China's odd, modern, and mostly empty

(Real Life Nations) This is what life is really like in China today -- How do women actually live, and what are they hiding?

• Buddhism in China
• Religion in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism
• Chinese Buddhism
• East Asian Buddhism
• Esoteric Vajrayana Buddhism
• Nezha: The protection deity
• East Asian Mādhyamaka

One practice that includes all others

(ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE) The ONE practice that changes everything | Zen awakening

• Is this not Ram's advice to quiet the Monkey Mind?

Secret of the Golden Flower: Taoism

(Asangoham) The Taoist book that changes everything | The Secret of the Golden Flower

The Secret of the Golden Flower (Chinese 太乙金華宗旨, Pinyin Tàiyǐ Jīnhuá Zōngzhǐ) is a Chinese Taoist traditional medical textbook on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Mahayana Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts [1]. These are the three blended traditions of China.

 

It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two groups, in 1688 and 1692 [2]. It addresses the nature of the Tao.

After publication of the translation by Richard Wilhelm, with commentary by Jungian psychologist Carl Jung, it became modernly popularized among Westerners as a Chinese "religious classic."

It is read in psychological circles for analytical and transpersonal psychology considerations of Taoist meditations [3, 4], although it received little attention in the East [1]. More

Ancient Chinese secret

(BetterU) China's secret learning method. (It's insane)

A calming Taoist story

(Quiet Bamboo) You don't have to be useful | A calming Taoist story

Compassion with fangs? Buddhist protector

Mom, is this what you call compassion? - Shut the front door, you worthless piece of me!

(Buddha's Wisdom) MAHA KALA: The Buddhist protector who looks like a demon

Mahākāla (Sanskrit महाकाल) is a deity common to Buddhism and Hinduism [1].

In Buddhism, Mahākāla is regarded as a Dharmapāla ("Protector of the Dharma") and a wrathful manifestation of a cosmic or primordial buddha or bodhisattva.

In Hinduism, Mahākāla is a fierce manifestation of the Hindu God Shiva and the consort of the Goddess Mahākālī [1].

Sri Yantra, sacred chakra (Shaktism)

He most prominently appears in the Kalikula sect of Shaktism [2, 3, 4]. Mahākāla appears as a protector deity in the various traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism, like Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, Japanese Shingon, and Tibetan Vajrayana [1] and Bon.

He is known as Dàhēitiān and Daaih'hāktīn (大黑天) in Mandarin and Cantonese, Daeheukcheon (대흑천) in Korean, Đại Hắc Thiên in Vietnamese, and Daikokuten (大黒天) in Japanese. More

• 6-armed Mahakala Buddha Thangka | Hand-Painted Tibetan Art

Six-armed Mahakala to develop Six [of Ten] Perfections

Avalokitesvara Enlightenment Day (8/1)

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

This weekend (either Saturday or Sunday), Hsi Lai Temple will be conducting a noontime offering to the great Kwan Yin Pusa (Guanyin Bodhisattva), who began as the male deva Avalokita (Avalokitesvara).

It is unknown which day it will be because it is officially posted as "Sunday, 8/1, at 10:00 am, but Sunday is 8/2, Aug. 2, 2026. So maybe it starts on Saturday at 10 and culminates with noontime offerings at 12 the next day? Call the temple for proper details.

• Hsi Lai (Coming West) Temple
• 3456 Glenmark Drive (near 60 Fwy)
• Hacienda Heights, LA, CA 91745
• info@ibps.org, (626) 961-9697

It will be located in the Hsi Lai Temple main shrine at the top of the steps near the giant incense cauldron that looks like the Liberty Bell. Fortunately, for the Fo Guang Shan (lit. "Buddha's* Light Mountain") Movement Buddhists of the world and others, there will be a Livestream (live from Los Angeles):

Buddha's Light Mountain

Fo Guang Shan (FGS, Chinese 佛光山, Pinyin Fó guāng shān, lit. "Buddha's Light Mountain") is an international Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist organization and monastic order. It is based in Taiwan and practices Humanistic Buddhism, whose roots are traced to the Linji School of Chan Buddhism.

