How to reach Nirvana... (Beth Upton)

I've no advice, so Beth will explain.

Hello, friends! Perhaps it goes without saying, but I am going to say it anyway: I love our Sangha (Spiritual Community).

A few years back, if someone had told me that we’d have co-created such an engaged, enthusiastic, emotionally honest community of deeply dedicated practitioners, it would have been right on the edge of my wildest dreams. But here we are, doing it together.

When I step back and take it in, it astonishes me in the most beautiful way. Sangha can serve us in many ways as we navigate our Dhamma paths: It can be where we form wise friendships (kalyana-mittas), where we come for support, accountability, inspiration, and connection.

Dad, Delphine (VW), and Beth Upton

Then, sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we might receive one of those rare transformative moments of feeling truly seen, loved, supported, and accepted in our fullness. I had one of those rare and special moments recently, when I received this:

Watch me, or else... If the Dhamma is the love of my life, then Delphine [my VW van] is the second love. Here is a photo of me and my Dad with her a few days ago. On second thought, maybe I should have put my Dad ahead of my van on the list of things I love the most, but I’m sure he’ll understand.

Is there any way to speed up this process already?

So how do we attain Nirvana (Pali Nibbana) when we’re stuck in second gear? The answer, for most of us, is that we don’t.

Perhaps a better question is why on earth would we want to do that? Why would we want to make the journey unnecessarily clunky, sluggish, and inefficient?

Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies (aren’t we?) holding on tightly to all things coarse and burdensome, willfully keeping ourselves stuck in second gear, all while reserving the right to complain when progress is slow.

I'll get this alone by brute force! (No you won't)

Sometimes we want the best of both worlds (don’t we?), the familiarity and comfort of life in second gear, as well as swift progress towards Nirvana. Unfortunately, that’s not possible.

Let me know in the comments: What’s keeping you stuck in second gear? Let’s get confessional.

• Is it the late-night pretzels, like our dear friend Dan Harris?
• Or rather is it the late-night binges of online content?
• Is it a relationship that really needs to shift?
• A responsibility you need to put down?
• A bad habit you need to break?

Can a group go farther than an individual?

Let’s be wise friends to each other and harness the power of this wonderful Sangha to shift into a decisive third or even fourth gear over the weeks to come.

Lastly, a huge thanks to all who got back to me with ideas of things to write about.*

In the meantime, to support this work, do that here: SUPPORT.

With much metta and gratitude, Beth Upton

• VIDEO: 10% Happier with Beth Upton (Dan Harris)

*I received way more inspiration than I can process right now. For those who didn’t get a reply from me, please know that I did read and take note of every single suggestion that was sent. It’s just that there are only so many hours per week that I am willing to spend on my laptop. I hope you’ll understand. I’ll be writing about those things and more over the weeks and months to come. Maybe the next newsletter will be the one with a button to book time with me).

• Beth Upton (bethupton.com), July 28, 2025, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

What is an 'enlightened' person?

Blissful, effervescent yogi as a result of persistent effort and letting go (yogatailor.com)

   

When I began, it wasn't easy then a breakthrough

In Buddhism a fully enlightened (bodhi) or awakened, a non-deluded or fully realized person is called an arhat (Pali, arahant). What does it mean?

It is the purification of view (ditthi), not personality. A person may continue to have his or her quirks, preferences, habits, and so on. The miraculous transformation that brings one from ordinary personhood into the Sangha of the Noble Ones (the Community of the Aryans) may not be visible at all to the casual observer. The Buddha said a person should not judge except after looking for a long time, reserving judgment and observing the person's character. It is not omniscience, not all-knowing awareness, not perfect perfection, not enlightened social views.

This is Buddhist "sainthood," but Buddhist saints are not like the saints of any other tradition. What is a "saint" to the world? It is someone who has temporarily suppressed the defilements and therefore appears "saintly" (moral, kind, wise, immaculate, and so on, often possessing mystic or magic powers to "prove" it. These things are all brought about by the jhanas, samadhi, and are very special but not necessary for full enlightenment.

It has a very precise meaning. Let us begin where we are -- in a state of delusion. We live in an illusion in the sense of not understanding what is actually there in front of us. What do we see? We see permanence, stability, solidity. We see enduring satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment.

