Nibbāna for Everyone

An article written on 3 April 2531 (1988) at Suan Mokkhabalārāma, Chaiya

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When you hear the words “Nibbāna for everyone,” many of you will shake your heads. You’ll think that I’m trying to dye cats for sale¹ and you probably won’t have any interest in the subject. This can only happen because you understand the meaning of this phrase too narrowly and out of line with the truth.

In the schools, children are taught that Nibbāna is the death of an arahant.² The ordinary man in the street has been taught that it’s a special city, empty of pain and chock full of the happiness of fulfilled wishes, supposedly reached after death by those who store up perfections (pāramīs) over tens of thousands of lifetimes. Modern social developers see it as an obstruction to progress that we shouldn’t get involved with or even discuss. Most students consider it a matter only for devout old folks at the temple, with no relevance for the young. Young men and women think it’s bland and unexciting, awful and frightening. All the candidates for the monkshood merely mouth without understanding the vow “May I go forth in order to awaken to Nibbāna.” The old monks say Nibbāna can’t happen anymore in this day and age and that an arahant cannot exist anymore either. Nibbāna has become a secret that no one cares about. We’ve turned it into something barren and silent, buried away in the scriptures, to be paid occasional lip service in sermons while no one really knows what it is.

In fact, without this theme of Nibbāna, Buddhism would be as good as dead. When nobody is interested in Nibbāna, then nobody is genuinely interested in Buddhism. When nothing about Nibbāna interests us, then we can’t get any benefits at all from Buddhism. I feel that it’s about time for us to get interested and bring about this highest benefit, as befits the words “Nibbāna is the Supreme Thing” – namely, the highest goal of living beings, a purpose always inseparable from our daily lives.

Nibbāna has nothing in the least to do with death. ‘Nibbāna’ means coolness. It meant coolness back when it was just an ordinary word that people used in their homes, and when used as Dhamma language, in a religious context, it still means coolness. In Dhamma language it refers to the cooling or going out of the fires of defilement (kilesas, reactive emotions), while in ordinary people’s usage it means the cooling of physical fires.

Throughout the Pāli scriptures, the word ‘Nibbāna’ is never used in the sense of death. When death is discussed, ‘marana’ is used. Or ‘Parinibbāna’ (thorough coolness) is used, such as when the Buddha said, “The Parinibbāna will occur three months from now.”³

Nibbāna is one of the dhātus (natural elements). It is the coolness that remains when the defilements – greed, anger, fear, delusion – have ended. Two types of this element can be distinguished. In the first, the defilements are exhausted and cooled, but the organs that receive sensory stimuli aren’t yet cool.  In the second, this sensory system is also cooled. A white-hot charcoal illustrates the difference. After first going out, it is still too hot to be handled. We must wait a while longer until it is cool enough to be touched.

Through the changes and lapses that are commonplace in this world, later generations of Buddhists, changed the meaning of ‘Nibbāna’ to death. Nowadays we Thais use this later, distorted meaning. I myself was taught this way as a child. When I first became a bhikkhu, I still understood it erroneously and passed that understanding on to my friends and students. Only when I could study the original Pāli texts for myself did I discover that Nibbāna was a whole other affair than death. Instead, it’s a kind of life that knows no death. Nibbāna is the thing that sustains life, thus preventing death. It itself can never die, although the body must die eventually.

Other Indian religions contemporary with Buddhism also used the word ‘Nibbāna.’ In the Pāli texts there’s a passage about a Brahmin teacher named Bāvari from the area of the Godhāvari River in Southern  India. He sent his sixteen students, also well-known teachers, to ask the Lord Buddha about his experience of Nibbāna. Some of them may have understood Nibbāna to mean death. In Theravāda countries, this story is well known as “The Sixteen Questions.”⁴ The point here is that the theme of Nibbāna was the highest concern of the Indian religions contemporary with Buddhism. Further, at least one group that understood it to mean death must have spread its teaching in the vicinity of Suvaṇṇabhumī (Golden Land, the ancient name of Siam) before Buddhism arrived here. This persisted as the general understanding among the common folk, similar to what happened with ‘attā’ (self) and ‘ātman’ (soul).