The headquarters, Fo Guang Shan Monastery, is located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Buddhist Taiwan, and is the largest Buddhist monastery in the island country .

[Of course, mainland China lays claim to Taiwan as an integral part of the PRC (People's Republic of China) just as it insists that Bon/Vajrayana Buddhist Tibet and similarly oppressed Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest are part and parcel of the nominally communist actively capitalist post-kingdom].

• Buddhism in Taiwan
• Buddhism in China

The organization is also one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan. Its counterpart for laypeople is known as the Buddha's Light International Association. Founded in 1967 by Hsing Yun, the order promotes Humanistic Buddhism and is known for its efforts in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism.

The modernist order is famous for its use of technology, and its temples are often furnished with the latest equipment [1, 2]. Hsing Yun's stated position for Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism." More

• (*Sadly, while it sounds like one big, united Buddhist family, in fact the Buddha in the title refers to the "Cosmic Buddha" Amitabha, as in Amitofu, not the historical one from Earth, who is lovingly called the Sage of Scythian Shakya/Saka Clan, Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama) 
• Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles; CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit FGS

Every Mahayana Buddhist sutra is fake?

(Natasha Yehenara) Did the Buddha actually say this? The mystery of the Mahayana sutras [that displaced authentic historical Buddha texts with Hindu syncretism and a Brahmin-subverted movement to push the Buddha out and bring back the Old Vedic Religion]

Vajrapani Bodhisattva: The Thunderbolt

(Buddha's Wisdom) VAJRAPANI: The Thunderbolt Bodhisattva who challenged Lord Shiva himself | Om Vajrapani Hum

Fierce protective spirit being

Vajrapani (Sanskrit Vajrapāṇi, Pali Vajirapāṇi, "holder of the thunderbolt," lit. meaning, "Vajra in [one's] hand") is one of the earliest-appearing bodhisattva in various sub-schools of Mahayana Buddhism.

He is alleged to be the protector and guide of the historical Buddha Gautama and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power.

Vajrapāni is also called Chana Dorje and Chador and extensively represented in Buddhist iconography as one of the earliest three protective deities or bodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha. Each of them symbolizes one of the Buddha's virtues... More

• Vajrapani Bodhisattva
• Vajrapani thangka (Dharma Treasures)

The Empty Nature of All Things

(Buddhism Podcast) The empty nature of all things: Buddhist philosophy on reality

The Suñña Sutta [15] ("Discourse on Emptiness"), part of the Pāli canon, relates that the monk Ānanda, the Buddha's attendant, asked:

"Venerable sir, it is said that the world is 'empty,' the world is empty. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

The Buddha replied, "In so far as it is empty of a self or of anything that belongs to a self. So it is said, Ānanda, that the world is empty." More

Magic 'Soul Retrieval' in Taoism/Buddhism

Native wisdom: soul retrieval (Monroe Inst.)

(Benebell Wen) Soul dualism in Eastern mysticism and Chinese Folk Medical Philosophy

• Chinese folk religion
• Shen (Chinese folk religion)
• Tao Te Ching (Book of Changes)
• Shingon (Esoteric) Buddhism
• Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism)
• Ceremonial magic
• Taoism

Taoist alchemy of breathing for life

(Benebell Wen) Taoist secret to cultivating personal power: Inner Alchemy

• Esoteric Buddhism (book)
• East Asian Buddhism
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Eastern philosophy in clinical psychology
• Feng Guifen or Linyi

On the Myth of Mahayana (Alan Watts)

(Alan Watts) Buddhism Net of Jewels

Mind-Only Consciousness

(Alan Watts) Mahayana's Yogachara and Madhyamaka philosophies

2026 Buddhist Film Festival (6/16-30)

A 15-day film festival co-presented by Tricycle Magazine and the Pure Land Foundation runs from June 16–30, 2026. All are invited to join for Tricycle’s third annual Buddhist Film Festival, offering five feature-length films and five short films from across the Buddhist world that can be watched all festival long. Tricycle is pleased to co-present this year’s festival with the Pure Land Foundation. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $30 for subscribers. — Get tickets below. Please note that the festival is only available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. TICKETS

(Asangoham) What are the ancient teachings of Pure Land Buddhism?