We see a self, identify with it, and imagine ourselves owners. An arhat is a spiritual practitioner who has realized four stages of attainment. The implications of the term vary based on the respective schools and traditions. The oldest surviving Buddhist school links these developmental stages to the dropping away of the ten bonds or "fetters" (samyojana). These are distinct from the Five Hindrances (nivarana), "taints" (asavas, cankers, inflows, outflows, biases), and defilements (kilesas).

1. personality-belief or the wrong view that there is, ultimately speaking, a self
2. pernicious skeptical doubt about the path
3. clinging to the belief that enlightenment can be gained by the practice of mere rules and rituals
4. sensuous craving or strong five-sense strand desire
5. ill-will or aversion
6. craving for fine-material existence
7. craving for immaterial existence
8. conceit, the subtle, persistent habit of conceiving in terms of self
9. restlessness
10. ignorance

The Buddha gave very exact meanings for each of these impediments as well as the stages of Buddhist sanctity as these ten bonds are uprooted and cut off. How this is accomplished is also not a matter of speculation. The Buddha laid out the path, and as one progresses one has a vision of what is path and not-path.
  
There is no entering upon the first stage of enlightenment without an experiential grasp of not-self or egolessness. This is the hardest thing. And it is on account of it that the Buddha did not recognize "saints" in traditions outside the Dharma he made known. Indeed, there were very great beings with great attainments in concentration, wisdom, and mystical powers -- yet they were not free, liberated, emancipated from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. They were, at best, only temporarily sojourning in exalted heavens to fall again after staggering lifespans.

In many Christian schools today, "saint" simply means someone in heaven or guaranteed to be reborn in heaven. There are relatively few, while we comfort ourselves that every nice person ends up among the elect. The sad fact is that this is simply a comforting belief we cling to because the truth, and our associated views, are too much to bear.

1. Meditators free of the first three bonds are stream-enterers or stream-winners -- capable of being reborn a maximum of seven more times, guaranteed to become arhats.
2. Those who have in addition abandoned the grosser forms of the fourth and fifth as well are called once-returners, who might return to (be reborn in) this world, the lowest good rebirth within the Sensual Sphere, no more than once.
3. Those who are fully freed from the first five "lower" fetters (binding beings to the Sensual Sphere) are non-returners, who do not return to (are not reborn in) this sphere.
4. Those who are freed from all ten bonds are called arhats, that is, worthy ones, perfected ones, "holy" (whole, with integrity, integrated, wholesome) or accomplished ones.

Later schools developed different goals, such as the bodhisattva ideal -- the idea that vowing to strive to be a teaching buddha was not only possible but preferable to the goal the historical Buddha encouraged and taught the way to, that of the arhat who reaches safety (the stream) in this very life. Becoming a stream winner (one who has glimpsed nirvana) means that for the first time in this beginningless samsara one has put a limit on suffering. With no more than seven lives to undergo, which can mean millions of years of suffering (i.e., being disappointed) in delightful sensual and fine-material (even a few immaterial) "heavens" before nirvana. The Buddha was an arhat.

In the Early Buddhist schools

Bodhisattva Simpson (Concerning Art)

A range of views on the relative "perfection" of arhats existed among early Buddhist schools. In general, the Mahāsāṃghika branch -- such as the Ekavyāvahārikas, Lokottaravādins,^[9] Bahuśrutīyas,^[10] Prajñaptivādins, and Caitika^[11] schools -- advocated the transcendental and supermundane nature of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the fallibility of arhats.^[12] The Caitikas, for example, advocated the ideal "career" choice of the bodhisattva (bodhisattva-yāna) over that of the arhat (śrāvaka-yāna) and viewed arhats as fallible and still subject to ignorance.^[13]
   
According to A.K. Warder, the Sarvāstivādins held the same position as the Mahāsāṃghika branch regarding arhats, considering them imperfect and fallible.^[14]
  
The Kāśyapīya school also held the doctrine that arhats were fallible and imperfect, similar to the view of the Sarvāstivādins and the various Mahāsāṃghika sects.^[15] Moreover, the Kāśyapīyas believed that arhats have not fully eliminated desires, that their "perfection" is incomplete, and that it is possible for them to relapse.^[16]

  

How the word is derived

Guru Homer (livejournal.com)

The exact etymology and interpretation of Sanskrit words such as arhat remains disputed. In the Theravada tradition, and in early PTS publications, the word is interpreted to mean "worthy one."
  
