Do buddhists think you cease to exist after nirvana?
well, your perception of this is 'negative'. it's understandable and conditioned in abrahamic tradition, that centers defeating death. let me give you an example: sun is yellow. why is the sun yellow? well, you've been told so and no other reason. if you were told from the very beginning that sun is green and only this, the sun would have been green for you. here is the same. cessation in the meaning put in buddhist texts is not the meaning you learn in abrahamic traditions. emptiness mentioned in buddhist texts is not a cold empty darkness. letting go of desires does not mean getting rid of feelings. now imagine that you sleep and see a nightmare. you can not wake up. buddhists practice the way that enables them to wake up. out of the dream events of that dream are insignificant and illusory. one might search the way of of a maze in the dream forever. once awake, that one can actually exit the maze effortlessly. terms of the nightmare can not explain sunny morning out of the window after the waking up. things go different. that waking up is nirvana. after this one ceases to exist in the dream. yet it's not like 'gaining new power on another level of existence' since terms of the dream do not work there. if you are not seeing a nightmare, nor harming thoughts cross your mind then you have no need of the path, which is a great luck. most are not so lucky. good luck. mickael
Is Nirvana the same as non-existence?
I would simply say ,It doesn’t apply . The Buddha refused to answer the questions on the state of nirvana, to avoid getting entangled in debates, but answered with a simile:“Suppose someone were to ask you, ‘This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction from here has it gone? East? West? North? Or south?’ Thus asked, how would you reply?”Monks replied :”That doesn’t apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on a sustenance of grass and timber, being undernourished — from having consumed that sustenance and not being offered any other — is classified simply as ‘out’ (unbound).”“Even so, Monks, any physical form by which one describing the Buddha would describe him: That the Buddha has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a Palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Freed from the classification of form, Monks, the Buddha is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea.‘Reappears’ doesn’t apply. ‘Does not reappear’ doesn’t apply. ‘Both does & does not reappear’ doesn’t apply. ‘Neither reappears nor does not reappear’ doesn’t apply.“This is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support. This, just this, is the end of suffering.I have reached this state,thus attained Nirvana and became a Buddha “
What's it like to reach nirvana?
My experience of Nirvana (and I can only talk about my experience) is the absence of everything. Not just nothing being there, but the absence of everything. It is like the black hole of everything. It sucks up everything into a vacuum or pure consciousness.And what is left is pure light, the most subtle level of consciousness and joy. That is all there is. You exist only as very subtle, infinite consciousness, infinite joy, infinite goodness, infinite light. You no longer exist as a body, a person, a mind or as a being or even as energy. You no longer even have a center. You disappear and what is left is pure light, the most subtle infinite consciousness.People talk a lot about “knowledge” but in this, there is the absence of all knowledge, the absence of all understanding. There is just pure, infinite, consciousness at its most subtle form. Weightless, lighter than even energy. Pure transcendence, pure freedom.It is a feeling of infinite goodness.As you progress in meditation and feel peace and bliss, let yourself become absorbed in the peace and bliss. Absorption is the direction. You become so absorbed, you disappear into peace, into bliss, into consciousness.To awaken into bliss, you need Shakti, the energy of consciousness that is felt as bliss. Normally, you get Shakti by sitting with a fully enlightened teacher, one that can radiate pure consciousness and bliss. But you can also receive it through sound. If you are interested, have a listen to the samples of this music that transmits Shakti.As the Shakti builds inside you, it begins to rise over time. You keep meditating, getting Shakti, doing your spiritual practices and disciplines and the energy begins to rise. As the energy rises into the top of your head, you become incredibly subtle and transparent. In this transparency, there is pure light and you become absorbed in it.This is my experience of Nirvana.
Is it possible to reach nirvana in 1 day?
No. It would be way too much to take.You can get awakened in one day, you can get self-realized in one day (in fact, there’s no other way to self-realize - it either happened or it didn’t), but you cannot reach Nirvana in one day. It would be so much to take, your heart could explode. You would have to experience all your emotional pain and suffering, without exception, in one day, and all the love and beauty that is the mirror of the suffering that exists in you. There’s no way. It would be truly insane. I’m not sure your body would be able to physically take it. No historical sage or master reached Nirvana in one day. It usually takes 6-10, sometimes 15 years to reach Nirvana after self-realization, and some folks never do. I did it faster, but it was a little bit more than intense, let me tell you. There were months when all I could do was sitting on my sofa, I just couldn’t do anything else, it was so intense. I cried every day for more than a year. The pain was intense, but bliss was sometimes so intense, I could barely move. There’s a lot to take, really a lot. Most people just do nothing after self-realization, and if it was proper, they shed the remainder of their ego naturally over the subsequent years, if they’re lucky and don’t get into teaching too quickly. True maniacs like myself and Osho do nothing else until it’s complete haha.Most people who claim to have reached Nirvana have no clue, they are non-duality diletants. They have entered non-duality, jumped into the beyond, but they’re still to fly all the way through it and pop out on “the other shore” as Gautama put it. So they naturally think identifying with Consciousness/Existence is Nirvana. No, Nirvana lies beyond both Existence and non-Existence, it is total and ultimate surrender, beyond life and death, all is one. Nirvana is when nothing is left of you, no internal world, no psychology, no Being, no non-Being, just your body and the clouds. No divinity, no consciousness even, no clinging to remain as consciousness/awareness after death either. It is accepting both the ultimate finality of death and the ultimate beauty of life, because one can’t exist without the other.I thought I reached Nirvana too after my self-realization. Hahaha, so naive I was.
Buddhism, why would one want to reach Nirvana, when it is simply nothing but extinction?