Now, let’s return to our examination of Nibbāna as taught in Buddhism. When Prince Siddhattha first took up the homeless spiritual life, he wandered in search of the Nibbāna that is the total quenching of all dukkha. He wasn’t looking for death! From the famous teachers of India at that time, he learned nothing higher than the experience of neither perception nor non-perception (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana), a degree of mental tranquility so deep that we can describe it neither as death nor as non-death. He couldn’t accept this as the supreme Nibbāna, so he went off to search on his own until he discovered the Nibbāna that is the coolness remaining when the defilements have finally ended. He called this “the end of dukkha,” meaning the exhaustion of all the heat produced by defilements. However much the defilements are exhausted, there’s that much coolness, until eventually there is perfect coolness due to the defilements being finished completely. In short, to the degree that the defilements are ended, there will be that much coolness, or Nibbāna. Nibbāna is the coolness resulting from the quenching of defilements, whether they quench on their own or someone quenches them through Dhamma practice. Whenever the defilements are quenched, then there is the thing called ‘Nibbāna,’ always with the same meaning – coolness.

Next, notice that the defilements are concocted things (saṅkhāra-dhammas) that arise and pass away. As it says in the Pāli,

Yaṃ kiñci samudayadhammaṃ sabbaṃ taṃ nirodhadhamman’ti.

(Whatever things originate, all those things will cease.)

Any reactive motion that arises ceases when its causes and conditions are finished. Although it may be a temporary quenching, merely a temporary coolness, it is still Nibbāna, even if only temporarily. Thus, there’s a temporary Nibbāna for those who can’t yet avoid some defilements. It is this temporary Nibbāna that sustains the lives of beings who continue hanging onto defilement. Anyone can see that if the egoistic emotions existed night and day without any pause or rest, no life could endure it. If such life didn’t die, it would go crazy and then die in the end. You ought to consider carefully the fact that life can survive only because there are periods when the defilements don’t roast it. These periods outnumber the times when the defilements blaze.

These periodic Nibbānas sustain life for all of us, without excepting even animals, which have their levels of Nibbāna, too. We are able to survive because this kind of Nibbāna nurtures us, until it becomes the most ordinary habit of life and of mind. Whenever there is freedom from defilement, then there is the value and meaning of Nibbāna. This must occur fairly often for living things to survive. That we have some time to relax both bodily and mentally provides us with the freshness and vitality needed to live.

Why don’t we understand and feel thankful for this kind of Nibbāna at least a little bit? Fortunately, the instincts can manage to find tastes of it by themselves. Conscious beings naturally search for periods that are free from craving, thirst, and egoism. We might call this natural urge “the Nibbāna instinct.” If there is unremitting thirst, life must die. Thus, infants know how to suck the breast, and the mosquitoes that buzz around know how to suck blood to sustain their lives. Our instincts have this virtue built in: they search for periods of time sufficiently free from defilement or free from thirst to maintain life. Whenever there is freedom and voidness, there is this little Nibbāna, until we know how to make it into the lasting or perfect Nibbāna of arahant. It isn’t death, but rather is deathlessness, in particular, spiritual deathlessness. Anyone who sees this fact will personally experience that we can survive only through this kind of Nibbāna. We don’t survive just because of that rice and food that so infatuate people.  We realize that everybody must have this thing called ‘Nibbāna’ and must depend on it as their life’s sustenance. So, who can object to our talking about “Nibbāna for everyone”?

In order to better understand the meaning of the word ‘Nibbāna,’ we ought to look at it from the perspective of linguistics. A material sense of the word is found in the phrase “pajjotasseva nibbānaṃ” This ‘nibbāna’ refers to the ordinary quenching of a lamp and, more broadly, to the quenching of any source of heat or fire. When the rice porridge is still hot, the cook yells out from the kitchen, “Wait a moment, let it nibbāna first.” When the goldsmith melts down gold and pours it into a mold, he sprinkles water on it to cool it. The word used in Pāli here is ‘nibbāpeyya,’ to first make it nibbāna, or cool, before working it into some shape or form.

Even the wild animals that are captured from the jungle and tamed like pussycats are said to have been ‘nibbāna-ed.’ Similarly, sensual pleasures cool down the desires of foolish people in ways appropriate for them. Unwavering concentration on material forms (rūpa-jhānas) brings a coolness untroubled by the fires of sensuality. Although temporary, these absorptions (jhānas) are also certain levels of Nibbāna. The experience of nothingness (ākiñcaññāyatana) and the other formless absorptions (arūpa-jhānas) bring levels of coolness free from the fires that arise out of attractive material things. Nibbāna due to the ending of all defilements brings the final coolness that is the ultimate in all respects.

Certain groups of teachers have made up the term ‘sivamokkha-mahānibbāna,’ which they explain as some kind of town or city. Although no one can make any sense of it, or knows where it is, they keep it around for people to bow to when this strange term is declaimed from the pulpits of their conventional temples.

We also find the word ‘nibbuti,’ meaning an ethical level of Nibbāna. It refers to a cool heart and cool life such as that which impressed a young woman on seeing Prince Siddhattha. She exclaimed, “Whoever’s son this gentleman is, his mother and father are nibbuta [cool]; whoever’s husband he is, that woman is nibbuta.” Such examples also have the meaning of Nibbāna. Nowadays, when chanting the benefits of ethical behavior, Thai monks intone, “Sīlena nibbutiṃ yanti,” which means nibbuti is achieved through healthy morality (sīla). This comes after the lesser benefits of ethical living, such as acquisition of wealth and attaining happy births (sugati). The purpose here is to give Nibbāna a place in ordinary daily life.

This coolness of heart and peace of mind that everyone desires is the meaning of Nibbāna.  However, many people misunderstand it and aim only for sex, which is hot stuff. Thus, they get a deceptive Nibbāna. People have clung to such an interpretation since, or even before, the Buddha’s time, and it can be found among the sixty-two wrong views listed in the Brahmajāla Sutta.⁵ Please consider the history and basic meaning of the word ‘Nibbāna.’ In all cases it points to coolness of heart and mind, according to the higher or lower awareness of each person. The essential meaning, however, is always in the nurturing and sustaining of life. It lessens the time when fires burn the mind just enough for us to survive and eventually develops to the highest level, which absolutely quenches all fires. The highest degree of realization in Buddhism, according to the Buddha, is the end of lust, the end of hatred, and the end of delusion, which is the final quenching of all fires and the coolest coolness that life can be.

Nibbāna is not the mind but is something that the mind can experience; or as the Buddha put it, it is a certain āyatana that wisdom can experience.  Forms, sounds, odors, flavors, and tactile sensations are material or physical āyatanas, things experienced through the body.  Meditative attainments such as the formless absorptions – from the experience of endless space (ākāsāñancāyatana) up to and including the experience of neither perception nor non-perception (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana) – are mental āyatanas that the mind can experience.⁶ Nibbāna is a spiritual āyatana for mindfulness and wisdom to experience and realize. We should consider it something that Nature has provided for us to realizing the highest level of humanity. We ought to know it so that Nibbāna and our lives are not in vain. Every one of us has mindfulness and wisdom in order to touch Nibbāna. Don’t let it go to waste!

The Nibbāna-element exists naturally so that Nibbāna will be realized, like a precious medicine that ends all dukkha. There is the dukkha or disease that ordinary medicines cannot cure. This disease of defilement must be cured by the extinction of defilements. Through this the nibbāna-dhātu is realized. This highest spiritual illness lies deeply hidden in us and torments us secretly. Anyone who can quench it has reached the pinnacle of being human.