This has been challenged by more recent research. Comparing ancient Indian forms arahanta and arihanta^[2] in Pali and early Jain Prakrit languages results in the alternative etymology "foe-destroyer" or "vanquisher of enemies."
  
This corresponds to the Jain definition.^[3] The latter challenges the assumption that the root of the word is Pali araha (Sanskrit, arha). Richard Gombrich has proposed an etymology of ari + hanta, bringing the root meaning closer to jina (an epithet commonly used for both the Buddha and Mahavira, the leaders of the Jains and Buddhists.^[4]

  

Arhat was translated into East Asian languages phonetically as a transliterated term, exemplified in the Chinese āluóhàn, often shortened to simply lohan. However, the Tibetan term was translated by meaning from Sanskrit as dgra bcom pa, which translates as, "one who has destroyed the foes of afflictions."^[5] This Tibetan translation of the meaning conforms with the Jain definition as well.

  

Arhat occurs as arhattā in the Rigveda^[6] and as the first offer of salutation in the main Jain prayer, the Namokar Mantra. Based on a possible Sanskrit etymology, Arhant can be translated as deathless since hant in Sanskrit means "death or killing" and ar is often used for negation, implying "cannot be killed" or "beyond death" or "deathless."

• Buddhist Podcast, June 10, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Arhat (Buddhism), 7/11/12

The Life of a Forest Monk (word free)

Ajahn Mun's nirvana: Forest Tradition

Devas like this devi interact with sensitive humans?

Ãcariya Mun: The Buddhist master who took the gods to school

Maybe Kali's just time, destruction

(American Esoteric) Feb. 19, 2025: [The Theravada Thai Forest Tradition of Isan (Northeast Thailand) has produced numerous enlightened practitioners. How is that possible? All the Zen folks, at least the fans of Joko Beck, say such a thing isn't possible nowadays, now, in the Kali Yuga, the dark decadent age of Hindu cosmology. (Kali is a goddess who kicks arse and is here to kick a lot of arse). It would be silly to think of achieving anything in Zen, which would be so un-Taoist. Of course, the historical Buddha didn't say such things. In fact, it is considered wrong view to believe no one attains nirvana anymore, no one is enlightened, there is no other world, or there's nothing to be done here in this world during this life.

What's a deva or "shining one"?

There is much to be done for the sake of calm and insight, much to practice. But if we let ourselves believe, "Ah, what's the use?" or "There's no one who gets anywhere anyway," we miss the mark and miss the boat. Did Ajahn Mun take such an attitude? It is exactly because there were meditators a few decades back who took the historical Buddha's Teaching seriously and put those teachings into practice that there came to be a Thai Forest Tradition harkening back to the Buddha's time and how things were done back then. Because those teachers attained something, there students were able to. This included Western students like Brit Ajahn Brahm and Americans Ajahn Sumedho, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and others.]

TIMESTAMPS

• 

  What do the devas have to do with anything?

  00:00-3:31 The dhutanga (sane ascetic) practices
• 3:32-7:09 Early psychic phenomena
• 7:10-8:43 Embracing fear
• 8:44-11:45 The deva of Sarika Cave
• 11:46-16:07 Remote viewing
• 16:08-20:36 Discipline and progress
• 20:37-22:27 Realms and devas
• 22:28-26:29 Miracles and powers
• 26:30-29:19 Life-death-rebirth
• 29:20-31:00 The hypercritical naga
• 31:01-34:28 The spiritual warrior

SOURCE

• Venerable Ãcariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera, A Spiritual Biography by Ãcariya Maha Boowa Nanasampanno (2004)

Patreon: americanesoteric, Venmo: venmo.com/u/Collin-Conkwright, Instagram: american.esoteric

• Collin Conkwright, American Esoteric, Feb. 19, 2025; Sayalay Aloka and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bhikkhu Bodhi, what is NIRVANA?

Bhikkhu Bodhi's surprising and profound description of nirvana (nibbana)

(Daniel Aitken) In this profound Dharma Chat, renowned American Theravada Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator Bhikkhu Bodhi sheds light on the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path: nirvana (nibbana). Join him as he navigates the intricacies of this elusive concept in three ways, unveiling its multifaceted nature and dispelling common foolish misconceptions about this reality. Watch the full episode at dharmachats.com.

