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Home Books Mahasi Sayadaw What is Nibbana - The Realization of Nibbana

What is Nibbana - The Realization of Nibbana

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Article Index
What is Nibbana
Is Cessation Nibbana
The Uncaused
Modes of Production
The Bliss of Nibbana
Description of Nibbana
The Realization of Nibbana
Where is Nibbana
How can One Realize Nibbana
All Pages

The Realization of Nibbana

"You say, Nagasena, that nibbāna is neither past, nor present nor future, neither arisen, nor not arisen, nor producible. In that case does the man who realises nibbāna realise something already produced, or does he himself produce it first and then realise it?"

"Neither of these, O king, yet nibbāna does exist."

"Do not, Nagasena, answer this question by making it obscure! Make it clear and elucidate it. It is a point on which people are bewildered and lost in doubt. Break this dart of uncertainty."

"The element of nibbāna does exist, O king, and he who practises rightly and who rightly comprehends the formations according to the teachings of the Conqueror, he, by his wisdom, realises nibbāna."

"How is nibbāna to be shown? By freedom from distress and danger, by purity and by coolness. As a man, afraid and terrified at having fallen among enemies, would be relieved and blissful when he had escaped to a safe place; or as one fallen into a pit of filth would be at ease and glad when he had got out of the pit and cleaned up; or as one trapped in a forest fire would be calm and cool when he had reached a safe spot. As fearful and terrifying should you regard the anxiety that arises again and again on account of birth, old age, disease, and death; as filth should you regard gain, honours, and fame; as hot and searing should you regard the threefold fire of desire, hatred, and delusion."

"How does he who is practising rightly realise nibbāna? He rightly grasps the cyclic nature of formations and therein he sees only birth, old age, disease, and death; he sees nothing pleasant or agreeable in any part of it. Seeing nothing there to be taken hold of, as on a red-hot iron ball, his mind overflows with discontent and a fever takes hold of his body; hopeless and without a refuge he becomes disgusted with repeated lives. To him who sees the terror of the treadmill of life the thought arises, 'On fire and blazing is this wheel of life, full of suffering and despair. If only there could be an end to it, that would be peaceful, that would be excellent; the cessation of all mental formations, the renunciation of grasping, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, nibbāna!' "

"Therewith his mind leaps forward into the state where there is no becoming. Then has he found peace, then does he exult and rejoice at the thought, 'A refuge has been found at last!' He strives along the path for the cessation of formations, searches it out, develops it, and makes much of it. To that end he stirs up his mindfulness, energy and joy; and from attending again and again to that thought [of disgust with mental formations], having transcended the treadmill of life, he brings the cycle to a halt. One who stops the treadmill is said to have realised nibbāna."



 

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" But such a refuge is not a safe refuge, not the best refuge. One is not liberated from all evil consequences of existence (dukkha) for having come to such a refuge. "

The Dhammapada


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