To say “there is no Nibbāna” is more wrong than wrong can be because the nibbāna-element exists naturally, everywhere, always, only nobody is interested enough to find it. The Lord Buddha discovered and revealed it to us through his enormous compassion, but we cut the story short thinking that in this era there is no Nibbāna anymore, when we should instead say that nobody understands it or is interested in it. If we simply become proper followers of the Buddha, Nibbāna will appear. It is already waiting for people to find it.

Nobody can create Nibbāna as it is beyond all causes and conditions. Nevertheless, we can create the conditions for realizing Nibbāna through actions which lead to the abandonment of the defilements. We won’t claim, as some do, that doing good is a condition for Nibbāna. Condition (paccaya) implies causal necessity, but there is nothing which has such power over Nibbāna. The right words are “Doing good is a condition for realizing Nibbāna,” which can be done in any age or time. Old folks like the phrase “stairway to Nibbāna” because they think Nibbāna is a place or city, which is what they have been taught. Still, it is an acceptable enough phrase meaning simply “supporting conditions for the realization of Nibbāna.”

There are dozens of synonyms for Nibbāna, for example, the Deathless, Permanence, Peace, Safety, Health, Diseaselessness, Freedom, Emancipation, Shelter, Refuge, Immunity, Island (for those fallen into water), Highest Benefit, Supreme Joy, Other Shore, That which should be Reached, and the End of Concocting. All of these are thoroughly cool because there aren’t any fires to make them hot. Peaceful coolness is their meaning or value; unfortunately, it is a value too subtle to interest people who are still overly enveloped by selfishness. When brushing aside the defilements for the first time, you will certainly be delighted by Nibbāna more than anything ever before. This is available to and possible for everyone. May we take coolness as the supreme value.

The expression that best conveys the meaning of Nibbāna is “the end of dukkha.” Although the Buddha used this term, it’s of no interest for those people who feel that they don’t have any dukkha or suffering. They don’t feel they have dukkha; they just want the things they want and think there isn’t any dukkha to quench. Consequently, they don’t care about quenching dukkha or about the end of dukkha. Even a large number of the many foreigners who come to Suan Mokkh feel this way. However, once we tell them there is a new life, or quenching of thirst, or life which is beyond positive and negative, they start to get interested. This is the difficulty of language, which we nonetheless must use to get people interested in Nibbāna.  For each person, there must be one translation of the word ‘Nibbāna’ particular to that person. This is no minor difficulty. Yet deep down, without being conscious of or having any intention toward it, everyone wants Nibbāna if only through the power of instinct.

The study of Nibbāna in daily life is possible in order to have a better understanding of and a greater interest in Nibbāna’s meaning. When seeing a fire go out or something hot cooling down, look for the meaning of Nibbāna in it. When bathing or drinking ice water, when a breeze blows or rain falls, take notice of the meaning of Nibbāna. When a fever subsides, a swelling goes down, or a headache goes away, recognize the meaning of Nibbāna as found in those things. When perspiring, sleeping comfortably, or eating one’s healthy fill, see the meaning of Nibbāna. When seeing an animal with all its fierceness and danger tamed away, see the meaning of Nibbāna.  All of these are lessons to help us understand the nature of Nibbāna in every moment. The mind will regularly incline towards contentment in Nibbāna and this helps the mind to flow more easily along the path of Nibbāna.

Whenever you find coolness in your experience, mark that coolness firmly in your heart, and breathe out and in. Breathing in is cool, breathing out is cool. In cool, out cool – do this for a little while. This is an excellent lesson that will help you to become a lover of Nibbāna (Nibbānakāmo) more quickly. The instincts will develop in an enlightened (bodhi) way more than if you don’t practice like this. Natural Nibbāna – the unconscious quenching of defilement – will occur more often and easily. This is the best way to help nature.