Nirvana (the Unformed)

Arhats in nirvana are not in nothingness

The beautiful thing about this short answer is that it is what Bhikkhu Bodhi was saying decades ago in his landmark series As It Is, ten taped lectures. The "Nibbana" lecture (Number 6) goes into detail to show that nirvana is NOT nothingness as so many people have concluded. It is not "emptiness." It is not negative, though described by excluding what it is not, which makes it sound like exactly that. Anyone wishing to intellectually grasp nirvana, because direct realization of it (which is the best way of understanding it) is a little way off, will enjoy this talk:

Nirvana (the Deathless)

Nibbana (Nirvana) lecture by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Dhamma, Buddhism

• Bhikkhu Bodhi, Daniel Aitken, Dec. 28, 2023; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

A Verb for Nirvana

Hey, everybody, I have no respect for cultures!

In the days of the Buddha, nirvana (Pali nibbana) had a verb of its own: nibbuti. It meant to "go out" as a flame goes out.

Fire was thought to be in a state of being trapped (bound) as it burned — clinging to and bound by the fuel it was consuming (burning). To go out was seen as being unbound, released, freed.

To go out could, therefore, be called "unbinding," although that sounds very clumsy. Sometimes another verb was used, pari-nibbuti, using the intensifier pari- to mean "total" or "all-around," indicating that once unbound, unlike fire unbound, one would never again be attached or trapped.

• [Nirvana (nibbana) is experienced while alive by enlightened people, reexperiencing the bliss over and again many times, whereas pari-nibbana (pari-nirvana) is "final" or complete nirvana, gone out for good.]

The Buddha reclines into final nirvana (Burma)

Now that nirvana has become an English word, it should have its own English verb to convey the sense of "being unbound" (liberated, freed, emancipated) as well.

At present, we say that a person "reaches" nirvana or "enters" nirvana, implying that nirvana is a place where one goes.

Nirvana is not a place (not the Christian equivalent of heaven, seventh heaven or, worse yet, nothingness).

Nirvana is realized, touched, glimpsed when the mind stops defining itself in terms of place: here, there, or between here and there.

This may seem like a hairsplitter's problem, a hobby for word-choppers problem — but what can a verb do to our practice?

The idea of nirvana as a place has created severe misunderstandings in the past, and it could easily create misunderstandings in the future.

There was a time when sophists and philosophers in proto-India reasoned that if nirvana is one place and samsara (the "endless wandering" or "Wheel of Life and Death") is another, then entering into nirvana leaves one stuck: Our range of movement has been limited, for we cannot get back to this miserable (impermanent, unfulfilling, impersonal) samsara.

To solve this imaginary problem they invented what they thought was a NEW kind of nirvana: an unestablished one in which one could be in both places — nirvana and samsara — at once.

• [This is in a sense possible because when an arhat, a fully enlightened person, experiences nirvana, that person does so in the midst of samsara but now is no longer bound by samsara after it runs its course in this very life. When this revolving record comes to a stop, there will be no more revolving like before. This is bliss, this is peace, this is being unbound, but one might imagine that samsara is everything and, therefore, nirvana must be nothing. This is completely mistaken, as enlightened persons know directly. However, how can anyone explain to those still craving and clinging to sensual pursuit, to the idea (wrong view) of annihilation, or to the wrong view of eternal wandering on?

Simplified depiction of six (of 31) planes of rebirth

However, these sophisticated philosophers misunderstood two important points about the Buddha's teachings. The first was that neither samsara nor nirvana is a "place." Samsara is a process (revolving, cycling, and recycling) creating places, even whole worlds. This is called becoming (bhava). Then wandering through them, these places to experience the results of deeds, this is called rebirth.

Nirvana is the cessation of this miserable process. One may be able to be in two places at once — or even develop a sense of self so infinite that one can occupy all places at once — but we can't feed a process and experience its end at the same time. We are either feeding samsara or not. If one feels the need to course through both samsara and nirvana, we are simply engaging in more samsara-ing (wandering on, revolving) and keeping ourselves trapped.

The second point is that nirvana, from the very beginning, was realized through unestablished consciousness — one that neither comes nor goes nor stays in place.

There is no way that anything unestablished can get stuck anywhere at all, for it is not only non-localized but also undefined.

The idea of a spiritual ideal as resting beyond space and definition is not exclusive to the Buddha's Dharma (Teachings). Issues of locality and definition, in the Buddha's eyes, had a specific psychological meaning. This is why the non-locality of nirvana is important to understand.

Just as all phenomena (all things) are rooted in desire, consciousness localizes itself through passion (craving, clinging, attachment).

