Nibbāna 32—Reflections of Nibbāna
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2021-06-07

This video is classified Vivartha-vāda | Rāja-yoga | Suśupti | Ājñā-cakra

What is called akata or asaṅkhata, the unmade, unfabricated or unborn, is not something out there in the distance as a concept or object of thought. It is not a sign to be grasped by one who wants to attain Nibbāna. 

Language encourages us to think in terms of signs and symbols. It is very difficult to overcome this habit. The worldlings, with their defilements, have to communicate with each other; so the structure of the common language has to answer their needs. Thus the subject-object relationship has become a very significant feature of all languages. It always carries the implication that ‘there is a thing to be grasped’ and that ‘there is someone who grasps’; that ‘there is a doer’ and ‘someone is doing something to a thing’. So it is almost impossible to avoid usages such as: ‘I want to see Nibbāna, I want to attain Nibbāna’. We are made to think in terms of getting and attaining something, as if Nibbāna is something substantial. 

However the Buddha reminds us that this is only conventional usage, and that these worldly usages are not to be taken too seriously. We come across such an instance when the Buddha responds to the deity Kakudha. 

He asks the Buddha: “Do you rejoice, O recluse?” And the Buddha retorts: “On getting what, friend?” Then the deity asks: “Then, recluse, do you grieve?” And the Buddha quips back: “On losing what, friend?” So the deity concludes: “Well then, recluse, you neither rejoice nor grieve!”And the Buddha replies: “That is so, friend.”—Kakudhasutta (SN 2.18)

It seems, then, that though we say we ‘attain Nibbāna’, there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose. If anything, all that is lost is the ignorance that there is something, and a craving that there is not enough—and that is all. 

In the Suttas there are quite a number of epithets, metaphorical symbols that reflect the meaning of Nibbāna, such as akata (unmade) and asaṅkhata (unfabricated). There is even a list of thirty-three such epithets: 

“Monks, I will teach you the unconditioned. And what is the path that leads to the unconditioned? The Noble Eightfold Path. This is called the path that leads to the unconditioned.
So, monks, I’ve taught you the unconditioned and the path that leads to the unconditioned. Out of compassion, I’ve done what a teacher should do who wants what’s best for his disciples. Here are these roots of trees, and here are these empty huts. Practice absorption, mendicants! Don’t be negligent! Don’t regret it later! This is my instruction to you.
“Monks, I will teach you the uninclined … ; the undefiled … ; the truth … ; the far shore … ; the subtle … ; the very hard to see … ; the unaging … ; the constant … ; the not falling apart … ; the invisible … ; the unproliferated … ; the peaceful … ; the deathless … ; the sublime … ; the state of grace … ; the sanctuary … ; the ending of craving … ; the incredible … ; the amazing … ; the untroubled … ; the not liable to trouble … ; the extinction … ; the unafflicted … ; dispassion … ; purity … ; freedom … ; the not adhering … ; the island … ; the protection … ; the shelter … ; the refuge …” — Anāsavādisutta, (SN 43.10–43)

Again, what’s missing between the lines here is the Buddha’s presence. He is not just explaining the meaning of Nibbāna; he is demonstrating the state of Nibbāna by his very presence—by his being, his appeasement, his inner silence as he is speaking to the monks.

Nibbāna is categorically ineffable, indescribable in words. These epithets are not meant to be taken literally, but as metaphors—broad indications. For example, one of these is dīpa, island. When we are told that Nibbāna is an island, we tend to imagine some sort of paradisiacal existence in a beautiful island. But in the Pārāyanavagga of the Sutta Nipāta, the Buddha corrects that kind of imagining in his reply to a question put by the Brahmin youth Kappa, a pupil of the brāhmaṇa Bāvarī. Kappa puts his question in the following impressive verse: 

“Unto them that stand midstream, When the frightful floods flow forth, To them in decay-and-death forlorn, An island, Sire, may you proclaim. An island which none else excels, Yea, such an isle, pray tell me, Sire.”
And the Buddha gives his answer in two inspiring verses: 
“Unto them that stand midstream, When the frightful floods flow forth, To them in decay-and-death forlorn, An island, Kappa, I shall proclaim. 
Owning naught, grasping naught, The isle is this, none else besides. Nibbāna, that is how I call that isle, Where decay is decayed and death is dead.” —Kappamāṇavapucchā (SN 5.11)

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