What's it Mean?Contemplations - Maurice Walsh
To some Westerners, acceptance of the law of karma is difficult because it implies acceptance of rebirth. In fact, there are far more people in the West who actually do accept some form of rebirth, or what they probably call reincarnation, than is often supposed, though I do think that many nowadays are blinded by science. Having been told in authoritative tones that the mind is just a function of the physical brain, they are led to believe that any kind of survival of physical death is impossible. I once even heard a leading member of the Buddhist Society declare this. Well, he's dead now and possibly knows better! Unless, of course, he was right after all, in which case he will never know.
I must admit that as I approach the end of this life's journey, I look forward with more curiosity than apprehension to what may come next. I would, however, just refer you to Majjhima Nikaya (The Middle Length Sayings) number 60, in which the Buddha says that it's better to wager on the existence of an afterlife, a moral law, and so on, than the opposite, rather in the same way as the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, in the seventeenth century proposed a similar wager about the existence of God.
We all know that there are people around with all sorts of ideas about the occult, for example, but we are perhaps less aware of the fanatical antagonism and fear which the idea of the paranormal arouses in the breasts of some, but only some, members of the scientific establishment. As an eye-opener I recommend the brilliant and often witty book by Martin Willson, a trained scientist who became a Buddhist monk, Rebirth and the Western Buddhist. I only mention this whole subject because, for some people, there seems to be an almost insurmountable materialistic barrier to the decisive experience which has been termed 'glimpsing Nirvana'. It's interesting if slightly horrifying to observe how utterly unscientific some scientists can be where their prejudices are concerned. Their refusal to face evidence and their extraordinary ingenuity in explaining things away, can be quite astonishing.
Modern science has achieved wonderful results and discovered many amazing things, but to suppose it is capable of providing all the answers is simply one form of ignorance or delusion. As the Buddha told the brahmin janussoni in the Anguttara Nikaya: 'It is possible for Nibbana to be seen in this very life by one who has overcome greed, hatred and delusion, and not otherwise'.
Well, of course, you can find various interpretations of Nirvana in the different Buddhist schools. The great Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna, in The Verses on the Middle Way, Mulamadhyamakakarika, declares that there is no difference between samsara and Nirvana — a truly shattering remark for some. But Nagarjuna was the man who formulated — he didn't invent it, but he formulated it most clearly — the doctrine of the two truths — that of conventional truth and that of absolute truth. From the point of view of absolute truth, things can look very different.
There is a passage in the list of sixty-two wrong views found in the Brahmajala Sutta, the first Sutta of the Digha Nikaya, The Long Discourses', where the Buddha refers to misinterpretations of Nibbana: 'Here a certain ascetic or Brahmin declares and holds the view: "In as far as this self, being furnished and endowed with the fivefold sense pleasures,
indulges in them, then that is when the self realizes the highest Nibbana, here and now."' This is, of course, a thoroughly materialistic use of the term, which must have existed, since the Buddha condemns it. The Buddha goes on to refer to other states that get mistaken for Nibbana.
These are, at least, of a more spiritual nature than the first one, consisting of the various jhana states of meditative absorption, which may be very blissful, but are short lived. These states can be deceptive by their very nature. There arc almost certainly a few people walking about in the West, and of course in the East, who having attained one or another of these jhana states, have convinced themselves that they are enlightened. I think I've met one or two! Unfortunately, of course, this very conviction, being born of ignorance and conceit, is itself a powerful obstacle.
Years ago there was a bhikkhu who used to like saying, 'Some people would like to be able to get a day return to Nirvana, so that they could come back again if they didn't like it.' Well, it seems your first visit is a brief one. In fact, you have, as it were, to pay three brief visits before you're allowed to stay. The process may take a long time — up to seven lives in this world, they say. That's as it may be, but the psychologically convincing part to me is the way it works.
First, you've got to achieve that decisive first breakthrough. One who has gained this stage is called, in Theravada Buddhism, a sotapanna, or stream-winner. The effect of this first experience is the destruction of the personality-view, or the tacit assumption of selfhood, that we all have. From then on there is an actual awareness of the truth of anatta, or nonself. With this, two other so-called fetters disappear — doubt and the belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals. Doubt goes because you've seen a bit of the truth, so you don't doubt it any more. And you also realize that you didn't need any rites and rituals to get there, so that goes.
A second path experience will come sooner or later whereby the two great factors of desire and aversion will be decisively weakened. After a third such experience, desire and aversion for the things of this world are gone and, accordingly, one will not be reborn any more.
Well, to my mind at least, there's something very convincing about this progression, whereby the destruction of intellectually held beliefs is followed by the adjustment of the emotions to the new situation. It is, however, only in the Theravada school, as far as I know, that the process is spelt out with such precision.
Greed, hatred and delusion — the three unwholesome roots, also called the three fires. All we have to do to attain Nirvana is to eliminate all three in ourselves. Quite simple really! But, of course, what is simple is not necessarily easy. In the Mahasatipafthana Sutta we're recommended to practise the four foundations of mindfulness as the direct way to achieve this. The Buddha says, 'Whoever, monks, should practise these four foundations of mindfulness for just seven years, may expect one of two results — either Arahantship in this life, or if there should be some substrate left, the state of a nonreturner. Let alone seven years, whoever should practise them for just six years, five, four, three, two, one year, let alone one year, whoever should practise them for just seven months, six, five, four, three, two, one month, half a month, let alone half a month, whoever should practise them for one week, may expect one of two results — either Arahantship in this life or, if there should be some substrate left, the state of a nonreturner.' Well, half of this week's gone already, but just see what you can do. What's it Mean?
