(Untold the Legacy of Bruce Lee) Female Karate Master Maki Uehara, Okinawa
Showing posts with label nothingness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nothingness. Show all posts
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Alan Watts explains "Nothingness"
Nothingness: Alan Watts Official
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| The Zen zero: Enso |
Watch the full 26-minute version of "Nothingness" along with 33 more full videos and over 70 more audio programs with a low-cost subscription to the official Alan Watts streaming platform COMMERCIAL-FREE at play.alanwatts.org. #alanwatts #alanwattsphilosophy #alanwattswisdom
- Alan Watts via Something's Happening on LA radio: KPFK
- Online Archives of Pacifica Free Speech Radio, Los Angeles (KPFK 90.7 FM)
- Alan Watts (alanwatts.org), Aug. 16, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Friday, February 28, 2025
Buy Nothing Day: economic boycott
"Economic blackout" is planned for Friday, Feb. 28, 2025
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| Stick it to The Man! (Make him wait a day) |
(KTLA 5) Feb. 26, 2025: KTLA's uber-nerd and slightly-spazzy David Lazarus reports on plans for a grassroots U.S. economic boycott this Friday.
Monday, January 27, 2025
Bhikkhu Bodhi, what is NIRVANA?
Bhikkhu Bodhi's surprising and profound description of nirvana (nibbana)
Nirvana (the Unformed)
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| 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)
- Bhikkhu Bodhi, Daniel Aitken, Dec. 28, 2023; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
Friday, March 15, 2024
Springtime is for love BUT... ('Strangers')
Kenya Grace, 9/1/23; Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
For the love of attention/money, ready for porn?
- Nothing Higher to Live For: Romantic Love
- Women and their money: try.dowjanes.com
Love sucks, right Kenya Grace? "Strangers" (official lyric video)
Who is this young musical entrepreneur?
Then one random night when everything changes/ You won't reply/ And we’ll go back to strangers/ Uh huh uh huh
It’s something that I hate/ How everyone's disposable now/ Every time I date somebody new/ I feel vulnerable/ That it’ll never change/ And it will just stay like this/ Never ending dating breaking up/ And it goes like this/ We’ll get in your car/ And you’ll lean to kiss me/ We’ll talk for hours/ And lie on the back seat/ Uh huh uh huh
Then one random night when everything changes/ You won't reply/ And we’ll go back to strangers/ Uh huh uh huh
Singer Kenya Grace has real talent with modern equipment
It always ends the same/ When it was me and you/ But every time I meet somebody new/ It's like deja vu/ When we spoke for months/ Did you ever mean it? / How can they say that this is love/ When it goes like this?/ We’ll get in ur car/ And you’ll lean to kiss me/ We’ll talk for hours/ And lie on the back seat/ Uh huh uh huh
Then one random night when everything changes/ You won't reply/ And we’ll go back to strangers/ Uh huh uh huh
Listen to "Strangers": majorrecordings.lnk.to/strangers
Follow Kenya Grace: kenyagrace
/ kenyagracebaby / @kenyagracebaby
Credits:
Director Ben Hanning. Shot by Julius Gutierrez. Color by Julius Gutierrez. Edit by Ben Hanning. Production Company: SPACEHRTS.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
I bought California ghost town for $1.4M
Polly Thompson (pthomspon@insider.com), Business Insider via MSN.com, Feb. 25, 2024; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
- When he was 30, American Brent Underwood left Austin, Texas, and moved to an abandoned mining town.
- While restoring the ghost town he has realized that people approach finding a purpose in life the wrong way.
- Underwood spoke to Business Insider from 900 feet beneath ground level, while sheltering from a snowstorm.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brent Underwood about his experience moving to a Californian ghost town. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
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| Visit at night when they're active |
The idea of a remote town in the American West was very alluring to me. It reminded me of the old TV westerns my grandfather watched every day [Gunsmoke, Kung Fu, High Noon].
I was running a pretty popular bed and breakfast in Austin, but it felt like I was just searching for something to shake me up from the routine monotony of American life.