• Tricycle's Buddhist Film Festival
• Tricycle.org; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradshaw (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Hsi Lai: The Buddha's Birthday (5/24-31)

Please join Coming West (Hsi Lai) Temple in celebration of the birth of our teacher, Shakyamuni (Gautama) Buddha, which is one of the most important events on the Buddhist calendar. During this celebration, we partake in the traditional bathing of the baby Buddha (Prince Siddhartha), and pray not only for auspiciousness in our lives, but to also emulate him and his teachings. Date Sunday, May 24, 2026-Sunday, May 31, 2026, 9:00 am-5:00 pm at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California

• Hsi Lai Temple
• 3456 Glenmark Drive (near Colima)
• Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
• info@ibps.org, (626) 961-9697

Communal Cultivation at Hsi Lai Temple

Hsi Lai Buddhist Retreat, June 7-June 21, 2026 (ages 16-35)

Buddhist Question and Answers at Hsi Lai Temple

Hsi Lai Temple's Sangha Day Celebration, July 17, 2026

Hsi Lai Temple English Dharma Service

All is mind, mind is all: Yogachara

(SEEKER TO SEEKER) How the mind creates reality | Buddhism

Nagarjuna advocates "Middle Way"

Yogachara (Sanskrit Yogācāra) is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation and philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā) [1, 2].

Yogachara was one of the two most influential traditions in Mahayana Buddhism in India, along with Madhyamaka [3].

The compound Yogā-cāra literally means "practice of yoga" or "one whose practice is yoga." Hence, the name of the school is literally "the School of the Yogins" [4, 3].

Shanta Rakshita (Khenchen Bodisatva)

Yogācāra was also variously termed Vijñānavāda (the Consciousness Doctrine), Vijñaptivāda (the Ideas or Perceptions Doctrine), or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda (the "Mere Representation" Doctrine), which is also the name given to its major theory of mind that seeks to deconstruct how we perceive the world.

There are several interpretations of this main theory, which include various forms of idealism as well as phenomenology or representationalism.

Aside from this, Yogācāra also developed an elaborate analysis of consciousness (vijñāna) and mental phenomena (dharmas, "things"), as well as an extensive system of Buddhist spiritual practice, namely, yoga [1],

Tibetan thangka of Dolpopa

The movement has been traced to the first centuries of the common era and seems to have evolved as some yogis of the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika traditions in North India adopted Mahayana Buddhism [5, 6].

The brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu (circa 4-5th century) are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school, while it is also traditionally attributed by Buddhist believers to the figure of Maitreya-nātha [7].

Yogācāra was later imported to Tibet and East Asia by figures like Shantaraksita (8th century) and Xuanzang (7th century).

Today, Yogācāra ideas and texts continue to be influential subjects of study for Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. More

Burning monk fights fire with fire: Vietnam War

Why did BURNING MONK sit so still for self-immolation? The story of Thích Quảng Đức

 

We'll kill that g**k for imperial US corporations

(Buddha's Wisdom) May 1, 2026: 🔥 The photo the world has never forgotten during the imperial U.S. War on peaceful Buddhist Vietnam: The Burning Monk, Ven. Thich Quang Duc, became one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War era.

• Buddhism in Vietnam
• [Worship of Amitabha Cosmic Buddha (Pure Land Rebirth Dharani) rather than following the enlightened advice of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni born Prince Siddhartha Gautama]
• Buddhism in Cambodia
• Buddhism in Laos
• Buddhism in Southeast Asia

On June 11, 1963, he sat down in a Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) intersection and didn't move. But behind the famous photograph is a deeper Buddhist story about:

• persecution,
• nonviolent protest,
• meditative stillness (samadhi), and
• the monk whose final act shook the Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem regime and forced the world to look at Vietnam differently.