In conclusion, Nibbāna is not death. Rather, it is the coolness and deathlessness that is full of life. In the Pāli scriptures, the word ‘Nibbāna’ is never used regarding death. Nibbāna is a natural element always ready to make contact with the mind in the sense that it is one kind of āyatana (sensible thing). If there were no Nibbāna, Buddhism would have no meaning. The genuine kind of Nibbāna, different from the Nibbāna of other sects, was discovered by the Buddha. Natural Nibbāna can happen simply because the defilements arise and end naturally, because they are just another kind of concocted nature. Every time the defilements don’t appear, Nibbāna becomes apparent to the mind.  This temporary Nibbāna nourishes the lives of living things so they survive and don’t go crazy. At least, it lets us sleep at night. Nibbāna isn’t any kind of special city anywhere. It is realized in the mind that is now void of besieging defilements. For the morality of ordinary people at home, its name is ‘nibbuti.’ Nibbāna isn’t the mind, but it appears to the mind as a certain āyatana.  We can experience Nibbāna here and now by breathing in cool and breathing out cool. It is the automatic quenching of heat, of thirst, of dukkha in ordinary life, even without our being conscious of it. It is the eternal nourishment and sustenance of life.

I hope that you all will begin to know that talking about “Nibbāna for everyone” isn’t just dyeing cats for sale, but is the genuine cat for catching rats – that is, for ending dukkha, distress, anxiety, and suffering according to the mindfulness and wisdom of each person!

Footnote

¹ ‘Dyeing cats for sale’ is a Thai expression similar to ‘window dressing.’ It means dressing up something shabby and inferior in order to trick the customer into buying it. [All notes are added by the translator.] 

2 Arahants (worthy ones) have seen through ignorance, transcended self-centeredness, and are released from all suffering. ‘Nirvāna’ is the Sanskrit equivalent of ‘Nibbāna.’

3 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, DN 16.

⁴ The Solasapañhā make up the final chapter, “Pārāyana-vagga,” of the Sutta-nipāta, Khuddaka-nikāya. In many of the verses, the Buddha emphasizes conquering and going beyond death. He never speaks of seeking it out as a form of salvation or end of suffering.

5 DN 1.

⁶ Here, Ajahn Buddhadāsa does not imply that these refined meditative states are necessary attainments.  Rather, he is using the traditional terminology to illustrate how the flavor of coolness pervades all the Dhamma teachings and is therefore immediately available to us all.

“Nibbāna in Buddhism.” Notes typed by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu.

Ref. Archives document of the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives

BIA 3.1/20 (1/2) Box 6. Page 111

archives.bia.or.th

About the Author

Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu was born in 1906, the son of a southern Thai mother and an ethnic Chinese father. He followed Thai custom by entering a local monastery in 1926, studied for a couple years in Bangkok, and then founded his own refuge for study and practice in 1932. Since then, he has had a profound influence on not only Thai Buddhism but other religions in Siam and Buddhism in the West. Among his more important accomplishments, he:

•  Challenged the hegemony of later commentarial texts with the primacy of the Buddha’s original discourses.

•  Integrated serious Dhamma study, intellectual creativity, and rigorous practice.

•  Explained Buddha-Dhamma with an emphasis on this life, including the possibility of experiencing Nibbāna ourselves.

•  Softened the dichotomy between householder and monastic practice, stressing that the noble eightfold path is available to everyone.

•  Offered doctrinal support for addressing social and environmental issues, helping to foster socially engaged Buddhism in Siam.

•  Shaped his forest monastery as an innovative teaching environment and Garden of Liberation.

After a series of illnesses, including strokes, he died in 1993. He was cremated without the usual pomp and expense.

About the Translator

Santikaro went to Thailand with the Peace Corps in 1980, was ordained as a Theravada monk in 1985, trained at Suan Mokkh under Ajahn Buddhadāsa, and became his primary English translator. Santikaro led meditation retreats at Suan Mokkh for many years, and was unofficial abbot of nearby Dawn Kiam. He is a founding member of Think Sangha, a community of socially engaged Buddhist thinker activists that has given special attention to the ethical and spiritual impact of consumerism and other modern developments.

Santikaro returned to the USA’s Midwest in 2001 and retired from formal monastic life in 2004. He continues to teach in the Buddhist tradition with an emphasis on the early Pāli sources and the insights of Ajahn Buddhadāsa. He and his wife Jo Marie are founders of Kevala Retreat, a modern American expression of Buddhist practice, study, and social responsibility in rural Wisconsin. There he continues to study, practice, translate the work of his teacher, teach, and imagine the future of Buddha-Dhamma in the West.

Messages from Suan Mokkh series

Education Critique

Nibbāna for Everyone

A Single Bowl of Sauce Solves All the World’s Problems

Kamma in Buddhism

Let’s All Be Buddhadāsas

Help! Kalama Sutta, Help!

Recommended Reading (Books)

Mindfulness With Breathing: A Manual for Serious Beginners

Handbook for Mankind

The First Ten Years of Suan Mokkh

Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree

Keys to Natural Truth

The Prison of Life

Under the Bodhi Tree: Buddha’s Original Vision of Dependent Co-Arising

Online Resources

www.suanmokkh.org

www.kevalaretreat.org

en.bia.or.th

Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives

Established in 2010, the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives collect, maintain, and present the original works of Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu. Also known as Suan Mokkh Bangkok, it is an innovative place for fostering mutual understanding between traditions, studying and practicing Dhamma.

Kevala Retreat

Kevala Retreat is a Dhamma refuge in the USA’s Midwest inspired by Suan Mokkh. Here, Santikaro and friends work to nurture a garden of liberation along the lines taught by Ajahn Buddhadāsa, where followers of the Buddha-Dhamma Way can explore Dhamma as Nature and in the Pāli suttas.

Anumodāna

To all Dhamma Comrades, those helping to spread Dhamma:

Break out the funds to spread Dhamma to let Faithful Trust flow, Broadcast majestic Dhamma to radiate long-living joy.

Release unexcelled Dhamma to tap the spring of Virtue, Let safely peaceful delight flow like a cool mountain stream.

Dhamma leaves of many years sprouting anew, reaching out, To unfold and bloom in the Dhamma Centers of all towns.

To spread lustrous Dhamma and in hearts glorified plant it, Before long, weeds of sorrow, pain, and affliction will flee.

As Virtue revives and resounds throughout Thai society, All hearts feel certain love toward those born, aging, and dying.

Congratulations and Blessings to all Dhamma Comrades, You who share Dhamma to widen the people’s prosperous joy.

Heartiest appreciation from Buddhadāsa Indapañño, Buddhist Science ever shines beams of Bodhi long-lasting.

In grateful service, fruits of merit and wholesome successes, Are all devoted in honor to Lord Father Buddha.

Thus may the Thai people be renowned for their Virtue, May perfect success through Buddhist Science awaken their hearts.

May the King and His Family live long in triumphant strength, May joy long endure throughout this our world upon earth.

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from 

Buddhadāsa Indapañño

Mokkhabalārāma 

Chaiya, 2 November 2530

Copyright

Message from Suan Mokkh Series - No. 2 

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NIBBĀNA FOR EVERYONE 

By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu 

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Translated from the Thai (นิพพานสำหรับทุกคน) by Santikaro 

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This article was prepared in 1988 by Ajahn Buddhadāsa as part of a series of pamphlets to be distributed at a major exhibition on his life and work organized by Ajahn Runjuan Indarakamhaeng and other students at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

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Another English translation was published in 1990. This translation first appeared online in 1996 and then in slightly revised pamphlets.

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This new electronic edition has been revised by Santikaro in collaboration with a network of volunteers.

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© Kevala Retreat, 2016

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Cover: traditional Siamese representation of Nibbāna. Painting (detail) at the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives, Bangkok 

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Any reproduction, in whole or part, in any form, for sale, profit, or material gain, is prohibited, except for quotations in reviews or articles. Permission to reprint for free distribution may be obtained from:

Kevala Retreat

PO Box 205, Norwalk, WI 54648, USA

kevala@kevalaretreat.org

www.kevalaretreat.org

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Published by The Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives

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