Buying this ghost town has done that. It cost $1.4 million — more than half was a loan from a hard money lender. More: I bought a California ghost town for $1.4 million. Living here gets lonely — but I've found my purpose
- Tormented ghost scientist seeks town to haunt, preferably in Japan: Paul Tibbets dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and was given no funeral or gravestone. Thanks, US military
- Life beyond Earth proven to be common in new study • Earth.com
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
The real meaning of yin and yang (video)
ReligionForBreakfast, Feb. 10, 2023; Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The real meaning of yin and yang
Delve into the meaning of yin and yang, how they are represented in the famous Taijitu symbol, and their impact on health, relationships, and the natural world.
From the yin yang balance of light and dark, to hot and cold, and masculine and feminine, this is a comprehensive look at one of the most fundamental beliefs in Chinese philosophy -- that made it into Buddhism from Taoism.
Thanks to Wondrium for sponsoring today’s video. Signup for FREE trial. Patreon community: patreon.com/religionforbreakfast...
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Favorite religious studies books Amazon page: amazon.com/shop/religionfor...
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Sad song: "Kill Bill" by SZA with lyrics (video)
CORRECTED LYRICS: I'm still a fan even though I was salty/ Hate to see you with some other broad/ Know you happy/ Hate to see you happy if/ I'm not the one driving/ I'm so mature, I'm so mature, I'm so mature/ Got me a therapist to tell me there's other men/ I don't want them/ I just want you/ If I can't have you, no one should//
CHORUS: I might/ I might kill my ex, not the best idea/ His new girlfriend's next; how'd I get here?/ I might kill my ex; I still love him though/ Rather be in jail than alone//
I get the sense that it's a lost cause/ I get the sense that you might really love her/ This text gonna be evidence, this text is evidence/ I try to be rational with you/ Know murder's a crime of passion/ But damn/ You was out of reach/ You was at the farmer's market/ With your perfect peach/ Now I'm in the basement/ Planning on the patient/ Now you layin' face down/ Got me singin' over a beat/ I'm so mature, I'm so mature, I'm so mature/ Got me a therapist to tell me there's other men/ I don't want them; I just want you/ If I can't have you, no one will//
CHORUS: I (I might)/ I might kill my ex, not the best idea/ His new girlfriend's next; how'd I get here?/ I might kill my ex/ I still love him though/ Rather be in jail than alone//
I did it all for love (love)/ I did it all on no drugs (drugs)/ I did all of this sober/ I did it all for us/ Oh, I did it all for love (love)/ I did all of this on no drugs (drugs)/ I did all of this sober/ Don't you know I did it all for us?/ (I'm gonna kill your ass tonight)//
CHORUS: OH, I just killed my ex, not the best idea (idea)/ Killed his girlfriend next; how'd I get here?/ I just killed my ex; I still love him though (I do)/ Rather be in hell than alone
SZA: "Kill Bill" (official video)
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Director: Christian Breslauer. Production Company: London Alley. Producers: Andrew Lerios, Mike Breslauer, Luga Podesta. Director of Photography: Xiaolong Liu. Production Designer: Arae Webner. Editor: Luis Caraza Peimbert. Stylist: Alejandra Hernandez. Additional Styling: Ann-Marie Hoang. Label Producer: Camille Yorrick. Executive Producers: Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith and Terrence “Punch” Henderson. Executive Producers: Luga Podesta, Brandon Bonfiglio, Andrew Lerios. Fight/Stunt Coordinator: Paul Lacovara. Casting Director: Sarah-May Levy. Choreographer: Cortland Brown. Production Manager: Nick Pistone. First Assistant Director: Jonas Morales. Production Coordinator: Anthony Nelson. Post-Production Supervisor: Ivan Ovalle. Assistant Editor: Tanner Jackson, Chloe Scrushy. Colorist: Matt Osborn. Animation Studio: Nathan Love. Animation EP: Jon O’Hara. Animation Producer: Joe Burrascano. Animation Director: Sunshine Mail. Visual Effects: Cameo FX. #SZA #KillBill #SOS #OfficialVideo
vevo.ly/KOpRcv.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
"Suchness" in Theravada? (Kalaka Sutra)
Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro (watmetta.org) translation of the Kalaka Sutra: "At Kalaka's Park" (AN 4.24); Wikipedia edit
"Venerable sir!" they responded.
