How is Nibbana to be attained?
It is by following the Noble Eight-fold
Path which consists of Right Understanding (samma-ditthi),
Right Thoughts (samma-sankappa), Right Speech (samma-vaca),
Right Actions (samma-kammanta), Right Livelihood (samma-ajiva),
Right Effort (samma-vayama), Right Mindfulness (samma-sati),
and Right Concentration (samma-samadhi).
1. Right Understanding, which
is the key-note of Buddhism, is explained as the knowledge of the four
Noble Truths. To understand rightly means to understand things as they
really are and not as they appear to be. This refers primarily to a correct
understanding of oneself, because, as the Rohitassa Sutta states, "Dependent
on this one-fathom long body with its consciousness" are all the four Truths.
In the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Understanding stands
at the beginning as well as at its end. A minimum degree of Right Understanding
is necessary at the very beginning because it gives the right motivations
to the other seven factors of the Path and gives to them correct direction.
At the culmination of the practice, Right Understanding has matured into
perfect Insight Wisdom (vipassana-panna), leading directly
to the Stages of Sainthood.
2. Clear vision of right understanding
leads to clear thinking. The second factor of the Noble Eight-fold Path
is therefore, Right Thoughts (samma-sankappa), which serves
the double purpose of eliminating evil thoughts and developing pure thoughts.
Right Thoughts, in this particular connection, are three fold. They consist
of:
i. Nekkhamma --
Renunciation of worldly pleasures or the virtue of selflessness, which
is opposed to attachment, selfishness, and possessiveness;
ii. Avyapada -- Loving-kindness,
goodwill, or benevolence, which is opposed to hatred, ill-will, or aversion;
and
iii. Avihimsa -- Harmlessness
or compassion, which is opposed to cruelty and callousness.
3. Right Thoughts lead to Right Speech,
the third factor. This includes abstinence from falsehood, slandering,
harsh words, and frivolous talk.
4. Right Speech must be followed by Right
Action which comprises abstinence from killing, stealing and sexual
misconduct.
5. Purifying his thoughts, words and deeds
at the outset, the spiritual pilgrim tries to purify his livelihood
by refraining from the five kinds of trade which are forbidden to a lay-disciple.
They are trading in arms, human beings, animals for slaughter, intoxicating
drinks and drugs, and poisons.
For monks, wrong livelihood consists of
hypocritical conduct and wrong means of obtaining the requisites of monk-life.
6. Right Effort is fourfold,
namely:
i. the endeavor to discard evil that has
already arisen; ii. the endeavor to prevent the arising of unarisen evil;
iii. the endeavor to develop unarisen good; iv. the endeavor to promote
the good which has already arisen.
7. Right Mindfulness is constant
mindfulness with regard to body, feelings, thoughts, and mind-objects.
8. Right Effort and Right
Mindfulness lead to Right Concentration. It is the
one-pointedness of mind, culminating in the Jhanas or meditative absorptions.
Of these eight factors of the Noble Eightfold
Path the first two are grouped under the heading of Wisdom (panna),
the following three under Morality (sila), and the last three
under Concentration (samadhi). But according to the order
of development the sequence is as follows:
I. Morality (sila) Right
Speech Right Action Right Livelihood
II. Concentration (samadhi)
Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right Concentration
III. Wisdom (panna) Right
Understanding Right Thoughts
Morality (sila) is the first
stage on this path to Nibbana.
Without killing or causing injury to any
living creature, man should be kind and compassionate towards all, even
to the tiniest creature that crawls at his feet. Refraining from stealing,
he should be upright and honest in all his dealings. Abstaining from sexual
misconduct which debases the exalted nature of man, he should be pure.
Shunning false speech, he should be truthful. Avoiding pernicious drinks
that promote heedlessness, he should be sober and diligent.
These elementary principles of regulated
behavior are essential to one who treads the path to Nibbana. Violation
of them means the introduction of obstacles on the path which will obstruct
his moral progress. Observance of them means steady and smooth progress
along the path.
The spiritual pilgrim, disciplining thus
his words and deeds, may advance a step further and try to control his
senses.
While he progresses slowly and steadily
with regulated word and deed and restrained senses, the Kammic force of
this striving aspirant may compel him to renounce worldly pleasures and
adopt the ascetic life. To him then comes the idea that,
"A den of strife is household life, And
filled with toil and need; But free and high as the open sky Is the life
the homeless lead."
It should not be understood that everyone
is expected to lead the life of a Bhikkhu or a celibate life to achieve
one's goal. One's spiritual progress is expedited by being a Bhikkhu although
as a lay follower one can become an Arahat. After attaining the third state
of Sainthood, one leads a life of celibacy.
Securing a firm footing on the ground of
morality, the progressing pilgrim then embarks upon the higher practice
of Samadhi, the control and culture of the mind -- the second stage on
this Path.
Samadhi -- is the "one-pointedness of the
mind." It is the concentration of the mind on one object to the entire
exclusion of all irrelevant matter.