We had to kill Buddhists to rule by force!

It was the visible shape of a lifetime of Pure Land Buddhist practice, pressed all the way to the edge. This is the untold story behind the most powerful photograph of the 20th century and what Buddhism actually teaches about the mind that met that morning.

🔍 DISCOVER:

• The real story behind Thich Quang Duc, the Burning Monk
• How Buddhist persecution in South Vietnam led to the 1963 Buddhist crisis
• How one photograph traveled from Saigon to Washington DC and changed global opinion...
• and why U.S. President John F. Kennedy stopped mid-sentence when he saw it at breakfast
• The heart relic that didn't burn...and what Vietnamese Buddhist tradition says it means
• How Rage Against the Machine, Czech copycat Jan Palach [like many Tibetan lamas under communist Chinese oppression], and Dependent Origination connect one Saigon intersection to six decades of history
• What Buddhism teaches about compassion, courage, and meeting suffering without hatred 🙏

Fight war [the state] not [its] wars

If this story moves viewers — subscribe. This channel exists to tell the stories Buddhism rarely gets credit for: historically grounded, honestly told [with a moving AI voice that only rarely mispronounces words], without the self-help packaging. New videos every week.

⚠️ CONTENT ADVISORY! This video discusses the dying [by suicide] of Thích Quảng Đức (June 11, 1963) as a historical and Buddhist educational subject. While no graphic footage is shown, the topic involves dying, political persecution, and religious violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

Who sells weapons to the world? War profiteers

This video is produced with deep respect for Thích Quảng Đức, the Vietnamese Buddhist community, and the historical record.

• War Is a Racket (just ask U.S. Gen. Butler)

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING (affiliate links)

Primary Sources: — Thích Quảng Đức's final letter, June 10, 1963 (translated versions available via Vietnam Buddhist archives) — Malcolm Browne, Muddy Boots and Red Socks (1993) — firsthand account of June 11 1963 https://amzn.to/4980Unr — David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire (1965) — eyewitness testimony https://amzn.to/4cLJNKE Buddhist Texts: — The Dhammapada (especially Chapter 1 — the Yamaka Vagga) — Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra — foundational Pure Land text on Amitābha's vow — Larger and Smaller Pure Land Sutras — the practice of nianfo/nembutsu 

HISTORICAL AND SCHOLARLY

— Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire (1967) — written in direct response to the Buddhist crisis https://amzn.to/4cWRegz — Edward Miller, Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam (2013) https://amzn.to/4eEY2ST — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie (1988) — broader Vietnam War context https://amzn.to/424gBs3 — Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 https://amzn.to/42EAx4T On the Relic: — Vietnamese Buddhist Federation records on the heart relic preservation and enshrinement (2025) Historical records on Xa Loi Pagoda, the Hue Vesak crisis, and Buddhist protests in South Vietnam Reporting and archival material on the Diem regime, Madame Nhu, and U.S. reactions to the Buddhist crisis Malcolm Browne’s Associated Press photographs and reporting from Saigon, 1963 This video references and discusses Malcolm Browne's 1963 Associated Press photographs, archival news footage, and other historical materials related to the events of June 11, 1963 in Saigon, South Vietnam.

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#Buddhism #ThichQuangDuc #TheBurningMonk #VietnamWar #BuddhistHistory #BuddhistMonk #VietnamBuddhism #Mindfulness #Meditation #Dhammapada #Compassion #DiemRegime #Saigon1963 #Bodhisattva #Mahayana #DependentOrigination #AmitabhaBuddha

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Zen and the "self" we are defending

(ECHOES OF LOST KNOWLEDGE)

Happy Chinese New Year (of the Horse)

The massive estate is shaped like a bodhi leaf.