Passion is what creates the "there" on which consciousness lands or gets established, whether the "there" is a form, feeling, perception, mental formation (thought-construct), or a type of consciousness.

Golden Buddha deep in meditation, Sukhothai

Once consciousness becomes established on any of these Five Aggregates clung to as self, it becomes attached (stuck, trapped) then proliferates, feeding on everything around it and creating all sorts of havoc.

Wherever there is attachment (clinging, which is just habitual grasping), that is where one gets defined as a "being."

One creates an identity there, and in so doing one is limited there. Even if the "there" is an infinite sense of awareness grounding, surrounding, or permeating everything else, it is still limited. This is because "grounding" and so forth are aspects of place.

Wherever there is place, no matter how subtle, passion is latent, looking for more fuel to feed on.

If, however, the passion can be removed (let go of, abandoned, undone), there is no more "there" there.

One sutra illustrates this with a simile of the sun shining through the eastern wall of a house and landing on the western wall.

If the western wall, the ground beneath it, and the waters beneath that ground were all removed, the sunlight would not land. In the same way, if passion for form, feeling, perception, mental formation, or consciousness, could be removed, consciousness would have no "where" (no place, no there) to land, and so would become unestablished.

This does not mean that consciousness would be annihilated. It simply means that — like the sunlight — it would now have no locality. With no locality, it would no longer be defined.

The Buddha represented not as resting but reclining into complete nirvana (Sukhothai, Thailand)

.

This is why the consciousness of nirvana is said to be "without surface" (anidassanam), for it does not land. Because the consciousness-aggregate (vinnana-khandha) covers only consciousness that is near, far, past, present, or future — that is, connected with space and time — consciousness without surface is not included in the Five Aggregates clung to as self.

It is not "eternal" because eternity is a function of time. And because non-local also means undefined, the Buddha insisted that an enlightened/awakened person — unlike ordinary, uninstructed worldlings — cannot be located or defined in relation to the aggregates in this life.

Moreover, after passing away, one can neither be described as existing, nonexisting, neither existing nor nonexisting, nor both existing and nonexisting. Why? It is because descriptions can apply only to definable things.

The essential step toward this non-localized, undefined realization is to cut back on the proliferations of consciousness.

This first involves contemplating the severe dangers and drawbacks of keeping consciousness trapped in the process of feeding. This contemplation gives a strong sense of urgency to the next steps:

Bringing the mind to oneness in stillness (concentrating it on a single object, which temporarily purifies it), gradually refining that oneness (or coherence of mind), then dropping it to zero.

The drawbacks of feeding are most graphically described in SN 12.63, "The Discourse on a Son's Flesh." The process of gradually refining oneness is probably best described in MN 121, "The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness [the Impersonal]," while the drop to zero is best described in the Buddha's famous instructions to Bāhiya of the Barkcloth :

Meeting an independent sadhu

"Regarding the seen, there will be [to you] only the seen. Regarding the heard, only the heard. Regarding to the otherwise sensed, only the otherwise sensed. Regarding the cognized, only the cognized.' That is how to train yourself [Bahiya]. When for you there is only the seen in regard to the seen, only the heard in regard to the heard, only the otherwise sensed in regard to the otherwise sensed, only the cognized in regard to the cognized then, Bahiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor there [yonder, beyond] nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of dukkha."

• Dukkha is the Pali term for "stress, pain, suffering, unsatisfactoriness, disappointment," and refers to the inability of all things to fulfill. All things (conditioned amalgams, fabrications, dependently originated constructs) ultimately disappoint. Nirvana is not a "thing" (composite) but rather the unconditioned element free of all suffering.

With no here or there or between the two, you obviously can't use the verb "enter" or "reach" to describe this realization, even metaphorically.

Defilements ended, there is quenching/cooling.

The word nirvana should be made into a verb (cool, slake, quench) or in any case understood as such: "When it is understood that there is no you (self) in connection with that, you nirvana." (One nirvanas).

• [How is this not annihilation? If one understands that all that arises as "self" is dependently originated (conditioned), then it will be understood that all that "goes out" is ignorance. This is awakening.]

That way we can indicate that liberation, unbinding, release is an action unlike any other, and we can head off any mistaken notion about getting "stuck" in total freedom.

• Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff), Wat Metta, California (accesstoinsight.org); edited and expanded by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

The Nirvana Element (sutra)

SuttaFriends.org (trans.), Nibbānadhātu Sutta or "Nirvana Element Discourse" (Itivuttaka 44); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Nirvana Element Sutra

Scythian/Shakyamuni Buddha

The Buddha explains the two nirvana (Pali nibbāna) elements. [Nirvana, because it does not depend on any causes, conditions, or constituent factors is known uniquely as the "unconditioned element" and the "deathless" (amata)].

This sutra was taught by the Blessed One, taught by the fully Enlightened One, the supremely awakened Buddha.

Meditators (monastics), there are two nirvanas.

Thus have I heard: “Meditators, there are these two nirvana elements. What are the two? The first is the nirvana element with residue remaining (sōpādisesa nibbāna) and the second is the nirvana element free of any residue remaining (anupādisesa nibbāna).

“What, meditators, is the nirvana element with residue remaining?

“Here, meditators, a meditator is

• a liberated one,
• one whose taints are destroyed,
• the path to [the complete freedom of] nirvana fulfilled,
• has finished the task [necessary] for liberation,
• has laid down the burden of the defilements,
• has by gradual [and balanced effort] attained the supreme goal,
• has destroyed the fetters binding one to again-becoming [rebirth], and
• is completely liberated through true knowledge.

“Furthermore, one's five sense faculties remain functioning.

The rainbow body transformation in Vajrayana lore

“Since they still function, one experiences contact with pleasant and unpleasant objects and is aware of pleasure and pain. But passion (greed), aversion (hatred), and delusion [ignorance regarding the Four Ennobling Truths] have been removed completely from the mind. Meditators, this is called the nirvana element with residue remaining.

“And what, meditators, is the nirvana element free of any remaining residue?

“Meditators, here [in this Doctrine and Discipline] a meditator is a liberated one, one whose taints are destroyed, the path to [the freedom of] nirvana fulfilled, has finished the task [necessary] for liberation, has laid down the burden of the defilements, has by gradual [and balanced effort] attained the supreme goal, has destroyed the fetters binding one to again-becoming, and is completely liberated by true knowledge.

“In that liberated one’s life, all feelings that are experienced -- not being delighted in with craving [and clinging] -- will cool down here in this very life, with the attainment of nirvana at passing away. Meditators, this is called the nirvana element free of any remaining residue.

“Meditators, these are the two nirvana elements.”

[Explanation]

Family: Ven. Rahula, the Buddha, Ven. Ananda

This is the meaning of what the Blessed One said. So with regard to this, it was said: These two nirvana elements were proclaimed by the one with eyes of Dharma, the one detached from all defilements, the Buddha [Awakened One], who has an unshaken mind.

The first nirvana element is experienced here in this life with residue remaining -- inasmuch as the defilements that lead to rebirth are now destroyed.

The second nirvana element has no residue remaining and leads to the cessation of all rebirth and suffering. This element is experienced as one passes away.

Having destroyed all craving, the cord of clinging to becoming, having experienced the unconditioned element, nirvana, the enlightened ones (arya, the noble ones) live with liberated minds/hearts.

Having attained the Dharma-essence, they delight in the destruction of defilements, nirvana. The Liberated Ones with unshaken minds have removed completely all further suffering (dukkha, disappointment) and rebirth. This, too, is the meaning of what was said by the Blessed One. This is exactly as I heard.

COMMENTARY

Nirvana is not like this! - Yeah, but...

But what does it mean? What is "nirvana"? It is more than the mere absence of all suffering. According to the meticulous research of American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi (formerly Dr. Jeffrey Block, Ph.D.), nirvana is an truly existing reality. It is not nothingness, as so many foolishly conclude based on its customary negative framing as not this and not that.

It is phrased in this way because it is unlike anything else. There is nothing to compare it to. But the Buddha did liken it to some things we could understand -- peace, ultimate bliss, the end of suffering, and so on. It is the "deathless" (amata, amrita, ambrosia). Yet it is not the "eternal life" of Hinduism and Christianity.

See Bhikkhu Bodhi's As It Is recording called Nibbana (the Pali word for the Sanskrit nirvana) for his extensive elaboration on the unconditioned element, the only thing that is not a "[conditioned, composite] thing." It is independent. It stands alone. And it is liberation (moksha), freedom (vimutti), the end of all rebirth and dukkha.