Nirvana , from what i read, is not heaven, it is not a paradise or etc. It simple is the not suffering and not delusion. because if it was paradise then it would be just like being on earth in a paradise. Sense there is more good things in life then there are bad things in life, why would one want to leave all the good things in life to gain towards what? according to buddhism. The goal for buddhism is confusing.
Question about the Buddhist Nirvana?
I heard that it is "That is the final goal and cessation of all sufferings and conflicts — supreme happiness".. but I'm just not getting it. I thought it was simply the end of the road. You don't exist anymore. Gone. How can you have extreme happiness when you're not existent in the first place? Is it just nothingness? The thought of that always scared me .. Do you even realize you're in Nirvana? But how could you if you don't exist spiritually and physically? I'm not trying to be mean, but what's good about that? I'm okay with reincarnation and heaven, but I just can't wrap my head around the concept of Nirvana. I always thought that the soul/spirit never ceases to exist. BTW - Is it true Zen Buddhists don't believe in Nirvana? I talked to one and they said they don't?
What will happen after your body dies when you reach nirvana?
Nothing ever happens to anybody when the body returns to the sources. May I ask a question? What happens when torn clothes are discarded? Nothing happens as the wearer’s body remains the same. Similarly, nothing happens to the being-existence when the outer cover, the body falls. The being-existence remains the same as before.Long before the body falls the wise man knows that the body is just the last barrier to ultimate liberty as the existence of body is the permanent possibility of suffering. He watches the body grow old, suffer from endless diseases, weaken and finally bereft of energy falls to the elements. All along he never loses his watchfulness. Rather, his fire of watchfulness burns brighter as his body decays.The final act occurs when the last breath leaves the body dumping it to garbage and he is still watchful. His pure watchfulness is his self/being/existence. Now, he is the most naked, purest, totally unified consciousness. He remains exactly where he needs to be because nothing can be told with certainty about him. His ‘hisness’ has melted away into the ocean of universal consciousness.What happens to the river when it meets the sea? What happens to lamp when it is extinguished? What happens to the cloud when it sheds its droplets?It is Buddha’s Nirvana. It’s Buddha’s emptiness. It’s Sanatana Dharma’s Moksha.
According to Buddhism, if you achieve nirvana, do you still exist?
Q/ According to Buddhism, if you achieve nirvana, do you still exist?A/ Gautama Sakyamuni gave us the key to peace-of-mind - happiness - when he said,“Nirvana is the extinction of dukkha.”This was later incorporated into Buddhism and translates as,“Happiness [peace-of-mind] is the extinction [fading-away or burning out] of “thinking” [all conscious mental activity - CMA]”.That is the only defensible translation of his statement.|If you translate Nirvana as a blowing out, as some do, you get the statement, “ Extinction is the extinction of something”. This conveys no useful information.]This is true because CMA is merely the tool we use to satisfy our appetites, solve our problems and achieve our goals. Like any other tool, it should be laid aside once it has fulfilled its purpose.Adults have developed the unfortunate habit of never doing that. They view CMA as an end in itself rather than merely a means to an end. They suffer under an intolerable burden of random and habitual CMA. Any happiness they feel is diluted by obsessive/compulsive “thinking” [all CMA]. They never get the absolute peace-of-mind [happiness] that solving life’s problems should bring.The enlightened person does get that reward.You can see my attempt at explaining why meditation works by looking at “21st Century Zen” on my website at Introduction
Buddhism: when one reaches nirvana, are they aware of it?
I'm new to learning about Buddhism, so sorry if this is an ignorant question- but, to start with, what exactly is nirvana? I've read both that it is complete nothingness and that it is a state of peace and joy and happiness and understanding. Does a Buddhist believe that, when they reach nirvana, they'll still exist in some way as themselves and be conscious or aware of it, or do they believe that they'll become one small part of a whole and be aware as that whole, or do they believe that their self will be totally extinguished...or something completely different? Thank you for your answers. :)
What happens immeadiatly after reaching Nirvana?
Nirvana, or enlightenment, comes originally from an ancient Sanskrit word that means "to be extinguished, like a flame." It elicits the image of a candle flame being blown out - it exists, and then it is nothing. It doesn't go anywhere or change forms into something else, it doesn't die, it simply ceases to be. That's what nirvana is, ceasing to be. The belief is that you reach ultimate enlightenment (awakening) and realize that you actually don't exist, because nothing exists, because everything is a construct of your conscience... which also doesn't exist. It's a very complex idea, much more so than most people realize. Nirvana doesn't just happen when you die, and when you die you don't necessarily reach nirvana. Nirvana is a state of mind, or rather, a lack of a state of mind - the ultimate enlightenment, the great awakening from the deceit of this existence, being above the conscious world. If you reach enlightenment during your lifetime, then you spend the rest of your life in nirvana. You don't "come back" from nirvana because once you've become enlightened, you are mentally beyond this world because you have escaped the bindings of your consciousness. When you die, if you had reached enlightenment (nirvana) during life then you go to parinirvana, the ultimate nirvana that comes after the death of the physical body. When you reach parinirvana you cease to be, instead of being reincarnated into another being. Parinirvana is essentially the end of the line - it's the end of the cycle of reincarnation, where you are escaped from the bindings of this universe and are fully awakened, and by being awakened, cease to be. Once you reach nirvana, then die and go to parinirvana, there is no "next life" because you've reached the ultimate purpose of your existence in the universe... to realize that you don't. Is your mind sufficiently melted yet? It's a very interesting topic, I'd strongly suggest reading some online literature or books from your library on Buddhism.