We come across the term “Nirvana” in the context of Buddhism. Buddha is said to have attained nirvana in his thirties. He then lived actively to a grand age of 80, a rarity for his time.
Does nirvana mean withdrawing from living or from the world? Buddha’s life demonstrates just the opposite.
In my opinion, nirvana is attaining the NULL VIEWPOINT. There is no fixed beingness engaged in viewing.
The null viewpoint is not based on any consideration. It is not assuming anything. It is not withdrawing or resisting. It is just looking.
Nirvana is a state in which one is looking at the Universe of Consideration without the filter of fixed beingness or consideration of any sort. In short…
In Nirvana one is not looking through the filter of beingness or consideration. A filter has permananence or solidity. But in nirvana, beingness and considerations are continually being created and dissolved.
In nirvana, one is very much alive; and one is participating to the fullest in this universe .
That is true enlightenment.
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Added on May 26, 2012:
Nirvana is not a state, or a realm, or a position in which there is some sort of existence. There is no such thing as ‘entering into Nirvāna after death’. To realize Nirvana is to be ‘blown out.’ To realize parinirvana after death, is to be ‘fully blown out.’ The forces and energies that are manifesting as beingness are fully extinguished.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MASTER: “You see how many opinions there are about God. Each opinion is a path. There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God.”
BHAVANATH: “Then what should we do?”
MASTER: “You must stick to one path with all your strength. A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must follow one path with all his strength.
“But you must regard other views as so many paths leading to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn’t bear malice toward others.”
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I am not figuring things out this week. I am practicing what I have learned.
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That’s the way to go.
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Feeling good and hoping to have a chat with you soon.
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Just send a message whenever you want to chat.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MASTER (to Vijay, with a smile): “I was told that you had put up a ‘signboard’ here that people belonging to other faiths are not allowed to come in. Narendra, too, said to me: ‘You shouldn’t go to the Brahmo Samaj. You had better visit Shivanath’s house.’
“But I say that we are all calling on the same God. Jealousy and malice need not be. Some say that God is formless,and some that God has form. I say, let one man meditate on God with form if he believes in form, and let another meditate on the formless Deity if he does not believe in form. What I mean is that dogmatism is not good. It is not good to feel that my religion alone is true and other religions are false. The correct attitude is this: My religion is right, but I do not know whether other religions are right or wrong, true or false. I say this because one cannot know the true nature of God unless one realizes Him. Kabir used to say: ‘God with form is my Mother, the Formless is my Father. Which shall I blame? Which shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.’
“Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Saktas, Saivas, Vaishnavas, the Brahmajnanis of the time of the rishis, and you, the Brahmajnanis of modern times, all seek the same object. A mother prepares dishes to suit the stomachs of her children. Suppose a mother has five children and a fish is bought for the family. She doesn’t cook pilau or kalia for all of them. All have not the same power of digestion; so she prepares a simple stew for some. But she loves all her children equally.
“Do you know my attitude? I love all the preparations of fish. I have a womanly nature (all laugh). I feel myself at home with every dish-fried fish, fish cooked with turmeric powder, pickled fish. And further, I equally relish rich preparations like fish-head, kalia, and pilau. (all laugh)
“Do you know what the truth is? God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God Himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion. Suppose there are errors in the religion that one has accepted; if one is sincere and earnest, then God Himself will correct those errors. Suppose a man has set out with a sincere desire to visit Jagannath at Puri and by mistake has gone north instead of south; then certainly someone meeting him on the way will tell him: ‘My good fellow, don’t go that way. Go to the south.’ And the man will reach Jagannath sooner or later.
“If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that. Our duty is somehow to visit Jagannath. (To the Brahmos) The view you hold is good indeed. You describe God as formless. That is fine. One may eat a cake with icing, either straight or sidewise. It will taste sweet either way.
“But dogmatism is not good. You have no doubt heard the story of the chameleon. A man entered a wood and saw a chameleon on a tree. He reported to his friends, ‘I have seen a red lizard.’ He was firmly convinced that it was nothing but red. Another person, after visiting the tree, said, ‘I have seen a green lizard.’ He was firmly convinced that it was nothing but green. But the man who lived under the tree said: ‘What both of you have said is true. But the fact is that the creature is sometimes red, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, and sometimes has no colour at all.’”
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“I say this because one cannot know the true nature of God unless one realizes Him. Kabir used to say: ‘God with form is my Mother, the Formless is my Father. Which shall I blame? Which shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.’”
Maybe I will become a Hindu next, but only if I can learn and use the cool face paint.