So the two types, with residue remaining and free of any further residue, is easy to understand. While nirvana (having reached full enlightenment) means the end of all further rebirth, it does not mean the end of this rebirth, this lifespan. One lives it out, still in the world, but now no longer trapped by it. Here "the world" means all states.

We may compare this to the Christian notion of being in world but not of the world, but in that case "the world" means just this human state. Nirvana is not a heaven. There are heavens attainable by rebirth. Living beings have been there in this endless round of rebirth known as samsara.

The Buddha recognized that no heaven is really the end of suffering because -- as long as they may last, and some last a tremendously long time, or as blissful as they may be -- they come to an end. The wholesome karma that conditioned them (acts as a support) is eventually exhausted and one falls from that state to experience the results of other often less pleasant karmic results.

LUST IS LIKE FIRE: Sutra (MN 75), Part 2

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Magandiya Sutra: "To Magandiya" (excerpt) (MN 75 PTS: M i 501) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

SEE PART 1. ...When this was said, Magandiya the wandering ascetic said to the Blessed One (the Buddha):

"Teacher Gotama, it's amazing, it's astounding how this, too, is well-stated: 'Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune. Nirvana is the foremost ease!'

"I have heard this said by previous wandering ascetics in the lineage of our teachers: 'Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune. Nirvana is the foremost ease.' We are in agreement."

"Magandiya, as for what you have heard said by previous wandering ascetics in the lineage of your teachers — 'Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune. Nirvana is the foremost ease!' — which freedom from disease is that and which nirvana?"

When this was asked, the wandering ascetic Magandiya, rubbing his body with his hands answered, "This [body] is that freedom from disease, Teacher Gotama, and this [body] is that nirvana. For I am now free from disease, happy, and nothing afflicts me."

"Magandiya, it is just as if there were a man blind from birth unable to see black... white... blue... yellow... red... or pink objects, who could see neither even nor uneven places, nor stars, the sun, or the moon. He hears a man with good eyesight saying, 'How wonderful, good sirs, is this white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!'

"He goes in search of something white. Then [sales]man fools him with a grimy, stained rag: 'Here, good man, is a white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!'

"The blind man takes it and puts it on. Having put it on, gratified, he exclaims words of gratification, such as, 'How wonderful, good sirs, is this white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!'

"What do you think, Magandiya: When that blindman took up the grimy, stained rag and put it on and, gratified, exclaimed words of gratification, 'How wonderful, good sirs, is this white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!' did he do so knowing and seeing, or out of faith in the [sales]man with good eyesight?"

"Teacher Gotama, of course, he did it neither knowing nor seeing but out of faith in the [sales]man with good eyesight."

"Magandiya, in the same way, the wandering ascetics of other schools are blind and without vision. Without knowing freedom from disease, without seeing [actual] nirvana, they still say:

Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune.

Nirvana [non-clinging] is the foremost ease!

"This verse was stated by previous worthy ones [arahants], who themselves were fully awakened:

Freedom from disease is the foremost fortune.

Nirvana [non-clinging] is the foremost ease!

The ennobling eightfold path is the foremost of paths

Leading to the Deathless, secure from all suffering.

"But now it has gradually become a verse uttered by ordinary people [who do not themselves know and see].

The body

"This body, Magandiya, is a disease, a cancer, an arrow, an affliction, and painful. Yet you say, referring to this body -- which is a disease, a cancer, an arrow, an affliction, and painful -- 'This is that freedom from disease, Teacher Gotama, and this is that nirvana,' for you do not have the noble vision to know freedom from disease and see nirvana."

"Teacher Gotama, I am convinced that you can teach me the Dharma [Truth] in such a way that I would know freedom from disease, that I would see nirvana."

"Magandiya, it is as if there were a blindman, blind from birth, who could see neither black... white... blue... yellow... [nor] red objects... the sun or the moon. His friends, companions, and relatives take him to the doctor. The doctor makes a medicine for him. But in spite of this medicine, his eyesight does not appear or grow clear.

"What do you think, Magandiya: Would that doctor reap only but weariness and disappointment?"

"Yes, Teacher Gotama."

"In the same way, Magandiya, if I were to teach you the Dharma — 'This is that freedom from disease, this is that nirvana' — and you for your part did not know freedom from disease nor see nirvana, that would be wearisome for me, that would be troublesome for me."

"[Yet,] Teacher Gotama, I am convinced that you can teach me the Dharma in such a way that I would know freedom from disease, that I would see nirvana."