We spent the day at the largest Chinese New Year celebration in the United States (roughly the size of Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, Upstate New York). Hsi Lai (pronounced \she lie\, which means "Going West") Temple had it all, including Aztec dancers (Danza Azteca, perhaps representing Siberian Asians cum Native Americans who are mostly local Mexicans) topping off a cultural show of martial arts demonstrations, dances, dragons, and a big central horse representing the year to come.

 

The lines were out the door but moving fast.

The all-you-can-eat vegan buffet was great (daily, only $10) with noodles, veggies, sweet and sour, tofu, lotus roots, soup, tea, fruit, and fried Indian dharma wheels. The rare rainstorm in Los Angeles cleared the skies as the sun broke through for the outdoor festivities.

We have never seen the temple, said to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere, this crowded. Parking was only found blocks away, and buses were bringing in celebrants. Everyone had their phones out, filming the spectacle. And even the monastics were clapping and enjoying themselves.

Everyone was immersed in Chinese culture uniquely blending with this part of Mexico. (Yes, California is part of Mexico or was until our empire stole it from Spain's empire). Perhaps 20,000 well-wishers passed through the gates throughout the day. Festivities continue for two weeks.

(CGTN Europe) Happy Chinese New Year: selections of the 2026 CMG Spring Festival Gala

New Year blessings: Feb. 17, 2026

(Zhuangyan Temple) 2026 Lunar New Year Prayer Ceremony

Register online to light lamps and pray for blessings. Light a lamp.

Joe Rogan, longevity, Harvard scientist: Imagine 500 years

Announcing the 2026 New Year's Blessings Ceremony

As the year draws to a close, we pray that readers, family, and friends are all blessed with longevity and good fortune day and night as the calendar transitions. BAUS temple cordially invites all to a New Year's Blessing Ceremony on Feb. 17, 2026, from 10:00 am to 12:15 pm.

On the day of the ceremony, those assembled will recite the "Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Liturgy" and offer a grand offering before the Buddha. BAUS sincerely invites all to participate in the lighting of lamps and other meritorious deeds. The entire family is welcome to visit the temple and share in the Dharma benefits.

Abiding in great compassion and eternal freedom

Dear Friends,

At the ending of the year, lasting auspiciousness to all day and night! Chuang Yen Monastery will conduct a ceremony of New Year's blessings from 10:00 am to 12:15 pm on Feb. 17, 2026. During this ceremony, all will recite the Great Repentance before the Eighty-Eight Buddhas and make a Grand Meal Offering to the Buddhas. All are invited to sponsor the lighting of a blessing lamp and to sponsor other memorial services. All are welcome to bring family and friends to the Monastery to share the benefits of the Dharma.

May all enjoy the constant ease of great compassion. The temple is open to the public: Feb. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (6 days in total) Opening hours: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM It looks like this message is in Chinese (Traditional)

莊嚴寺 2026年新春祈福大法會 線上登記點燈祈福

Light a light Announcing the 2026 New Year's Blessings Ceremony

敬啟者： 值此年終歲末之際，祈願諸位及闔府晝夜六時恆吉祥。 本寺謹訂於2026年2月17日10:00am ~ 12:15pm舉行新春祈福法會，法會當日恭誦《八十八佛大懺悔文》及佛前大供；誠摯邀請您參加點燈及各項功德。歡迎闔府蒞寺同霑法益。 耑祈 住大慈悲恆自在  本寺開放： 2月17,18,19,20,21,22日（共6天） 開放時間： 早上10點至下午3點 ­ 莊嚴寺 冬季封山通知

• Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS)
• Buddhist Association of the U.S.
• 0020 Route 301, 10512, Carmel
• PHONE: (845) 225-1819

Chinese New Year: Spring Festival

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, marks the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar, which is used by a large part of Asia beyond China.

It is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture and was placed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2024.

Marking the end of winter (no matter what Punxatawney Phil rituals say) and the beginning of spring, this festival takes place from Chinese New Year's Eve (the evening preceding the first day of the year) to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year.

The first day of the Chinese New Year falls on the new moon that appears between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20 [a].

The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honor deities and ancestors [3]. Throughout China, different regions celebrate the New Year with distinct local customs and traditions [4].

Chinese New Year's Eve is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner.

Traditionally, every family would thoroughly clean their house, symbolically sweeping away any ill fortune to make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors may be decorated with red paper-cuts and couplets representing themes such as good fortune, happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red envelopes. More

What are 'zen,' 'Zen,' and 'Nirvana'?

What is "zen" (lowercase)?

This is very easy to answer. In Japanese zen literally means "meditation" in the sense of "absorption" (Pali jhana, Sanskrit dhyana, Chinese chan or channa, Vietnamese thiền, Korean sŏn or seon, and Japanese zen). Absorptions are progressive states of stillness (samadhi), misleadingly translated as "concentration."

The connotation of this rendering is struggle, force, and effort, whereas "absorption" is the result of persistent balanced effort (sādhanā practice) but itself is effortless: It is not accomplished by "muscling" or "over-efforting" but rather by "letting go" and no longer "clinging" to things.

Absorption is a natural state of enhanced awareness because of the purification and intensification of consciousness, which is usually scattered, distracted, and beset by the Five Hindrances.

Through persistent, steady, calm practice these obstructions are replaced by the Five Factors of Absorption (jhana'anga. "limbs of absorption"), detached tranquility, dispassionate observation, and mindful looking on or objective witnessing or simply watching, at first accompanied by a sort of "bliss" (piti, rapture, uplift, joy, enthusiasm, zeal), "happiness" (sukha), and "contentment" (santosha).

What is Zen (uppercase)?

Don't overthink definitions (like Wisdom Quarterly's Dharma editor does), okay?

.

Bodhidharma, South Indian monk in China

"Zen" with a capital Z is a different story, for it may refer to the entire history and set of practices in the Japanese Mahayana Chan School originating in China, having spread to Korea and other parts of Asia and now the world.

Perplexing discussions of "emptiness" (shunyata) and "suchness" (tathātā) are more easily understood in the older texts of the Theravada.

The Wheel of the Dharma (8 spokes)

Thera-vada is the "Teaching of the Elders," who are the enlightened direct disciples of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, the "Sage of the Sakas" or the Indo-Scythians of ancient Gandhara, one of the Angas.

In this Buddhist school, these terms refer to the "impersonal" (egoless) nature of all phenomena, particularly the Five Aggregates clung to as "Self" in the Heart Sutra, and the Dependent Origination (conditioned co-genesis) of all composite "things" (dhammas, phenomena).

Yin yang, Buddhist or Taoist?

Of course, as much as one Buddhist school might influence or explicate another, Zen (Chan) is part of the Mahayana movement, a later "reformed" rather than a back-to-basics "orthodox" movement like Theravada. Zen is so thoroughly blended and saturated with Taoism (and to a lesser extent Chinese Confucianism and Japanese Shinto) that most of what is pondered and assumed to be "Buddhist" is strictly Taoist in nature. All the fun of Zen is more related to Lao Tzu (and later Hinduism, Tantra, and Vajrayana) than the historical Buddha's Teachings. One need only listen to Alan Watts to realize that.

Nirvana: As It Is (Bhikku Bodhi)

The scholarly evidence presented by American Theravada Bhikkhu Bodhi

 

What is NIRVANA?

 

What are those "things"? They are everything other than the only compact (noncomposite) item, the sole unconditioned element, which is called nirvana (Pali nibbana).

Nirvana, as our habitual logic might compel us to conclude, is not nothingness. Rather, it is the end of:

• all suffering/disappointment (dukkha, pain)
• delusion/ignorance (regarding ultimate things)
• further rebirth (in the "continued wandering on" of miserable samsara).

Nirvana is:

• the Deathless (Amata, Amrita, ambrosia)
• the unconditioned element
• the real (not marked by the Three Characteristics of all conditioned states)
• the peaceful, blissful, rest.

For anyone who's convinced that the Buddha never had anything to say about nirvana, there is this lovely description describing the indescribable, almost capturing the ineffable, or seeming to put words to that which is really beyond words.