The Blessed One then said, "Meditators, whatever in the world — with its devas, maras, brahmas, its human-generations with their wandering ascetics and Brahmins, royalty and commoners — is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect, that I know.
"That has been realized by the Tathagata ["One Arrived at Suchness"], but in the Tathagata [1] it has not been [not become] established [2].
"If I were to say, 'I do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be a falsehood in me.
"If I were to say, 'I both know and do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be just the same.
"If I were to say, 'I neither know nor do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be a fault in me.
"If I were to say, 'I both know and do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be just the same.
"If I were to say, 'I neither know nor do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be a fault in me.
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| The Truth is not arrived at by mere reasoning. |
"When hearing...
"When sensing...
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| In the seen let there be only the seen, Bahiya. |
"Thus, meditators, the Tathagata — being the same with regard to all phenomena that can be seen, heard, sensed, or cognized — is 'such' [3]. And I tell you, there is no other 'such[ness]' higher or more sublime.
and fastened onto as true by others,
One Who is Such — among the fettered —
would not further claim to be true or untrue.
"Having seen well in advance that arrow
where generations are fastened and hung
— 'I know, I see, that is just how it is!' —
there is nothing of the Tathagata fettered."
NOTES
- Reading tathagate with the Thai edition.
- That is, the Tathagata has not taken a stance on it.
- "Such": thus; just so; as it is; like that; tathātā.
"Such"?
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| Suchness. |
1. Arthur Goldwag (2014). 'Isms & 'Ologies: All the Movements, Ideologies and Doctrines That Have Shaped Our World (p. 206). Most of its doctrines agree with Theravada Buddhism, but Mahayana does contain a transcendent element: tathata, or suchness; the truth that governs the universe.
2. Jay Stevenson (2000). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eastern Philosophy (p. 144).
Friday, January 31, 2020
Is Emptiness nothing? (Thay, Alan Watts)
Thich Nhat Hanh via BGC; Alan Watts; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Ananda (DBM), Wisdom Quarterly
"Emptiness is not nothing," says Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) as he talks about shunyata, the impersonal or not-independent nature of all things. He emphasizes the interbeing of all things.
For a thing that is empty, what is it empty of? It is empty of separate existence, which is to say, every dependently originated thing may have the whole cosmos in it other than that thing it seems to be.
Emptiness is NOT nothing: a teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh
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| O, Zen empty spot, there is nothing you are... |
For a thing that is empty, what is it empty of? It is empty of separate existence, which is to say, every dependently originated thing may have the whole cosmos in it other than that thing it seems to be.
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| Why Zen? (Ioanna Salajan, Zen Comics) |
For example, in a flower there are only non-flower elements: cloud (rain), mud (minerals), air (nitrogen), space, color, sunshine, fragrance, and so on.
The same is true of bread. In bread there are only non-bread ingredients: plant, cloud, leavening, heat, and so on.
Moreover, in a person, there are only impersonal (empty) elements: the Five Aggregates clung to as a separate "self," as a separate entity, as separate from these five components of which it is comprised. They are devoid of enduring essence.
Western Zen Buddhist Spiritual Entertainer Alan Watts: Emptiness
This emphasis on emptiness (shunyata) and suchness (tathata) is popular in Mahayana Buddhism. But it is made more of in Theravada Buddhism, which speaks of anatta, "not-self," the impersonal nature of a person, of I, me, or all that is imagined to be mine.
- [Aha, wait! Who imagines it to be "mine"? Isn't that the self, the soul, the atta or atman? No, not who but what? Form forms, feeling feels, perception perceives, volition wills, and consciousness is conscious without a true self in there. These are the Five Aggregates we cling to as if they were a self when there are only heaps. There is no homunculus.]
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| Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (Kwan Yin) |
The historical Buddha (not the Mahayana buddhas/Gods like Amitabha and Vairocana) approached it in this way.