"Magandiya, it is as if there were a blindman, blind from birth, who could neither see black... white... blue... yellow... [nor] red objects... the sun or the moon. Now suppose a certain man were to take a grimy, stained rag and fool him, saying, 'Here, good man, is a white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!' The blindman takes it and puts it on.

"Then his friends, companions, and relatives take him to the doctor. The doctor makes medicine for him: purges from above and purges from below, ointments and counter-ointments, and treatments through the nose. Thanks to this medicine, his eyesight appears and grows clear. Then together with the arising of his eyesight, he abandons whatever passion and delight he felt for that grimy, stained rag. He regards that [sales]man as an enemy and no friend at all and thinks that he deserves to be killed:

"Goodness, how long have I been fooled, cheated, and deceived by that [sales]man and his grimy, stained rag, saying to me: 'Here, good man, is a white cloth — beautiful, spotless, and clean!'?"

"Magandiya, in the same way, if I were to teach you the Dharma — 'This is that freedom from disease and this is that nirvana' — and you for your part were to know that freedom from disease and see that nirvana, then together with the arising of your vision, you would abandon whatever passion and delight you felt with regard to the Five Aggregates clung to as self.

"And it would occur to you, 'My gosh, how long have I been fooled, cheated, and deceived by this mind? For in clinging,

1. it was just form being clung to...
2. it was just feeling being clung to...
3. it was just perception being clung to...
4. it was just formations being clung to...
5. it was just consciousness being clung to.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The question may arise, isn't it an actual soul, self, or ego that is doing the clinging to the aggregates? No. In an ultimate sense, it is form (the Four Elements) that forms (the gross or subtle physical basis). Feeling feels. Perception perceives. Mental formations form. And consciousness is conscious.]

"Dependent on clinging as a requisite condition, there arises becoming [rebirth]... birth... aging and death... sorrow, lamentation, pains, disappointment, and despair. Thus arises this entire mass of suffering/disappointment.'"

"Teacher Gotama, I am convinced that you can teach me the Dharma in such a way that I might rise up from this seat cured of blindness."

"Magandiya, in that case, associate with noble friends [enlightened/awakened beings]. When you associate with noble friends, you will hear the noble [ennobling] Dharma. When you hear the noble Dharma, you will practice the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma [practice this path in accordance with the Truth].

"When you practice the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma, you will know and see for yourself: 'These things are diseases, cancers, arrows, and here is where diseases, cancers, and arrows cease without remainder. With the cessation of clinging [to these aggregates] comes the cessation of becoming.

"With the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. With the cessation of birth comes the cessation of aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, suffering, and all disappointment. Such comes about the cessation of this entire mass of suffering/disappointment."

When this was said, Magandiya the wandering ascetic exclaimed: "Magnificent, Teacher Gotama, magnificent! It is just as if one were to place upright what had been overturned, or reveal what had been hidden, or point the way to one who were lost, or to carry a lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes could see forms!

"In the same way has Teacher Gotama — through many lines of reasoning — made the Dharma clear. I go to Teacher Gotama for guidance, go to the Dharma for guidance, and to the [Noble] Sangha for guidance! Let me obtain the going forth [ordination into the Buddhist Monastic Order] in Teacher Gotama's presence! Let me obtain admission!"

"Magandiya, anyone who has previously belonged to another order and who desires the going forth and admission into this Dharma and Discipline [Teaching and Path], must first undergo probation for four months. If, at the end of four months, the monastics feel so moved, they give him the going forth and admit one into the monastic state. But I recognize distinctions among individuals in this matter."

"Teacher Gotama, if anyone who has previously belonged to another order and desires the going forth and admission in this Dharma and Discipline must first undergo probation for four months and if, at the end of four months, the monastics feel so moved, they give one the going forth and admission to the monastic state, then I will remain on probation for four years! If, at the end of four years, the monastics feel so moved, let them give me the going forth and admission into the monastic state."

Then Magandiya the wandering ascetic received the going forth and admission in the Blessed One's presence. And in no long time — dwelling withdrawn, secluded, heedful, ardent, and resolved — reached and remained in the supreme goal of the supreme life, for which nobles rightly go forth from home into the home-free life, knowing and seeing for himself here and now:

"Rebirth is ended, the supreme life has been fulfilled, the task is done. There is no more of this to come for the sake of this world." Thus Venerable Magandiya [the Buddhist wandering ascetic] became another one of the awakened ones (arahants).