nirvana Sutra, Yamamoto quotes the scripture itself: ‗What is nirvana? ...this is as in the case in which one who has hunger has peace and bliss as he has taken a little food.‘ Yamamoto continues with the quotation, adding his own comment: ‗But such a Nirvāna cannot be called Great Nirvāna‘. And it ( the Buddha‘s new revelation regarding Nirvana) goes on to dwell on the ―Great Self‖, ―Great Bliss‖, and ―Great Purity‖, all of which, along with the Eternal, constitute the four attributes of Great Nirvana.‘ According to some scholars, the ‗Self‘ discussed in and related sutras does not represent a substantial Self. Rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness and represents the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. In this view, the intention of the teaching of 'tathāgatagarbha' or Buddha nature is stereological rather than theoretical.
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Master – the Pulse of Cosmos And the miracle happens. When you are one with yourself, or you are harmonious both within and without the miracle happens. In that case you become one with the whole. You are the pulse of the cosmos. And that is the ultimate state. Call it NIRVANA. Call it kingdom of God. Call it God-realization or whatsoever name you want to give it — yet it remains nameless. This is nameless, formless or dimensionless. But this has been the Ultimate of all the seekers of truth.
You are many. You are a crowd. The master is one. There has no noise within. There is no crowd within either. He is not a crowd. You are not one. You are many selves or personalities. As a result one moment you are one thing – one mood. Next moment you are another thing. You go on changing. Master is the pulse of the cosmos. He is totality. And bliss is the outcome of this totality or inner oneness. Just watch your mind. Every moment you go on changing, because one self says do this. Then another self comes and pursues to do something else. And you have many selves. You are multi-psychic. You do not have one mind, you have many minds. And you are being tortured by all these minds and pulled into different directions. The master is NO MIND, hence he becomes one. With no desire, no possessions, also no desire even for heaven, he is bound to become one. He becomes integrated. He is really individual. The word ‗individual‘ means one who is indivisible. You are not INDIVIDUALS; you are only persons, or personalities. And that too you are not one. You have many personalities, many faces, with many masks. The master has no masks, or faces. Instead he has only one face. This is the original face. He is simply natural. He has no mind; hence he is one.
And the miracle happens: when you are one with yourself, or you are harmonious both within and without. In that case you become one with the whole. You are the pulse of the cosmos. And that is the ultimate state. Call it nirvana, call it kingdom of God, call it God-realization, or whatsoever name you want to give it — yet it remains nameless. This is nameless, formless or dimensionless. But this has been the Ultimate of all the seekers of truth. Let this be your only goal. Prepare for it. The Sutras of Buddha will help you tremendously. Meditate over them. For example ATMA DEEPO BHAVA is not philosophy. This sutra is methodology of the master and the instruction. Once the inner lamp of your being is lit understanding dawns. With understanding inner harmony and bliss come. First the explosion happens within and then inner bliss and harmony overflows in the outer dimension. Together when this happens you may be in the world but the world will not be within. This is beyond-ness. You may call this NIRVANA. They are not philosophy; they are just statements of inner truths, statements of his experience. And they are also statements of my experience. You all have the potential of being a buddha. Therefore never settle for anything less than that.
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On Nirvana
Nirvāna is the highest happiness. It is transcendence. It is a state beyond mind. A state that is yet cannot be described.
Gautama Buddha: ‗Where there is nothing; where naught is grasped, there is the Isle of NoBeyond. Nirvāṇa do I call it — the utter extinction of aging and dying.‘ Thus ‗the liberated mind/will (citta) which does not cling‘ means Nibbāna‘ In Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta the Buddha refers nibbana to the cessation and extinguishing of a fire where the materials for sustenance have been removed: ‗Profound, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-beexperienced by the wise.‘ ‗There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without
stance, without foundation, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress.‘ Said immediately after the physical death of Gautama Buddha wherein his mind (citta) is - parinirvāṇa - the essence of liberation: ―No longer with (subsists by)in-breath nor out-breath, so is him (Gautama) who is steadfast in mind (citta), inherently quelled from all desires the mighty sage has passed beyond. With mind (citta) limitless he no longer bears sensations; illumined and unbound (nibbana), his mind (citta) is definitely (ahu) liberated.‖ ‗And what is the Nibbana property with no fuel remaining? There is the case where a monk is an arahant whose fermentations have ended, who has reached fulfillment, finished the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, ended the fetter of becoming, and is released through right gnosis. For him, all that is sensed, being unrealized, will grow cold right here. This is termed the Nibbana property with no fuel remaining." [Itivuttaka 2.17]
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Parinibbana Description ‗The body disintegrated, perception ceased, pain and rapture were entirely consumed, and fabrications were stilled: consciousness has come to its end‘. [Udana 8.9] Sutta Nipāta, tr. Rune Johansson: accī yathā vātavegena khitto atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ evaṁ muni nāmakāyā kimutto atthaṁ paleti na upeti sankhaṁ atthan gatassa na pamāṇam atthi ynea naṁ vajju taṁ tassan atthi sabbesu dhammesu samūhatesu samūhatā vādapathāpi sabbe Like a flame that has been blown out by a strong wind goes to rest and cannot be defined, just so the sage who is freed from name and body goes to rest and cannot be defined. For him who has gone to rest there is no measure by means of which one could describe him. That is not for him. When all (dharmas) have gone, all signs of recognition have also gone. Venerable Sariputta: The destruction of greed, hatred and delusion is Nirvāṇa.
