La Via Del Nirvana by Gedun Tharchin - English translation of the Sixth chapter.
THE PATH TO LIBERATION
The
topic of this chapter will be the path to Liberation. By “Liberation”
we mean Nirvana. Nirvana
is the original Buddhist term by which we express Liberation. In
Sanskrit it is called Nirvana, in Pali Nibbana. It
literally means “beyond suffering”, “overcoming the limits of
suffering”. In other words, those who have attained Liberation,
Nirvana, have overcome every type of suffering. The path of
Liberation is the path of those who have gone beyond suffering, the
path that leads to decreasing suffering.
We
have spoken about suffering several times already and have come to
the conclusion that the first step to Liberation is to recognise the
type of suffering we experience in daily life.
The
suffering we are referring to here manifests on two levels: physical
and mental suffering. From a practical point of view, physical
suffering is a grosser and more superficial level of suffering for a
Buddhist practitioner, as most of our physical pain can be cured by
medicine. Also,
mental suffering related to instability, or a psychological type of
imbalance is considered to be suffering on a lower level. Therefore,
this sort of problems of psychological nature, instability,
derangement, are very relative from a Buddhist point of view.
But
there is something that torments and scares us twenty four hours a
day. This suffering is what we call negative mental afflictions,
which we often do not even realise that we have them. When we stand
still and analyse it, we notice this fear within us and feel that
something is missing, even though everything seems to proceed in the
right direction. This sensation of emptiness and anger resembles the
feeling of being hungry. We feel that if we are not be able to
satisfy this need, to fill this internal sense of void we experience,
we will never be completely satisfied. And often, this emptiness that
resides within us, causes problems of mental instability or the
physical afflictions I was talking about before.
For
this reason, Buddhism tries to resolve such discomfort radically. I
personally think that the technique of curing and solving problems at
their root is not a Buddhist prerogative. Other religions try to do
that as well. We try to solve problems through meditation: meditation
is nothing else than the attempt to cure problems radically. If we
think we can cure physical discomfort by using medication only, we
did not catch the meaning of meditation; at the same time, if we cure
mental discomfort through psychotherapy, we cannot consider this to
be meditation. Meditation is something that penetrates human beings
on a deeper level .
Before
we analyse the different levels of Buddhist techniques, we need to
know the standard of the path to Liberation, the average of all
Buddhist techniques, what leads to Liberation. The
root of all our problems, when it comes to physical and mental
discomfort, is represented by the sensation of emptiness that
accompanies us constantly. This state of mind is the main cause
leading to the destruction of our happiness. Even if we have
everything to be able to satisfy all our needs in daily life, we
always feel that something is missing.
We
can spontaneously label it non defined needs, but from a more
technical point of view we have to label those feelings as
attachment. Attachment
is not only the wish for means to satisfy our needs. Attachment goes
further than that and until we do not eliminate it, we will keep
being unhappy. How can we overcome this discomfort by eliminating
attachment? It is impossible. Even if we did our best and really got
involved with it, we would never succeed in finding something able to
satisfy our attachment totally, something to end it for good.
Objectively,
attachment is something that can never be satisfied. It is comparable
to having a cup and nothing to fill it with: therefore it would be
better to get rid of it. This cup remains there, empty, useless.
Therefore, to be able to obtain Liberation we have to go beyond
suffering: if we did not go beyond it, we would always be fixed on
the metaphorical cup and would attain satisfaction.
Remaining
attached to the fact of wanting to fill this sensation of emptiness
is like wanting to fill a plate which has not been given to us for
the purpose of filling it. This is because we do not know the real
nature of that plate. If we realised its insurmountable nature we
would possess the capacity to realise the understanding.
This
explains why Buddha Shakyamuni said that we need to recognise
suffering first, because until we do not identify the true nature of
the problem, we will always remain attached to and blocked by it. Attachment
in and of it itself is an impossible dilemma to solve: that is its
nature, due to the fact that it is connected to ignorance and the
lack of understanding. In fact, ignorance and the absence of
understanding let us hope that sooner or later there will be
something able to fill the plate and therefore will surmount our
internal void.
Therefore,
not understanding the nature of this kind of suffering is the cause
of our problems. Understanding the nature of reality requires the
effort of meditation. This was Buddha’s motivation for meditating
during six years, and only eating three grains of rice a day. We
certainly wonder how he was able to survive on such a small amount of
food. I
think that his strength came from the internal power he developed
through meditation. There are images of the Buddha, a very famous one
coming from Laos, depicting his six years of total ascetism.