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LOL! You may invent your own face paint.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MASTER (to Vijay, smiling): “I understand that they have been finding fault with you for mixing with those who believe in God with form. Is that true? He who is a devotee of God must have an understanding that cannot be shaken under any conditions. He must be like the anvil in a blacksmith’s shop. It is constantly being struck by the hammer; still it is unshaken. Bad people may abuse you very much and speak ill of you; but you must bear with them all if you sincerely seek God. Isn’t it possible to think of God in the midst of the wicked? Just think of the rishis of ancient times. They used to meditate on God in the forest, surrounded on all sides by tigers, bears, and other ferocious beasts. Wicked men have the nature of tigers and bears. They will pursue you to do you an injury.
“One must be careful about these few things. First, an influential man who has much money and many men under his control. He can injure you if he wants; you must be careful while talking to him; perhaps you may have to approve what he says. Second, a dog. When it chases you or barks at you, you must stand still, talk to it gently, and pacify it. Third, a bull. If it runs after you with lowered horns, you must calm it with a gentle voice. Fourth, a drunkard. If you arouse his anger, he will abuse you, naming fourteen generations of your family. You should say to him: ‘Hello uncle! How are you?’ Then he will be mightily pleased and sit by you and smoke.
“In the presence of a wicked person I become alert. If such a man asks me whether I have a pipe for smoking, I say, ‘Yes, I have.’ Some people have the nature of a snake: they will bite you without warning. You have to discriminate a great deal in order to avoid the bite; otherwise your passion will be stirred up to such an extent that you will feel like doing injury in return. The companionship of a holy man is greatly needed now and then. It enables one to discriminate between the Real and the unreal.”
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And thus we practice mindfulness.
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When is one is being mindful, one does not have to worry about whether one is evaluating or not, because one is always “evaluating” in terms of seeing what is there. One should only be concerned about how correct that evaluation is. The less filters are there, the less incorrect one’s evaluation would be.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, I am a sinner. How can I say that God dwells in me?”
MASTER: “That’s the one trouble with you Brahmos. With you it is always sin and sin! That’s the Christian view, isn’t it? Once a man gave me a Bible.A part of it was read to me, and it was full of that one thing – sin and sin! One must have such faith that one can say: ‘I have uttered the name of God; I have repeated the name of Rāma or Hari. How can I be a sinner?’ One must have faith in the glory of God’s name.”
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This was my advice to a conservative Christian family who was worried about the loss of their daughter to Scientology Sea Org. “This is a test of your faith, use it and rejoice.”
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Yes, Bible tends to be pretty negative about human nature, and so does Scientology. You get what you put your attention on.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MANILAL: “And what about hathayoga?”
MASTER: “The hathayogis identify themselves with their bodies. They practise internal washing and similar disciplines, and devote themselves only to the care of the body. Their ideal is to increase longevity. They serve the body day and night. That is not good.
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My feeling is this statement by SRI RAMAKRISHNA is a mistake and inconsistent with the earlier text admonishing one to follow their own path be it formed or formless.
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He was talking about form and formless with respect to the consideration of the ultimate reality.
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Ah, well then the language lets us down. There is only language for form and then there is language for the form that there may be no form, or as you say the conjecture which is “a placeholder.” Quite simple really. Our existence no longer seems to me any kind of paradox but rather a tautology. Neti neti takes us in the opposite direction of tautology, it seems. These are both useful to me.
Seeing things as they really are implies an acquiescence to accept what is really there rather than what one desires, assumes to be there.
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In my view, neither form (physicality) and nor formlessness (spirituality) can exist without the other.
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“In my view, neither form (physicality) and nor formlessness (spirituality) can exist without the other.”
As usual, I now express my opinion that spirituality has form, even if only mental forms. In your context, yes, we have both firm and soft forms, but in a more universe swallowing way, all is form., though I understand your points.
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What form does Scientology Static have in your mind?
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Nothing is without form.
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We do have the word nothing and it is a conjecture, a knowledge a priori and not a posteriori.
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Static is not an absence of awareness.
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Static as in 0 Kelvin is not an absence of awareness? In this universe, and that is all I know about, I am going to hazard a guess and say that I think it is. There may be beings or beingnesses as analogous to our own beyond what we know, but I do not know about these.
The static of Hubbard was the individual essence of an individual, I think that individual awareness as we know it is quite fragile and only survives in the temperate zones.
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0 Kelvin is a theoretical limit of no motion. It has never been achieved. It is not achievable either as long as there is substance. So, complete absence of motion does not exist in this universe. Complete absence of relative motion would also mean absence of awareness because awareness exists only when there is relative motion.