Everything may be empty, but that the viewer, feeler, watcher, experiencer is empty/impersonal, that is the mind blowing thing. That is what differentiates the enlightened from the unenlightened.
Everything may be empty, but that the viewer, feeler, watcher, experiencer is empty/impersonal, that is the mind blowing thing. That is what differentiates the enlightened from the unenlightened.
One will not win the first stage of enlightenment, called "stream winning," without that essential insight. It is actually what the Heart Sutra (the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra) is all about.
The Buddha gives many similes in the texts. The aggregates or "heaps" may be compared to an onion, layers of which can be peeled away, and yet no heart will be revealed. The Buddha used the trunk of a banana tree to make this comparison. There is no heartwood in it, only layers, just like the onion.
Although we like to think about it and debate, the realization attributed to Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion) is not won by thinking. It is won by direct realization, the culmination of calm and insight, of deep compassion and systematic mindfulness.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
About NIRVANA (What the Buddha Taught)
Ven. Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, Chapter IV: The Third Noble Truth, pp. 40-44 (ahandfulofleaves.org) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly
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| "What will happen to Him after death, nirvana, right?" - "That question is devoid of wisdom." |
.
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| Dry land? What are you talking about, Turtle? |
Nirvana cannot be completely explained with words, because human language is too poor to express the real nature of ultimate reality. Language is used by human beings to express things and ideas related to their experience using these sense organs and this mind. A supramundane experience like glimpsing nirvana does not fall in that category. But useful things can be said, and the wise may understand. For example, the fish had no words or ideas in their vocabulary when the turtle said it had just walked on dry land. "Sure you did!" laughed the fish. "You mean you swam on dry land." The turtle tried to explain that one cannot swim on dry land because it is not wet or fluid. "You mean like mud," asked the fish. The turtle struggled, "A little like mud but not wet or fluid." Then the fish said, "Oh, you mean complete nothingness?" "No, not nothingness, but there's nothing here I can really compare it to."
The fish asked offered comparisons then insisted the turtle was deluded, that dry land must be wet and fluid like the lake, cool, with waves, and that one must be able to swim there -- or it must be nothingness. The turtle finally exclaimed, "Well that may be, friends, that may be" and again disappeared to walk on dry land. The fish were perplexed.
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| Ha ha, that turtle's so stupid! Isn't he stupid? |
~⇆~
Words about nirvana |
| "Abiding in the Absolute" is Hinduism. |
There are some who say, "after the nirvana of the Buddha" instead of "after the parinirvana of the Buddha."
"After the nirvana of the Buddha" has no meaning. The expression is unknown in Buddhist texts. It is always "after the parinirvana of the Buddha."
The Buddha and all other fully-enlightened individuals (called arahants) do not "die." For them there is no death. What we commonly call death is always followed by rebirth.
Having realized the "deathless" (amata, amrita), which is a synonym for nirvana, they -- finding no more fuel of attraction, aversion, or delusion -- go out, are quenched, lay down the burden of ignorance.
If not "who" then what goes out? Ultimately, only ignorance itself goes out. This happens by virtue of the fact that wisdom illuminates reality. For instance, when light comes "in," what goes out? Only darkness goes out. So as wisdom arises, only the darkness of ignorance is dispelled.
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| Maybe nirvana is a great "void" in space. |
Nirvana is a verb -- cooling -- not a noun, not a "person, place, or thing." It is also called the "unconditioned element" (asankhata dhatu) in a universe where everything else is a conditioned thing (a composite composed of constituent parts, depending on those parts for its existence).
People will necessarily misunderstand this, and according to their habit of craving or aversion, will misconceive of nirvana as annihilation and nothingness or continuation and eternal existence. What else could it be but one of these extremes?
- Nirvana is neither death (annihilation-ism) nor immortality (eternalism). "Deathlessness" (amrita) does not mean "eternal existence" -- because, in an ultimate sense, actual existence is not what is happening now. What is happening now is illusory existence. So there is nothing that could be annihilated other than ignorance itself, in ultimate terms, and there is nothing (no self) that could actually wanders through samsara. In conventional terms, of course, it will seem otherwise.
