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Nibbāna (4 of 5) Functions of Nibbāna

So, continuing today with the fourth talk on the topic of Nibbāna^[1]. In some circles, there's a lot of intense conversation about what Nibbāna is, with the idea that it's a noun—it's a thing, or a particular state, and it has to be something. There's a lot of discussion about what it is. Maybe this experience of deep release, of deep freedom, doesn't lend itself to a very clear idea of what it is, because mostly what it is, is the absence of something. And what's left in the absence, maybe we don't need to know. This idea of needing to know, to understand, sometimes is a real hindrance and actually gets in the way of living the freedom that we have experienced.

Instead of looking at what Nibbāna is in some metaphysical or clear way as a thing, what's important about Nibbāna is how it functions for us. It's a movement of freedom, a release of deep letting go or non-clinging.

If a person is really thirsty, the molecular structure of water is not important. What's important is the function of drinking water to quench this thirst. In the same way, the molecular structure of Nirvana—what it might actually be, is it a form of consciousness, is it a form of some transcendent state, some ultimate reality, something that's unconditioned? All these questions that people want to have answered are maybe beside the point.

The real point of Nibbāna is how we're changed by it, how it functions for us. In fact, one of the ways in which liberation, freedom, and awakening is discussed in the Buddhist tradition is by how the person who is liberated is changed. The advantage of looking at how we have changed, how we have been transformed, is that it is a little protection against clinging to an experience. It protects us from thinking, "Now I have that experience, now I'm that kind of person," and making a self out of that experience. It's also protection against getting too preoccupied with having opinions about what Nibbāna really is.

What's important maybe is not what it is, but how it works on us and how we're changed. Perhaps different people have different experiences of Nirvana, different ways in which they go through it, or ways in which they touch into something like freedom. So we don't want to concretize too much what it is as an experience. We want to understand how it's going to function for us.

Release from Clinging

One of the functions is to release a person from attachments. Attachments here really mean clinging—the ways in which the mind has gotten contracted, tight, compulsive, or driven by certain desires, aversions, ideas, feelings, or motivations. This drivenness, this compulsion, this contracting around, this grabbing hold, this insistence that "this is how it's going to be"—or being pushed by something even if we don't want it, feeling we can't help ourselves because this is a very strong drive.

Part of the function is to have freedom from that drivenness, from that compulsion. The ancient language uses the word "thirst"^[2] for what we in English would translate as craving. They use this metaphor of thirst for this driven desire that we're becoming free of. Part of the function of Nibbāna is to free us, or begin the process of freeing us, from these thirsty desires where there's a compulsion in it.

The Direct Path to Freedom

It also functions to begin understanding where the path of freedom resides, where the open doors are. It becomes clear that it's not found in rituals, and it's also not found in precepts or certain rules of behavior. Precepts and rituals can be useful and phenomenally wonderful for human life, and they have their important place. But in and of themselves, they are not the direct experience, the direct movement towards opening the doors of the mind and the heart to becoming free.

Part of what the Buddha is pointing to with liberation is the possibility of having a vision of where freedom is found—a vision of where the doors are open for awareness to just be open, clear, and free with our experience. That idea of a vision is encapsulated in the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path^[3]: Right View, Right Vision.

To have had an experience of freedom that's clear enough to now have an inner sight—the Buddha called it the Dharma eye^[4] has been opened, the Dharma vision has been opened—where we now have a feeling for, a vision for, or a clear recognition of the freedom of the mind. We know where the doors are open, where the mind is at ease, peaceful, and happy. Having that, we see the direct path to freedom. We see that precepts, rules, and rituals are not as direct as this direct path the Buddha is pointing to. Because rituals can be such a big part of some people's lives, if they think that the rituals themselves are going to be freeing, I think the Buddha was pointing out that in and of themselves, they're not.

The same thing with philosophies. The Buddha was quite adamant that believing in philosophies, believing in metaphysical ideas, and believing that certain ideas are ultimate is just a trap. That's not where freedom is found. Freedom is not found even if it's in good ideas or true ideas. Freedom is found in non-clinging, in release.

Freedom from an Essential Self

Another thing that becomes clear when the freedom is clear enough—when that sense of release, openness, and freedom, and the radiance, light, clarity, happiness, ease, and well-being that comes with it is clear—is that it is independent of any idea of an essential self, a permanent self, a reified self.

The ancient language uses the term sakkāya^[5]. Sa means true here and kāya means body or group. In the ancient world, there were people who believed there was a true body essence, and we had to realize what that essence was, and then we could be free and find out who our true, authentic self is.

The Buddha said that this idea of Nibbāna, this freedom, becomes a freedom also from any preoccupation, concern, or desire for finding this kind of true, essential, authentic essence that's always there. In fact, the freedom shows that that's not needed, and it is not there in the freedom, in the open door. Some people will then explain this by saying Nibbāna is also a clear recognition of not-self^[6]. This absence of self in that experience is very freeing and very nice to have.

Unshakable Confidence

Another function of this experience of Nibbāna—the freedom and release from greed, hate, and delusion—is to have a really crystal-clear understanding of the difference between being caught in greed, hate, and delusion (caught in clinging), and the absence of being caught.

When the freedom is so clear, then a person has a firsthand experience of what the Dharma is, what the Buddha was teaching. It's not abstract philosophy, it's not complicated. It's the really clear recognition of this potential we have of no longer being preoccupied by clinging, aversions, hostilities, and attachments. To have this qualitative, clear experience of that ease, peace, and freedom, and to know that's possible—this is what the Buddha was about.

This teaching gives a person an unshakable confidence in the Three Refuges^[7]: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Not because they now dogmatically believe in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, but because now they know for themselves something that can never be taken away. Because it's their own, it's personal in a sense, this tremendous confidence arises that this is possible.

This confidence is really in the value of being free, the value of not clinging or being attached, the value of really keeping the doors open in the mind and the heart, and learning how to do that in a wise, effective, and safe way. We learn not to succumb to the beliefs that we have to close the doors, or the beliefs that we have to cling, have aversion, tighten up, or get these compulsive, driven qualities going.

The Path Going Forward

So the function of Nibbāna is, at its essence, a tremendous confidence in the potential for freedom. Because this first experience of Nirvana is not necessarily going to be a complete letting go of all the clingings and tensions we have. It's a letting go that's maybe complete momentarily or for a short time, but then some of our clingings will come back.

But at that point, now we know. We know the practice is not to believe those, give those authority, or invest ourselves in the world of clinging. The path is towards freedom. This path is to find those open doors in the maze of the mind so that life experiences can flow through us, rather than getting stopped and gummed up in our hearts and minds.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the relationship between Nibbāna and the Eightfold Path, and how the Eightfold Path arises out of the experience and sense of Nibbāna.

Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Well, seeing you—I don't really see you, but being with you and seeing your wonderful names and the places you're from, and your greetings. Thank you.