Nirvana and Hinduism In Hinduism, Moksha is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death and one‘s worldly conception of self. A person reaches the state of Nirvana only when Moksha is attained. The Union with the Supreme Being Brahman and this experience of blissful ego-less-ness is termed Nirvana. In Advaita Vedanta philosophy, however the concepts of Moksha and Nirvana are nearly analogous with certain views overlapping. The word Nirvana was first used in its technical sense in Buddhism, and cannot be found in any of the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. K. N. Upadhaya in his work ‘The Impact of Early Buddhism on Hindu Thought’ says he believes the use of the term in the Bhagavad Gita to be a sign of early Buddhist influence upon Hindu thought.
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Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana. - Osho Osho not only calls Nirvana or enlightenment a nightmare instead the last nightmare. Why does Osho say that nirvana, enlightenment, is a nightmare - and not only a nightmare but the last nightmare? Because as long as we keep hoping for some future paradise, we are sacrificing the present for a moment that will never come. Our desire to achieve nirvana becomes the very obstacle to its happening. Osho challenges us to wake up and stop dreaming. He exposes the tricks and habits of our minds that keep us from being in the here and now, living this moment totally. As he relates them to our lives today, we begin to discover the art of being present and joyful in the simple ordinariness of life. Muso, the national teacher, And one of the most illustrious masters of his day, Left the capital in the company of a disciple For a distant province. On reaching the tenryu river They had to wait for an hour Before they could board the ferry.
Just as the ferry was about to leave the shore A drunken samurai ran up And jumped into the packed boat, Nearly swamping it. He tottered wildly as the small craft Made its way across the river. The ferryman, Fearing for the safety of his passengers, Begged him to stand quietly. ‗We‘re like sardines in here,‘ Said the samurai gruffly. Then, pointing to Muso, ‗Why not toss out the bonzae?‘ ‗Please be patient,' Muso said, ‗We‘ll reach the other side soon.‘ ‗What!‘ bawled the samurai, me be patient? Listen here, if you don't jump off this thing` I swear I‘ll drown you.' The master‘s calm so infuriated the samurai That he struck muso‘s head with his iron fan, Drawing blood. Muso‘s disciple had had enough by this time, And as he was a powerful man, Wanted to challenge the samurai.
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‗I can‘t permit him to go on living after this,‘ he said. ‗Why get so worked up over a trifle?‘ Muso said with a smile. ‗It‘s exactly in matters of this kind That the bonzae‘s training proves itself. Patience, you must remember, Is more than just a word.‘ Then he recited an extempore waka: ‗The beater and the beaten: Mere players of a game Ephemeral as a dream.‘ When the boat reached shore, And Muso and his disciple alighted, The samurai ran up And prostrated himself at the master's feet. Then and there he became a disciple. SEEKING for something, desiring for something, is the basic disease of the mind. Not seeking, not desiring, is the basic health of your being. It is very easy to go on changing the objects of desire, but that is not the way of transformation. You can desire money, you can desire power... you can change the objects of desire - you can start desiring god - but you remain the same because you go on desiring. The basic change is to be brought not in the objects of desire, but in your subjectivity. If desiring stops - and remember, I am not saying that it has to be stopped - if desiring stops, then you are for the first time at home, peaceful, patient, blissful, and for the first time life is available to you and you are available to life. In fact, the very division between you and life disappears, and this state of non-division is the state of god. People come to me from all over the world; they travel thousands of miles.
