Nibbana Aka Nirvana_2

Nibbāna, or Nirvāna in, the Sanskrit is often seen as the ultimate goal in Buddhism. And one of the primary etymological explanations of what Nibbāna means is it comes from the expression to blow out, to blow out a fire. But when it comes into the teachings of the Buddha, it isn't the action of blowing the fire out. But rather it refers to the fire going out. When the fuel is removed.

Transcript

Nibbāna,

Nirvāna.

Nirvana is the Sanskrit word and it's often seen as the ultimate goal in Buddhist practice and one of the primary,

The etymology of the word Nibbāna,

It means it comes from the expression to blow out,

To blow out a fire.

But when it comes into the teachings of the Buddha it isn't the action of blowing out the fire but rather it refers to the fire going out when the fuel of the is removed,

When the fuel is removed.

So it's an extinguishing of the fire,

It's an extinguishing of the fire.

When the fuel is burned up,

So the going out of a flame.

This is the etymology of Nibbāna and if you think about it,

It's kind of a negative idea of the ultimate goal.

So this kind of negative idea has to be put into some context and the context is in ancient India at the time of the Buddha.

One of the dominant religions of his time had these Brahmin priests and one of the important functions or practices of these priests was fire ritual.

So these sacred fire rituals where the idea was to fuel the fire,

To add ghee,

Like ghee oil into the fire and then wood to keep the fire going and then putting in like a sacrificial object into the fire for the gods.

That was part of their religion,

Both the fire sacrifice but also the aspect of metaphorically like the fires of the soul,

The Atman,

The ultimate kind of being of the universe.

So these different fires,

Whether there's a sacrifice or the metaphorical fire in ourselves in the world,

They're keeping the fire going and you know the fires are being fueled by these Brahmin priests.

So that's the context.

So the Buddha changed the meaning of these fires of the Brahmins and he talked about three fires,

The fire of greed,

The fire of hatred and the fire of delusion or confusion.

And those are the fires that nirvana blows out,

Gets extinguished.

They go out with practice,

The fires of greed,

Hatred and delusion.

So the primary definition of Nibbana,

This nirvana,

The teachings of the Buddha,

It's the ending of those three fires.

So it's not an extinguishing of life,

Not an extinguishing of everything,

But it's extinguishing a particular form of excitement that humans can be caught up in,

That have an aspect,

The ability to burn us.

And burning is harm,

Right?

And this idea of a fire that burns that harms us is closely related to this idea of suffering,

Of dukkha in Buddhism.

So Nibbana is described sometimes as the end of suffering.

It's the end of the fires of greed and hatred and delusion,

The end of the burning that goes on.

And so this idea that nirvana,

Nibbana is the end of something is actually very important to understand.

The metaphor of fire,

That the fire is kept going by the fuels that feed it,

Reflects back to the idea of practice,

That practice is the beginning of no longer adding fuel to the fire.

The attachments,

The greed,

The hatred that we have,

But we're not feeding them.

So it's not a forceful extinguishing of something.

We're just no longer adding fuel,

We're no longer adding the ghee,

We're no longer adding the wood.

So this is one of the functions of meditation practice,

Mindfulness practice,

Concentration practice.

It's the to let the mind become self-satisfied,

Present,

Connected to here.

So the mindfulness,

The attention is not reaching out to anything,

Not wanting something,

Not pushing away something,

Not confused by things,

Not deluded by things,

But able to stay present in a clear way.

And that clarity,

That clarity allows things to be as they are,

Doesn't add any fuel to anything.

So part of what we're learning to do in meditation practice is to just be present,

Clearly present with attention,

Without adding anything to the fire.

And what's interesting is the language that's often used in relating to Nibbāna is it's a cooling.

Things that are hot go cool.

I like the imagery of like a pot on the stove and you know how you get them and you put water in it and it's bubbling up and so the water is boiling and then you move it to another burner and then it and each that burner is turned off you move it off of the hot fire and then it goes cool.

You know that metaphor of cooling of the mind it's it was first sort of introduced in the the hot climate of India right so we're cooling is so refreshing and peaceful right now cooling doesn't seem like a very good idea when it's 14 degrees outside but this idea that cooling is refreshing and peaceful it's a peaceful thing to experience.

So as the fires go out this is when we come to this English word enlightenment,

Awakening.

And it's kind of a synonym for Nibbāna.

The Buddha talks about how when there's awakening when there's this ending of the fires then it's replaced by a luminosity,

A radiance that's there and the fires of greed hatred and delusion they diminish they become cooler and this association that the the flames of greed hatred and delusion that they're going out and leaving us with this sort of luminosity,

A happiness and well-being that's a really positive message that sometimes is lost when Nibbāna is described as an extinguishing or this idea of quenching of thirst like you're quenching the thirst of greed hatred and delusion.

Quenching is not very appealing for for some people but it's not really again it's not a blowing out it's not a quenching it's just this this allowing for these fires to dissipate because they're not being fed.

So you you might think about this until we meet again you know how is it that you feed and fuel your excitement your fires of these aspects of being a human being of greed and hatred and delusion and if hatred is too strong for you to digest then it's just a version.

So how does it get fueled?

How do you add to it?

If you have strong desires and cravings in what way is the mind being kept it being fueled by these?

If you have aversion or jealousy or hostility to what degree does the mind keep fueling it and adding to adding and fueling the fire of those afflictions and if you're you're finding yourself often kind of bewildered or or perplexed or confused not knowing what to do like what's happening in the mind where you're fueling that fire that confusion that agitation maybe.

So to start it start looking at how you do that you know what are you doing what's happening in the mind that feeds the fire and then what happens when we can start to see it clearly what it's like is it's just sort of like stepping away we're just stepping away so that we're no longer adding the fuel you're not letting go of anything you're just not feeding it so if you don't feed it then what happens?

I want to close with the story that some of you have heard many times for me and it's a beautiful Native American story.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life and he says a fight is going on inside of me he says to the boy it is a terrible fight and is it is between two wolves one is anger envy sorrow regret greed arrogance self-pity guilt resentment inferiority lies false pride superiority and ego and the other the other is joy and peace hope love serenity humility kindness benevolence empathy generosity truth compassion and faith the same fight is going on inside of you and inside of every other person too.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then he asked his grandfather which wolf will win and the old Cherokee simply replied the one we feed the one we feed.

So thank you for your kind attention this morning.