Nibbana

Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on Nibbana. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics and the Buddha Dhamma, is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises

Transcript

Most people when they enter the Dharma don't understand what nirvana is.

So they ask questions,

What is nirvana?

Or nirvana sounds very scary,

Like cessation,

Like the end of existence,

And all these things which basically,

Well,

They say they don't want it.

So the conditioned mind fears the unconditioned.

And the descriptions of nirvana scare people.

They don't want to end and it sounds like some big dark,

Lonely nothingness.

But really it's much more simple than that.

All people desire nirvana but they don't know what it is.

When you have an itch,

You want the itch to end,

That is desiring nirvana.

When you have a headache and you want the headache to end,

That is the desire for nirvana.

It's completely basic in our mental state to desire the end of suffering.

That's what it is.

You don't need to think of it in any other way except that.

When you sit in meditation posture and your knees start hurting,

You really want the meditation to end.

You want the pain to end.

This is the desire for nirvana.

Human beings only chase happiness.

That's all we do.

We eat because we think it will make us happy or the pain of hunger will end.

We sleep to alleviate the pain of tiredness.

All we do is chase happiness and try to create a cessation of suffering.

This is the human condition.

All of us do that continuously all day long,

Every day long,

Every day.

Everything we do is a desperate attempt to find a lasting happiness.

We go to work,

We earn money because we think status and wealth will give us happiness or we can buy things that will make us happy.

We have lovers because we think that companionship will make us happy.

It will take away the pain of loneliness.

There's not one single action that you do which is not driven by the desire for happiness.

Even twisted actions,

Even self-modification is driven by the desire for happiness,

Albeit a misguided one.

Since the beginning of the unknowable,

We've been searching desperately and unceasingly to find happiness and the end of suffering.

All beings already want nirvana.

The problem is they don't know how to get it.

We act in unskillful ways.

We think that the outer world will supply us with something that lasts,

Will make us happy.

So,

A new car with shiny rims will make me happy.

Then you get the car and then,

Well,

It's not new or shiny anymore and the happiness ends.

Or a more sexy wife or a more successful husband with a more gentle heart or better food or a softer bed or cleaner pillowcases or adjusting my foot when sitting or twisting my back or you put anything that you do in there.

It's all driven by that underlying tendency of beings to want to escape suffering and to grasp after happiness.

The problem is we chase after happiness that is dependent on condition.

Anything that is conditioned,

It rises up,

It exists because of conditions.

That means it will end.

Anything that is conditioned can last.

This life dependent on breathing,

Nourishment from food and so on,

Lasts.

When those conditions end,

It ends.

The happiness of sleep ends when those conditions end.

You can think deeply about this and whatever you find is dependent on conditions.

The problem is conditions are unreliable and they change and they end.

And when they end,

The thing that we are holding on to for happiness falls away.

So we have a deep and amazing friendship with somebody.

It seems transcendent and it seems lasting and gives us happiness.

But conditions change.

You don't understand their conditions which are ever changing and they are connected to other people and their conditions which are ever changing in an incomprehensible web of conditioning.

It only takes one little part and the whole thing falls apart.

It's like a tripod.

Like I have the microphone here on a tripod.

It's dependent on those three legs as conditions to stand up.

If one of those legs disappears,

It falls over.

It doesn't need all three to dissolve.

Only one condition has to cease and your happiness comes dropping down and ends and is replaced by suffering.

So as long as we chase after happiness in the conditioned realm,

It will be a futile pursuit.

We all experience this.

We've all been chasing happiness since birth but we haven't found it yet.

And then you look around at every being you know who's been chasing happiness since birth but they're not finding it either.

Maybe they're super successful and attractive and healthy and have many friends but I guarantee they're not genuinely happy.

Even though they have a whole bunch of seemingly superior conditions,

Those conditions are still dependent on condition and fall away and change,

Leaving someone left with nothing.

So all beings want happiness but we strive in the wrong way.

All beings want nirvana but we don't know what nirvana is.

Nirvana is the unconditioned.

Because it is free from conditions,

It is free from suffering.

And what we really want is simply the end of suffering.

Why do we think wealth is a good thing?

Surely it's because it helps to stop suffering.

Poverty is suffering.

Wealth is the end of poverty.

Poor food is suffering.

Good food is the end of poor food.

Everything we do is a desperate attempt to end suffering.

So after countless life cycles of doing so,

We still haven't succeeded.

Reflecting upon this,

We need to understand maybe there is a better way.

My personal way hasn't been working.

If I knew better,

I would have already found happiness by now.

But it isn't working.

So this is when we turn to the teachings for guidance.

And we strive towards the unconditioned.

When your happiness is unconditioned,

It's permanent.

That is nirvana.

Nothing else.

The permanent cessation of suffering.

You don't have to think about it in terms of heaven or a plane or a non-existence or an existence or a neither existence nor non-existence.

Simply the permanent cessation of suffering.

Well what is it that attains the cessation of suffering?

That's not important.

Simply the cessation of suffering.

The Buddha put forward a practice called the seven factors of awakening.

And like all of the teachings,

They can be understood in terms of shamatha or in terms of vipassana,

In terms of relative reality and in terms of ultimate reality.

The seven factors of awakening are,

And these are a sequence,

So one leads to the other.

The first factor is mindfulness.

The second factor is analysis of qualities.

The third factor is persistence.

The fourth factor is rapture or bliss.

The fifth factor is serenity.

The sixth factor is samadhi,

Often poorly translated as concentration.

And the seventh factor is equanimity.

When understood in terms of shamatha or conventional meditation practice,

The first factor is mindfulness.

So you bring your mind to the meditation object.

You become mindful of the breath.

Nothing else exists except the breath.

Mindfulness starts off with thought and analysis of the qualities of the meditation object.

So that's your second factor of awakening.

You analyze that this breath is pleasant,

And when I'm mindful,

The mind is still,

Which is pleasant and there's less suffering.

This leads to persistence in the practice.

So you persist at being mindful of the breath.

Now you have mindfulness,

Analysis of qualities and persistence.

If you persist in the correct way,

The correct method comes from analysis.

What you're persisting in is being mindful.

For long enough,

The natural result is the arising of pity or rapture.

So rapture arises as a result of concentration practice,

Of shamatha practice.

This is entering jhana.

So in this way,

The formula is a formula for shamatha leading to jhana.

As one progresses deeper and deeper and becomes more still,

One begins to see the flaw in rapture.

There's something crude about rapture.

The cessation of rapture is pleasure.

So once again,

You begin to find the pleasure in the ceasing of things,

Even in something that we previously thought was blissful.

The blissful thing after extended periods is seen as subtly irritating.

In the same way of the blissful massage or sexual experience or anything,

If it went on and on,

You'd be an irritant and you'd really want it to end.

So with the ending of rapture,

There is serenity.

One enters into deeper jhana,

Third jhana,

To be precise.

Serenity is the cessation of analysis of qualities,

Persistence and rapture,

Working through one quality,

Mastering it and letting it go to move on to the next.

As serenity deepens,

The mind attains samadhi.

In this context,

The samadhi is referring to complete one-pointedness which arises with equanimity for the fourth jhana.

Samadhi and equanimity.

So the seven factors of awakening are step-by-step description and practice from sati,

The mind,

From ordinary mindfulness all the way to the fourth jhana.

This is the relative truth or the shamatha version of the practice.

Then you can look at the seven factors of awakening within the context of vipassana or ultimate truth.

Both are skillful means,

Both are extremely skillful.

Jhana cannot lead you to awakening but simply leads you to bliss states.

But because we're all chasing after happiness,

Well that's a good thing.

Bliss states are what we're chasing after.

And jhana is achieved by letting go of lower versions of happiness and attaining higher ones.

A cessation of stress.

So it's in alignment with the path,

Though it is not the pure path.

The pure path always lies within recognizing reality,

Vipassana.

So the same formula,

Mindfulness.

But now we're no longer mindful of a meditation object,

We're mindful of the four foundations of mindfulness.

Body,

Feelings,

Mind and mental objects or dharmas.

What are we mindful of?

We're mindful of not self.

Body is not self.

Feelings are not self.

Mind is not self.

Dharmas are not self.

So this is the mindfulness quality.

Mindful of the body,

We analyze the body.

In analyzing the body,

We see the body is not self.

In analyzing the feelings,

We see feelings as arising and falling away,

Dependent on conditions,

Unreliable,

Stressful and not self.

Mindfulness and analysis of qualities are the first two stages now applied in terms of vipassana.

Recognizing this persistence in the path arises on its own.

We're driven to be more persistent.

So we train harder and harder.

So we practice mindfulness and analyzing to recognize not self in the four postures.

The four postures which are just a clever way of saying all the time.

Sitting,

Standing,

Lying and walking.

Can anyone think of any time you're not doing one of those four things?

They are all encompassing.

So it doesn't mean four formal meditation postures,

It means all the time.

All the time we recognize the four foundations of mindfulness.

We analyze them to recognize not self.

Seeing not self,

We realize that we're starting to see the Dharma and train even harder.

Persistence.

Persistence leads to rapture.

But this is not the rapture of Jhana.

The rapture of Jhana is of the world Lokaya Jhana.

This rapture is the rapture of the super mundane or lokuttala to be separated from the world.

The rapture that arises from the seeing of not self.

The rapture of vipassana.

This is the doorway to vipassana jhana or lokuttara jhana.

Once again in accordance with conditions,

Rapture fades and then you are left with serenity.

Lokuttara serenity.

Super mundane serenity.

The serenity that comes from clearly seeing things the way they are.

Not from fabricating a blissful state.

Because this kind of serenity,

This kind of rapture is not dependent on fabrication,

It is more stable.

The bliss and serenity of shamatha,

Of jhana,

Although truly incredible is dependent on condition.

Dependent on peace,

Silence,

Being alone,

Having a healthy body and so on.

Where the second kind,

Built in vipassana,

Is not dependent on these conditions and is therefore free from condition.

Super mundane,

Separate from the world,

The world of conditions,

Lokuttara.

Lokuttara serenity.

Seeing all things equally and they are not self quality leads to it.

Everything absorbed in this seeing quality leads to samadhi.

But this is not the samadhi of shamatha,

It is vipassana samadhi.

In some traditions they call it the samadhi that pleases the blessed one.

What that means is the perfect mix of shamatha and vipassana with the stillness of samadhi and shamatha imbued with the quality of clear seeing.

It's perfect single pointedness you are seeing not self continuously.

This is the samadhi.

And the samadhi gives way to equanimity.

But this is not the equanimity of shamatha.

It's the equanimity of vipassana.

One the shamatha vehicle,

The seven factors of awakening in the shamatha vehicle are dependent on fabricated causes.

I'm going to sit still,

I'm going to breathe finally,

I'm going to rest my mind only on the breath and nothing else.

If it's too hot I can't enter,

If it's too cold I can't enter,

If there's music in the background I can't enter,

If I'm stressed out for my family life I can't enter.

So although it's blissful,

The conditions have to be extremely refined.

This is the downfall.

When the conditions end so does the bliss.

Vipassana on the other hand can be practiced at any time in any condition.

It would even be fair to say it's more efficient or it's easier to practice under stressful conditions.

When you're at peace often there's not much to see.

But when there is stress well you can see pretty clearly the body.

You can see Vedana,

You can see feelings arise in pain.

There's something to work with.

You have the raw materials to work with.

And you build a skill which is not dependent on conditions and leads all the way to the equanimity state.

Equanimity of insight,

Not equanimity of shamatha.

Perfect equanimity of insight is enlightenment.

Perfect equanimity of samadhi is jhana,

The fourth jhana.

These are not the same.

So the classical formula of the seven factors of awakening can be understood in terms of the shamatha vehicle or the vipassana vehicle.

So within vipassana you still attain samadhi,

But it's samadhi of vipassana,

Not samadhi of shamatha.

So how does,

Besides this seemingly complex formula,

Which isn't really that complex,

If you're doing the practice the formula makes sense.

But in daily life we need to strive to search out our happiness in something that is less conditioned than the other.

If your happiness is bound up with a whole lot of complex conditions you're pretty much guaranteed it's going to fall to bits.

So simple happiness,

Simple things that are only dependent on yourself are better.

If everyone else has to act in accordance with your desires for you to be happy,

Well,

It ain't going to happen.

You can't even make one person act in accordance with your desires.

I'm sure we've all tried.

It just doesn't act the way that will make me happy.

It's never going to happen.

It's never going to happen because it's dependent on conditions and conditions are changing.

So the happiness is a mirage.

It will fall to bits.

You need to find a happiness not dependent on the outside,

Something that you can trust.

This is what the path is.

The path is simply a skillful means to attain and master this happiness which is not dependent on conditions.

That's what the happiness not dependent on conditions is Nibbāna.

The path is the way to get there.

Do you want it?

Yes.

In the same way you want to move your knees and you want me to stop speaking for the cessation of suffering,

You want Nibbāna.

It is innate to all beings.

Even an ant runs away from suffering.

All beings desire the end of suffering.

They just don't know how to get it.

Okay.

Any questions?

If something was so practical to meditate,

Could you maybe talk a little bit about the antidote to excitement and sinking through meditation in the core sense of performance?

Excitement and sinking?

Yes.

So dullness?

Dullness.

Excitement and dullness.

Yes.

Two of the major enemies of correct meditation,

Like Toby just said,

One is excitement or agitation and with its opposing force of duality being dullness or sinking.

The reason why these are negatives is they take away clear seeing.

They take away stillness.

They are classical antidotes.

But really the problem is in clinging.

The problem is in your stela.

If you have agitation or excitement in your meditation,

I prefer the word agitation.

Excitement is a form of agitation.

The problem is in ill will.

If the mind has lingering ill will towards anything,

Then that will arise up as agitation.

Because the mind is habitualized towards ill will,

Habitualized towards being unsatisfied with things,

Having ill will towards things,

It naturally has ill will towards the meditation object.

So you start to feel ill will towards your breath,

Which will manifest as irritation or the desire to get up,

Desire for the meditation to end.

The opposite hindrance is dullness.

The best antidote for dullness is sleep.

Usually it means you're too tired.

I wouldn't worry about dullness in meditation.

There's the dullness not having enough clarity that needs to be ironed out.

But the dullness of simply feeling heavy and tired,

It usually means have a rest or wash your face with cold water.

Most people suffer from agitation,

Not from dullness.

They want to get up.

Not many people couldn't be bothered getting up.

Most people want the meditation to end.

They're irritated,

Subtly,

Even if it's excitement.

Excitement is irritation.

One thing you'll find with long-term meditators is they don't get excited.

It simply doesn't happen.

And from the outside you might think,

Oh,

What a drag,

Not getting excited.

But it's not like that.

Actually they just,

They see,

To somebody who's attained that level,

Excitement is nothing but being irritated.

So from below it looks like,

Wow,

What a bore not getting excited.

But once you're there,

Well,

It's just an irritant anyway.

It's like a long-term coffee drinker.

They can't go without coffee.

Once they give up coffee,

Then if they have it again,

They instantly feel irritated.

Excitement is like that.

Dullness rather sleep.

And then there's the dullness,

Which is a lack of vipassana quality.

That's another ball game altogether.

Really it needs a refinement of vipassana to start with,

To talk about it.

But in very simple terms,

It means the mind's drifting off and becoming too.

When the mind becomes small,

It loses clarity.

It gains focus,

But it loses clarity.

Focus and awareness are enemies.

If you fixate,

That's focus.

But your open clarity or awareness fades.

So it's a dualistic balance.

If the meditation object is too small,

You'll tend to fall into dullness,

Like meditating on the tip of the nose or anything tiny,

A small point,

A small casino or a visualization.

One antidote is to make the meditation object more broad,

Like meditating on the breath through the whole body.

That's why we meditate breathing through the whole body,

Not on the nose tip.

Because the object is more broad,

The mind tends to maintain more clarity and not fall into wrong focus.

Wrong focus turns into dullness.

When you fall asleep,

If you observe sleeping,

If your mind is broad,

You can't fall asleep.

You only fall asleep when the mind becomes small.

So you drift off thinking about something and the mind narrows in on that thought and you fall asleep.

Dullness only exists within focus.

Sounds counterintuitive,

But yeah,

That's the way it works.

Does that help?

With the mind focusing,

When the mind becomes small,

That's the innate cause of dullness.

Focused on a small point,

Narrow.

Yeah.

That makes it dull?

Yeah.

And dullness results in sleep.

Can.

It makes it dull in meditation.

I mean,

If you fall asleep in meditation,

Just stop meditating.

Have a sleep.

If you ever fall asleep in meditation,

Stop immediately and sleep.

It's a disaster.

It is bad news.

If it's happened once,

Stop and sleep.

Try not to let it happen again.

If you're not fresh,

Don't do the practice.

Sleep.

It's obvious you need more sleep.

But if your meditation object is too narrow,

The mind will become dull.

I'm not talking about sleep,

Just dull.

It will lose the clarity aspect.

The clarity aspect comes from the mind being spacious.

Vipassana is a spacious quality.

If it's narrow,

It doesn't happen.

Like when you're absorbed in a book,

You don't notice what's going on around you.

Well,

That's not clarity,

Is it?

It's absorption.

The mind is narrow,

So you don't even know what's going on.

You're completely dull towards everything else that's going on.

Where if you sit back in the room and you have a broad expansive awareness,

You can see everything that's going on.

Reviews

Excellent

Nice one thank you