Meditation is
the main tool of Buddhism. It is so elaborate a process, that it will not be
possible for me to go into its details in short blog posts. I will defer it to
my book to be published. Here, I will only touch upon some salient aspects.
Patanjali’s goal for meditation was ‘self’ realization. But the
Buddhists reject the very idea of ‘self’ or soul. So, why do they meditate?
To put it simply, their goal is to attain ‘Nirvana’ or ‘Nibbäna’
(the Pali equivalent term). What exactly is this Nirvana? There are two
interpretations of this word. First one means ‘to blow off’ - like blowing off a flame.
Buddhists consider life as the mother of all miseries. Death of a
person does not end the miseries since he gets reborn again and again, and the
misery continues. Why
does one take rebirth?
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| Ultimate Nirvana of Buddha |
Once someone asked Buddha where Buddha would go after he is
dead. Buddha gave a nice simile to explain his death.
He said when a burning oil lamp exhausts all the oil, it just stops burning. Actually, there is nothing like flame per se. It is just a process of burning. The reason for its existence was the oil that kept it going,
He said when a burning oil lamp exhausts all the oil, it just stops burning. Actually, there is nothing like flame per se. It is just a process of burning. The reason for its existence was the oil that kept it going,
Craving is like the oil that keeps the flame of life
burning. No oil – no flame either. So when Buddha dies, he says that he just ceases to exist. since he has overcome all cravings.
So nirvana is about putting an end to the cycle of births and deaths. Or it
means to blow off the flame of life.
Since ‘blowing off’ has negative connotation and Buddhism is
often criticized as a negative approach to life, Buddhists normally try to
highlight the other
meaning of Nirvana – freedom
from craving. But even this meaning has some negativity left.
So Buddhists talk about Nirvana as a Supra-mundane state (lokuttara damma) - a state beyond worldly. Some even talk about
Nirvanic bliss. The intriguing question is– who enjoys this bliss since there is
none (according to them)!
How does a Buddhist attain this state of Nirvana? That is
what I am going to discuss next.
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