There are different subjects for meditation
according to the temperaments of the individuals. Concentration on respiration
is the easiest to gain the one-pointedness of the mind. Meditation on loving-kindness
is very beneficial as it is conducive to mental peace and happiness.
Cultivation of the four sublime states
-- loving-kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna),
sympathetic joy (Mudita), and equanimity (Upekkha)
-- is highly commendable.
After giving careful consideration to the
subject for contemplation, he should choose the one most suited to his
temperament. This being satisfactorily settled, he makes a persistent effort
to focus his mind until he becomes so wholly absorbed and interested in
it, that all other thoughts get ipso facto excluded from the mind. The
five hindrances to progress -- namely, sense-desire, hatred, sloth and
torpor, restlessness and brooding and doubts are then temporarily inhibited.
Eventually he gains ecstatic concentration and, to his indescribable joy,
becomes enwrapt in Jhana, enjoying the calmness and serenity of a one-pointed
mind.
When one gains this perfect one-pointedness
of the mind it is possible for one to develop the five Supernormal Powers
(Abhinna): Divine Eye (Dibbacakkhu), Divine
Ear (Dibhasota), Reminiscence of past births (Pubbenivasanussati-nana).
Thought Reading (Paracitta vijanana) and different Psychic
Powers (Iddhividha). It must not be understood that those
supernormal powers are essential for Sainthood.
Though the mind is now purified there still
lies dormant in him the tendency to give vent to his passions, for by concentration,
passions are lulled to sleep temporarily. They may rise to the surface
at unexpected moments.
Both Discipline and Concentration are helpful
to clear the Path of its obstacles but it is Insight (Vipassana Panna)
alone which enables one to see things as they truly are, and consequently
reach the ultimate goal by completely annihilating the passions inhibited
by Samadhi. This is the third and the final stage on the Path of Nibbana.
With his one-pointed mind which now resembles
a polished mirror he looks at the world to get a correct view of life.
Wherever he turns his eyes he sees nought but the Three Characteristics
-- Anicca (transiency), Dukkha (sorrow) and Anatta
(soul-lessness) standing out in bold relief. He comprehends that life is
constantly changing and all conditioned things are transient. Neither in
heaven nor on earth does he find any genuine happiness, for every form
of pleasure is a prelude to pain. What is transient is therefore painful,
and where change and sorrow prevail there cannot be a permanent immortal
soul.
Whereupon, of these three characteristics,
he chooses one that appeals to him most and intently keeps on developing
Insight in that particular direction until that glorious day comes to him
when he would realize Nibbana for the first time in his life, having destroyed
the three Fetters -- self-illusion (Sakkaya-ditthi), doubts
(Vicikiccha), indulgence in (wrongful) rites and ceremonies
(Silabbataparamasa).
At this stage he is called a Sotapanna
(Stream-Winner) -- one who has entered the stream that leads to Nibbana.
As he has not eradicated all Fetters he is reborn seven times at the most.
Summoning up fresh courage, as a result
of this glimpse of Nibbana, the Pilgrim makes rapid progress and cultivating
deeper Insight becomes a Sakadagami (Once Returner) by weakening
two more Fetters -- namely Sense-desire (Kamaraga) and ill-will
(Patigha). He is called a Sakadagami because he is reborn
on earth only once in case he does not attain Arhatship.
It is in the third state of Sainthood --
Anagama
(Never-Returner) that he completely discards the aforesaid two Fetters.
Thereafter, he neither returns to this world nor does he seek birth in
the celestial realms, since he has no more desire for sensual pleasures.
After death he is reborn in the "Pure Abodes" (Suddhavasa)
a congenial Brahma plane, till he attains Arhatship.
Now the saintly pilgrim, encouraged by
the unprecedented success of his endeavors, makes his final advance and,
destroying the remaining Fetters -- namely, lust after life in Realms of
Forms (Ruparaga) and Formless Realms (Aruparaga),
conceit (Mana), restlessness (Uddhacca), and
ignorance (Avijja) -- becomes a perfect Saint: an Arahant,
a Worthy One.
Instantly he realizes that what was to
be accomplished has been done, that a heavy burden of sorrow has been relinquished,
that all forms of attachment have been totally annihilated, and that the
Path to Nibbana has been trodden. The Worthy One now stands on heights
more than celestial, far removed from the rebellious passions and defilements
of the world, realizing the unutterable bliss of Nibbana and like many
an Arahat of old, uttering that paean of joy:
"Goodwill and wisdom, mind by method trained,
The highest conduct on good morals based, This maketh mortals pure, not
rank or wealth."
As T.H. Huxley states -- "Buddhism is a
system which knows no God in the Western sense, which denies a soul to
man, which counts the belief in immortality a blunder, which refuses any
efficacy to prayer and sacrifice, which bids men to look to nothing but
their own efforts for salvation, which in its original purity knew nothing
of vows of obedience and never sought the aid of the secular arm: yet spread
over a considerable moiety of the world with marvelous rapidity -- and
is still the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind."