Buddha Reality
On Impermanence, Interconnection, Change / Flux, Waves & Vibration
Sabbo pajjalito loko, sabbo loko pakampito. The entire universe is nothing but combustion and vibration. (Buddha)
Observing, observing you will reach the stage when
you experience that the entire physical structure is nothing but
subatomic particles: throughout the body, nothing but kalapas (subatomic
particles). And even these tiniest subatomic particles are not solid.
They are mere vibration, just wavelets.
As you experience it yourself you experience that
the entire material world is nothing but vibration. We have to
experience the ocean of infinite waves surging within, the river of
inner sensations flowing within, the eternal dance of the countless
vibrations within every atom of the body. We have to witness our
continuously changing nature. All of this is happening at an extremely
subtle level. These kalapas (subatomic particles) according to the
Buddha, are in a state of perpetual change or flux. They are nothing but
a stream of energies, just like the light of a candle or an electric
bulb. The body (as we call it), is not an entity as it seems to be, but
is a continuum of matter and life-force coexisting.
http://www.buddhanet.net/bvk_study/bvk21d.htm
(Sourced from ‘’Buddha’s path is to experience reality'’ by S N
Goenka OCT 95 Vipassana english news letter, ‘’Samma Samadhi'’ April 95
hindi Vipassana patrika, discourses of Sayagyi U Ba Khin-Sayagyi U Ba
Khin Journal-VRI Igatpuri)
Flux / Impermanence
O Brahmana, it is just like a mountain river,
flowing far and swift, taking everything along with it; there is no
moment, no instant, no second when it stops flowing, but it goes on
flowing and continuing. So Brahmana, is human life, like a mountain
river.’ (Buddha)
‘The world is continuous flux and is impermanent. (Buddha)
One thing disappears, conditioning the appearance of the
next in a series of cause and effect. There is no unchanging substance in
them. There is nothing behind them that can be called a permanent Self (atman),
individuality, or anything that can in reality be called ‘I’.
.. There is no unmoving mover behind the movement. It is only
movement. It is not correct to say that life is moving, but life is
movement itself. Life and movement are not two different things. In
other words there is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is
the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found.
Here we cannot fail to notice how this Buddhist view is diametrically
opposed to the Cartesian cogito ergo sum: ‘I think, therefore I am.’ (Rahula, What the Buddha Taught)
It is important to understand how things change
over time and thus how they have come to exist and how their change may
be adapted in the future. The Metaphysics of Space and Motion and the
Spherical Wave Structure of Matter explains this change (motion causes
change/time/flux) and interconnectedness, that all things exist in Space
and are subtly inter-connected by their spherical waves to all other
things within the Space of our finite spherical universe.
Gautama’s final breakthrough of awareness under the
bodhi tree, the culminating insight of the enlightenment, was to survey
the underlying evolutionary principles that drive the universe of
phenomena. His vision was of a world in constant flux with nothing
immutable in it, and of human experience as a stream of momentary mental
states, with no stable central controlling ‘Mind’ set apart from those
mental states. Yet both the flux of the world and the stream of the mind
flow on in patterned, law-governed ways. The conditioned process is
complex, Gautama realized, but its principles can be understood; it can
be influenced.
According to Buddhism, every event or phenomena,
including every event in the mind, arises in dependence on a network of
other phenomena which are its conditions, and it in turn forms one of
the conditions for innumerable other phenomena. The details of just how
phenomena are connected together is incredibly complex and subtle. (Cooper, 1996)
..this philosophy of ‘becoming’ is unique in the
spiritual history of humanity, in so far as it explains everything that
exists through the co-operation of only momentarily existing forces,
arising and disappearing in functional dependence [on} each other.
(Helmuth von Glasenapp)
These momentary forces, of arising and disappearing, are thus
explained with the Metaphysic of Space and Motion. It is a property of
Standing Waves that they successively appear and disappear as the two
waves, flowing in opposite directions, combine then cancel each other
out. Thus matter, as a SSW appears and disappears in Space (with the
frequency of roughly one hundred billion billion times per second.) This
appearing and disappearing must also apply to the Wave-Center. Thus the
particle effect of the Wave-Center appears in a discrete point in
Space, then disappears, then re-appears again as the next In-Waves meets
at its Wave-Center.
Buddha Nature
On Nature and Interconnectedness
One is one’s own refuge, who else could be the refuge? said the Buddha. (Dhp. XII 4.)
Buddha taught, encouraged and stimulated each
person to develop themselves and work out their own emancipation, for
humans have the power to liberate themselves from all bondage through
their own personal effort and intelligence.
It is always a question of knowing and seeing, and
not that of believing. The teaching of the Buddha is qualified as
ehi-passika, inviting you to ‘come and see’, but not to come and
believe. (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught)
The Buddha says, You should do the work, for the Tathagatas
only teach the way. (Dhp. XX 4.)