I
have got this picture on the cover of a book about the Abidharma,
written by a friend of mine, a professor who is now teaching at a University in Japan. This image of the ascetic Buddha is a figure
that inspires me very much. Some time ago, I received a magazine
called “The Middle Way of the English Buddhist society”. I found
the same picture of the ascetic Buddha, he was very skinny and you
could see his nerves very clearly. By looking at the picture, I
realised, that Buddhahood, Nirvana, Liberation, means to be
completely free of suffering. In
my opinion, it is something that demands a lot of patience. People
consider Liberation to be a process that happens by miracle, through
a blessing received by somebody else. I
think this is impossible. If it were possible the Buddha would not
have had to sit in meditation for six years.
Buddha
represents an example for his students. A very frequently asked
question I often have to give an answer to is “What is Buddhism?”
“What is the essence of Buddha’s teachings?” Millions
of books have been written about this subject. The publishing houses
are full of books about Buddhism. From my point of view, the best
teaching is Buddha’s life. What is Buddha’s teaching then? The
answer is: his life; because Buddha spoke about it, about his
experiences, his discoveries, his realisations he gained through his
own experience. It is not necessary to read countless books to study
and realise Buddha’s life; every single one of us can take Buddha’s
life as an example.
Every
Buddhist temple in any tradition, every Buddhist centre, every gompa
has an image of the Buddha, which helps to keep his life in mind. The
subject of this chapter is the way to Liberation; I think that the
answer to this topic is very simple, the path to Liberation is
Buddha’s life. He has dedicated himself completely in order to
extinguish the problem in its root. He was a prince, son of a king,
but he felt that this would not help him to resolve his fears and
therefore decided to go beyond these conditions. Eventually, he
discovered the means to satisfy this immense longing he felt inside.
He constantly meditated for six years, living on a very small amount
of food and eventually realised real satisfaction which is called
Enlightenment. For
the rest of his life, the 45 years he had left to live, he taught and
talked about his own experience. Technically, Buddha’s life
represents the Four Noble Truths.
The
Four Noble Truths contain all the necessary ingredients for the
achievement of Liberation. Knowing what suffering is, recognising its
reality: understanding the function of suffering is the first Noble
Truth. Each
Noble Truth possesses three characteristics. When one understands the
reality of suffering, the first Noble Truth, one moves on to the
second Noble Truth which deals with the cause of suffering. Which is
the function of that cause? What is its true reality? These first two
Noble Truths, the essence and origin of suffering, have to be
attained and overcome. These
results appear when we analyse suffering and its causes. Furthermore,
one understands that this is not the ultimate reality and therefore
asks oneself: “We understood this, but is it possible to eliminate
it for good?” At that stage, one proceeds on to the Third Noble
Truth which is the cessation of suffering. The cessation of suffering
means to come to Liberation from negative mental dispositions by
realising the first two Noble Truths. We
analyse the end of suffering; then we ask ourselves about the means
to attain it. This logical procedure leads us to the realisation of
the fourth Noble Truth, which is the path leading us to the
cessation of suffering, the path leading to Nirvana. The
fourth Noble Truth is the real refuge, the real protector and it is
very simple, containing Buddha’s teachings about morality, wisdom
and concentration. The combination of these three elements is
meditation.
Therefore,
I think that serious meditation is the one based on a strong morality
developed by departing from wisdom. This is the path to Liberation.
When we consider Buddha’s path, it does not mean that we have to do
exactly what he did, following all of his tracks. We should take the
essence of his life instead.
This
is what it is all about; taking this essence according to our
personal circumstances. Buddha
was a very intelligent person, an amazing teacher and the environment
he was living in was conducive to his Liberation. Maybe in our times,
conditions are not as conducive, times are different and so are the
conditions. But we try to do our best, trying to cut delusions at the
root, in depth. We must not cultivate the hope of being able to cut
through everything in a short period of time. Even only touching the
ground of our problems is a very auspicious occasion already.
The
roots of our afflictions are enormously strong, and therefore
impossible to cut through quickly. It
can happen to us to succeed quickly, but we need to apply constant
effort and a lot of patience to gradually reduce afflictions. Only by
decreasing a little part of them we feel the positive influence in
our lives. This gives us some sort of internal peace, and if we
continue with this “demolition work”, afflictions will eventually
disappear because they are in the nature of impermanence.
It
can happen in this life, the next one or even in the further lives to
come: it is not a matter of time. The real question is if we do not
make futile efforts to attain this. If we damage our ego, our selfish
thoughts and continue to do so every day, it will eventually lead us
to the solution. This is what they sometimes call the gradual path.