When they come to me and I ask, ‗Why have you come?‘ somebody says, ‗I am a seeker of god.‘ Somebody says, ‗I am a seeker of truth.‘ They are not aware what they are asking. They are asking the impossible. God is not a thing. God is not an object. You cannot seek him. God is this whole. How can you seek the whole? You can dissolve in it, you can merge in it, but you cannot seek it. The seeking simply shows that you go on believing yourself separate from the whole - you the seeker and the whole -the sought. Sometimes you seek a woman, sometimes you seek a man. Othertimes, frustrated from the world, you start seeking the other world - but you are not yet frustrated with seeking itself. A seeker is in trouble. A seeker is confused. He has not understood the basic problem itself. It is not that you have to seek god, then everything will be solved. Just the opposite - if everything is solved, suddenly there is god. And if you stop seeking nirvana, you will find nirvana hidden in life itself. If you stop seeking god, you will find god everywhere... in each particle, in each moment of life. God is another name of life. Nirvana is another name of life lived. You have just heard the word ‗life‘; it is not a lived experience. Drop all beliefs, they are hindrances. Don‘t be a Christian, don‘t be a Hindu, and don‘t be a Mohammedan. Just be alive. Let that be your only religion. Life - the only religion. Life - the only temple. Life - the only prayer. I have heard, a disciple came to a Zen master, bowed down, touched his feet and said, ‗How long do I have to wait for my enlightenment?‘
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The master looked at him long, long enough. The disciple started getting restless. He repeated his question and he said, ‗Why are you looking at me so long? Why don't you answer me?‘ And the master answered a really Zen answer. He said, ‗Kill me.‘ The disciple could not believe that this is the answer for his enlightenment. He went to ask the chief disciple. The chief disciple laughed and he said, ‗The same he did to me also.‘ And he is right. He is saying, ‗Why do you go on asking me? Drop this master. Drop this asking. Kill me. Drop all ideology. Who am l? I am not preventing you. Life is available. Why don‘t you start living? Why do you go on preparing, when and how? This seems to be the most difficult thing for the human mind - just to live, naked; just to live without any arrangements; just to live the raw and the wild life; just to live the moment. And this is the whole teaching of all the great teachers, but you go on making
philosophies out of them. Then you create a doctrine, and then you start believing in the doctrine. There are many Zen people who believe in Zen - and Zen teaches trust, not belief. There are many people around me who believe in me - and I teach you trust, not belief. If you trust your life, you have trusted me. No intellectual belief is needed. Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don't ask about the path. Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana. - Osho Ref: Nirvana the Last Nightmare
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The first real Samadhi, which takes place on the inner journey from the fourth to the fifth body, is very difficult. And the third, from the sixth to the seventh body, is the most difficult of all. The name chosen for the third Samadhi is vajrabhed – piercing of the thunderbolt. It is the most difficult one because it is a transition from being into nonbeing. It is a jump from life into death. It is a plunge from existence into nonexistence.
Question: In which body is that obtained which you refer to as Samadhi? Osho: Actually there are many types of Samadhi. One Samadhi will take place between the fourth and the fifth body.
Remember, Samadhi is not a happening of one plane; it always happens between two planes, it is the twilight period. One may just as well ask whether twilight belongs to the day or the night. Twilight belongs neither to the day nor the night; it is a happening between day and night. So is Samadhi.
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The first Samadhi occurs between the fourth and the fifth planes. This Samadhi leads to Self-Realization, Atma - Gyan. Another Samadhi occurs between the fifth and the sixth planes; this in turn leads to Brahma Gyan – Cosmic Knowing. The Samadhi that occurs between the sixth and the seventh planes is the Samadhi that leads to nirvana. So generally speaking there are these three Samadhis that occur between the last three shariras, the last three bodies. There is one false Samadhi that has to be recognized also. It occurs in the fourth body, but is not Samadhi though it seems like it. In Japan the Zen Buddhist term for it is satori. It is false Samadhi. It is that state which a painter or a sculptor or a musician reaches when he is completely immersed in his art; he experiences a great bliss. This is a happening on the fourth – the psychic plane. If when looking at the morning sun or listening to a melody or looking at a dance or looking at the opening of a flower the mind is completely drowned in the happening, a false Samadhi takes place. Such a false Samadhi can be brought about by hypnosis or false shaktipat. Such a false Samadhi can be brought about by alcohol and drugs like marijuana, lsd, mescaline, hashish. So there are four types of Samadhi. Actually there are three authentic Samadhis and they happen in a sequence. The fourth is an absolutely false experience that appears like Samadhi. In this there is no actual experience – only a feeling of Samadhi that is misleading. Many people are misled by satori.