(Tathagata means ‘One who has come to Truth’. This is the term
usually used by the Buddha referring to himself and to the Buddhas in
general.) (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught)
A true Buddhist is the happiest of all beings. He
has no fears or anxieties. He is always calm and serene, cannot be upset
or dismayed by changes or calamities, because he sees things as they
are. The Buddha was never melancholy or gloomy. He was described by his
contemporaries as ‘ever-smiling’ (mihita-pubbamgama). (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught)
Although there is suffering in life, a Buddhist
should not be gloomy over it, should not be angry or impatient at it.
One of the principal evils in life, according to Buddhism, is
‘repugnance’ or hatred. Repugnance (pratigha) is explained as ‘ill will
with regard to living beings, with regard to suffering and with regard
to things pertaining to suffering. Its function is to produce a basis
for unhappy states and bad conduct.’ (Abhisamuc, p7)
Thus it is wrong to be impatient at suffering.
Being impatient or angry at suffering does not remove it. On the
contrary, it adds a little more to one’s trouble, and aggravates and
exacerbates a situation already disagreeable. What is necessary is not
anger or impatience, but the understanding of the question of suffering,
how it comes about, and how to get rid of it, and then to work
accordingly with patience, intelligence, determination and energy. (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught)
Buddha on Nirvana
The Third Noble Truth is that there is liberation,
emancipation, freedom from suffering, from the continuity of dukkha.
This is called the Noble Truth of the Cessation of dukkha
(Dukkhanirodha-ariyasacca), which is Nibbana, more popularly known in
its Sanskrit form of Nirvana. (Walpola Rahula, p35)
Now you will ask: But what is Nirvana?
..The only reasonable reply is that it can never be answered
completely and satisfactorily in words, because human language is too
poor to express the real nature of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate
Reality which is Nirvana. Language is created and used by masses of
human beings to express things and ideas experienced by their sense
organs and their mind. A supramundane experience like that of the
Absolute Truth is not of such a category.
Words are symbols representing things and ideas
known to us; and these symbols do not and cannot convey the true nature
of even ordinary things. Language is considered deceptive and misleading
in the matter of understanding of the Truth. So the Lankavatara-sutra
says that ignorant people get stuck in words like an elephant in the
mud. Nevertheless, we cannot do without language. (p35)
Nirvana
Let us consider a few definitions and descriptions
of Nirvana as found in the original Pali texts:
‘It is the complete cessation of that very ‘thirst’ (tanha), giving it
up, renouncing it, emancipation from it, detachment from it.’ (Mhvg.
(Alutgama, 1922), p.10; S V p.421) (Rahula, p.36)
‘Calming of all conditioned things, giving up of all
defilements, extinction of ‘thirst’, detachment, cessation,
Nibbana.’
(S I, p.136) (Rahula, p.36)
‘O bhikkhus, what is the Absolute (Asamkhata,
Unconditioned)? It is the extinction of desire (ragakkhayo), the
extinction of hatred (dosakkhayo), the extinction of illusion
(mohakkhayo). This, O bhikkhus, is called the Absolute.’ (Ibid. IV,
p.359)
‘The cessation of Continuity and becoming (Bhavanirodha)
is Nibbana.’
(Words of Musila, disciple of Buddha. S II (PTS), p.117) (Rahula, p.37)
Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self
because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the
annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self. (p37)
Nirvana as Absolute Truth
We may get some idea of Nirvana as Absolute Truth
from the Dhatuvibhanga-sutta (No. 140) of the Majjhima-nikaya. This extremely
important discourse was delivered by the Buddha to Pukkusati, whom the Master
found to be intelligent and earnest, in the quiet of night in a potter’s
shed.
The essence of the relevant portions of the sutta is as follows:
A man is composed of six elements: solidity,
fluidity, heat, motion, space and consciousness. He analyses them and
finds that none of them is ‘mine’, or ‘me’ or ‘my self.’ He understands
how consciousness appears and disappears, how pleasant, unpleasnt and
neutral sensations appear and disappear. Through this knowledge his mind
becomes detached. Then he finds within him a pure equanimity (upekha)
which he can direct towards the attainment of any high spiritual state.
But then he thinks:
‘If I focus this purified and cleansed
equanimity on the Sphere of Infinite Space and develop a mind conforming
thereto, that is a mental creation (samkhatam). If I focus this
purified and cleansed equanimity on the Sphere of Infinite
Consciousness, on the Sphere of Nothingness, or on the Sphere of
Neither-perception nor Non-perception and develop a mind conforming
thereto, that is a mental creation.’
Then he neither mentally creates nor wills
continuity and becoming (bhava) or annihilations (vibhava). As he does
not construct or does not will continuity and becoming or annihilation,
he does not cling to anything in the world; as he does not cling, he is
not anxious; as he is not anxious, he is completely calmed within (fully
blown out within paccattam yeva parinibhayati). And he knows:
‘Finished is birth, lived is pure life, what
should be done is done, nothing more is left to be done.’ (This
expression means that now he is an Arahant).
Now when he experiences a pleasant,
unpleasant or neutral sensation, he knows that it is impermanent, that
it does not bind him, that it is not experienced with passion. Whatever
may be the sensation, he experiences it without being bound to it
(visamyutto).
‘Therefore, O bhikkhu, a person so endowed is endowed
with the absolute wisdom, for the knowledge of the extinction of all dukkha
is the absolute noble wisdom.
This his deliverance, founded on Truth, is unshakable. O Bhikkhu, that which
is unreality (mosadhamma) is false; that which is reality (amosadhamma)
is Nibbana, is Truth (Sacca). Therefore O Bhikkhu, a person so endowed is
endowed with this Absolute Truth. For, the Absolute Truth (paramam ariyasaccam)
is Nibbana, which is Reality.’
(Buddha, from the Dhatuvibhanga-sutta (No. 140) of the Majjhima-nikaya) (Rahula, p38-9)
Elsewhere the Buddha unequivocally uses the word
Truth in place of Nibbana: ‘I will teach you the Truth and the Path
leading to the Truth.’ (S V (PTS), p.369) (Rahula, p39)
Now, what is this Absolute Truth? According to
Buddhism, the Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the
world, that everything is relative, conditioned, impermanent, and that
there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul
or Atman within or without. This is the Absolute Truth. (p39)
++ disagree. Absolute Truth comes from Absolute Space (what exists, Reality).
It is incorrect to think that Nirvana is the
natural result of the extinction of craving. Nirvana is not the result
of anything. If it would be a result, then it would be an effect
produced by a cause. It would be samkhata ‘produced’ and ‘conditioned’.
Nirvana is neither cause nor effect. It is not produced like a mystic,
spiritual, mental state, such as dhyana or samadhi. TRUTH IS. NIRVANA
IS. The only thing you can do is see it, realise it. There is a path
leading to the realisation of Nirvana. But Nirvana is not the result of
this path. You may get to the mountain along a path, but the mountain is
not the result, not an effect of the path. You may see a light, but the
light is not a result of your eyesight. (p40)
People often ask: What is there after Nirvana? This
question cannot arise, because Nirvana is the Ultimate Truth. If it is
Ultimate there can be nothing after it. If there is anything after
Nirvana, then that will be the Ultimate Truth and not Nirvana.
(Rahula,p40)
Another question arises: What happens to the Buddha
or an Arahant after his death, parinirvana? This comes under the
category of unanswered questions (avyakata). (Rahula, P40)
There is yet another popular question: If there is
no Self, no Atman, who realises Nirvana? Before we go on to Nirvana, let
us ask the question: Who thinks now, if there is no Self? We have seen
earlier that it is the thought that thinks, that there is no thinker
behind the thought. In the same way, it is wisdom (panna), realisation,
that realises. There is no other self behind the realisation. In the
discussion on the origin of dukkha we saw that whatever it may be-
whether being, or thing, or system- if it is of the nature of arising;
it has within itself the nature, the germ, of its cessation, its
destruction. Dukkha arises because of ‘thirst’ (tanha) and it ceases
because of wisdom (panna). ‘Thirst’ and Wisdom are both within the Five
Aggregates.
Thus, the germ of their arising as well as that of their
cessation are both within the Five Aggregates. This is the real meaning
of the Buddhas well-known statement:
‘Within this fathom-long sentient body itself, I postulate the world,
the arising of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path leading
to the cessation of the world.’ (A (Columbo, 1929) p218)
This means that all the Four Noble Truths are found within the
Five Aggregates, i.e. within ourselves. This also means that there is no
external power that produces the arising and cessation of dukkha. (p42)
When wisdom is developed and cultivated according
to the Fourth Noble Truth, it sees the secret of life, the reality of
things as they are. When the secret is discovered, when the Truth is
seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of samsara
in illusion become calm and incapable of producing any more
karma-formations, because there is no more illusion, no more ‘thirst’
for continuity. It is like a mental disease which is cured when the
cause or the secret of the malady is discovered and seen by the patient.
(p43)
He who has realised Truth, Nirvana, is the happiest being
in the world. He is free from all ‘complexes’ and obsessions,
the worries and troubles that torment others. His mental health is perfect.
He does not repent the past, nor does he brood over the future. He lives
fully in the present. Therefore he appreciates and enjoys things in the
purest sense without self-projections. He is joyful, exultant, enjoying
the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful.
As he is free from selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit,
pride, and all such ‘defilements’, he is pure and gentle, full of
universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy, understanding and
tolerance. His service to others is of the purest, for he has no thought
of self. He gains nothing, accumulated nothing, because he is free from
the illusion of Self and the ‘thirst’ of becoming. (p43)
Nirvana is beyond logic and reasoning (atakkavacara). (p43)
(The Wave Structure of Matter does not agree with this)
Nirvana is ‘to be realised by the wise within themselves’. (paccattam veditabbo vinnuhi) (p44)
