Bhikkhu Bodhi: What is NIRVANA? (audio)

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, Talk 6; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly



The Sphere

Bhkkhu Bodhi

The Buddha in The Udana ("Verses of Uplift or Inspired Utterances") says of nirvana that it is an ayatana ("realm or sphere"):

"There is a realm where there is neither earth, water, heat, nor air [Four Elements], neither the sphere of infinite space, the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Planes corresponding to the Four Immaterial Meditative Absorptions]. There is neither this world nor any other world, neither sun nor moon. This I call neither arising nor passing away, neither standing still nor being born nor dying. There is neither foothold there, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of [all] suffering."

The Truth
"That which the ignorant take to be truth, that the noble ones, the Aryans [= the enlightened], know to be false.

"That which the Aryans know to be true, that the ignorant regard as false. That which is of an imperishable nature, that is nirvana, and that is the truth known by the Aryans."

THE MEANING OF THIS IS: That which the ignorant take to be truth, to be real, is a "self," an ego entity. And this the Aryans know to be false -- since through their insight they have realized that all phenomena are without a self, that they're all insubstantial [impersonal, selfless = anatta].

And that which the noble ones know to be truth, that is nirvana, and this the ignorant take to be false, an imaginary thing or a vain notion. But the noble ones, the Aryans, have seen nirvana. They've known through direct experience that it is real, the one ultimate reality that's imperishable.

The Permanent
In another sutra the Buddha says, "That which has a perishable nature, that is false. But that which is of a imperishable nature, namely nirvana, that is truth."

And then he says in the same sutra that, "This the supreme noble truth, nirvana, which is of an imperishable nature."

The Unborn

"[Meditators], there is an unborn, an unoriginated, an uncreated, an unconditioned. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, there would be no escape* possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned.

"However, since there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, therefore, escape is possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned."

• *Escape to Reality (Wheel 45, Buddhist Publication Society)