This false Samadhi occurs in the fourth – the psychic plane. It is not the transitional process between the fourth and the fifth plane; it happens well within the fourth body. The three authentic Samadhis occur outside the bodies in a transitional period when we pass on from one plane to another. One Samadhi is a door, a passage. Between the fourth and the fifth bodies happens the first authentic Samadhi. One attains self-relaxation. We can get stuck here. Usually people stop at the false Samadhi in the fourth body because it is so easy. We have to spend very little energy, making no effort at all, and it is obtained just like that. The majority of meditators, therefore, stagnate here. The first real Samadhi, which takes place on the journey from the fourth to the fifth body, is very difficult; and the third, from the sixth to the seventh, is the most difficult of all. The name chosen for the third Samadhi is vajrabhed – piercing of the thunderbolt. It is the most difficult one because it is a transition from being into nonbeing; it is a jump from life into death; it is a plunge from existence into nonexistence. So there are actually three samadhis. The first you may call atma samadhi, the second brahma samadhi, and the last nirvana samadhi. The very first and false samadhi you may call satori. This is the one you should guard against, because it is very easily attainable. Another method to test the validity of the samadhi is that if it takes place within the plane it is false; it must take place between the planes. It is the door; it has no business to be inside the room. It must be outside the room, adjoining the next room.
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Nirvana - the experience of totality
You may not be able to express it sometimes, or maybe your expression is not adequate, because the expression belongs to the periphery and the experience belongs to the center. When you are at the center you experience something. It is possible. Indeed it is possible. We are all connected very deeply with one another. The Hindu scripture Isa Upanishad asserts: ịśāvāsyam idam sarvam yat kiñcha jagatyām jagat tena tyaktena bhuñjịthā ma gridhah kasya svid dhanam The entire cosmos is created by a solitary energy. Blossoming of the flower, chirping of birds, the life and everything else permeates the cosmic energy. The visible form of this energy is known as sun energy. We are only separate on the surface. However at the center we are one. On the periphery we are individuals, at the center we are universal or cosmic. Sometimes when you are at the center of your being, you can have all those glimpses which happen to anybody who is at the center. It always happens that some time one moves from the circumference towards the center in spite of all mental resistances. 0oneself sometimes one reaches. It can happen accidentally also: something triggers a process, one is flowing very high.
You may not be able to express it sometimes, or maybe your expression is not adequate, because the expression belongs to the periphery and the experience belongs to the center. When you are at the center you experience something. When you come back to the periphery you may not be able to express it or may be able only to express it inadequately. Somebody else may be able to express in a better way. Listening to him, suddenly you will see, ‗But this is what I was going to say, this is what I have been feeling.‘ It has always been happening in the world. Now they call it synchronicity; parallel processes are going on. Scientists also think that if a certain discovery is made, for example, the theory of relativity…. Now they say that if Einstein had not discovered it, then within months somebody else would have discovered it because many people around the earth were feeling the same. Einstein was just the first to express it. When he expressed it, many people felt that this is what they had been vaguely feeling. It was ambiguous, not very clear and loud, but it was there. In some mysterious way it was felt by many people.
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Sometimes it has happened that a patent has been registered in America on a certain day, another patent for the same thing has been registered in England on the same day and another in Japan. All the three persons have come to discover the same thing almost at the same time. It becomes difficult: who is the discoverer? Einstein himself said later on that if he had not discovered the theory somebody else would have; the time for the idea had come. So you will feel this many times. And when you are in a kind of depth or height
— call it height or depth — when you are not feeling ordinary, when you are feeling something extraordinary, then you will have glimpses. And others may have those glimpses in that state too. Those who permanently abide in that state can always feel whatsoever is being felt around the world. It happens. Life is more mysterious than we think it is, it is far more mysterious than fictions. It will happen again and again — watch! Good!
NIRVANA
The literal meaning of the word is beautiful, one of the most beautiful words. Literally it means blowing out a candle. When you blow out a candle, the light disappears and you cannot say where it has gone. You cannot show any direction – to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south; it has simply disappeared. It has not gone anywhere, it has not moved into some other place. It has gone out of existence. It has moved into nothingness. It is no more. Exactly like that flame of the candle, the ego disappears. You cannot say where it has gone – it has not gone anywhere Instead it is no more. When the ego disappears, all is silence, because all turmoil, all noise, is of the ego. And when the ego disappears there is no longer any possibility of any anguish, anxiety. There is nobody to be anxious in the first place. One feels oneself as pure emptiness, and that pure emptiness has a fragrance to it
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Taoshobuddha in India
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With Hemant Moghe back right, Anil Sohoni (L) and Mrs Sohoni (R)
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At the Shrine of Hazrath Mohammed Baqi Billah (q)
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At the Shrine of Naqshbandi Hazrath Noor Mohammed Badayuni, (q) New Delhi, India
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At the Shrine of Naqshbandi Hazrath Mohammed Baqi Billah (q), New Delhi, India
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At the Shrine of Naqshbandi Hazrath Mazhar Mir Jane Jana, (q) New Delhi, India
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