Hubbard’s idea of Static is theoretical and pulled out of thin air, because the true absolute Static would be devoid of not only motion, but also of any potential of motion or ability.
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So no awareness, right?
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Please see
https://vinaire.me/2014/07/13/the-ground-state-of-the-universe/#comment-27061
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MASTER: “You ask me why you don’t feel stern renunciation. There is a reason for it. You have desires and tendencies within you. The same is true of Hazra. In our part of the country I have seen peasants bringing water into their paddy-fields. The fields have low ridges on all sides to prevent the water from leaking out; but these are made of mud and often have holes here and there. The peasants work themselves to death to bring the water, which, however, leaks out through the holes. Desires are the holes. You practise japa and austerities, no doubt, but they all leak out through the holes of your desires…”
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“Desires are the holes. You practise japa and austerities, no doubt, but they all leak out through the holes of your desires…””
Maybe but I do not think so. For me, to use this analogy of irrigation canals, mindfulness is the paving within the canal which preserves the water without caving into the dirt banks. The holes seem to be lack of mindfulness. Mindfulness helps us not fight our desires but acknowledge them, embrace them, smile at them without being in conflict with them. Conflict is the root of suffering. A man should first become at peace with himself, then he will be at peace with the world. All the practices may melt away leaving shining mindfulness in its place.
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That is excellent, Chris. You are now becoming mindful.
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From THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
MASTER: “You see, in big grain stores the merchants keep rice in great heaps that touch the ceiling. Beside them there are heaps of lentils. To protect the grain from the mice, the merchants leave trays of puffed rice and sweetened rice near it. The mice like the smell and the sweet taste of these and so stayaround the trays. They don’t find the big heaps of grain. Similarly, men are deluded by ‘woman and gold’; they do not know where God is.”
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I’m not sure from this text if SRI RAMAKRISHNA is recommending austerity or ascetism, but harsh or severe practices can possibly replace other fleshly desires in simply another vector. One should live a full, rich, and vigorous life and practice mindfulness; seeing all, knowing all, embracing all. Mirrors are man’s metaphor for existence.
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All he is saying is that don’t get distracted by lust and greed.
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But yes, mindfulness is the undercut to balance. One cannot get hung up on things being a certain way, paths being a certain way, rules being a certain way. This leads to unbalance through lack of mindfulness.
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That is how I see it.
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I do not understand your meaning. Is there an inconsistency in my words?
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“That is how I see it” simply means that I agree with you.
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Oh, my bad. LOL!
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All he is saying is that don’t get distracted by lust and greed.
Interesting to consider how much distraction is “distracted.” No attachments = no distractions. Does this consideration bring us back around to the subject of balance? I think so.
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Anything that distracts one from Mindfulness is the distraction that needs to be addressed immediately.
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Human existence is attachment. That’s an example of seeing things as they are and not only as they seem to be. But existence is not only suffering but also joy as well. Balance brings an equilibrium to life and makes the trip sustainable. Possibly we could say that unbalanced attachments bring about the most distractions.
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Mindfulness sees suffering as suffering and joy as joy without any filters.
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I went to “meet the teacher” yesterday afternoon at my youngest son’s school. On her wall were a reasonable set rules for conduct but at the top was written in big letters, “The Measure of One’s Integrity Is to Obey Even When One Disagrees.” Surrounding this were many conditioning tools of patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, etc., I was surprised to read something so illogical pasted at the top of that list of rules. My children are trained to follow rules and keep the peace, to cooperate, but to always think their own thoughts and to be on guard for conditioning language, even when that conditioning is from myself.
I am for an orderly classroom, etc., but I plan to develop some rapport with my son’s teacher and then bring up this false, blatantly false premise.
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My father taught me to listen to everyone but to do what i think is right. I have done that naturally all my life. I did that even when I was in Sea Org. I was ultimately deemed unfit for Sea Org because I could not be conditioned.
Your son’s teacher simply does not know any better and that is not her fault. She needs to be somehow introduced to mindfulness.
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“Your son’s teacher simply does not know any better and that is not her fault. She needs to be somehow introduced to mindfulness.”
I like your idea better. I was going to bridge the subject socially and then not overwhelm her but nudge her to understand that I was in disagreement and eventually let her know not to teach my son in that way. Your idea is better, but I stick at how to begin.
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Make a copy of 12-aspects of Mindfulness and show her how the slogan on the wall seems to disagree with it. Ask her rationale behind what she has put on the wall.
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