According to the theory of Buddhism, we can say that the state of nirvana is a feeling of freedom, peace and bliss. The sense of individuality, dissolved in the whole, defies the verbal description available in the life of the ordinary mind. In an objective sense, the concept is subject to definition in the same way that the scent of a flower depicted on paper is felt.
Definition of nirvana
According to Buddhism, nirvana is the highest ultimate goal of any being and person. Nir means "negation", vana - "connection that ensures the transition from one life to another." Thus, the state of nirvana is the being of a person, free from the cycles of birth due to the disappearance of suffering, attachments and desires.
Nirvana is characterized by a state of enlightenment achieved in life, where physical perception continues to shape one's existence, as well asthe state after death, when five kinds of earthly attachments are lost.
Who can achieve enlightenment?
The soul that achieves enlightenment is the wrong approach to the definition of nirvana in Buddhist teachings. The true path to the state of nirvana is liberation from the illusion of one's own self, and not from suffering. Supporters of the doctrine compare enlightenment with the extinction of fire jumping from wick to wick. And if the flame disappears, no one knows where it burns in the present.
Nirvana is a state of happiness, consciousness without an object, liberation from all addictions, available to everyone. Enlightenment is not a subjective state, but combines the possibilities of the subjective and the objective.
Ultimate Nirvana
Higher nirvana - the state of the soul of the Buddha, or parinirvana, has such synonyms as amata, amarana, nitya, achala, that is, eternal, immortal, immovable, unchanging. A saint can suspend the transition to nirvana in order to help others approach it, being in a state of expectation.
Thanks to spiritual schools in Buddhism, many terms of higher states are known, synonymous with nirvana with some dominant aspect: moksha, the state of the absolute, self, absolute reality and many others.
Ways to achieve nirvana
Three paths to the state of nirvana:
- the way of the World Teacher;
- self-cultivation of excellence;
- the path of the silent Buddha.
Achieving the state of nirvana is very difficult, only a select few succeed.
It is natural for people to strive, to dream, to overcome difficulties. The illusion is that a person believes in the happiness of fulfilling a desire, but everything is conditional. As a result, life turns into a pursuit of changeable dreams, and the soul does not feel happy.
Consciousness and awareness
Consciousness refers to the ability to be aware - to understand what is happening and one's state, which is associated with mental abilities. But if thinking disappears, what remains? The person will perceive but stop analyzing.
For him, the past and the future seem to be erased, only the present remains, what is happening at the current moment. If there are no thoughts, then there are no expectations, experiences, aspirations. At the same time, a person acquires the ability to see his ego, the thinking self and to distinguish his spiritual part, monad, essence, spirit, watching the soul from the side.
Ego and the path to nirvana
Nirvana is the loss of personality with its thoughts, desires, feelings. Therefore, the soul itself is not capable of reaching nirvana. On this path, death awaits her. And only then does the transformation of a person into a person of a higher order - being itself. This is the so-called process of enlightenment, freedom from mundane tendencies and passions.
What promotes progress towards nirvana? One should be aware of the limitations of human experience and perception, knowledge, judgments, ideas received in the process of life, clogging the spiritual beginning.
Nirvana isdetachment from material values, a state of joy and self-sufficiency, confirming one's ability to do without them. As professional achievements, status, distinctions, public opinion, distinguishing a person from people, become secondary, the ego also weakens. At the moment when the hopes and aspirations associated with the place of the ego in the material world disappear, enlightenment or rebirth occurs.
How does the state of nirvana feel?
The state of enlightenment is very nice to experience. And at the same time, a person is not likened to a program with a blissful expression on his face. Ideas about earthly life remain in his memory, but they cease to dominate him, remaining on the verge of a physical process. For the deep essence of the renewed personality, any occupation is no different from the rest. Peace reigns within a person, and his spirit acquires perfect life.
Achieving the state of nirvana in Buddhism is associated with gaining purity from the killing of selfish nature without effort, and not its suppression. If immoral aspirations have been restrained and infringed, then they will reappear at the first opportunity. If the mind is freed from selfish impulses, the corresponding psychological states do not arise, and purity does not require effort.
Levels of change
There are levels of change on the way to nirvana, which are characterized by the degree of gradual loss of the ego and the transformation of consciousness after leaving nirvana. With every input,awakening, and with change, liberation, getting rid of the ego nature.
Levels and state characteristics:
- The first level is called sotapanna, or the state of one who has entered the stream, acquired after one who has returned from nirvana begins to realize his state. He stays in the flow until his capacity for insight increases to the next level. It is said that the period of a stream-enterer lasts from seven lives, and during this time the soul loses the following manifestations: lust for sensuality, uncontrolled resentment, desire for gain, need for praise, greed for material things, illusory perception and interest in impermanent things, following rituals, doubt about the meaning of enlightenment.
- At the second level, the meditator is cleared of primitive desires, the intensity of feelings of attraction or aversion, his sexual desire is weakened. The state of one who returns once again characterizes complete dispassion for everything and liberation in the current or next life.
- The next stage is the state of one who will not return. What is left on the previous one is destroyed. The meditator is freed from the cycle of births during his lifetime, his aversion to the negative manifestations of the world in the form of pain, shame, censure, the concept of hostility and hostility disappears. All voluptuousness and malevolence are replaced by absolute equanimity.
Freed from social conditioning, concepts of reality, suffering, habits, pride,who refuses to receive benefits, fame, pleasure, aspirations, acquires love, compassion, altruism, equanimity, purity of motives. For an arhat, reality is perceived as based on noble truths, impersonality and the futility of existence, and happiness and suffering are two forms of the same state.
Realizing the path to enlightenment, the meditator becomes available a new look at his essence: he discovers that the "ego" never belonged to him.