And all people, unless they are very careful about their wisdom, will find it impossible to imagine that both of these "common sense" views (death vs. eternal life or annihilation vs. immortality) or logical deductions are utterly wrong. An explanation of anatta (not-self) explains WHY they are wrong. The Middle Way rediscovered by the historical Buddha avoids both extremes, both wrong views.
The moment we hear the phrase that "the Buddha entered into nirvana or parinirvana," we take nirvana to be a realm, heaven, void, state, or a position in which there is some sort of existence and try to imagine it in terms of the senses of the word "existence" as it is known to us.
The popular expression "entered into nirvana" has no equivalent in the original texts. There is no such thing as "entering into nirvana after death." Nirvana, the deathless, has no death. Samsara (cyclical rebirth) has death; it is inseparably bound up with it.
The word parinibbuto is used to denote the passing of the Buddha or any arahant, an fully enlightened individual, who has realized nirvana. It does not mean "entering into nirvana."
Parinibbuto simply means "fully passed away," "fully blown out," "fully extinguished" because the Buddha and other arahants have gone beyond rebirth after passing away. So now another question arises: "What happens to the Buddha or the arahant after 'death,' after parinirvana?" This comes under the category of unanswered questions (avjakata) that are better set aside.
- The question itself is wrong as what is happening is not "death." Moreover, what is happening while "alive" or "existing" is not what is happening, and the arahant having realized that no more feeds the illusory fire. But we do, so there is confusion for us.
Even when the Buddha spoke about this, he indicated that no words in our vocabulary could express what happens to an arahant after passing away. In reply to a Parivrajaka named Vaccha, the Buddha said that terms like "born" or "not born" do not apply in the case of an arahant, any arahant, because those things — the Five Aggregates or "heaps" of matter, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness — with which terms like "born" and "not born" are associated, are completely uprooted, never to arise again after parinirvana.
An arahant after passing away is often compared metaphorically to a fire gone out when the supply of fuel is over, or to the flame of a lamp gone out when wick and oil are consumed.
Here it should be clearly and distinctly understood, without confusion, that what is compared to a fire or flame gone out is not nirvana -- but the "being" composed of the Five Aggregates (the empty process of the Five Aggregates clinging to themselves as a "being") who realized nirvana.
This point has to be emphasized over and again because people, even some great scholars, have misunderstood and misinterpreted this simile as referring to nirvana. Nirvana is never compared to a fire or to a lamp flame gone out.
An arahant after passing away is often compared metaphorically to a fire gone out when the supply of fuel is over, or to the flame of a lamp gone out when wick and oil are consumed.
Here it should be clearly and distinctly understood, without confusion, that what is compared to a fire or flame gone out is not nirvana -- but the "being" composed of the Five Aggregates (the empty process of the Five Aggregates clinging to themselves as a "being") who realized nirvana.
This point has to be emphasized over and again because people, even some great scholars, have misunderstood and misinterpreted this simile as referring to nirvana. Nirvana is never compared to a fire or to a lamp flame gone out.
Another popular question is, "If there is no self and no soul (atman) then who realizes nirvana?" Before going on to nirvana, let us ask the question, "Who thinks right now if there is no self?"
- (Cognito ergo sum, "I think therefore I am," rings in our heads as the answer to there being no self. In fact, on the basis of the evidence, all that can be said is, "Thinking is therefore there is thought." In other words, "Cognition cognizes because there is no 'cognizer' only the Five Aggregates clung to as Self").
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| Path: virtue, purifying concentration, wisdom. |
In the discussion of the origin of dukkha (disappointment, suffering), we saw that whatever it may be — whether eternal being, temporary thing, or impersonal process — if it is of a nature of arising, it has within itself the nature of ceasing. It is like the Taoist yin yang symbol brought into Buddhism. Each cycling wave, black or white, has within it a dot of the other: What ceases is of a nature to arise, and what arises is of a nature to cease.
Now all that is unpleasant (dukkha) and the cycle of birth and death (samsara) is of a nature to arise, so it follows that it must be of a nature to cease. Dukkha [has multiples causes and supporting conditions] arises because of craving (tanha rooted in ignorance), and it ceases because of wisdom (panna).
Craving and wisdom are both within the Five Aggregates affected by clinging, as we saw earlier.
Therefore, the seed of their arising as well as that of their cessation are both within the Five Aggregates. This is the real meaning of the Buddha's well known statement, "Within this fathom-long sentient body, I proclaim:
- the world,
- the arising of the world,
- the cessation of the world, and
- the path leading to the cessation of the world."
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| All that arises is of a nature to pass away! |
This means that all Four Noble Truths are found within the Five Aggregates, that is, within ourselves or what we cling to assuming to be ourselves. Here the word "world" (loka) is used in place of dukkha). This is how all suffering arises, and so here is found the seed of the cessation of all suffering.
This also means that there is no external power that produces the arising and the cessation of dukkha. When wisdom is developed and cultivated according to the fourth noble truth, it sees the secret of life, the reality of things as they really are.
When the secret is discovered, when it is directly penetrated, when the ultimate Truth is known-and-seen, all the forces that feverishly produce the illusion of samsara (continuity) become calm and incapable of producing any more karmic-formations, because there is no more illusion, no more craving for what is impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal.
It is like a mental disease that is cured when the cause or the secret of the malady is discovered and seen by the patient. In almost all religions the ultimate (the summum bonum), like a heavenly rebirth or divine rewards, can only be attained after death.
But nirvana can and is to be realized in this very life. It is not a matter of waiting to die to see if it's true, to "gain" or "attain" it. One who has realized the Truth, nirvana, is the happiest being in the world. For one is free from all "complexes" (i.e., inferiority, superiority, etc.) and obsessions, the common worries and troubles that torment others.
One's mental health becomes perfect with arahantship, full enlightenment. One does not repent the past, nor does one brood over the future. One lives fully in the present. [1] Therefore, one appreciates and enjoys things in the purest sense without self-projections. One is joyful, exultant, enjoying the a purified life (cleansed of the roots of greed, hatred, and delusion), one's faculties are pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful.
As one is free from selfish craving, selfish aversion, self-consumed ignorance, conceit, pride, egotism, wrong views and all such "defilements," one is pure and gentle, full of metta (universal friendliness, loving-kindness), compassion, sympathetic joy (happy for others' happiness), equanimity, understanding, and tolerance.
One's service to others is of the purest sort, for one has no thought of "self" or selfishness. One gains nothing, accumulates nothing, hoards nothing, not even anything spiritual, because one is free from the illusion of self and the craving for becoming.
Nirvana is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is, therefore, beyond our conceptions of good and bad, right and wrong, existence and non-existence, yin or yang. Even the word "happiness" (sukha, the opposite of dukkha), which is used to describe nirvana, has an entirely different sense here.
Ven. Sariputra once said, "O friend, nirvana is happiness, nirvana is happiness!" Then Udayi asked, "But, friend Sariputra, what happiness can it be if there is no sensation?" Ven. Sariputra's reply was highly philosophical and beyond ordinary comprehension: "That there is no sensation itself is happiness."
Nirvana is beyond logic and mere reasoning (atakkavacara). However much we may engage, often as a vain intellectual pursuit, in highly speculative discussions regarding nirvana or ultimate truth or "reality," we will never understand it by those means.
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| Nirvana is known when it is experienced. |
By comparison a child in kindergarten should not quarrel about or debate the theory of relativity. Instead, if one follows one's studies (putting them into practice) patiently and diligently, one day that person, formerly a child, may understand it.
Nirvana is "to be realized by the wise within themselves" (paccattam veditabbo vinnuhi). If we follow the path to nirvana -- the path to freedom, the path of purification, the path of practice -- patiently and with diligence, train and purify ourselves earnestly, and attain the necessary spiritual development, we may one day realize it within ourselves — without taxing ourselves with puzzling and high-sounding words.
Let us, therefore, now turn to the path that leads to the direct realization of nirvana [the experience of this verb, this cooling, slaking, quenching of the painful fires of greed, hatred, and delusion]. More
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