Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence

Posted By Mahabodhi on Apr 28, 2024 | 0 comments

Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book…

© Mahabodhi Burton

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This excerpt is from Chapter 10 and follows on from Insight and Ethics.

Nirvana as Perpetual Self-Transcendence

‘Staying right there’ means being steady in that insight, and ‘the ending of the mental fermentations’ is a synonym for Nirvana. I think what this scripture is saying is we attain Nirvana when we are steady in the insight that the higher mental state we are in (represented by any of the eleven states) is conditioned and volitionally produced, and thus is impermanent. We know it will decay (if the conditions that support it change;) we know we will need to keep bringing it into being volitionally (i.e., want it to continue be present; for the reason that it is helpful to living beings). The state of Nirvana then is not a static state but a dynamic one, one of perpetual self-transcendence. As insight arises you begin to no longer slide down the hill, or at least only to a lesser degree. As insight deepens the oscillations lessen until finally at Enlightenment it is as if you come to rest on the hilltop, a state which looks static but which is actually dynamic; when abiding in the elevated state the Enlightened person is constantly aware of its conditioned nature and of the need to counteract any tendency of the state to decay; it therefore does not decay.

In dependence on knowledge and vision of things as they really are there arises disenchantment (Sanskrit: nirveda; Pali: nibbida)

Disenchantment[1]

As we begin to see into the nature of things as they really are, we begin to expect disappointment from that which is impermanent; we know it will eventually go and so, while we might enjoy the experience as it lasts, we become disenchanted with it. Buddhaghosa offers a simile; a man fishing thinks he has caught a fish; however when he puts his hand into the mouth of the net underwater, instead of pulling out a fish he grasps a snake with three marks on its’ head (i.e., the laksanas). Terrified, he uncoils the snake from his arm, swings it around his head a few times to weaken it, and then flings it back into the water; the man sees the dangers in Samsara.

In dependence on disenchantment there arises dispassion (Sanskrit: vairagya; Pali: viraga)

Dispassion

As the person with insight becomes disenchanted with those things that he was formerly passionate about dispassion naturally grows for them.

In dependence on dispassion there arises liberation (Sanskrit: vimukti; Pali: vimutti)

Liberation

And once he has dispassion for everything in Samsara that will hold him back he naturally experiences liberation.

In dependence on liberation there arises knowledge of the destruction of the asravas (Sanskrit: asravakhaya jnana; Pali: asavakkhaya nana)

Nirvana / Knowledge of the destruction of the asravas

The goal, as described in Chapter 7.

This excerpt completes the chapter.

[1] Several different sequences follow yathabhuta-jnanadarsana in different sutras; ‘The characteristic formulation is that yathabhuta-jnanadarsana causes disenchantment (nibbida) with sense experience and to lose interest in it; one thereby ceases to be caught up in the passions aroused by it and becomes dispassionate (viraga). Most of the sequences reach the point of vimutti, but some elaborate this as liberation of the mind (cittam vimutti). Other sequences spell out that the mind is liberated from the asavas, which results in another kind of knowledge: the knowledge that one is liberated (vimuttinana), or that the asavas have been destroyed (asavakhayam nanam), which amounts to the same thing.’ ‘The Spiral Path or Lokuttara Paticca-samuppada.’ Jayarava Attwood. Western Buddhist Review 2013 (6): 1–34. p12.

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