These words are said as a corrective for everyone making the massive mistake of concluding that nirvana has to mean "annihilation, nothingness, non-existence, or the void," a pernicious wrong view. 

Could anyone ever draw what can't be imagined?

THE BUDDHA: “There is, O meditators, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O meditators, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed. But since, O meditators, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, there is an escape from the born, originated, created, formed.”

Anyone not yet convinced that the Deathless is not Eternal Life (but perhaps closer to the Ancient Greek term mistranslated as such, aion, as spoken of by the wise Gnostics) and the Unconditioned is just not like the conditioned (all those composite things utterly dependent on causes and conditions), the Buddha said more:

“Truly, there is a realm, where there is neither solid, nor fluid, neither heat, nor motion, 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, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of suffering" (Ud. VIII. 1 - The Immutable).

• Does the Ancient Greek word Aion mean eternity? | Tommy Redmon
• Strong's Greek: 165. αἰών (aión) -- age, eternity, world, forever, everlasting
• How long is an "aeon" or "ion" (kalpa, "age") in India?

The end of all suffering: nirvana

Dhr. Seven (ed.) based on John Ireland (trans), Nibbāna Sutta: Parinibbana (1)

To walk the path of peace brings bliss.

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove at Anathapindika's monastery.

On that occasion he was instructing, rousing, inspiring, and gladdening the meditators with a Dhamma talk connected with NIRVANA, and those meditators, being receptive and attentive and gathering their whole mind, were intent on listening to teaching. Then, on realizing the significance, the Buddha delivered this inspired utterance:

What would such a timeless place be like?

"Meditators, there is that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air [the Four Elements]; no base consisting of the infinity of space, no base consisting of the infinity of consciousness, no base consisting of nothingness, no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Absorptions]; neither this world nor another world nor both; neither sun nor moon. Here, meditators, I declare, there is no coming, no going, no staying, no ceasing, no rising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of suffering" (Udana 8.1).

This counterintuitive Teaching is for the wise.

What could this sutra mean? It is clearly stating that there is something beyond the beyond -- beyond the "universe" that is the 31 Planes of Existence, which is divided into three spheres (lokas): our sensual sphere, the heavenly fine-material sphere, and the incomprehensible immaterial sphere. They are increasingly subtle until they peter out into an even more sublime situation where there is not even that which was already incomprehensible. It does not matter that it is incomprehensible BECAUSE it is experienceable, personally verifiable, a truth attainable here and now, not in another rebirth (in heaven or otherwise), not in an afterlife, but here and now in this very life. So nirvana should be embraced as practical, excellent, and worthy of knowing-and-seeing directly, and not dismissed as theoretical or unknowable. Let's look at the original Pali canon wording:

Paṭhama-nibbāna-suttaṃ

1. Evaṃ me sutaṃ: ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā sāvatthiyaṃ viharati jetavane anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme. Tena kakho pana samayena bhagavā bhikkū nibbānapaṭisaṃyuttāya dhammiyā kathāya sandasseti samādapeti samuttejeti sampahaṃseti. Te ca bikkū aṭṭhi katvā [1] manasi katvāsabbaṃ cetaso [2] samannāharatvā ohitasotā dhammaṃ suṇanti.

2. Atha kho bhagavā etamattaṃ viditvā tāyaṃ velāyaṃ imaṃ udānaṃ udānesi: - "Atti bhikkave, tadāyatanaṃ, yattha neva paṭhavi, na āpo, na tejo, na vāyo, na ākāsānañcāyatanaṃ, na viññānañcāyatanaṃ, na ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ, na nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ, nāyaṃ loko, na paraloko, na ubho candimasuriyā. Tatrāpāhaṃ bhikkhave, neva āgatiṃ vadāmi, na gatiṃ, na ṭhitiṃ, na cutiṃ, na upapattiṃ. Appatiṭṭhaṃ appavattaṃ anārammaṇamevetaṃ. Esevanto dukkhassā"ti.

• Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly edited by Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly